Upscaling in Progress: The Reinvention of Urban Planning as an Apparatus of Environmental Governance in China

Abstract

Through the lens of scalar politics, this paper examines how the Chinese national state has attempted to reassert its control over environmental governance through urban planning with successive rounds of scalar reconfi guration since the 1990s. Along with utilizing the traditional regulatory hierarchies, it has forced in a green urbanism agenda in local planning regimes through three forms of upscaling, namely, regionalizing urban development, intensifying intercity competition, and fostering global-local alliances. Not all of these attempts can claim immediate success, and the introduction of some has created new headaches to China's urban advancement and environmental protection.

Scale as both material and discursive: A view through China’s rescaling of urban planning system for environmental governance

“…State rescaling has therefore been initiated since the 1990s to reassert the functional importance of central and provincial state in urban planning to restore urban environmental rationalities. This rescaling has taken three forms (Chung, 2015). First, national legal directives on urban planning are replenished with more environmental requirements, local compliance of many are subject to upper level scrutiny.…”

Environmental governance with Chinese characteristics: are environmental model cities a good example for other municipalities?

“…Model city status may also enhance a local leader's odds to be promoted. What is more, many city officials regard a model city title as an effective place marketing tool in an attempt to attract investors, professionals, and tourists (Chung 2015). Reportedly applying for the title is also used to raise environmental awareness and mobilize the public as in the case of Jiaxing where officials sought to engage residents in building an energy-saving and environment-friendly society (Weiyi and Xing 2009).…”

“…Model cities exhibit clear tendencies toward spectacularisation. Eagerness to instigate fast progress often leads to perverse effects where eco-systems are destroyed to make room for more exotic or aesthetically appealing vegetation, and mature trees are transplanted from distant forests to municipalities' barren lands (Chung 2015). Also, ecological objectives are regularly used to legitimize land expropriation and increase the value of real estate.…”

Accuracy of Environmental Monitoring in China: Exploring the Influence of Institutional, Political and Ideological Factors

“…Changes in ideology have been accompanied by the introduction of a wider range of environmental targets in socio-economic planning and by innovations in the evaluation system of government officials [70,71]. The latter are now held accountable for the status of the natural environment in areas under their jurisdiction and incentivized to promote models of growth in line with the protection of the environment and society [71][72][73][74]. While these innovations represent a step forward towards a more sustainable pattern of development, in part they might produce the unintended consequence of incentivizing data manipulation.…”