‘Eco’ For Whom? Envisioning Eco-urbanism in the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city, China

Federico Caprotti, Cecilia Springer and Nichola Harmer

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 2015, vol. 39, issue 3, 495-517

Abstract: type="main">

Eco-cities have attracted international attention from governments, corporations, academics and other actors seeking to use sustainable urban planning to reduce urban environmental impacts. China has devoted significant political will and economic resources to the development of new-build eco-city projects, reflecting the Chinese government's goals to build a ‘harmonious society' in which environmental sustainability and social stability are mutually reinforcing. We critically analyse the case of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin eco-city to demonstrate that the eco-city's ecologically modernizing visions of eco-urbanism construct a protective environment for its residents that constrains broader consideration of social sustainability. Through analysis of the marketing and presentation of specific domestic and other spaces of the eco-city, we examine the application of ecologically modernizing construction and technology to the design of the city. We argue that the eco-city is discursively constructed as ecologically beneficial for its inhabitants rather than for the broader socio-environmental landscape. Our analysis of residential spaces in Tianjin eco-city introduces the question of what ‘eco’ means when considering the construction of eco-urban environments for the city's residents.

Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (6)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/1468-2427.12233 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:39:y:2015:i:3:p:495-517

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0309-1317

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Urban and Regional Research is currently edited by Alan Harding, Roger Keil and Jeremy Seekings

More articles in International Journal of Urban and Regional Research from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().