Group items tagged

Zacharias, John (2012) Resisting motorization in Guangzhou. Habitat International, 36 (1). pp. 93-100. Private motorization has accompanied unprecedented urbanization in China, as a matter of public policy. Planning at the provincial and city levels has supported the rapid build-up of the private car fleet in major cities through the development of regional and urban highway networks, higher capacity local streets and much higher standards for car parking in new developments. By contrast, urban planning until 1994 concentrated on the building of community and the support for a non-motorized lifestyle. Guangzhou experienced particularly rapid city-building during this period because it was at the centre of the market reforms launched in 1978. The communities that were built form a broad ring around the historic core of the city, constituting one of the most significant obstacles to government ambitions to maintain the recent growth rates in car ownership. Guangyuan and Jiangnanxi are examples of such middle-class, home-owning communities where daily life remains almost exclusively non-motorized. Self-organized groups in the community are increasingly vocal and active in their demands to enhance local environmental quality and restrict local motorization. Local municipal authorities, although increasingly active and autonomous, try to strike a balance between government objectives and local demands. The application of motorization illustrates the growing gap between high-level policy and grassroots urban planning in Guangzhou.

Gregory Bracken, Aspects of urbanization in China : Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Amsterdam university press, 2012, 212 p. Abstract : China's rise is one of the transformative events of our time. Aspects of urbanization in China: Shanghai, Hong Kong, Guangzhou examines some of the aspects of China's massive wave of urbanization - the largest the world has ever seen. The various papers in the book, written by academics from different disciplines, represent ongoing research and exploration and give a useful snapshot in a rapidly developing discourse. Their point of departure is the city - Shanghai, Hong Kong and Guangzhou - where the downside of China's miraculous economic growth is most painfully apparent. And it is concern for the citizens of these cities that unifies the papers in a book whose authors seek to understand what life is like for the people who call them home. Disponible en ligne, intégralement, à l'adresse : http://www.oapen.org/search?identifier=418533;keyword=bracken

[ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Xi-Zhang Shan, School of Geographical Sciences, South China Normal University, No. 55 Zhongshan Avenue West, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 510631, PR China Paru dans : Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, Volume 11, Issue 2, 2012, Pages 211-217 Abstract Urban green spaces serve a variety of residents with various perceptions, preferences and demands. Their effective governance and precision provision increasingly require public input. Due to the unique political regime, public decision-making in China has long been controlled by governments with the public neglected. With increasing civic consciousness in recent years in urban China, this research investigated attitudes and willingness toward participation in planning, management and design of urban green spaces in Guangzhou. Face-to-face questionnaire surveys were conducted at the 24 green sites across the city with 595 respondents successfully interviewed. The results demonstrated the positive attitudes and strong willingness toward participation despite socioeconomic variations, fitting into a global trend of increasing civic consciousness and strengthening the theoretical base of public participation. Practically, the positive findings lay a sound social foundation for the participatory decision-making in urban China, and help to drive local governments more open and inclusive and develop effective governance strategies and mechanisms to promote public participation in decision-making of urban green spaces.

8/05/2012 On May 3, Gengtian Zhang, Director of Research at the Urban China Initiative (UCI), gave a lecture on how to promote healthy urbanization for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Sichuan Province. Most of the 100 delegates at the talk were urban planning and policy directors and professionals, mainly from the NDRC offices for Sichuan Province, Kuoquan County, and individual cities in Sichuan. Zhang's lecture described the direction and focus of urbanization development inChina, including some research results from an international perspective, and proposed how to promote healthy urban development in China's cities. The lecture focused on six main ideas critical to China's continuing urbanization, including promoting a healthy model of urban development, improving the quality of urban planning, promoting the welfare of migrant workers and their integration into urban areas, improving China's city layouts, advancing urban agglomeration and megaregion development, and improving urbanization policies and regulations. Zhang opened by discussing the significance of promoting the urbanization process from the perspective of expanding domestic demand and enhancing economic and social development. He also described the main findings of UCI's recent report, "The 2011 Urban Sustainability Index", particularly relating to its implications for sustainable development. He stressed that we should regard migrant worker integration into cities as most important task in the next phase of China's urbanization. In regards to urban layout and physical planning, he described the future Functional Area Plan for Chinese cities, including the "two horizontal and three vertical" urbanization strategy pattern (to make Lianyungang-Urumqi channel and Yangtze channel two horizontal axis, and make coastal line, Haerbin-Beijing-Guangzhou channel and Baotou-Kunming channel three vertical axis of Urbanization zoning strategy

