Chinese cities have experienced massive urban redevelopment since the 1980s. Tax-sharing and land reforms have allowed the increasing involvement of public-private enterprises in the real-estate market. In this sense, heritage preservation in China has propelled local elites to use decentralized state power to pursue fast growth through local entrepreneurial strategies. Heritage-led redevelopment strategies have been employed on an unprecedented scale and with interventins aiming to encourage tourism as well as to promote high-end housing surroundings. This profound social and spatial transformation has driven the heritage-led redevelopment to a more extensive scale and with higher social costs than observed in Western countries. Previous studies have considered heritage-led redevelopment as an example of encouraging tourism through the commodification of urban heritage. However, the internal policy networks of so-called “pro-growth coalitions” and their real-estate appreciation mechanisms have not yet been fully discussed, implying a limited understanding of how heritage preservation acts as a catalyst for generating political consensus and economic value and how this may imply uneven benefit distributions. Besides this, little is known about the emerging ability of anti-growth coalitions to contrast or negotiate the features and effects of heritage-led redevelopment. Drawing on the growth machine theory and contextualizing it within China’s heritage-led redevelopment, this research examines how heritage preservation is employed by both the pro- and anti-growth coalitions to achieve their goals. This thesis explores the internal mechanisms of the heritage-led redevelopment growth machine through the detailed case studies of two redevelopment projects in the historic cities of Xi’an and Nanjing. It questions how the perspectives of the pro- and anti-growth coalitions adequately capture the social and political dynamics at work in the heritage-led redevelopment of China. A comprehensive review of the global application of growth machine theory and of China’s heritage-led redevelopment policies provides a theoretical and historic framework to analyze the current dynamics at the national scale. Moreover, the interviews and field study of the contrasting case studies revealed different instances of distribution of costs and benefits of heritage-led redevelopment in China. It demonstrates that heritage-led redevelopment has entailed a more diverse and complex dynamic than commonly acknowledged and that varies from case to case. The thesis contributes to the current debate about how heritage policy affects real-estate appreciation in China through intergovernmental agency arrangements and if and how the grassroots counter-dynamic could challenge it. An apparent dilemma within urban conservation resurfaces in Chinese historic cities; local pro-growth coalitions have instrumentalized preservation and marginalized residents and heritage-preservation actors through the manipulation of land-use mechanisms and high-end real estate. Finally, this work calls for attention to other heritage-dense areas in urban China and other developing places in order to examine how heritage policies becomes mobilized by different actors, including opponents to pro-growth coalitions and actors such as cultural elites and grassroots movements.
Sin dagli anni 80, le città cinesi stanno attraversando un periodo di espansione e intensa riqualificazione. La condivisione della tassazione a vari livelli istituzionali e le riforme del mercato immobiliare hanno consentito il crescente coinvolgimento delle imprese pubbliche e private nei processi di sviluppo urbano. In questo contesto, la conservazione del patrimonio culturale in Cina ha spinto le élite locali a utilizzare forme di potere statale decentralizzato per perseguire obiettivi di crescita rapida e mettere in campo strategie urbanistiche imprenditoriali. L’utilizzo del patrimonio culturale come leva per la riqualificazione urbana ha raggiunto una diffusione e una scala senza precedenti, in sinergia con politiche per incoraggiare turismo di massa, consumi e abitazioni di lusso. Questo ha indotto profondi impatti in termini di trasformazione spaziale, con costi sociali generalmente più elevati rispetto a quelli osservati nei paesi occidentali. Studi e ricerche hanno considerato la riqualificazione heritage-led come un esempio coerente con la spinta verso turismo e commodificazione del patrimonio urbano. Tuttavia, le reti politiche delle cosiddette coalizioni “pro-growth" e i loro meccanismi di apprezzamento del patrimonio immobiliare non sono ancora state discusse a fondo, il che implica una comprensione limitata di come la conservazione del patrimonio culturale faccia da catalizzatore per generare consenso politico e valore economico e come questi processi implichino una distribuzione disomogenea di benefici tra i vari gruppi sociali. Oltre a questo, non si conosce molto della capacità delle coalizioni “anti-growth” di contrastare o negoziare gli interventi di riqualificazione heritage-led. Basandosi sulla teoria della “growth machine” e contestualizzandola all'interno della riqualificazione heritage-led in Cina, questa ricerca esamina come la conservazione del patrimonio sia impiegata dalle coalizioni pro-growth e anti-growth per raggiungere i rispettivi obiettivi. Questa tesi esplora i meccanismi interni della growth machine in processi di riqualificazione heritage-led attraverso lo studio dettagliato di due casi di processi