Urban consolidation, power relations, and dilapidated residential redevelopment in Mutoulong, Shenzhen, China

Xiang Li, Sun Sheng Han and Hao Wu
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Xiang Li: University of Melbourne, Australia
Sun Sheng Han: University of Melbourne, Australia
Hao Wu: University of Melbourne, Australia

Urban Studies, 2019, vol. 56, issue 13, 2802-2819

Abstract: Recent policy initiatives for urban development have changed the relationships among stakeholders in China’s urban consolidation processes. Building upon Giddens’ (Giddens A (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration . Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.) structuration theory and Ostrom’s (Ostrom E (2005) Understanding Institutional Diversity . Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press) institutional analysis and development thesis, this paper develops a power arena analytic framework , and uses it to examine the new power relations among the stakeholders in a dilapidated residential redevelopment project in Shenzhen. Our findings reveal that Shenzhen’s new approach incentivised the developer to frame a local decision-making structure which aligned the property owners into two broad groups: those who supported the developer, or cooperative , and those who disputed with the developer, or un-cooperative . Shenzhen’s new attempt was unable to balance power distribution between the main stakeholders and caused intense conflicts and poor project outcomes. A range of factors, including passive participation of residents in project preparation, weak mechanisms to curb speculation, and policy inconsistency associated with tiers of governments, were responsible for the poor performance. These findings contribute to the understanding of the complexity in power relations underlying urban development influenced by planning policy.

Keywords: dilapidated residential redevelopment; power arena; Shenzhen; urban consolidation; æ—§ä½ å®…åŒºæ›´æ–°; æ ƒåŠ›ç«žæŠ€åœº; 深圳; åŸŽå¸‚å­˜é‡ æ•´å ˆ (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:56:y:2019:i:13:p:2802-2819

DOI: 10.1177/0042098018799950

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