Cross-Provincial City-Regionalism in China: Evidence from Smart Planning and Integrated Governance of the Yangtze River Delta

Tianren Ge, Yang Yu (), Xiaohua Zhong and Yongli Jiao ()
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Tianren Ge: Department of Political Science, School of Political Science & International Relations, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Yang Yu: Department of Urban Planning and Management, School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China, Beijing 100872, China
Xiaohua Zhong: Department of Sociology, School of Political Science & International Relations, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China
Yongli Jiao: Department of Teaching and Research, China Executive Leadership Academy Pudong (CELAP), Shanghai 201204, China

Land, 2025, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-21

Abstract: Taking the Demonstration Zone of Green and Integrated Ecological Development of the Yangtze River Delta as a case study, we find that city-regional development of the Yangtze River Delta has advanced to the fifth stage, so-called cross-provincial city-regional integrated development. The ongoing reform experiment in China presents a new model of city-regional development, which distinguishes itself from previous approaches used in both China and Europe/America. We propose a theoretical framework of cross-provincial city-regionalism from the two dimensions of smart planning and integrated governance. Based on the new framework, this article reveals how the top-down intervention of the central government has helped local governments break down the administrative barriers at the provincial level and stimulated them to participate in the cross-provincial coordinated development from the bottom up. The new framework alters the assumption and institutional logic of the traditional city-regionalism theory and extends its explanatory scope.

Keywords: cross-provincial city-regionalism; smart planning; integrated governance; Yangtze River Delta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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