Chengdu Urban-Rural Integration Exploration and Lessons–Book Review of Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China: Learning from Chengdu

正Coordinating Urban and Rural Development in China:Learning from Chengdu Authors:Ye Yumin,Richard Le Gates Year:2013Publisher:Edward Elgar Publishing ISBN:9781781952023(424 pages,in English)Urban and rural integration,i.e.,how to deal with the issues of urban and rural disparities,urban and rural development,farmers,agriculture,migrant workers(or urban,industrial new immigrants),     

Responsibility for Sustainable Development in Europe: What Does It Mean for Planning Theory and Practice?

Responsibility in planning for sustainable development (SD) is little conceptualised in the planning literature. This paper sets up a theoretical framework to extend its understanding by drawing on ethics and political constructions of responsibility at their intersection with planning studies and SD debates. This is then applied to explore responsibility outlooks in planning practice in Sweden and England. It is argued that planning theory needs to further engage with the ethics of responsibility in planning but also with its politics, while the variety of responsibility landscapes in planning practice calls for a re-examination of responsibilities in planning for SD.     

The Essence and Planning Compilation of “Multi-Planning System Integration”: A Case Study on Urban-Rural Integrated Planning of Dali City

As multi-planning system integration is an important approach to planning compilation and management in the new era, this paper sums up the essence of multi-planning system integration based on the analysis on the differences and similarities of various plans. In addition, it explores, from the perspective of planning compilation and implementation, a general multi-planning system integration means on the basis of spatial elements, authority management, and technical standards. It then summarizes the key outcome: one plan, database, coordination mechanism, and so on, discovering a new planning compilation and management approach for regional coordination, ecological coexistence, urban-rural interaction, and efficient resource utilization.     

“Three-Plan Integration”: Exploring the Order and Regulation Capacity of Spatial Planning

China's spatial planning system has a tradition of prioritizing vertical control over horizontal coordination, which leads to conflicts among various plans for one area. This has brought many problems to the spatial management of Chinese cities. Since socio-economic development plan, urban-rural plan, and land use plan are the three major elements of China's spatial planning system, conflicts among them can be taken as an intensified case of the system's problems, and the practice of three-plan integration should focus on bridging the gaps and solving conflicts among them, so as to eventually eliminate predicaments to China's spatial planning. Currently, due to influences of the actual law and governance systems, threeplan integration is largely a sort of government-led planning coordination dedicated to urban-rural spatial development. In the context of China's constantly deepened political and economic system reforms, three-plan integration, together with the extended multi-plan integration, will surely play an important role in the construction and exploration of China's spatial planning system.     

Policy Framework for the Development of Real Estate and the Real Estate Industry in China

The purpose of this article is to provide a basis foroutlining China's Policy for Real Estate and Real EstateIndustry in 90s.It starts with a review of China's policyframework in this regard,and proceeds from the stand-point of the long-term macro-development of China's na-tional economy with reference to international experience.Ef-forts were made to transcend departmental and localgovernmental self-interest and conflict,and to avoidshortsighted pursuit for quick benefits and successes.     

Policy Framework for the Development of Real Estate and the Real Estate Industry in China

Compared with the situation in other countries,therole played by China's real estate and real estate industry inincreasing municipal financial resources has the followingobviously different characteristics:In most countries,land in urban areas is privatelyowned,and so are buildings.Therefore,real estate revenuescome mainly through taxation.In China,however,urbanland as well as a greater part of the urban building stock are     

Urban Development in the Age of Globalization 2.0——The Transformation of West Cities and Impacts on Chinese Cities

如果把2008年之前的全球化称为“全球化1.0版”,那么2008年后的“全球化2.0版”正在显露出自己的特点.两者最重要的区别是,全球化1.0版是由西方国家市场力和政府力的结盟推动的,社会力被排除在全球化过程之外.全球化2.0版是对1.0版的修正,实质是社会力对市场力和政府力的抗争,迫使它们考虑全球化过程中社会的利益,并在一定程度上制约了资本的全球流动.这样的变化具有复杂的后果.在分析了全球化1.0版和全球化2.0版的异同,全球化2.0版形成的原因、特点及理论问题后,讨论新的全球化时期西方城市的转型,以及对中国城市产生的影响.     

Innovative Practices in Large Urban Development Projects: Conflicting Frames in the Quest for “New Urbanity”

Large urban development projects are at the forefront of scholarly attention. This article aims at complementing critical analyses of urban projects from a political-economic perspective with an analysis centred on planning agency and practice. The focus is on the role of innovative planning concepts in the governance process. The question raised is: how can discourse on the urban quality of places affect collective choices in a reflective way, possibly leading to integrating private interests within ambitious public strategies?

