Fiscal geographies: “Placing” taxation in urban geography

As the state’s primary means of both redistributing wealth and incentivizing private investment, tax plays an outsized role in a range of critical urban processes, including (re)development, gentrification, financialization, and local and regional governance. We argue, through reference to existing literature in urban and economic geography, as well as our own research on taxation and the state, that urban scholarship could benefit by close and careful engagement with taxation and the tax system. We term this new vein of research “fiscal geographies” and see it as offering potential for more nuanced study of urban political economy, politics, and processes.     

FROM “INSTANT ASIA” TO “MULTI-FACETED JEWEL”: URBAN IMAGING STRATEGIES AND TOURISM DEVELOPMENT IN SINGAPORE

In order to develop their tourism industry and attract visitors, urban destination sites often adopt imaging strategies. These marketing and promotional tools often portray the cities as unique and distinct from other urban areas. In Singapore, different tourism images have been deployed over time—for example, the “Instant Asia” theme in the 1960s and 1970s, the “Surprising Singapore” image in the 1980s, and the “Multi-Faceted Jewel” motif in the 1990s. This paper argues that tourism imaging is a dynamic process not only because promotional campaigns have evolved over time but also because they are shaped by diverse global and local forces at different points in time. On the one hand, such images attempt to capture the imagination and interests of international tourists, and on the other hand they fulfill local objectives such as providing Singaporeans a sense of national identity and selfhood. Simply put, urban imaging policies embody both economic goals and sociopolitical functions and are directed at both visitors and residents. This paper illustrates the relationship between these economic and political forces over the last 40 years in Singapore.     

Making our neighborhoods,making our selves

In this paper, we explore a “grassroots” neighborhood revitalization effort engendered at the national scale without regard to local geographies of race and class. Specifically, we examine the Harambee Great Neighborhood Initiative, convened by the well-known nonprofit Habitat for Humanity together with Milwaukee’s Local Initiatives Support Corporation, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Drawing from participant observation, analysis of print and digital media, volunteer surveys, and interviews with area residents and local nonprofit representatives, we demonstrate the ways in which the six-year program of planning and neighborhood development was conceived and driven by an extra-local nonprofit with significant blind spots to local and organizational politics of race and without sufficient collaboration with the Harambee community. Our analysis points to the importance of race in nonprofit governance and community revitalization efforts. Moreover, we contribute to urban geographic scholarship on nonprofit governance by examining the dynamics of privilege, inclusion, and exclusion as they relate to practices of engagement and volunteerism in nonlocal “grassroots” projects.     

‘Borehole Race’ and the Dilemma of Governing the ‘Ungoverned’: Understanding the Urban Political Ecology of Groundwater Exploitation in Nigeria

Groundwater exploitation is an essential aspect of the numerous processes of transforming the urban natural environment for human gains. We use the political ecology of borehole exploitation in Nigeria’s urban environment to understand the micro-and macro-level processes mediating the transformation and changes in urban “groundwater scape”. The fieldwork processes depend on field counting of borehole distribution, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and a review of secondary literatures. We argue that the social and environmental changes arising from the exploitation of groundwater bespeak the active and continual manifestation of the interplay of combustible interests and power friction among institutional agents within the permissible range of the natural environment. Such dynamic power relations engender a pattern of socio-natural transformation consistent with Swyngedouw’s notion of urban metabolism- “a series of interconnected heterogeneous and dynamic but contested and contestable processes of continuous quantitative and qualitative transformations that re-arranges humans and non-humans in new and often unexpected ways”.     

Resisting urban renewal in Istanbul

In this article I examine grassroots responses to state-directed urban renewal in two poor neighborhoods in Istanbul. Through detailed analysis of resident perspectives and urban association tactics, I explore various factors that shape the trajectories of resistance to urban renewal, including solidarity networks, levels of participation and trust in local neighborhood associations, strength of neighborhood identity, extra-local support, and the traditions and channels of negotiation with state actors. I argue that these factors are articulated by a distinct “politics of compensation”—a term that I borrow from Ananya Roy—that is particular to the contemporary neoliberal condition. I find that grassroots mobilizations in Istanbul do not necessarily operate in opposition to neoliberalism; in fact, many struggles remain within the conceptual space of neoliberalism and its cost-benefit calculations. These findings contribute to the emerging literature on struggles against urban renewal in the global south.     