8/05/2012 On May 3, Gengtian Zhang, Director of Research at the Urban China Initiative (UCI), gave a lecture on how to promote healthy urbanization for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) in Sichuan Province. Most of the 100 delegates at the talk were urban planning and policy directors and professionals, mainly from the NDRC offices for Sichuan Province, Kuoquan County, and individual cities in Sichuan. Zhang's lecture described the direction and focus of urbanization development inChina, including some research results from an international perspective, and proposed how to promote healthy urban development in China's cities. The lecture focused on six main ideas critical to China's continuing urbanization, including promoting a healthy model of urban development, improving the quality of urban planning, promoting the welfare of migrant workers and their integration into urban areas, improving China's city layouts, advancing urban agglomeration and megaregion development, and improving urbanization policies and regulations. Zhang opened by discussing the significance of promoting the urbanization process from the perspective of expanding domestic demand and enhancing economic and social development. He also described the main findings of UCI's recent report, "The 2011 Urban Sustainability Index", particularly relating to its implications for sustainable development. He stressed that we should regard migrant worker integration into cities as most important task in the next phase of China's urbanization. In regards to urban layout and physical planning, he described the future Functional Area Plan for Chinese cities, including the "two horizontal and three vertical" urbanization strategy pattern (to make Lianyungang-Urumqi channel and Yangtze channel two horizontal axis, and make coastal line, Haerbin-Beijing-Guangzhou channel and Baotou-Kunming channel three vertical axis of Urbanization zoning strate

Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, Guangzhou, China April 9, 2013 - April 12, 2013 Second international symposium exploring emerging issues in corporate responsibility and sustainable development. Presentations and debates will highlight current thinking and how these issues are being addressed around the world nowadays. Promoted by: Centre for Corporate Responsibility (London Metropolitan University Business School) http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/lmbs/research/ccr/csr_home.cfm Institute for the Study of Corporate Social Responsibility (Ted Rogers School of Management, Ryerson University) http://www.ryerson.ca/csrinstitute

October 19-21, Guangzhou baiyun international convention center LCES-2012 will continue to provide an alternative platform to other global conferences in related to climate change and environment protection. We will focus more on practical perspectives on green economy, promotion of sustainable or renewable energy, and exhibit technical resolutions to solve and predict the existing issues. Through the massive operations on comprehensive topics related low carbon economy and industries, we hope the summit can provide best information to exchange channels for all endeavors on low carbon fields who are working on controlling global climate changes from policy makers, NGO leaders, economists, investors, engineers, scientists, industrial leaders, carbon traders, brokers, clean emerge producers, energy consumers, toward daily low carbon life practitioners and advocators etc. Thus, LCES-2012 can provide help our society and humanity with unprecedented impacts on the world sustainable development, new economy growth and renewable energy innovation to commercialization.