di riqualificazione nelle città storiche di Xi'an e Nanchino. La ricerca mette in discussione come le prospettive delle coalizioni pro-growth e anti-growth permettano di approfondire adeguatamente le dinamiche sociali e politiche in atto nella riqualificazione che fa leva sul patrimonio culturale cinese. Un’analisi estensiva del dibattito della teoria delle growth machine, della sua applicazione a livello mondiale e alle politiche di riqualificazione heritage-led in Cina forniscono un quadro teorico per approfondire le attuali politiche su scala nazionale e successivamente i casi studio. Nei casi di studio, grazie alle interviste e al lavoro sul campo, è emerso un quadro significativo per comprendere l distribuzione dei costi e i benefici della riqualificazione heritage-led in Cina. In questi processi di riqualificazione si possono notare dinamiche più diversificate e complesse di quanto comunemente riconosciuto in letterayura, dinamiche che variano da caso a caso. La tesi contribuisce al dibattito in corso su come la politica per il patrimonio culturale influisca sull'apprezzamento immobiliare in Cina attraverso accordi intergovernativi con agenzie pubbliche e semi-pubbliche. Inoltre discute le dinamiche di reazione alle politiche della growth machine a livello locale. Un apparente dilemma all'interno della conservazione urbana emerge nelle città storiche cinesi; le coalizioni locali pro-growth hanno strumentalizzato la conservazione per i fini della crescita urbana e hanno emarginato residenti e attori della conservazione attraverso la manipolazione dei meccanismi di pianificazione, impedendo una concezione ampia di conservazione del patrimonio culturale stesso. Questo lavoro richiama l'attenzione verso lo studio di altre aree urbane similmente ricche di patrimonio culturale in Cina al fine di esaminare come le politiche del patrimonio vengano mobilitate da diversi attori, compresi gli oppositori, élite culturali e movimenti grassroot.
Heritage-led redevelopment and growth coalitions in historic Chinese cities: The cases of Xi'an and Nanjing
Zhao, Yiqing
2019/2020
Abstract
Chinese cities have experienced massive urban redevelopment since the 1980s. Tax-sharing and land reforms have allowed the increasing involvement of public-private enterprises in the real-estate market. In this sense, heritage preservation in China has propelled local elites to use decentralized state power to pursue fast growth through local entrepreneurial strategies. Heritage-led redevelopment strategies have been employed on an unprecedented scale and with interventins aiming to encourage tourism as well as to promote high-end housing surroundings. This profound social and spatial transformation has driven the heritage-led redevelopment to a more extensive scale and with higher social costs than observed in Western countries. Previous studies have considered heritage-led redevelopment as an example of encouraging tourism through the commodification of urban heritage. However, the internal policy networks of so-called “pro-growth coalitions” and their real-estate appreciation mechanisms have not yet been fully discussed, implying a limited understanding of how heritage preservation acts as a catalyst for generating political consensus and economic value and how this may imply uneven benefit distributions. Besides this, little is known about the emerging ability of anti-growth coalitions to contrast or negotiate the features and effects of heritage-led redevelopment. Drawing on the growth machine theory and contextualizing it within China’s heritage-led redevelopment, this research examines how heritage preservation is employed by both the pro- and anti-growth coalitions to achieve their goals. This thesis explores the internal mechanisms of the heritage-led redevelopment growth machine through the detailed case studies of two redevelopment projects in the historic cities of Xi’an and Nanjing. It questions how the perspectives of the pro- and anti-growth coalitions adequately capture the social and political dynamics at work in the heritage-led redevelopment of China. A comprehensive review of the global application of growth machine theory and of China’s heritage-led redevelopment policies provides a theoretical and historic framework to analyze the current dynamics at the national scale. Moreover, the interviews and field study of the contrasting case studies revealed different instances of distribution of costs and benefits of heritage-led redevelopment in China. It demonstrates that heritage-led redevelopment has entailed a more diverse and complex dynamic than commonly acknowledged and that varies from case to case. The thesis contributes to the current debate about how heritage policy affects real-estate appreciation in China through intergovernmental agency arrangements and if and how the grassroots counter-dynamic could challenge it. An apparent dilemma within urban conservation resurfaces in Chinese historic cities; local pro-growth coalitions have instrumentalized preservation and marginalized residents and heritage-preservation actors through the manipulation of land-use mechanisms and high-end real estate. Finally, this work calls for attention to other heritage-dense areas in urban China and other developing places in order to examine how heritage policies becomes mobilized by different actors, including opponents to pro-growth coalitions and actors such as cultural elites and grassroots movements.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/169310