New urban paradigm beyond the west: investigating the regeneration of urban villages in Guangzhou,China

This paper investigates the regeneration process of four urban villages in Guangzhou, China. It finds that the institutional dichotomy of the rural and urban systems in land ownership and planning management has not only rooted the emergence and proliferation of urban villages, but also obstructed their regeneration. The core of urban village regeneration is the redistribution of interest derived from land appreciation; the current regulatory framework has difficulties in accommodating this redistribution and alternative legislation is needed. Collaboration formed by some powerful stakeholders is proved to be essential for project completion, and this partnership formation has to some extent weakened the top-down single-actor planning mechanism, which has been the routine in socialist China for decades. The study identifies the dynamics of land regeneration, suggesting that there is no single universal prescribed form of land regeneration.