Urban Sprawl as Policy Sprawl: Distinguishing Chinese Capitalism’s Suburban Spatial Fix

Abstract

We examine how China’s urban sprawl is systemically linked to policy sprawl that results from the contradictions inherent within policies but also their magnification by the specifics of policy development and circulation within China. We define the concept of policy sprawl by distinguishing it from policy creep and churn, making a distinct contribution to the extant literature on policy mobility. We illustrate our ideas with reference to special economic zones and featured town policies in China. In conclusion we note differences in capitalism’s suburban spatial fix in the United States and China, the merits of distinguishing a concept of policy sprawl, and the prospects for its export.

我们考察了中国的城市扩张如何系统性地与政策矛盾导致的政策扩张发生关联, 以及政策制定和内部循环对它们的放大作用。通过区分政策扩张与政策缓行和波动, 我们定义了政策扩张的概念, 从而为政策流动性研究做出了独特的贡献。以中国的经济特区和特色城镇政策为例, 本文阐述了我们的思路。最后, 我们展示了美国和中国在资本主义郊区空间修复上的差异、政策扩张概念的优势及其输出的可能性。

Exploramos el modo como la rápida dispersión urbana en China está vinculada sistemáticamente a la expansión de las políticas que resultan de las contradicciones inherentes a la política, pero además por su magnificación por las especificidades de la política de desarrollo y circulación dentro de ese país. Definimos el concepto de expansión de las políticas distinguiéndolo de la fluencia y la rotación de las políticas, haciendo una contribución distinta a la literatura existente sobre movilidad de las políticas. Ilustramos nuestras ideas con referencia a las zonas económicas especiales y las políticas de ciudades importantes de China. En conclusión, mostramos las diferencias en la disposición espacial suburbana del capitalismo en Estados Unidos y China, los méritos de distinguir un concepto de la política de dispersión urbana y los prospectos de su exportación.

Key Words:

• China
• featured towns
• policy sprawl
• special economic zones
• urban sprawl

关键词:

• 中国
• 特色城镇
• 政策扩张
• 经济特区
• 城市扩张。

Palabras clave:

• China
• ciudades destacadas
• expansión urbana
• políticas sobre dispersión
• zonas económicas especiales

Acknowledgments

We thank Kendra Strauss and referees for the Annals for their insightful and constructive comments on previous drafts of this article.

Notes

1 Skinner (1977) identified a series of macroregions on the basis of relatively self-contained city trading systems curiously imposing Western concepts of central place and rank size on Chinese conditions, prompting Cartier (2002) to suggest the greater relevance of defining regions within China on the basis of more recent theoretical developments in human geography.

2 The megalopolitan Yangtze River Delta Region, for example, encompasses several different business models—the private small enterprise Zhejiang or Wenzhou model, the cadre capitalism of the township enterprises of the Sunan model, and the Huanan model based on foreign investment (Parris 1993; Wei, 2002; Wei, Li, and Wang 2007). Each of them likely has recursive effects on the local state.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Julie T. Miao

JULIE T. MIAO is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at The University of Melbourne, Australia, 3010. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the geography, real estate dynamics, and planning of innovation spaces such as science parks and innovation districts, as well as aspects of public entrepreneurship.

Nicholas A. Phelps

NICHOLAS A. PHELPS is a Professor and Chair of Urban Planning in the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning at The University of Melbourne, Australia, 3010. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include the planning and politics of suburbanization, the geography of urban economic agglomeration, and the economic geography of multinational enterprises.