Diversification and Local Embeddedness: The Rescaling of National New Area Governance in Post-Reform China

Abstract

In the rapidly growing literature on exploring urban restructuring in reference to the state rescaling, many authors have neglected the relatively fixed and immobile forms of territorial organization. The development of China’s National New Areas (NNAs) provides an opportunity to explore the hybrid and multiscalar processes of state rescaling. From the perspective of rescaling, an analytical framework was established to examine the practice of NNAs and their governance rescaling in China. Every National New Area (NNA) is the result of China’s “state spatial selectivity”, and the central government has guided policies to a specific spatial scale to cope with the development crisis. The rescaling of NNA governance is the process of the functioning of all-level administrative subjects in the functional orientation, spatial zoning, administrative system, and power allocation through rigid or flexible means. In practice, there are significant governance scale differences in territorial spatial organization, administrative systems, and power distribution among the various NNAs, which has led to diverse governance modes. The degree of coupling between the scale of new and existing administrative divisions is the key to the rescaling of NNA governance. Most NNAs are still facing the challenge of unifying their territorial development logic. Discussions of state rescaling in western countries have focused on the super-local level. The case of China clearly shows the role of local embeddedness and diversification in rescaling.

China's new Towns in Controversy: A Literature Review

“…Another research paper claims that the NNAs “merely rest upon new practices of rural land commodification and development” (Yang et al 2019, 114). Wang, Chao, and Li attribute the challenges to “unifying their territorial development logic” (Wang, Chao, and Li 2019, 1).…”

“…Some scholars further explain the political system and analyze the pros and cons. Typically, “the new town's governing body was provided with new territorial power on top of the preexisting, ordinary administration division” (Wang, Chao and Li 2020). Yin, Liu, and Wang propose the theory of “local government-directed capital switching” (Yin, Liu, and Wang 2018, 103) to interpret the unique financial model.…”