Urbanization As State-Building: a Case Study of Governance Reform in the Guangzhou Luogang District, China
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URBANIZATION AS STATE-BUILDING: A CASE STUDY OF GOVERNANCE REFORM IN THE GUANGZHOU LUOGANG DISTRICT, CHINA by SIU WAI WONG B.Sc., Hong Kong Polytechnic University, 1998 Master of DevPlan, University of Queensland, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Planning) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) November 2013 © Siu Wai Wong, 2013 Abstract Over the past three decades, China‘s urban population has increased by more than 400 million. How could this rapid, unprecedented process of urban transformation come about without causing widespread social upheavals in socialist China? With an in-depth case study of the Guangzhou Luogang District, this dissertation takes a micro-historical approach to understand this swift urbanization process and its impact on the transformation of rural society as well as the restructuring of local governance. By examining how the local state, village organizations, villagers and other non-state actors have dealt with their land-based conflicts and struggles arising from state-led urbanization, this study argues that the requisition of rural land for urban expansion was not merely a process of land grabbing by corrupt and unscrupulous local state to facilitate economic growth. Rather, it should also be interpreted as a process of state building, whereby the local government reshaped its governance strategy so as to mitigate potential social unrest and to strengthen its legitimacy in the eyes of villagers. The findings of this study will shed new light on how and why socialist China has been able to maintain such unparalleled and unprecedented rates of urban growth despite incessant land disputes and numerous social tensions at different localities. It is also hoped that this research will arouse broader intellectual discourse on governance restructuring and local government, specifically about the relationships between power decentralization, public-private partnership, citizen empowerment and civic engagement in governance strategies that attempt to realize collective interests under the present epoch of economic globalization and neo-liberalization. ii Preface This dissertation is an original intellectual product of the author, Siu Wai Wong. The field research undertaken was covered by the UBC Ethics Certificate number H12-01320. iii Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………………ii Preface …………………….. ......................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents .......................................................................................................................... iv List of Tables ................................................................................................................................. vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Notes on Weight, Measures and Currency ............................................................................... viii List of Characters .......................................................................................................................... ix Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................ xi 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 The Puzzle of State Power Decentralization in Urbanizing China .............................................. 1 Research Question ........................................................................................................................ 2 Reflections on Theoretical and Methodological Governance Research ...................................... 5 Governance as an Analytical Approach ..................................................................................... 13 Conceptual Framework of Governance Analysis....................................................................... 15 Governance Analysis in the Chinese Context ............................................................................ 17 Case Study: the Guangzhou Luogang District ........................................................................... 23 Dissertation Chapter Outline ...................................................................................................... 25 2. Case Study of Guangzhou Luogang District: Research Design and Field Research ........ 28 GLD: A New Urban District of Guangzhou City ...................................................................... 28 Studying Urbanizing Villages (New Urban Neighbourhoods) as a Method of Inquiry ............. 31 Conceptual Framework for the Neighbourhood Governance Analysis ..................................... 34 Analytical Framework for the Analysis of Local Governance in the GLD ............................... 37 Fieldwork: Stage One ................................................................................................................. 41 Fieldwork: Stage Two ................................................................................................................ 49 3. Guangzhou Luogang District’s Rural-urban Transition ..................................................... 59 Historical Origin of the GLD ..................................................................................................... 59 Village Society and the Urban-rural Continuum........................................................................ 64 Agriculture Collectivization in the Maoist Era .......................................................................... 70 Collectivization and Rural-Urban Dichotomy ........................................................................... 75 De-collectivization and Re-collectivization in the Reform Era ................................................. 79 From Development Zone to Urban District ............................................................................... 82 4. Land Requisitions, Farmer Resettlement and Local Land Politics ..................................... 90 Hukou as Part of Compensation in the 1980s ............................................................................ 91 ―Reserved Commercial Land‖ as a Policy of Compensation in the 1990s ................................ 94 Villagers‘ Resistance .................................................................................................................. 98 Compromise with Villagers ..................................................................................................... 102 Retreat of the Local State and Village Autonomy ................................................................... 105 State versus Village Collectives, Collectives versus Villagers ................................................ 110 iv 5. Shareholding Reforms and State-village Power Restructuring ......................................... 112 Purposes of Shareholding Reforms .......................................................................................... 112 Background of Shareholding Reforms in the 1980s ................................................................ 114 Formalities versus Informalities: Implementing Shareholding Reforms in Villages ............... 120 Problems of Shareholding Reforms in the 1990s ..................................................................... 124 ―Fixing Share Rights‖ in 2003 ................................................................................................. 127 Shareholding Reforms and Social Control ............................................................................... 129 Shareholding Reforms and Governing Capacity Building ....................................................... 132 6. Grassroots Elections and Social Participation..................................................................... 136 The Reach of the State under ―Two Committees, One Association‖ ....................................... 137 Transparency and Autonomy in Neighbourhood Elections ..................................................... 141 Grassroots Democracy ............................................................................................................. 144 Exclusion of Migrant Workers ................................................................................................. 146 Landlord Villagers versus Tenant Migrant Workers ................................................................ 148 Inclusion of Migrant Workers .................................................................................................. 150 The Increasing Influence of Migrant Workers ......................................................................... 154 7. Conclusions: Building the Local State .................................................................................. 158 Regulatory and Conciliatory Local State Building .................................................................. 158 Central-Local State Relationships and State-Society Separation in Reform China ................. 161 Local Autonomy and Centralism ............................................................................................. 168 Rural-urban (In)equality .........................................................................................................