Rescaling of the land regime in the making of city-regions: A case study of China's Pearl River Delta

Ubiquitous in fast-urbanising China, land-driven urban growth is increasingly inter-urban in nature - a trend that is underexplored in the literature. Grounded in a conceptual framework concerning the rescaling of the land regime, this study probes the unfolding land development processes of city-regionalism. Key findings of an examination of the Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone in the Pearl River Delta are as follows: land regime rescaling is an emergent driving force for city-region making in China; the rescaled land regime centres on uneven capacities among the states of cooperating cities and benefit sharing (immediate land-related profit and potential long-term profit); provincial government engagement is fundamental to legitimatising this contested process; the rescaled land regime has been orchestrated by state interests in land development, rather than business interests released by marketisation, spawning a 'stretching' state territoriality of the central city. This article furthers the field's understanding of a 'world of city-regionalisms' through a situated account of emerging city-regionalism characterised by land development in the Chinese context.

Automated summary

Land-driven urban growth is increasingly inter-urban in nature in fast-urbanising China, yet this trend has been underexplored in academic literature. This study, grounded in a conceptual framework concerning the rescaling of the land regime, examines the land development processes of city-regionalism. The research findings highlight the emergent driving force of rescaled land regime in shaping city-region making in China, with a focus on uneven capacities among cooperating cities and benefit sharing.