Rethinking Urban Entrepreneurialism: A grounded view from China
About this ebook
Rethinking Urban Entrepreneurialism challenges the conventional understanding of urban entrepreneurialism and argues that Chinese urban governance comprises two interrelated aspects: entrepreneurial governance and innovative statecraft. The first refers to the deployment of market-based approaches to urban development, and the second refers to versatile techniques. Urban entrepreneurialism encompasses both market-oriented approaches and administrative innovations. The state upholds its strategic and extra-economic objectives by deploying and mobilising the market and society. Urban entrepreneurialism also demonstrates a strong state intentionality rather than following the market logic. The book reveals the challenges to urban entrepreneurialism, the limits of entrepreneurial governance, and multiple managerial practices in China.
By examining entrepreneurial urban development and governance experiments, it paints a comprehensive picture of contemporary urban governance in China. It transcends the binary view of authoritarianism versus urban entrepreneurialism, showcasing a wide spectrum of entrepreneurial and managerial governance features. To rethink urban entrepreneurialism, the book suggests that it extends public-private partnerships into a broader form of statecraft known as ‘state entrepreneurialism’.
About the author
Fulong Wu is Bartlett Professor of Planning at UCL. His research interests include China’s development and governance. He is the author of Planning for Growth: Urban and Regional Planning in China (Routledge, 2015), Creating Chinese Urbanism: Urban Revolution and Governance Change (UCL Press, 2022), co-editor (with Fangzhu Zhang) of Handbook on China’s Urban Environmental Governance (Edward Elgar 2023). His recent co-authored book is Governing Urban Development in China: Critical Urban Studies (with Fangzhu Zhang, Routledge, 2024). He leads a European Research Council (ERC) advanced grant on China’s urban governance.
Fangzhu Zhang is Professor of China Planning at The Bartlett School of Planning, UCL. Her main research interests focus on China’s innovation and environmental governance. She is currently working on an ERC advanced grant, Rethinking China’s Urban Governance, and is co-editor of the Handbook on China’s Urban Environmental Governance (Edward Elgar, 2023) and co-author of Governing Urban Development in China: Critical Urban Studies (Routledge, 2024). She is a founding editor-in-chief of Transactions in Planning and Urban Research.
