Published In
Environment & Urbanization
Document Type
Post-Print
Publication Date
10-2016
Subjects
Urban growth, Political ecology, Urbanization, Real estate development, Urban planning -- China
Abstract
Chinese cities have undergone a process of urbanization that has resulted in significant urban sprawl in the past 20 years. This paper uses the 'ecology of actors' framework to analyze the interactions between various state, market and civil society players that result in excessive land conversion from agricultural to urban use. The paper shows that under the existing institutional setting, the interests of most actors involved in the process are aligned towards greater land development and growth. The more land is developed, the more land lease revenue for the local government, the more profit for developers, and the more opportunities for compensation for farmers. Planning actors have been powerless to apply long term planning principles. There is a need to change the underlying rules of the game so that environmental impacts of land conversion are fully taken into account in the future economic calculations of actors involved in the process.
DOI
10.1177/0956247816647344
Persistent Identifier
http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19335
Citation Details
Fang, Y., & Pal, A. (2016). Drivers of urban sprawl in urbanizing China–a political ecology analysis. Environment and Urbanization, 28(2), 599-616.
Description
This is the authors accepted manuscript archived with permissions.
The definitive version is available on the publisher site.