The production of urban public space under Chinese market economic reform: a case study of Shenzhen

Abstract

In theoretical development history, the issue of “urban public space” is one of the

central themes in the domain of urban planning and design, which has played as a

medium for interdisciplinary discussions on the relationship between built environment

and the social relations behind. In present Chinese cities, the market economic reform in

recent decades has brought profound impacts on Chinese society, which is mostly

represented by an infusing of private realm to the universal public realm in the planned

economic era at all dimensions of space production. However, the production of urban

space in China under market economic reform is not lead by an articulated theory of

public space. The notion of “Chinese urban public space” remains as a technical

definition, and the essential attribute, namely, the “publicness” of urban public space,

seems to be conspicuously absent from theoretical discourses in present Chinese urban

planning and design.

This dissertation is an empirical study on Chinese urban public space in cities under

market economic reform. It aims to find out how space production mechanisms in the

economic reform period constitute the nature—the attribute of “publicness”—of

Chinese urban public space. The study is built upon a set of theoretical underpinnings—

the public space theories in urban studies and the theories on the relationship between

built environment and the socioeconomic background. In particular, the study adopts the

sociospatial perspective of the “production of space” theory established by French

philosopher Henry Lefebvre as the theoretical rationale for the methodology. It takes a

case study method for its empirical exploration, for which, the city of Shenzhen is

chosen as the case study area.

Through case investigations, the study demonstrates that the universal socialist

publicness of Chinese urban public space in the planned economic era has disappeared

with the market economic reform. The production of urban public space in Chinese

cities is no longer a technical issue dealing with merely the physical dimension of space,

instead, it represents a process of conflicts and contradictions, in which different actors,

interests, and ideologies fight as well as interact for the use, interest, and representation

of space, and wherein sociospatial relations are reconstructed. Further, through

investigation on the institutional forces behind space production, the study demonstrates

that there are institutional paradoxes in present Chinese space production mechanisms,

which are roots of the conflicts and contradictions in the production of public space.

These paradoxes have led to a general “loss” of “publicness” in Chinese urban public

space, which are represented in some common and yet fundamental aspects of changes.

The findings of this study are considered to have important implications for

understanding the nature of Chinese urban public space in Chinese cities in the market

economic reform era. It also contributes to a better understanding on the space

production mechanisms as well as their relationship with the social-economic settings in

present Chinese transitional society.