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| 2006 Conference Agenda - Urbanization China: culture, identity and spatial transformation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Keynotes for 2006 conference agenda
The first century of the new millennium has come to be known by many as “The China Century.” The first biennial conference of FUIUF will capture this spirit of excitement and experimentation, focusing on the theme “Urbanization China.” The conference will highlight critical questions faced by China as the country continues to nurture a historic and unprecedented pace and scale of urbanization, marketization, development, cultural and social change. The scope and pace of urbanization that has been occurring in China since the 1980s is unprecedented in human history, bringing with it both enormous social and environmental challenges as well as an unrivaled opportunity to create the cities of the future in terms of governance, planning, implementation, and lifestyle. There is subsequently a level of urgency for Chinese academic institutions to participate actively in the evaluation of China’s transition and to innovate for future generations. China’s urbanization is both technically complex and socially revolutionary. The need for interdisciplinary dialogue among urban professionals, political economists, government officials, sociologists, planners, and academics who have a role in city growth is urgent. In what way can the new surge of urban expansion represent diverse territorial cultures, while providing new ways of life for their residents? What can Chinese cities learn from the experience of cities internationally? What strategies for managing rapid urbanization have worked in Europe, the Americas, or elsewhere? How can Chinese cities address important social, political, legal, and environmental questions through planning? What is the state of China’s regulatory landscape, and how could it improve? Where is innovation possible? FUIUF’s exchange-based working sessions are a uniquely suitable format for academic discourse in the rapidly urbanizing context of China – a discourse which has the weighty responsibility of providing strategic, innovative, and implemental ideas as well as objective research. The 2006 conference sub themes can be catalogued as follows.
Keynotes for 2006 conference agenda
In an era of mass transition in China, economic progress brings about a profound shift and diversification in people’s values and ways of life. “Whose city ?” is becoming a compelling question in contemporary city transformation. There is increasing consciousness that urban policy is not abstract governance - it should be sensitive to the everyday life and texture of the city. In what ways can city space deversity represent and the diverse identities? How can planning development reflect manifest rich territorial culture?
One of the key differences between urbanization in China as compared to elsewhere is scale. Cities have reached unprecedented sizes in China, and continue to grow. Additionally, the basic land transaction underlying development in China is not the individual parcel but the superblock – this fact alone creates a vastly different grain and texture of citymaking. The mega-scale of growth and projects in China is a standard which has been set by a string of policies since the 1980s. What are the problems and opportunities that present themselves within mega-typologies? How has the megaproject evolved in other countries, and how is it different in China? What about the inherent social and environmental questions that arise with enormous populations that are densely settled? What international precedents might be useful to study as Chinese cities continue to develop plans for infrastructure, energy, social programs, and environmental sustainability within the context of the megacity? And how can public-private partnerships develop within these types to achieve more public goals?
As China urbanizes, several Chinese cities, perhaps most notably Shanghai and Beijing, are ambitiously moving toward becoming world cities. As the hosts of influential international events, such as the 2010 World Expo, and 2008 Olympic Games, these cities are investing intensively in their social and physical infrastructures, nurturing absorption of international capital, and cultivating knowledge-based industries to diversify their urban and regional economies. As Shanghai and other Chinese cities move toward greater and more complicated international relationships, China must explore the definition of “world city.” What does it mean to be a world city – economically, politically, and with regard to image? How can emerging world cities in China succeed? What can these cities learn from successes or failures in the development experience of other world cities? What’s the role of a world city in global and regional economies, and how is this role evident in Chinese cases? What are the social assets of a world city? What are the biggest challenges facing world cities today?
In a world of mobility, changing lifestyles, new technology and mutual financial markets, strategic planning remains a critical tool in the sphere of city governance. Some of the biggest challenges for Chinese cities have to do with the planning process. It is useful, therefore, to consider and evaluate planning mechanisms internationally to understand what works and what doesn’t work. How have other countries and cities succeeded in building a generative regulatory and legal structure? What is the role of international finance and property law? Furthermore, how does the government in China define “the good city,” and how can the frameworks for planning ensure that the built environment lives up to the good intentions of policymakers? What are the benefits and costs of existing regulations and planning mechanisms? How can the regulatory structure evolve? What about the relationship between local and national authorities in urban planning and development? How does it work elsewhere? How does it work in China? Where is there room for innovation in this area?
In the 11th Five Year Plan of the Chinese Communist Party, a goal was set to create “the modern socialist village” and a “new socialist countryside” that can benefit from China’s rapid growth. The Utopian sentiment of the name is compelling, especially as the city/countryside issue is one of historical significance for China and the world. The tension and ideological differences inherent between city and countryside has been a major factor in most historic urban development visions. In the period of greatest urbanization and industrialization in the U.S., this tension resulted in the emergence of a suburban ideal early on which has characterized American cities ever since. The city/countryside tension was prevalent in Europe too, resulting in such notions as Ebenezer Howard’s Garden City. In post-revolutionary Russia, an anti-city theme arose out of this tension, casting a loosely industrialized countryside as the ideal and declaring the death of the tower. What will come of this discussion in the Chinese context? It is not only an ideological issue but also a pragmatic one, as urban areas have benefited greatly from the opening up period while much of the countryside has remained unchanged. What are the most important issues facing China’s farming villages and migrant workers today? What are the strategies of financing, development, and planning that can succeed in this context? What barriers or challenges does China face in this area? What is the form of the modern socialist village? Exactly what is the “new socialist countryside”? If you have any suggestions or comments,please feel free to contact us: cus@fudan.edu.cn |
Co-organizer
Sponsors |
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