Strategies of urban development in China's reforms: Nanjing, 1984--2000

My dissertation explores the urban development strategies that China's local governments have adopted in the reform era. My empirical research targets the explosion of “urban reconstruction” ( chengshijianshe) in Nanjing. In the trends of globalization, decentralization, and increasing inter-city competition, urban reconstruction has become the primary strategy of city governments. Instead of direct engagement in industrial production, municipal governments work to promote economic development through improving urban infrastructure and services. Previous literatures have focused mainly on China's rural industrialization in the 1980s. Discussion of the role of the state in the urban economy remains insufficient. This is the gap my research seeks to fill.; Based on intensive interviews with local officials in different levels and agencies in the municipal government of Nanjing, my research demonstrates how the city establishes creative and flexible policies to conduct urban reconstruction. I argue that land development is the key to linking urban reconstruction with economic restructuring. And government-owned development companies, rather than private developers, are the most important agents who contribute to the construction boom that has dramatically changed China's cityscape. While market mechanisms are introduced to the local government to increase the efficiency of infrastructure and housing construction, the local real estate industry is still characterized by strong state control, both in terms of the land market and the monopoly of commodity housing. Flexible policies and practices, however, also generate new problems for urban planning and urban management.; In light of my empirical findings, my research complements theoretical discussions of the developmental state, urban restructuring, and the dynamic relationship between the state and market in the following three ways.; First of all, focusing on the transformation of urban government and governance, my research disaggregates the traditional notion of the developmental state and looks at its performance at the local level. It is important to examine closely the interactions and conflicts between different sectors of the state.; Second, my empirical study of Nanjing provides a model for state-led urban restructuring in the context of a transitional economy.; Third, because the emerging market is developed from a command system and nurtured by the state, it is inextricably embedded in state sectors in many ways. The state and market are mutually interpenetrated and both are reshaped in this dynamic process. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...