THINK LOCALLY, ACT LOCALLY: A CRITIQUE OF CHINA’S SPECIALTY TOWN PROGRAM IN PRACTICE

ABSTRACT

This paper provides a critique of the “specialty towns” program, a key constituent of China’s current new-style urbanization campaign. It problematizes the contradictory accounts of the program, namely, emphasizing “place-based” strengths while simultaneously standardizing forms, functions, and goals with a strong “place-neutral” approach. We argue that three key building blocks are critical for understanding specialty towns: place dependence, embeddedness, and locational advantage. Through multiple-case studies in Zhejiang, evidence has shown that there is a mismatch between national policies and local practices in specialty town development. The latter has its own place-specific logic of development shaped by history, geography, institutions, and agency. In particular, existing small-scale growth settings (e.g., industrial parks, specialized markets) and characteristics of local agency are the main factors affecting local practices. This paper argues that without considering the specificities of places in a broader socioeconomic context, the program may fail to work as effectively as expected in its local implementation.

Keywords:

• China
• critique
• place-based
• place-neutral
• policy mismatch
• specialty towns

Acknowledgments

We would like to acknowledge the funding of the Qianjiang Talent Plan (2017-Type-C) and the Fund from Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Chinese Academy of Sciences (KF2020-18).

Notes

1. China National Tourism Administration adopts a rating system to determine the quality of tourist attractions in terms of safety, cleanliness, transportation, and sanitation. The system is broken up into five categories that are A (the lowest level), 2A, 3A (the moderate level), 4A, and 5A (the highest level).

2. This is a reform by Xi Jinping’s quality-oriented growth environmentalism policies in Zhejiang since 2005, highlighting land economization and green GDP.

3. The strategy captures Xi Jinping’s core “scientific development” concept for Zhejiang since 2003. It aims to construct eight regional advantages with eight initiatives on market reform, interregional cooperation, rural-urban integration, ecological modernization, and cultural construction.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Qianjiang Talent Plan of Zhejiang Province [2017-Type-C]; Fund from Key Laboratory of Regional Sustainable Development Modeling, Chinese Academy of Sciences. [KF2020-18].