Suburban Development in Shanghai: a Case of Songjiang
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CARDIFF UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF CITY AND REGIONAL PLANNING Suburban Development in Shanghai: A Case of Songjiang Jie Shen Supervisor: Professor Fulong Wu Thesis for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy December 2011 ABSTRACT Since 2000, a new round of suburbanisation characterised by mixed-use clustered development has begun to unfold in China. This research aims to explore the dynamics of recent suburban growth in China and also provide an empirical case for enriching suburban theory. It is held that suburbanisation in China in its current form is by no means a spontaneous process, but results from capitalism’s creation of a new space to facilitate accumulation. Based on this view, the study examines the underlying forces of contemporary suburban growth with regard to three questions: what is the role of suburbanisation in China’s contemporary capital accumulation regime? How are the suburbs developed under coalitions of different actors? And how is suburban development shaped by demand-side actors? The study is founded on an intensive case study of Shanghai and one of its suburban districts, Songjiang. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods are used. Firsthand data from interviews and a questionnaire survey and a wide variety of secondary data were collected, providing a rich fund of knowledge for the research. While similar forms and functions to (post)-suburban settlements that have recently emerged in Western countries are found in Chinese suburbs, suburbanisation through new town development in China is a strategy of capital accumulation in response to a range of new conditions specific to China’s local context. New towns deal with the recentralisation of both fiscal and land development powers on the one hand, and accommodate the increasing housing demands of a diverse labour force on the other. Moreover, a peculiar land-centred accumulation regime is established in which real estate development and industrial development mutually reinforce each other. The development of these suburban nodes is organised under state-led entrepreneurial governance in which i coalitions are led by the suburban district government and followed by various public and private sectors; however, this is manipulated by the municipal government. Demand-based driving forces are manifold, including four interwoven processes: industrial restructuring and economic growth, outwards-migration, urbanisation, and capitalisation. Three types of people, namely migrants, local natives and residents from central Shanghai, constitute the main groups of suburban residents. Their spatial sorting creates a heterogeneous suburban space. ii PULICATIONS English Articles Shen Jie, Fulong Wu, Resetless urban landscapes in China: a case study of Shanghai’s mega residential projects, Journal of Urban Affairs (Paper received, forth coming on August, 2012) Shen Jie, Fulong Wu, The Development of Master-Planned Communities in Chinese Suburbs: a Case Study of Shanghai’s Thames Town, Urban Geography, 2012, Vol.33, No.2: 183-203. Chai Yanwei, Shen Jie, Long Tao. Downtown Retailing Development under Suburbanization—A Case Study of Beijing, Chinese Geographical Science, 2007, Vol.17, No.1:1-9. Chinese articles Chai Yanwei, and Jie Shen, 2006, Travel-activity based research frame of urban spatial structure, Human geography, Vol.21, No.5: 108-112 (In Chinese) Shen Jie, and Yanwei Chai, 2006, Study on residents’ utilization of downtown retailing center in Beijing in the context of suburbanization, Human Geography, Vol.21, No.5: 113-123 (In Chinese) Chai Yanwei, Guilan Wen, and Jie Shen, 2008, A study on commercial structure of Shanghai based on residents’shopping behavior, Geographical Research, Vol.27, No.4: 897-906 (In Chinese) Chai Yanwei, Zhilin Liu, and Jie Shen, 2008, Changes of the DANWEI system and its effects, Arid Land Geography, Vol.31, No.2: 155-163 (In Chinese) Chai Yanwei, Jie Shen, and Guilan Weng, 2008, A study on activity space of shopping of Shanghai residents: temporal and spatial characteristics and relative influencing factors, Economic Geography, Vol. 28, No.2: 221-227 (In Chinese) Chai Yanwei, Jie Shen, 2008, Activity-based approach to human spatial behaviour research, Scientia Geographica Sinica, Vol.28, No. 5: 594~600 (In Chinese) iii Acknowledgements I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Fulong Wu. Without his supervision and encouragement from the preliminary to the concluding stages, my research would not have been possible. His insightful advice and recommendations, patience and time are very much appreciated. I would also like to thank him for his financial support for the questionnaire survey. I also extend my genuine thanks to Professor John Lovering, Professor Christ Webster, Dr. Gillian Bristow, and Dr. Yiming Wang, who provided very useful suggestions on my research. I have benefited greatly from discussions and conversations with them. I give my heartfelt thanks to all the interviewees who generously shared with me their knowledge on suburban development or their suburban living experiences. My sincere gratitude also goes to all the people who helped me during my field work, including Professor Shiwen Sun at Tongji University, Yu Fan at Shanghai Muninicipal Urban Planning and Land Resources Management Bureau, Zhenliang Wang and Jun Chen at Songjiang Urban Planning and Land Resources Management Bureau, Chao Chen at Songjiang New Town Construction and Development Co. Ltd., as well as my friend Ms Changxia Li at AECOM Technology Corporation, Shanghai branch. I am most grateful to Dr. Limei Li and her students at the Eastern China Normal University, who gave me great support for the questionnaire survey. I would also like to thank Dr. Yi Li, Dr. Stevie Upton, Anna Lermon, Yang Xiao, Sabine Schulz, Kin Wing Chan and many other colleagues in the school. I had a good time working with them. Finally, and most importantly, I am deeply indebted to my family, my parents and my husband, Xiang Luo, who have been so supportive and encouraging all along. iv Contents ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ i PULICATIONS .................................................................................................... iii Acknowledgements ............................................................................................... iv List of Tables ........................................................................................................ xi List of Figures ..................................................................................................... xiii Chapter One: Introduction .................................................................................. 1 1.1 Research background ................................................................................. 1 1.2 Research objectives.................................................................................... 2 1.3 Organisation of the thesis .......................................................................... 3 Chapter Two: Literature Review: Placing Chinese suburbs in a (post-)suburban world ................................................................................ 6 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 6 2.2 Re-theorising ‘the suburbs’ in a global society ......................................... 7 2.2.1 Suburban American: the paradigmatic case .................................... 7 2.2.2 Beyond the model: suburban growth as a global phenomenon ....... 9 2.2.3 Comparative framework ................................................................ 15 2.3 Studies on suburban growth in China ...................................................... 18 2.3.1 Evidence of suburban growth ........................................................ 18 2.3.2 Dynamics of suburban growth: market versus state ...................... 20 2.3.3 A critique on existing literature ..................................................... 21 2.4 Suburbs as space for capital accumulation .............................................. 23 v 2.4.1 Spatial fix and capital switching ................................................... 23 2.4.2 Suburbia and post-suburbia: solutions to capital crises ................. 24 2.4.3 Chinese suburbs: a land-centred accumulation regime ................. 27 2.5 The building of suburbs: growth machine and urban regime .................. 28 2.5.1 Suburbs as a growth machine ........................................................ 28 2.5.2 Role of business interests .............................................................. 30 2.5.3 Role of the state ............................................................................. 31 2.5.4 Chinese suburbs: a state-led mode ................................................ 33 2.6 Living in the suburbs: suburbanism as a way of life?.............................. 35 2.6.1 Homogeneity: suburbanism as a way of life ................................. 35 2.6.2 Diversification of suburbs ............................................................. 36 2.6.3 Uneven development and social polarisation ................................ 38 2.6.4 Chinese suburbs: a heterogeneous world ...................................... 40 2.7 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 42 Chapter Three: Research framework and methodology ............................... 44 3.1 Research framework................................................................................