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Weaving the Chinese Dream on the Ground? Local Government Approaches to “New-Typed” Rural Urbanization

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Abstract

The Chinese urban dream is not a sudden one. Long before the “National Urbanization Plan” was issued in 2014, planning had been underway for a new type of state-engineered in situ urbanization of the Chinese hinterland. Replacing the previous system of macro scale urbanization in favor of a more balanced dissemination of urban infrastructure and a socially more acceptable concentration of resources and the population has been on the political agenda since the mid-2000s. The evolution of smaller-scale “new rural neighborhoods/communities” is particularly illustrative of this trend.

However, the realization of China’s new urban dream depends on the way in which it is spun at local level. Emphasizing the enormous local variation of contemporary rural urbanization, this article introduces two counties’ comprehensive “new rural neighborhood” programs, their concepts for planning and steering the concentration and resettlement of village housing, including the related interim adjustments of household registration and land use management. The motivation and interests of local governments that shape plans for state-led rural urbanization were quite complex. Furthermore, it is argued that we can indeed find cases in which the ‘new’ notion of urbanization in China has encouraged a more comprehensive and sustainable system of localized developmental planning, not least because local governments are increasingly able to serve their own interests by designing functioning public goods and services provision schemes enwrapped in the “new-typed urbanization” dream – a logic that deserves close attention in the years to come.

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Notes

  1. Interview, 28 August 2009.

  2. Interview, 19 September 2008.

  3. Zhejiang Ribao (Zhejiang Daily). 2005. Zhejiang shengzhang: xiashan tuopin yao rang kunnan qunzhong zhenzheng ‘fudeqi’ (Zhejiang Governor: descending from the mountains to escape poverty truly lets poor people get rich). September 30. Online: http://unn.people.com.cn/GB/14748/3739631.html (accessed: 12 February 2012). Zhejiang Province Department of Poverty Alleviation. 2009. Guanyu jin yi bu wanshan ‘di shouru nonghu ben xiaokang gongcheng’ he xiashan banqian wunian guihua de tongzhi (Circular on accelerating the living standard for poor households and on the ‘from the mountain’ relocation five-year planning). Document No 11.

  4. Qingyuan County Bureau of Rural Work. 2006. Qingyuan xian xinnongcun jianshe da shiji (Record of Qingyuan County's new countryside construction): 46.

  5. Qingyuan County Bureau of Rural Work, 2006, Qingyuan xian xinnongcun jianshe: 2–3.

  6. Interview, Bureau of Civil Affairs, leading official, 15 September 2009 [1];

  7. Interview, County Party secretary, 10 September 2010.

  8. Dingnan County Government. 2010. Liancun lianzu jian shequ. Suzao nongcun xin (Unite villages and village groups. Modeling new style villages). August 25.

  9. Qingyuan County Bureau of Rural Work, 2006, Qingyuan xian xinnongcun jianshe.

  10. Dingnan County Government, 2010, Liancun lianzu jian shequ.

  11. Interview, 25 September 2010.

  12. Dingnan County Government, 2010, Liancun lianzu jian shequ.

  13. Interview, village Party secretary, 08 September 2009.

  14. Qingyuan County Government. 2009. Guanyu jiakuai tuijin nongcun gaige fazhan de shishi yijian (Suggestions on accelerating the implementation of rural reform and development). Document No. 14; Qingyuan County Bureau of Agriculture. 2009. Tansuo tudi liuzhuan jizhi. Cujin liangshi guimo jingying (Explore land transfer mechanisms to promote grain production of scale). April 20.

  15. Interview, village resident, 22 September 2008.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS), China Studies Section, University of Oslo, P.b. 1010, Blindern, 0315, Oslo, Norway

    Anna L. Ahlers

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Correspondence to Anna L. Ahlers.

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This article has benefited tremendously from the useful comments of participants in the joint international conference of the German research network “Governance in China” and the German Working Group for Social Science Research on China (ASC), held at the University of Tübingen, from November 23–24, 2012, by Rowan Parry, as well as from the constructive suggestions made by colleagues and anonymous reviewers during the revision process later on. All remaining errors are my own.

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Ahlers, A.L. Weaving the Chinese Dream on the Ground? Local Government Approaches to “New-Typed” Rural Urbanization. J OF CHIN POLIT SCI 20, 121–142 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-015-9342-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11366-015-9342-6

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