ABSTRACT
This book has introduced a Chinese perspective—state entrepreneurialism—to understand new practices governing urban development in the 21st century. The book interrogates Chinese practices and reflects on core theories and concepts in urban governance literature. Through a dialogue between Chinese studies and Western urban research, the book illuminates the potential and limitations of these concepts. The phenomenal urban transformation in contemporary China and its visible state are certainly outliers to the general pattern of the dynamics of urbanization and governance. However, as illustrated in this book, they are not exceptional—the literature of critical urban studies offers valuable insight, highlighting that urban development is conditioned by capital accumulation. The Chinese experience confirms the rising role of the market and expanded capital accumulation. At the same time, the role of the state has changed but not declined. The Chinese form of governance does not replicate the ‘state capitalism’ known elsewhere because the state has its own intentionality beyond capital accumulation, representing the territorial relations in Chinese history and geography.
