Variegated Geographies of Ecological Urbanization: China’S Eco-Cities in Global Context
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
VARIEGATED GEOGRAPHIES OF ECOLOGICAL URBANIZATION: CHINA’S ECO-CITIES IN GLOBAL CONTEXT A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY I-CHUN CATHERINE CHANG IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY HELGA LEITNER AND ERIC SHEPPARD CO-ADVISERS MARCH 2015 © I-Chun Catherine Chang 2015 Acknowledgements It has been a long journey. I still remember vividly the day when I arrived in Minnesota. I walked off the jet bridge from the McDonnell Douglas DC-9, holding two cats in both arms, standing next to my fiancé and four oversized suitcases. It was a hot dry August afternoon, but my mind was already imaging the snow and ice in the winter. Born and raised in Taiwan, I only had seen snow in movies and on the television. I was worried whether I would be able to complete my PhD at this unfamiliar place. Miraculously, I did survive and finish this dissertation. But this journey would not have been possible without the warm and generous support from so many people and institutions. My deepest gratitude goes to my co-advisers, Dr. Helga Leitner and Dr. Eric Sheppard. Eric and Helga have been with me at each step throughout my graduate study. They are dedicated mentors who wholeheartedly support me to develop my intellectual curiosity while also pushing for rigorous research. Their encouragement helped me transform my ideas into a dissertation and find my own voice in thinking through theories. They patiently read all my papers, proposals, funding applications, and dissertation drafts in the past seven years, and never stopped offering critical comments and constructive suggestions. Their enthusiasm in research also sets a life-long example to me. Eric and Helga are the kind of researchers I hope I can grow to become. My committee members, Dr. Michael Goldman, Dr. Brenda Kayzar and Dr. Yanjie Bian have also been my advocates over these years. Michael always helps me push my research forward. He encourages me to be ambitious in developing the long term research agenda, also assists me to frame action plans. His insight into Asian urbanization has influenced my research in many aspects. On the other hand, Brenda always offers me inspirations from North American cities and the urban design literature whenever I struggle to conceptualize my case studies in China. Coming to Minnesota in the same year, Brenda and I are also comrades in adapting to survive in the harsh winters, as well as making it as junior female geographers. Yanjie’s insight about Chinese society is essential to my dissertation research. The special Mandarin interview training he put me through helped my field research in China immensely. In the Department of Geography, I also benefited greatly from many faculty members, staff and friends. Vinay Gidwani, Abdi Samatar, Kathy Klink, Bruce Braun, Nikhil Anand, Rod Squires, George Henderson, Valentine Cadieux, Kurt Kipfmueller, Bonnie Williams, Jodi Larson, Glen Powell, Sara Braun and Cathy Dziuk all provided generous support for my research and graduate study during these years. My dear graduate fellow friends, Renata Blumberg and Ursula Lang, indulged me with their unconditional friendship in both academic and personal lives. They diligently comment on my works, cheer me up when I am frustrated, and share my girly secrets at coffee shops and in conference hotel rooms. Dudley Bonsel, Kate Kindervater, Jerry Shannon, Chris Strunk, Tatiana Matejskova, Chris William, Sami Eria, Ilona Moore, Ozan Karaman, Nathan Clough, Luke Bergmann, Sian Butcher, Alicia Lazzarini, Basil Mahayni, Sri Anantha, Harlan Morehouse, Julia Corwin, Lalit Batra, Asli Ikizoglu, Melinda Kernik, Joe Getzoff, Ding Fei, Raj Reddy, Ivan Bialostosky, Erin Walsh, Brook Bernini, among many others, kept me company during this academic journey. Friends i from Sociology Department, Yu-Ju Chien and Sinan Erensu, also enriched my life in the Social Science Tower. I am also greatly indebted to many people who assisted my research work in Shanghai, Tianjin, Singapore and London. I am particularly grateful to Simon Joss who mentored my fieldwork in London, and to Fulong Wu and Li Yu who helped me advance my knowledge about urban planning in China. Elizabeth Rapoport, Federico Cugurullo, William Wu and Braulio Eduardo Morera provided me not only research advice but also their warm friendship. Jun Zhang, Ang Yang Chong, November Tan, Harvey Neo, Tim Bunnel, Victor Savage, and Choon Piew Pow offered great research support when I was in Singapore. I owe special thanks to Xiaofan Laun, Tsung-Yi Lee, Shu Jian Li, Shouyi Hao, Guangwen Meng, Yukai Xu, He Lei and Yaping Dong, who assisted me to conduct interviews in Shanghai and Tianjin. I would like also to thank urban