Growth coalitions in declining cities: casinos,redevelopment, and inter-urban competition

Casino development is a popular strategy for urban redevelopment in declining cities. I examine the process of casino acquisition in the former Canadian automotive capital, Windsor, Ontario – one of the first cities in North America, outside of Atlantic City and Las Vegas, to host a resort casino. Drawing on 20 interviews with urban elites and the local news media, I explore the interplay between a local growth coalition and State interests in the development of Casino Windsor. To capture maximum revenue for provincial coffers, provincial interests used competition between economically depressed cities to co-opt the Windsor casino alliance’s project . Windsor’s urban elites, however, continue to “talk” urban entrepreneurialism, perpetuating the myth that municipal entrepreneurialism was an effective strategy for this struggling city. These findings suggest that the importance placed on the entrepreneurial capacity of local growth coalitions in urban redevelopment studies may be misplaced, especially in peripheral and declining cities.     

The 2012 Olympic Learning Legacy Agenda – the intentionalities of mobility for a new London model

This paper investigates the emergence of a Learning Legacy Agenda (LLA) in the wake of the London 2012 Olympic Games as a governmental tool for the dissemination of urban development and infrastructure project delivery best practice. Focusing on the inception, coordination and implementation of the LLA we outline the intentionalities of mobility that underpin its formation and appropriation and suggest how this points to the emergence of a new “London model” of development and governance. Three intentionalities of knowledge capture, public duty and extra-local salience are unpacked to demonstrate the range of ways in which the bureaucratically initiated LLA banner has been used by various development actors and organisations to validate their existing practices. The case study of the LLA as an institutionalised governance apparatus is used to analyse the impact of specific forms of social relations on the ways in which “models” are produced, what their content consists of, how dominant agendas and narratives co-evolve with the priorities of an assemblage of actors and the processes of selective abstraction used to curate particular messages and forms of fixed and potentially mobile knowledge, yet dubious claims of “learning”.     

基于历史制度分析的珠江三角洲非国有经济演化

采用历史制度的分析视角,对珠江三角洲城市东莞和佛山在改革开放后非国有经济部门发展结构和演化过程进行分析,试图揭示两个城市在发展模式和路径上形成差异的内在逻辑。东莞和佛山在改革开放初期选择了不同的集体经济组织方式重组生产资源和发展地方经济,而在改革开放后期,佛山地方政府主导的城镇集体工业转制要远远慢于东莞的乡村集体工业,并采用了次优的内部企业转制策略推进改革。分析表明：珠三角的东莞和佛山在非国有经济部门发展路径上的分叉点在于经济主体对地方特定的历史禀赋和社会网络的利用方式,而初始的非国有经济结构对改革后期的发展进一步构成路径依赖,导致两个城市各异的转制速度和方式。     

Local Uniqueness in the Global Village: Heritage Tourism in Singapore

It is commonly assumed that the development of tourist attractions, the formulation of tourism policies, and the marketing of destination areas are dictated by the needs and interests of foreign visitors. What is ignored is the role that local factors and agencies play in these processes. This paper explores the way local and non-local factors are responsible for shaping the form and function of tourism development. Drawing upon the case of Singapore, I examine the country's heritage tourism phenomenon as the outcome of “local” and “global” forces. This argument is elaborated along three lines of enquiry. They include: (a) a study of the government's tourism policies; (b) an examination of marketing and promotional strategies; and (c) a look at a particular urban landscape—the Little India Historic District. To conceptualize the global-local nexus, the paper embraces two bodies of theory. They are the “locality concept” advanced by industrial geographers in the 1980s, and writings on “globalism/localism” by cultural/economic geographers in the 1990s. Both theoretical discussions reinforce the argument that place uniqueness need not be sacrificed as a result of globalization. They also provide a way of viewing tourism geographies as the product of global and local forces.     

