Fiona F. Yang

Strategizing urbanism in the era of neoliberalization: State power reshuffling, land development and municipal finance in urbanizing China

This paper examines the new dynamism of China’s urbanization in which urbanism has been actively pursued by municipal governments as a strategy to negotiate and contest with the new power relations established by the post-reform regime in the era of neoliberalization. The research identifies the salient features of urbanization and urban land development since the 1990s, probes into their social and political origins, and evaluates the effects of Chinese urban revolutions from above on economic growth, regional inequality and social volatility. The data analysed include those gathered from the national level and from the Guangzhou metropolis in southern China. The interwoven processes of state power reshuffling, urban land development and municipal finance in contemporary China are believed to have constituted a significant and controversial case for critical evaluation of the political origins of urban revolutions in the age of global urbanism and their uneven socioeconomic consequences.

Spatial Development of Producer Services in the Chinese Urban System

The Chinese economy has transformed from the development of industries in the early economic reform period of the 1980s to the development of service industries in the 2000s and, more recently, the emergence of producer service industries. Producer services have become increasingly important to the Chinese economy. Most studies on producer services in China mainly focus on individual cities. Spatial development of producer services at the regional and national levels is relatively less examined. In this paper we analyze the growth and location of producer services in the Chinese urban system. The study also shows that producer services are becoming spatially more concentrated across the urban system. As producer services that are important in generating economic development are more likely to be located in large metropolitan areas, they tend to reinforce the competitiveness of large cities. Moreover, the uneven spatial development of producer services suggests that small and medium cities need to conduct careful market studies and analyses on their ability to attract producer service industries before they initiate large central business district development projects and invest in massive construction of offices.

Producer service linkages and city connectivity in the mega-city region of China: a case study of the Pearl River Delta

This paper examines the intra- and inter-firm producer service linkages and city connectivity of the Pearl River Delta (PRD), one of the fastest growing and globalising mega-city regions in China. The study reveals that the rapid growth of producer services in the recent two decades has emerged as a crucial contributor to the formation of the regional network that was previously shaped mainly by manufacturing activities. To provide a better understanding of the mechanisms of mega-city regions, a nexus between the literature on globalisation and mega-city regions and the studies on the service economy must be developed to consider not only intra-firm office connections, but also the linkages of producer services between different firms and economic sectors. Through a questionnaire survey covering 1020 producer service firms in three major PRD cities, we provide evidence that in a manner different from manufacturing activities, producer services linkages, both intra-firm and inter-firm, bind the cities into a hierarchical and localised regional system.

Intraurban Location of Producer Services in Guangzhou, China

The location of producer services has significant implications on the restructuring of the urban landscape. It is well documented that the growth of producer services in advanced economies has tended to be highly concentrated in the city proper, while at the same time demonstrating a prevailing tendency toward decentralization in recent years because of the development of information and communication technology. Producer services have been growing rapidly in urban China over the past decade. They have created new and remarkable changes in ‘postsocialist cities’. This study analyzes the intraurban location of information and consulting services in Guangzhou, China. The findings suggest that the distribution pattern of producer services has gradually changed from dispersed to centripetal development towards the new business district. This is in stark contrast with the situation in Western cities. In Ghangzhou, urban land reform, city planning, and the need for producer services to gain more prestige and business linkages have together shaped new location dynamics for producer services. There has been a transformation from the once dispersed pattern into one that is more concentrated.

Economic transition and urban transformation of China: The interplay of the state and the market

The transition of the Chinese economy from plan to market has led to dramatic economic restructuring and urban transformation since the economic reforms and open door policy in 1978. The state and the market, which are the two basic regulating mechanisms, have significantly changed their role in economic and urban development in this transition in China. We attempt to examine the interplay of the state and the market in facilitating economic growth and producing ‘new’ urban space after replacing socialism with state capitalism. Four major waves of urbanisation and urban development have been identified, in terms of the interaction of the state and the market in producing different forms of urban development which also bring about economic transition in China. We further examine the new form of urban development in the fourth stage of urbanisation which is represented by the rapid growth of producer services and the resulting development of central business districts. Economic transition and urban transformation in China seem to converge with the development pattern of developed and other developing countries. However, embedded in a different state–market interplay, the experience of Chinese cities may be different and not be easily imitated by cities in other developing countries.

ECONOMIC GLOBALIZATION AND THE GROWTH OF CONSULTING SERVICES IN GUANGZHOU, CHINA

Abstract Despite the low value-added nature of the service sector in China, advanced services have been growing rapidly in major Chinese cities in recent years. This paper analyzes the growth of consulting services in metropolitan Guangzhou as a response to Chinas economic reforms and the intrusion of globalization forces. The social and spatial divisions of labor under globalization have generated an increasing demand for consulting services in Guangzhou. To attract international investment, the improvements on urban infrastructure and urban image have been significant locational advantages driving consulting services into the city. However, a close examination suggests that the path-dependent effects also require serious evaluations. The state still plays an important role in the growth and performance of consultancies in Guangzhou. The case of Guangzhou raises new theoretical questions for the growth of advanced services in the Chinese context.

UNDERSTANDING THE CHANGING GEOGRAPHY OF URBAN EFFICIENCY IN CHINA IN THE 1990s

Abstract This study adopts the approach of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to analyze the changing geography of urban efficiency in China in the 1990s. DEA is a non-statistical efficiency technique, which employs a linear programming to weight the city inputs/outputs and rank the performance of the decision-making units (DMUs). A close examination reveals that urban efficiency of Chinese cities tended to increase from the western to the eastern region and by the urban administrative level. Urban efficiency is a compound concept consisting of scale efficiency, utilization efficiency and pure technological efficiency. This study suggests that scale efficiency is the prime variable to understand the temporal as well as spatial patterns of urban efficiency. The decrease of scale efficiency had, to a certain degree, counteracted the increase of utilization efficiency and pure technological efficiency, which had led to the regional variation of urban efficiency in China. Given the fact that the relatively small sizes of cities have reduced urban output and efficiency, the scale of the urban economy in China needs to be promoted through regional integration.