Comparative urban governance of developing creative spaces in China

The 798 Art District: Multi-scalar drivers of land use succession and industrial restructuring in Beijing

“…In China, governance remains characterized by strong top-down mandates. Once central government decided to develop the cultural and creative industries, local governments actively promoted cultural and creative industries (Zielke & Waibel, 2014). For example, 16 county-level governments in the Beijing announced the development of creative industries and establishment of creative parks.…”

“…As political control over culture was loosened and the economic value of culture was recognized, creative industries have been promoted by various levels of government in China to diversify the established urban economy, leverage human capital and cultural resources, generate urban economic wealth and employment opportunities, and create vibrant public spaces, cultural diversity and social inclusion. Creative industries are predominantly in metropolitan areas (Zheng, 2011;Zielke & Waibel, 2014;Yusuf and Nabeshima, 2005). Examples include Factory 798 and Songzhuang (Currier, 2008;Liu, Han, & O'Connor, 2013;Ren & Sun, 2012;Sun, 2010), Nanluoguxiang (Shin, 2010) in Beijing, Red Town and M50 (Wang, 2009;Zhong, 2010) in Shanghai, White Horse Lake in Hangzhou (Wen, 2012) and Dafen in Shenzhen (Li, Cheng, & Wang, 2014).…”

“…An increasing number of theoretical and empirical studies have dealt with the spatial distribution and locational characteristics of creative industries in China, and the factors driving their development (Liu et al, 2013;Sun, 2010;Wang, 2012;Xiong, 2009;Zielke & Waibel, 2014), without fully grasping their complex and changing nature, and underestimating the role of global forces, stateemarket relationships and land use policies in driving change. This paper develops a more integrated evolutionary and multi-scalar perspective, combining general (urban real estate development and globalization) with specific logics (Chinese policies relating to property rights, economic transformation, culture, governance, etc.)…”

Steering the Metropolis: Metropolitan Governance for Sustainable Urban Development 

“…Driven by the forces of both marketization and globalization, the urban governance in Chinese cities has experienced dramatic restructuring since the economic reforms in the 1980s (He and Wu, 2009;Zielke and Waibel, 2014). The emergence of a liberalized housing market and the related liberalization of land use rights were greatly instrumental in promoting a market-driven urban economy and enabling a growth-first model of urban governance in China (Yang and Chang, 2007).…”

Urban cadastres for urban land governance

“…This is even more pronounced in federal countries including Ethiopia: each region can have region specific regulations. Other literature (e.g., Coulson and Ferrario (2007) and Zielke and Waibel (2014)) explain the key roles of the local levels in (urban land) governance and overall development. This includes the presence of institutions and local organizations, and the capacity for policy implementation.…”