New town development in an entrepreneurial city : the case of Shanghai

Abstract

The new town programme has been a widely adopted urban development strategy since the post-2000s in large Chinese cities such as Beijing and Shanghai. This study argued that the current trends of new town development in China need to be understood in light of its own political economy and urban contexts, particularly China’s shift to a socialist-market economy, participation in the global economy, and the rise of Chinese entrepreneurial cities. Using two new towns in Shanghai as case studies, this dissertation attempts to interpret Shanghai’s new town development from the perspective of urban entrepreneurialism, and contribute to the understanding of how the new town programme adds on the ‘entrepreneurial city’ nature to Shanghai.

This dissertation is essentially a qualitative study based on data from planning and policy documents, media information, field trip observation, and interviews. Employing the concepts relating to the urban entrepreneurialism and entrepreneurial city theory, the development of the two new towns in Shanghai was examined in three domains: entrepreneurial urban policy and planning, entrepreneurial urban development practices and space production, and entrepreneurial governance. The major analytical elements include development objectives and planned functions of new towns, cultural or entertainment oriented mega-projects development, the fostering of cultural and creative industries, the roles of the state and types of state intervention, and financing mechanisms.

This study found that the new town programme in Shanghai is an entrepreneurial urban development strategy to facilitate the building of Shanghai into a global city with international competitiveness, by equipping the metropolitan areas with new urban spaces and new growth capacities. Within the domain of entrepreneurial urban policy and planning, a number of policies were identified to promote industrial development and upgrading, and new planning practices were adopted for place promotion. Within the domain of entrepreneurial urban development practices, it is found that cultural or entertainment oriented mega-projects development was widely adopted, with entrepreneurial objectives such as raising land value and attracting affluent residents and consumers. Within the domain of entrepreneurial governance, a pro-growth coalition formed between the local governments and the government affiliated development corporations was found to be the most influential driving force in promoting the new town development, with their landownership, land selling power, and planning power. The new town programme has added on the entrepreneurial city nature to Shanghai by invoking innovative strategies and state-dominated entrepreneurial urban governance. Innovative entrepreneurial strategies were observed in five fields: producing new type of urban space for living, working, consuming, etc.; new methods for space production to creative locational competitiveness; opening new markets by providing attractive places for consumption; finding new sources of supply by land development and attracting human capital; and redefining urban hierarchy by developing regional nodal city and logistics hub. Urban governance in the new towns were found to be state-dominated in which the local governments themselves are entrepreneurs in pursuit of their own economic and political interests, instead of forming partnerships between the state and the market and facilitating private participation in the development process.