UPDATE: China Average Housing Price Rises in June After 9 Months of Decline - CREIS - China housing prices rebounded for the first time in June on month after nine months of decline, according to a private data provider -- Average housing price in June was CNY8,688 a square meter, rising 0.05% from CNY8,684 in May, reversing from May's 0.31% decline -- Housing prices in Inner Mongolia's Baotou city and Beijing rose by the widest margin, at 2.6% and 2.3%, respectively -- Sales have improved as China eases monetary policy, and prices are rising as developers have started to reduce discounts, analysts say (Adds comments from analysts in third to fourth paragraphs, 13th to 14th paragraphs, a homebuyer's comment in 10th to 12th paragraphs and background onrecent property easing moves by local governments in the final paragraphs.) By Esther Fung SHANGHAI--The average price of housing in 100 major Chinese cities recorded its first sequential rise in June after nine straight months of decline, in a further sign that the housing market is turning a corner, though analysts say a robust rebound in prices remains unlikely. A survey of property developers and real-estate firms showed the average price of housing in June was CNY8,688 a square meter, rising 0.05% from CNY8,684 in May, and overturning May's 0.31% decline, data provider China Real Estate Index System said Monday. "I believe the housing market has bottomed out," said Nicole Wong, a property analyst from CLSA. She also said that inventory will likely peak in the third quarter and prices will rise by a modest 5% by the fourth quarter, as demand for new launches has been strengthening in the past few months and developers don't need to lower their prices too much to attract buyers. On an on-year basis, the average housing price fell for a third consecutive month, sliding 1.90% from CNY8,856 booked in June 2011, and accelerating from May's 1.53% decline. The survey, compiled wi

DOI : http://dx.doi.org.gate3.inist.fr/10.1016/j.cities.2011.08.003 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Yungang Liu, Guanwen Yin, Laurence J.C. Ma Paru dans : Cities, Volume 29, Issue 2, April 2012, Pages 107-117 Abstract China's rapid growth over the last three decades has attracted much academic attention. In the post-reform era, economic growth has been paralleled by rapid urbanization. China's urbanization experience has been shaped heavily by the state through national urban policies as well as through local administrative means. Much has been written about large Chinese cities in the more developed coastal regions, such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, but little is known about the process of city-making in medium-sized and small Chinese cities, especially those in the less developed central and western regions of the country. This paper sheds light on the processes of urban transformation in Hebi, a medium-sized inland city in Henan Province, emphasizing the critical role that the local state has played in city-making, the mechanisms and processes of change, and the resultant impacts on the city. As a mining city, Hebi has been threatened by depleting natural resources. To invigorate the city, a new city center has been built to attract new enterprises. Through intensive interviews and fieldwork conducted in 2007 and 2008, we examine what the city government of Hebi has done to turn the newly constructed urban space into a new administrative and economic center of the city. With the establishment of new enterprises, the local economy has been diversified, although coal continues to be a major component of Hebi's economy. The role of the local state in the production and development of the new urban space is direct and forceful. As local state policies on urban development have been implemented by strong administrative means, we conceptualize the contemporary Chinese model of urbanization as "administrative urbanization".

Thématique 4 [ScienceDirect, via Biblio-SHS] Auteur : Alana Bolanda, Jiangang Zhu Paru dans : Geoforum, Volume 43, Issue 1, January 2012, Pages 147-157 Abstract In recent years, there has been heightened interest in creating more environmentally sustainable forms of urban development in China. Central in these greening initiatives has been increased attention on promoting public participation in community-based environmental activities. Focusing on China's green community initiatives, we examine the production and effects of participation in a state-led development program. Our analysis considers how incentives for program organizers and participants are structured by broader political and economic imperatives facing Chinese cities. We also consider what influence China's history of neighborhood-based mobilization campaigns had on the meanings and methods of participation in green communities. To understand how urban development processes and memories of mobilization influence participation at the local level, we present two examples of the community greening process from the city of Guangzhou, comparing policy outcomes between a new and older neighborhood. This article seeks to demonstrate that the participatory processes associated with such an urban environmental initiative cannot be adequately understood without reference to earlier participatory practices and broader policy priorities guiding development in Chinese cities. Highlights ► Emergence of green communities in China is related to broader urban transformations. ► Participatory programming reflects aspects of China's earlier mobilization campaigns. ► Even in highly structured settings, participation can produce new social dynamics. ► Cautions against reading participation solely through binary of failure or success. ► Contributes to literatures on sustainable cities and participatory development.