Social Constructions of GIS in China's Changing Urban Governance: The Case of Shenzhen

Abstract

GIS technologies have developed rapidly in urban China, particularly within local governments, over the past decade. However, such GIS practices in non-Western contexts have not been investigated in depth. The present study attempts to address this gap, drawing on insights from critical GIS and political economy. Scholarship in critical GIS has underlined the importance of power relations in constituting organizational GIS practices, and vice versa. Moreover, perspectives from scalar politics and network analysis provide a useful way to delineate and analyse the spatialized social relations shaping and embedded in GIS constructions. In particular, scaled networks conceptualize social connections and power relations in terms of networks of actors embedded in different spatial extents; within this synthesized framework, we contend, local government organizations serve as both sites and nodes in developing and employing GIS. Through an in-depth case study of the city of Shenzhen, we investigate in what ways both territorial conditions and interrelations across organizational and city boundaries influence governmental GIS development. Such an investigation helps to politicize the constructions of GIS in China's changing urban governance, which will contribute to ongoing discussions in critical GIS aimed at understanding the mutual constitution of GIS and society.

Digitizing the Dragon Head, Geo-Coding the Urban Landscape: GIS and the Transformation of China's Urban Governance

“…The other is the transformation of political rationalities that has co-evolved with the restructuring of the state. These shaping forces in the case of China are in contrast to the important role of the private sector in local governments' GIS development in Western capitalist societies (see Lin and Ghose, 2010).…”

“…One interviewee noted, "Sometimes, it could be a bit waste of money [in developing some information systems] because they are not substantially used" (Interviewee 6, senior GIS manager in SUPLIC, 27 July 2006). One can argue here that GIS has also played a symbolic role of modernity and efficiency for the public administration (see also Lin and Ghose, 2010).…”

“…Meanwhile, local planners also strive to undertake and represent local planning to conform to national policy agendas, in order to gain discursive and material support for local development-creating a dynamic process of "scaling up" (see also Lin and Ghose, 2010). GIS and other information technologies have become important instruments in achieving these goals, and coordinating planning implementation and development control functions.…”

“…One important driving force has been the national agenda of "informationization" (xinxihua), in which the central state has strived to foster GIS and other IT developments in China (Lin and Ghose, 2010). The policy discourse has started to associate IT development in government agencies with the technology's transformative role of improving governmental operations and services.…”

When Web 2.0 Meets Public Participation GIS (PPGIS): VGI and Spaces of Participatory Mapping in China

“…The stated goals of these state programs include facilitating e-commerce and increasing citizen participation. While many have argued that the latter may largely remain on paper (Lin and Ghose 2010 ) , the e-governance discourse has fueled the state's efforts in building infrastructures for digital communications. Also, the economic reforms have signi fi cantly transformed China's media landscape, which has stimulated the need for the assessment of public opinion on issues that are directly related to the reform process.…”