The question is addressed by analysing planning of large urban projects as a “framing” practice, intended in a dual sense: as a practice defining arenas and forms of interaction, and as a practice conveying ideas, visions, concepts of “urbanity”. The case study presented—the Zuidas in Amsterdam—is interpreted as the scene of conflicting frames about the “public” meaning of places and as the contradictory struggle for framing collective action by means of innovative planning concepts. The analysis highlights the limits of framing approaches that do not adequately address the multiplicity of arenas and interactions involved in the governance of urban transformations.     

Ten Years and Ten Trends of Local Economic Development Practice in South Africa: A Practitioner’s Perspective

This article offers a perspective from a practitioner on the experience of involvement in the first decade of initiatives for promoting local economic development in South Africa. The reflection on the first decade identifies ten key trends in the practice of LED in South Africa. It is argued that whilst debates on LED in South Africa have made considerable progress, it is necessary to reflect on the knowledge created in the first decade of LED practice and design.     

“Not a Lot of People Read the Stuff”: Australian Urban Research in Planning Practice

At the 2013 State of Australian Cities (SOAC) Conference, a dedicated plenary session examined the blunt prospect of “Who cares about Australian Urban Research?” One group apparently not reading, or not making extensive use of, urban research is Australian urban planners. Drawing on interviews and focus groups undertaken for a recent research project, in this paper we examine the nature of the research-practice Relationship in an Australian urban planning context. We explore the limited extent to which practitioners engage with research outputs; and the entrenched barriers to research to practice information exchange. While our interviews indicate planners are concerned about the lack of a solid research base with which to underpin many policies, assumptions and decisions; we find that time-poor professionals largely rely on popular media, industry publications and practice networks to inform decision making. Further, the political and reactive environment of planning practice means the role for evidence in consensus-driven decision-making is fraught and far from clearly defined. Ultimately the project highlights the extent to which the resources required to digest research, interpret its local significance, and apply it to practice can be underestimated.     

Contention for urban state space and the rise of society in China: A case study of “housing planting” in Hohhot

Existing literature has overemphasized the power of state in the theorization of China's urbanization and transition, and after the reform and opening-up, substantial attention has been given to the interaction between state and market. Comparatively, the role of society has been vastly underestimated. The paper selects housing planting in Hohhot to explain how local villagers contended actively with local states for and over space to increase compensation for land requisition. The contention has caused severe social conflicts, high compensation cost, and forced demolition, thereby threatening local states' land finance and development. Essentially, space has become a useful tool for citizens to preserve their interests. This implies that with the rise of society, China's urbanization is transitioning from a high-speed and low-cost stage to a high-quality and high-cost stage. Due to the changing relation between state, capital, and society, many pertinent institutions need to be adjusted as well. The paper calls for additional attention to the state-society-relation perspective when theorizing China's urban development.     

The Role of Spatial Development Frameworks in Transformation of the eThekwini Municipality,KwaZulu-Natal,South Africa: Reflecting on 20 Years of Planning

In the 20 years since the advent of a democratic government in South Africa, planned expenditure on infrastructure projects by municipalities has been used in part to redress inequalities and socioeconomic distortions created by apartheid. Our purpose in this article is to assess the effectiveness of planning instruments to achieve desired transformation in the case of the eThekwini Municipality. We evaluated demographic, spatial regional economic, settlement hierarchy, accessibility and functional analysis indicators to assess the eThekwini Spatial Development Framework (SDF) as it applies to the city of Durban, making particular use of the National Population Census results for 2001 and 2011, municipal data on housing and settlement distribution, the municipal evaluation roll, the Industrial Land Study of 2014 and the Eskom household survey of 2009. These data sets were mapped using Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) GIS to analyse spatial changes over the decade from 2001 to 2011 to establish the ways and extent public investment guided by SDFs is responsive to spatial transformation imperatives. We found that, although there has been some economic and population growth, in-migration and densification of the inner city, there has been limited spatial transformation of the urban population, many communities still live in poverty, the traditional inequalities prevail and the benefits of democratic dispensation are elusive to many, despite substantial investment in infrastructure. Our analysis points to inadequacies of the planning tools and their application to spending public funds. Moreover, SDFs appear to be process and compliance-driven rather than inclusive of stakeholder concerns. We argue that they require substantial refinement to achieve the desired results.     

Institution-led Urbanization:The “Third Leapfrog” of Town Development in Sunan

Based on a review on the history of urbanization in Sunan, the paper argues that Sunan has entered a new development phase of institution-led urbanization. After 30-year development since the opening and reform, there has been a remarkable development of small towns in Sunan. Some towns and townships are transforming into medium and small-sized cities and the urban-rural relationship has also fundamentally changed. In the new development phase, neither the existing administrative and fiscal systems, nor the actual institutions and policies relative to urbanization are efficient enough for further promoting the socio-economic development of this area, so institutional innovations are quite necessary. At the end, the paper puts forward certain suggestions on improving and reforming related institutions and policies for town development in Sunan.