Rethinking China's urban governance: The role of the state in neighbourhoods, cities and regions

Following the notion of the entrepreneurial city, this paper examines recent scholarship about China's urban governance. Despite prevailing marketisation, the role of the state is visible in neighbourhood, cities and city-regions. The state necessarily deals with a fast changing society and deploys market-like instruments to achieve its development objectives. Through multi-scalar governance, the state involves social and market actors but at the same time maintains strategic intervention capacity. China's contextualised scholarship provides a more nuanced understanding beyond the entrepreneurial city thesis, which is more state-centred.

Automated summary

This paper examines China's urban governance and the role of the state in it. Despite the marketization, the state still plays a significant role in neighborhoods, cities, and city-regions, engaging with social and market actors through multi-scalar governance.