Explaining city branding practices in China's three mega-city regions: The role of ecological modernization

Abstract

There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it.

City Branding in China’s Northeastern Region: How Do Cities Reposition Themselves When Facing Industrial Decline and Ecological Modernization?

“…Depending on their score for the independent variable 'geographic position', we surmise that cities will respond differently to the challenges of ecological modernization, reflected in the score on their dependent variable 'branding practice'. Table 1 below, adopted from [14] where this approach was first introduced, shows the different possible pathways that follow from various geographic positions. A total of five possible pathways can be distinguished (see de Jong et al 2018) [14] of which only three appear in China's Northeast:…”

“…Table 1 below, adopted from [14] where this approach was first introduced, shows the different possible pathways that follow from various geographic positions. A total of five possible pathways can be distinguished (see de Jong et al 2018) [14] of which only three appear in China's Northeast:…”

“…Each of these concepts reflect a desired shift in the direction of ecological modernization where social, economic and ecological gains are presumed to come nicely together. Earlier studies in the application of city branding among cities in the face of ecological modernization focused on polycentric regions such as Rhine-Ruhr in Germany and Randstad in The Netherlands [11] and the three Chinese Mega-City Regions Pearl River Delta, Yangtze River Delta and Jin-Jin-Ji [12][13][14]. From these studies, it appeared that city branding practices were quite commonly used but that cities with a strong tradition in manufacturing and heavy industry were reluctant to present themselves as such and preferred to dress up as service or innovation cities even if this seemed barely realistic in the eyes of their stakeholders.…”

“…We examined both (1) the city brand identity, which can be seen as a city's general self-image in which it includes its essential features and (2) its use of city-labels in connection with urban ecological modernization. This selection of city labels finds its origin in earlier work [10,24] where various different city labels were identified but then adapted to terminology as it prevails in the Chinese policy context [13,14]. These labels are sustainable city, smart city, innovation city, resilient city, tourism city, eco city, low carbon city, livable city, advanced manufacturing city, service city and modern agricultural city.…”

“…See Table 2. The data collection procedure on which this contribution is based on a methodology initially developed in earlier work [12,13] and fully elaborated in [14].…”