Pro-growth coalition of the local political economy and the contemporary upsurge of sustainable urbanism in China: three cases in Shenzhen

With the assistance of an integrated theoretical framework, the paper aims to explore the possibility to reshape our built environment into a more sustainable urban form with the upsurge of green urbanism. Since the very beginning of the reform and opening-up policy, the Chinese cities has been rendered competitive entrepreneurs for economic development, joining the global neo-liberal turn enthusiastically and attracting capitals from worldwide. From then on, powerful local pro-growth coalitions have been established and have been constantly fueling the economic boom and the staggering urbanization process in this country. The coalitions, often with the core of a powerful local government under the Chinese institutional arrangements, turn the cities into growth machines serving the established local interest in a self-reinforcing manner [1-3]. However, the pro-growth coalitions in Chinese cities, as indicated by a bunch of researchers, have a conspicuous focus on “land-centered” urban politics and it is especially true in multiple new town development projects nationwide[4, 5].It is true that the “land-centered” urban pro-growth coalition has been creating economic values in the past decades. But it is equally true that such coalitions have also been creating social and environmental problems at the same time [6, 7]. This is particularly the case in contemporary China when the conventional development strategy has played its toll on the environment. It is in such a context that a new initiative of green/sustainable urbanism is promoted and comes as the priorities of the national agenda. This trend is led by large-scale policy mobility of management & governing institutions and knowledge transfer of green & smart technology. Under such circumstances, multiple flagship new town development projects with various focuses on sustainability have been implemented. Among them are the eco-cities, local-carbon cities, smart cities and green cities etc. [8]. The foreign talents in both institutional designing and technology implementing are expected to update the national agenda and steer the country onto a track of sustainable urban development.However, the local pro-growth coalitions have not been broken down by the trend of green urbanism. Rather, they have incorporated these initiates into their plans and as criticized by many researchers [9, 10], the creation of such urban space, be it cabbed eco, low-carbon or green, are the creation of “sustainability fix” that for a new round capitalist accumulation and reproduction. Nevertheless, how well, in effect, will they perform ecologically and socially is totally another question[9]. Many of the flagship projects are criticized as image-building and profit-making projects that fail to fulfill the expectations of urban sustainability. In response to such criticisms, this paper will investigate several cases of new town development projects, and analyze how and to what extent, the new town development projects have incorporated green urbanism with a focus on the process of policy, knowledge and technology transfer. It also examines how well, at the current stage, the pro-growth coalitions have been incorporating the sustainable principles and what are the likely prospect of urban development by the joint the force of the coalition and the trend of sustainable urbanism.This study concentrates on three parallel new town development projects (Guangming Eco New Town, Pingdi Low-carbon City and Pingshan New District) that are almost simultaneously initiated in Shenzhen. The three projects each embodies a hotspot of the contemporary trend of sustainable urbanism. Shenzhen is a city where land resources are extremely limited while the municipality, with multiple economic and managerial resources at their disposal, is very capable in the local pro-growth coalition. The development of these three cases seems to be of great importance as they will shed light on how to make the transformation of the conventional “land-centered” urban pro-growth coalitions from growth-oriented to sustainability-oriented. A series in-depth interviews are taken with government officials in the three new town districts as well as those in the municipality. Perceptions from the professionals and citizens have also been collected through multiple interviews with planners, green building professionals, employers & employees and local residents. Together with a comprehensive content analysis of the government archives, regulations and memos, how the pro-growth coalition is constituted and how it functions to boost the sustainability under the joint influence of urban growth and sustainable urbanism will be explained. This study concludes that the three new town projects, although with different focuses, actually serve the similar goal for urban growth by the creation of urban space with new political-economic characteristics that sustains capitalist growth. The pro-growth coalition, although put sustainable principles at the core of its development agenda, still creates some social and ecological problems while proffer stimuli for the city economy. However, the prospect of these projects are not as bleak as indicated by some researchers and with properly arranged institutions and policies, sustainability in these projects can be promoted substantially.