![Sample our Urban Studies journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/110826/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Urban-Studies.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Focusing on Taiwan's state-led, compulsory land assembly scheme (called Zonal Expropriation), we examine how the increasingly entrepreneurial state has deployed it to create land value while socially governing challenges to speculative urbanism. We argue that any development schemes that claim a priori creation of value must in fact socially construct that value in practice. Building on a case study called Central North, we show that zonal expropriation works to actively cultivate a calculating property mind(set) among affected landowners to institutionally entice participation in land taking. The article generates three important conclusions: (1) value creation is predicated on the state's taking and planning powers but not on market mechanisms alone, (2) state-led land assembly schemes, such as Central North, lock the city's urban economy in the real estate market's logic and trajectory, (3) land value creation and social governance of land conflicts have become more co-constitutive and should be relationally examined.
Acknowledgements
Kathe Newman and Laura Wolf-Powers generously spent time reading early drafts and gave constructive comments. Ying-Hui Chiang and Hsiu-Yin Ding shared and exchanged insightful research ideas during fieldwork in Taiwan. We also appreciate the comments provided by two anonymous reviewers. The article and its shortcomings remain the sole responsibility of the authors.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 The Land Expropriation Act dictates that if original landowners are compensated in-kind with land, then compensation land must be up to 50% and no less than 40% of the total zone area. In practice, municipalities almost always insist on the minimum 40% allotment, ensuring the maximum 60% remaining area for public infrastructure and land sale.