Three Phases of Urban Redevelopment Governance

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter aims to describe what happened in the field of urban redevelopment in Guangzhou from 1990 to 2015. The patterns of governance in this period can be divided into 3 phases; different phases have quite distinct characteristics of social cooperative modes and various state-market-communities relations. It comprises 3 phases with different patterns of governance: first, the Primitive Market Phase (1990–1998); second, the Pure Government Phase (1998–2006); and third, the Multiple Players Phase (2006–2015). These phases are strongly connected to periods of control by the mayors of Guangzhou, especially in the first two phases. However, the modes of governance were not changed immediately after the changes of mayors; every new leader needs time to adapt a new position, control new resources, modify existing policy and build up new agendas. There are always delays between the announcement of new mayors and establishment of a new mode of governance. This research prefers to identify phases based on the period of leadership of mayors because this method is simple and clear, and emphasises the importance of leaders in governance. In every phase, modes of social interactions and the state-market-communities relations will be expressed.