Abstract:Over the last few decades, China has seen a steep rise in diverse eco city and low carbon city policies. Recently, attention has begun to focus on the perceived shortcomings in the practical delivery of related initiatives, with several publications suggesting a gap between ambitious policy goals and the emerging realities of the newly built environment. To probe this further, M A N U S C R I P T
A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPTin this article we examine -based on the policy network approach -how the gap be… Show more
“…It is also possible that cities choose their brands copying from other cities [9]. In this paper, we argue that these choices are partly influenced by guidance from national and provincial governments, as they issue various national and provincial policies that local governments are supposed to adopt.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…As a key type of urban projects in China, eco city, low carbon city, smart city pilot projects have become paramount in China since 2000 [1,9]. Most of these flagship projects are new towns, characterized by a mix of residential, commercial and industrial clusters in suburban areas [77].…”
Section: Project Context and Key Actorsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The economic city profiles are established by municipal governments, but the complexity and uncertainty in the local context of these symbolic projects requires strong involvement and organizational capacity of district governments or even bodies operating at the level of neighborhoods [71]. Some very prestigious new town projects are supported by ministries at the national or provincial level which then also contribute funds, support and knowledge and encourage the consultation of foreign experts with specific technical knowledge [9].…”
Abstract:In the urban development policy in China, city brands play an important role in setting targets for Chinese cities. These economic city brands, however, are not produced in an institutional vacuum: they are embedded in the visions national, provincial and municipal governments have for these cities, i.e., on multi-level governance. In this paper, a data-intense analysis of economic city branding practices has been conducted in the Greater Pearl River Delta, taking into account national, provincial and municipal documents in socio-economic, urban and land use planning. Evidence of economic and ecological initiatives through branding at the level of symbolic urban projects, such as new towns, has also been examined. It transpires that Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have adopted more sophisticated economic brand identities than the others and the reflection of brand-related targets from their actual projects is also more credible. While China's national plans focus primarily on Hong Kong and Macau, provincial documents place more emphasis on the wealthier cities on the mainland (Shenzhen and Guangzhou). The other cities attract less attention and have more freedom to adopt economic city brands, but their efforts to live up to their promise are quite limited due to their weak financial position.
“…It is also possible that cities choose their brands copying from other cities [9]. In this paper, we argue that these choices are partly influenced by guidance from national and provincial governments, as they issue various national and provincial policies that local governments are supposed to adopt.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 92%
“…As a key type of urban projects in China, eco city, low carbon city, smart city pilot projects have become paramount in China since 2000 [1,9]. Most of these flagship projects are new towns, characterized by a mix of residential, commercial and industrial clusters in suburban areas [77].…”
Section: Project Context and Key Actorsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The economic city profiles are established by municipal governments, but the complexity and uncertainty in the local context of these symbolic projects requires strong involvement and organizational capacity of district governments or even bodies operating at the level of neighborhoods [71]. Some very prestigious new town projects are supported by ministries at the national or provincial level which then also contribute funds, support and knowledge and encourage the consultation of foreign experts with specific technical knowledge [9].…”
Abstract:In the urban development policy in China, city brands play an important role in setting targets for Chinese cities. These economic city brands, however, are not produced in an institutional vacuum: they are embedded in the visions national, provincial and municipal governments have for these cities, i.e., on multi-level governance. In this paper, a data-intense analysis of economic city branding practices has been conducted in the Greater Pearl River Delta, taking into account national, provincial and municipal documents in socio-economic, urban and land use planning. Evidence of economic and ecological initiatives through branding at the level of symbolic urban projects, such as new towns, has also been examined. It transpires that Hong Kong, Macau, Guangzhou and Shenzhen have adopted more sophisticated economic brand identities than the others and the reflection of brand-related targets from their actual projects is also more credible. While China's national plans focus primarily on Hong Kong and Macau, provincial documents place more emphasis on the wealthier cities on the mainland (Shenzhen and Guangzhou). The other cities attract less attention and have more freedom to adopt economic city brands, but their efforts to live up to their promise are quite limited due to their weak financial position.
“…To cope with both of these developments at the same time, the Chinese central government has undertaken a variety of initiatives, including the launching of elaborate national eco city, low carbon city, low carbon eco city, smart city, and sponge city initiatives as well as various other programs to promote sustainable urbanization [3,4]. The goal is to encourage local governments to commit themselves to become the national standard in balanced social, economic and environmental urban growth and to use the successful ones among them as demonstration models to be mainstreamed around the country [3,5,6].…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The goal is to encourage local governments to commit themselves to become the national standard in balanced social, economic and environmental urban growth and to use the successful ones among them as demonstration models to be mainstreamed around the country [3,5,6]. Most of these cities have committed themselves to drafting sophisticated indicator systems to monitor their progress, revise urban master plans to make their new towns and science parks greener, adopt clean and green technologies and seek international partner countries, provinces and cities to support them in building up their capacity and knowledge base [5,[7][8][9].…”
China faces a number of impressive challenges in dealing with climate change: rising energy use, growing emission levels of greenhouse gases, dangerous levels of air pollution over cities and low resilience against flood and drought. Sustainable urbanization has been adopted as a keyword in handling these challenges. The Chinese central government has undertaken a variety of measures, including the launch of large Sino-European programs to learn from 'developed nations'. In the wake of these partnerships, a great variety of cross-national and cross-city agreements were signed. Sino-European cooperation does not often run as smoothly as initially hoped because of diverging interests, cultural misunderstandings and practical limitations. In the background, a mismatch in normative conceptions Chinese and European participants have of 'good governance' plays a role. In this contribution, insights taken from Montesquieu's 'The Spirit of Laws' regarding checks and balances and trias politica (updated to 'sextas politica' for the 21st century) are used to comprehend how the exertion of power is distributed and expected to be distributed differently in Chinese than in European administrative traditions. The article will end with conclusions on how European misconceptions of Chinese governance complicate Sino-European collaboration in sustainable urbanization policies.
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