美国基础设施状况和重建计划

2018年2月发布的《美国重建基础设施立法纲要》是近年来美国在基础设施领域的重大改革之一,将对美国乃至世界基建投资、新技术普及、城乡发展产生深远影响。论文基于相关文献和资料,总结了美国基础设施落后的状况,从资金分配入手探讨了“重建计划”内在逻辑,并针对其可行性进行了分析,得出以下几点启示：有针对性、特定领域的基建投资仍是实现高质量发展的重要工具;地方政府与私营部门进入国家基建领域具有积极意义;基建计划的金融化、杠杆化不可避免,但需严防其过度;基建投资在短期上对低技术岗位有明显带动作用。     

城际合作园区转型的制度空间重构机制——以锡沂高新区为例

立足制度空间视角,基于长三角城际合作园区发展总体规律,从微观实证深入,探讨其3次转型中制度重构与空间重构的互动关系,发现在产业转移、新城扩张与产业转型阶段,城际合作园区形成嵌入、扩张、重构3类典型制度空间模式,空间转型与制度空间重构处于相互影响、交织演进的动态过程;构建转型逻辑框架并指出,制度组织是主体网络的结构化再现,制度规则是其调控要素活动的手段,制度组织与制度规则共同作用推动空间重构;结果表明,“制度?空间”的交替演进、制度主体网络的周期波动、行动者策略选择的差异分层是园区转型发展的主线与基本规律。     

基于空间句法的黄州城区形态发展与优化

基于1995、2005、2013年3个时期的黄州城区路网,将Axwoman6.0系统嵌入GIS通用技术平台,运用空间句法中的轴线地图分析,以整体集成度和局部集成度建立不同时期的城市空间协同度,对黄州城区的城市空间进行量化比较分析,探讨路网格局和城市形态的相互关系。结果表明：黄州城区的整体集成度高值区由“轴”到“面”,不断扩大;空间协同度总体较高,但呈下降态势。城市表现出核心扩大化、空间复杂化、形态无序化的特征,进而指出黄州区存在单中心的城市结构以及城市形态日趋混乱的问题。据此,提出黄州区在今后的发展应注意培育多个中心,分散城市核心的职能;合理规划交通体系,带动周边联动发展;科学布局城市用地,扭转混乱发展态势。     

Planning Beijing: socialist city,transitional city,and global city

Cities are centers of economic, social, and political change, and urban planning is a process responding to and guiding urban change and development. In the Maoist era and under the influence of socialist ideology, China limited urbanization while promoting industrialization, and urban planning served as an instrument for socialist construction. Since the reform of the late 1970s, Chinese cities have experienced unprecedented growth and restructuring. However, the gradualist, exploratory reform—exemplified by Deng Xiaoping’s slogan “crossing the river by feeling the stones”—makes Chinese cities constantly change without clear directions for future development. This paper uses Beijing as a case study to analyze changing institutional and global contexts underlying the transformation of Chinese cities, and planners’ responses and dilemmas in making plans and implementing them. We found that market reforms, rapid growth, and dramatic change make urban master plans quickly out of date, forcing Chinese planners to frequently revise these master plans. We also found that the content of urban master planning in China has broadened from physical planning, and Chinese planning has adapted to market reform through utilizing concepts of visioning, flexibility, and governance. Increasingly what we call a “hybrid” form of planning is arising in which global concepts and Chinese ideas interweave in order to direct the shape and form of the Chinese metropolis.     

城市旅游“三生”竞争力空间分异——以西北五省为例

基于“三生”理念的指导,以西北五省的29个中国优秀旅游城市为研究对象,建立一套城市生产—生活—生态旅游竞争力模型,利用ESDA方法测算旅游“三生”竞争力的空间集聚程度、自然间断点分级聚类展示旅游生产、生活、生态的空间格局,同时结合相关性分析与AHP赋权解剖其影响因素。结果表明,样本城市旅游“三生”竞争力整体趋弱,空间分布离散,局部地区聚集效应低,其中国内旅游消费、公厕个数和降水量是城市旅游“三生”竞争力的主导因素。最终,29个城市依据实证结果可划分为生产型、生活型和生态型旅游城市,在西北五省共同组建4个“三生”旅游圈,为区域旅游发展提供新型合作机制。     

“规土融合”的技术体系、管理模式创新及发展展望——以武汉市为例

在"多规合一"发展的背景下,以武汉为例,聚焦城市规划与土地利用规划融合("规土融合")在地方层面的实施路径与发展目标。系统梳理了其在体系结构、技术语言、信息平台等方面的技术革新策略,同时概括出管理模式创新中协调成本内部化、转变政府角色、倡导交往理性、加快接轨市场等有益尝试。此外,强调武汉实践中"两规"与"规-土"的内涵差异,丰富对规划融合发展目标的认识,以期为相关地方实践带来有益启示,也为宏观规划体系改革提供自下而上的思考视角。     

