China's Spatial Economic Development: Regional Transformation in the Lower Yangzi Delta

by Marton,Andrew M.

• ISBN13: 9780415227797
• ISBN10: 0415227798
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-12-21
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The spatial patterns of China's rapid economic transformation fundamentally challenge conventional geographies of urban and regional development. This book provides a theoretically informed case study of the local character of regional change in China's lower Yangzi Delta, as well as a new analytical framework for understanding China's unique form of economic modernization.

Table of Contents

Plates	x
Figures	xi
Maps	xii
Tables	xiii
Preface	xv
Romanization	xviii
Abbreviations	xix
Penglang	xxi
Introduction	1	(24)
Rationale, scope and objectives	1	(2)
The lower Yangzi delta region and Kunshan	3	(6)
Redefining a new critical regional geography	9	(5)
Development theory in crisis: beyond the impasse	14	(4)
Issues and methodology	18	(2)
Organization of the book	20	(5)
Regional development and industrialization: towards mega-urbanization	25	(32)
Confronting the post-modern void in China: taking diversity seriously	26	(2)
Linkages and the transactional revolution	28	(2)
A new geography of production: making space for place	30	(5)
Cities, towns and rural transformation: the Chinese development debate	35	(7)
Rural and urban in China's regional development: seeking a middle ground	42	(3)
Mega-urbanization in the lower Yangzi delta: enterprise location and the reconstitution of local space	45	(12)
The lower Yangzi delta: historical geography and contemporary patters of change	57	(40)
The lower Yangzi delta from the Late Imperial period	58	(5)
Pre-reform political economy	63	(3)
Reforms and transformation in the rural economy	66	(12)
Spatial economic patterns in the lower Yangzi delta	78	(8)
At the edge of Shanghai: Kunshan to the fore	86	(11)
Transforming the Kunshan countryside: structure of local government and relationship to enterprises	97	(34)
Bifurcation of the functions of local government	98	(13)
Spatial proliferation of enterprises	111	(4)
Formalizing local institutional structurs in a partially reformed command economy	115	(9)
Socialist new rural area with Chinese characteristics	124	(7)
Restless landscapes: the local character of spatial change	131	(29)
Transportation	131	(10)
Dianshanhu Town	141	(5)
Tongxin Village	146	(4)
Specialized development zones	150	(10)
Linkages and the location of non-agricultural production	160	(20)
Investment in local development	160	(5)
Ownership, land and labour	165	(3)
Enterprise procurement, marketing and management	168	(8)
Transactional environment	176	(4)
Mega-urbanization in the lower Yangzi delta: theoretical and policy challenges and responses	180	(22)
Negotiating and managing the regional transformation: institutional parameters and rural agglomeration	181	(6)
Theoretical implications: urban transition or regional resilience?	187	(6)
Planning and management agenda: Chinese solutions for Chinese problems	193	(9)
Appendix 1: Notes on Chinese statistical sources	202	(4)
Appendix 2: Structure of Chinese administrative divisions	206	(4)
Glossary of Chinese terms	210	(4)
Bibliography	214	(17)
Index	231