“From ‘state-owned’ to ‘City Inc.’: the re-territorialization of the state in Shanghai”

This chapter begins with an investigation of changing power structures—both formal and informal arrangements—in Shanghai since the early 1990s. The remaking of global city regions has been seen in several megalopolises such as the Hong Kong-Shenzhen-Guangzhou and the rest of the Pearl River Delta, Shanghai-Nanjing-Hangzhou and the lower Yangtze River Delta, and Beijing-Tianjin-Tangshan and the cities along the Bohai Bay. The Shanghai case suggests that situated in the periphery of globalization, the state’s capacity to take the lead in the building of both physical and institutional environments is critical in the formation of the global city region. The development of Shanghai suggests a strong dimension of local politics in the formation of global city regions. The emergence of global city regions indicates the spatial reorganization of the Chinese economy and changing governance in the transition toward a more market-oriented economy and greater integration with the global economy.