planners, scholars and policy makers in the four cities who kindly shared with me their professional experiences. Most importantly, this dissertation research would not have been possible without those villagers, farmers, migrant workers and town residents in China who opened their doors to me and kindly shared their life stories. Many institutions provided financial support for my graduate study and dissertation research. I received the Study Abroad Fellowship from the Ministry of Education in Taiwan, and the Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship from the Graduate School of the University of Minnesota. My dissertation research was funded by the National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, the Association of American Geographers Urban Geography Specialty Group Doctoral Research Fellowship, and the University of Minnesota Global Spotlight Doctoral Dissertation International Research Grant, Consortium on Law and Values in Health, Environment and the Life Sciences Graduate Research Grant, College of Liberal Arts Graduate Research Partnership Program Fellowship, and the International Thesis Research Grant. Finally, I would like to thank my family. Por-Fu Aspen Chen, the fiancé who accompanied me to come to this country, is now my beloved husband. Living with a talented sociologist has been always exciting. He inspires me everyday at our dining table; he is my best friend, my partner of life, my English teacher, my patient reader, and my critical editor, among many other roles I am going to discover. My parents, Pi-Tao Chang and Su-Jane Chen, brought me up with the belief that a girl can be more than a wife and mother, and can achieve as much as a boy. My mother always has strong faith in me and allows me to explore and pursue my interests. My parents-in-law, Eric Chen, Yvonne Ho and Szu-Ping Lin, take me as their own daughter and unconditionally support my graduate study. Cousin-in-law Kenneth Lin filled my every stay in Singapore with lovely culture adventures. My two feline friends, Jaja and the late Meowko, have been my best dissertation writing assistants. While they sometimes accidentally delete a whole paragraph or intentionally add on several lines of mysterious codes, they do warm up my lap and keep me writing throughout the chilly Minnesota nights. This dissertation is dedicated to all of you. ii For Those Who are Fighting for a Better Urban Future iii Variegated Geographies of Ecological Urbanization: China’s Eco-Cities in Global Context Abstract This dissertation examines an emerging ecological urbanization paradigm: Eco- cities. Eco-cities promise to contain hyper-urbanization and eradicate urban environmental problems by building cities as sustainable ecological systems. Originated from the post-industrial societies in the global North, the eco-city paradigm transforms when it travels to, and navigates through, the local contexts in the global South. Different planning ideas and variegated practice emerge from this process. These ideas and practices become new standards of ecological urbanization, and circulate back to international communities as alternatives to compete with the original visions. This dissertation undertook a relational comparative research on the Sino-British Shanghai Dongtan Eco-City and the Sino-Singaporean Tianjin Binhai Eco-City. These two projects represent distinct eco-city models, different from one another, and also from Western models. The two case studies were complemented by a multi-site investigation of the actors involved in the construction of these eco-city projects in Shanghai, Tianjin, Singapore, and London. Through archival research, in-person semi-structured and open- ended interviews, and participant observation at project sites, this dissertation first analyzes the particular form of ecological urbanization adopted by these two most prominent eco-city projects in China, and their relationships with Western eco-city principles. The dissertation further reveals how connectivities between the four sites shaped the development at each node. The findings of this dissertation provide new insight into how green urbanism regimes function in China, and how eco-city models differentiate and variegate as they travel to the global South. They advance our understanding of the diffusion and dissemination of contemporary ecological urbanization agendas, their local variegations and mutations, and their external impact on the socio-spatial transformation of cities across the globe. Most importantly, the findings of this dissertation enable us to critically reflect on the adequacy of Western urban and sustainability theories for explaining emergent ecological urbanization paradigms in the global South. iv Table of Contents List of Tables vi List of Figures vii Chapter One Introduction: Variegated Geographies