基于城市流空间的城市群变形结构识别——以长江三角洲城市群为例

全球化、信息化时代,城市群空间结构在城市流的作用下发生剧烈的变形。基于长三角城市流的测度和关系矩阵构建,通过流要素分析、多维尺度分析,从“节点-联系-格局”3个方面识别流空间下城市群变形结构。研究表明：流空间下城市中心性层级特征变化明显,中间层级的城市数量大幅增加;局域范围内城市流网络仍受地理空间距离的制约,但高等级城市流具有跨地理空间流动特征;中心城市和边缘城市呈“异化”发展趋势,表现为中心城市的集聚组团以及边缘城市的分散偏离。     

FARM LABORERS AND THE “NEW URBAN POLITICS”: BRIDGING THE URBAN-RURAL DIVIDE

This paper examines the provision of services to farm labor as an extension of the “new urban politics.” The new urban politics have focused on the position of cities in the emerging global economy and the efforts of elite agents in cities to manipulate that position. The issues involved in service provision, however, blend the scale and economic development questions currently at the center of debate in urban political analyses with questions of identity and of the changing meaning of “urban.” Concern for farm workers on the urban-rural fringe enhances understandings of local politics in three ways. First, it draws attention to the wide array of political agents operating at the local level. Second, the role of scale in creating uneven development within metropolitan areas is highlighted. Third, attention to the politics of service provision for farm labor makes clear the need to re-evaluate urban-rural dichotomies and their role in shaping local politics. Incorporating these issues into theories of local politics makes it possible to examine the ambiguity, political contentiousness, and new spaces for identity formation posed by the changing morphology and meaning of metropolitan areas.     

RURAL-URBAN CLASSIFICATION AND MUNICIPAL GOVERNANCE IN INDIA

Rural‐urban classification constitutes an important framework for the collection and compilation of population data in many countries. While “urban” is often specifically defined, “rural” is treated simply as a residual category. The criteria defining urban also differ from country to country. This paper argues that these rural and urban statistical categories are also highly significant for local governance, increasingly so in recent years given the emphasis on local governance and its restructuring. In India, constitutional amendments have given constitutional status to local bodies in the federal structure of the country. Local bodies are thus now expected to draw up their own plans and initiate development works, which requires them to generate their own resources and lessen their dependence on central government funding. It is thus necessary to reorganize urban space into viable spatial units in terms of their revenue base. While rural‐urban classification is the task of the Census of India, state governments are responsible for granting municipal status to urban centres. This paper examines the criteria and limitations of the rural‐urban classification followed by the Census, its congruence with the dynamics of state‐accorded municipal/non‐municipal status and some implications for municipal governance in India.     

地方政府主导下的资本循环与城市化：以鄂尔多斯康巴什新区为例

以鄂尔多斯市康巴什新区为例,对其发展过程中的资本循环和政府作用进行分析,并提出“地方政府主导下的资本循环”这一研究框架。研究表明,新区的建设包含3个资本循环的过程,分别是煤炭的资本化,土地、基础设施、房地产的资本化,以及向先进制造业和第三产业的资本流动。通过一系列行政手段,地方政府主导了3次循环中的资本积累,以及资本在3次循环之间的转换。     

社会变革和制度文化制约下的“多尺度嵌入”——以缅甸莱比塘铜矿项目为例

“一带一路”倡议的深入推进加速了中国企业对外投资的步伐。而对于这些“走出去”的企业而言,往往面临着东道国社会环境及治理结构变革、制度制约、文化冲突等多重挑战。此前经济地理学提出的“主动嵌入”和“被动嵌入”,并不能完全解释“一带一路”倡议背景下中国企业在“走出去”过程中所呈现的“外资”与东道国治理结构、地方制度文化环境之间的复杂相互作用关系。本研究构建了“全球-国家-地方”多尺度嵌入的分析框架,以缅甸莱比塘铜矿为例,阐释企业如何通过多样化制度创新,顺应东道国的社会变革,突破制度和文化的制约,从而取得政府、企业、当地社区“多赢”局面的合作模式,从而从新的视角理解制度的多尺度性和尺度之间的相互作用。研究发现：尺度要素之间存在耦合关联作用,且作用模式有不同的组合,同时多个尺度要素的嵌入和影响过程也存在时序效应。最后,结合莱比塘案例,为中国企业“走出去”提出了政策建议。