Are Chinese resource-exhausted cities in remote locations?

Numerous domestic scholars have argued that a remote location is the major factor preventing the transformation and sustainable development of resource-exhausted cities. Research to date, however, has not presented relevant evidence to support this hypothesis or explained how to identify the concept of ‘remoteness’. Resource-exhausted cities designated by the State Council of China were examined in this study alongside the provincial capital cities that contain such entities and three regional central cities that are closely connected to this phenomenon: Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Spatial and temporal distances are used to calculate and evaluate the location remoteness degrees (LRDs) of resource-exhausted cities, in terms of both resource types and regions. The results indicate that resource-exhausted cities are indeed remote from the overall samples. Based on spatial distances, the LRDs are α₁ = 1.36 (i.e., distance to provincial capital city) and β₁ = 1.14 (i.e., distance to regional central city), but when based on temporal distances, α₂ = 2.02 (i.e., distance to provincial capital city) and β₂ = 1.44 (i.e., distance to regional central city). Clear differences are found in the LRDs between different regions and resource types, with those in western China and forest industrial cities the most obviously remote. Finally, the numbers of very remote resource-exhausted cities based on spatial and temporal distances (i.e., α > 1.5 ∩ β > 1.5) are 14 and 19, respectively, encompassing 17.9% and 24.4% of the total sampled. Similarly, 25 and 30 not remote resource-exhausted cities based on spatial and temporal distances (i.e., α ≤1.0 ∩ β ≤ 1.0) encompass 32.1% and 38.5% of the total, respectively. This study provided supporting information for the future development and policy making for resource-exhausted cities given different LRDs.     

Population Shrinkage in Resource-dependent Cities in China: Processes,Patterns and Drivers

Resource-dependent cities(RCs)are a vulnerable group of urban settlements that often face population shrinkage;however,population changes in RCs in China are not well understood.This study offers new insight into this matter through a robust analysis that features a longer time scale,a larger sample of RCs,and a finer unit of analysis.It finds new evidence that problems of population shrinkage in RCs are more serious than previous literature has suggested.Approximately 30%of the studied units have experienced either long-term or short-term population shrinkage,and many more are experiencing a slowing down of population growth.Problems are especially common among three types of RCs:the resource-depleted RCs,the forestry-based RCs,and RCs in Northeast China.These results underscore transition policy inadequacies in addressing population loss,and call for a more comprehensive and diversified population policy that tackles the multifaceted factors that contribute to population shrinkage,including lack of industrial support,maladjustment to market oriented reformation,poor urban environment and natural population decline.     

东北地区资源型城市经济转型发展波动特征与影响因素——基于面板数据模型的分析

借助H-P滤波和面板数据回归模型分析2000~2014年东北资源型城市转型以来经济发展的趋势特征和影响因素。结果表明：① 东北资源型城市经济总量保持上升趋势,但存在明显的周期性波动,与国家振兴老工业基地政策和城市产业结构调整历程相吻合;② 第三产业发展和市场化进程对经济增长的促进作用逐渐增强,而技术进步、对外开放程度等因素作用强度仍然较弱;③ 东北资源型城市转型发展可划分为试验阶段、全面启动阶段和深化阶段,经济转型深化过程中应加强实践探索,激励体制机制创新,构建有利于衡量测度的指标体系。     

基于非期望产出的城市发展效率时空差异探讨——以中国东部沿海地区城市为例

基于非期望产出视角,采用SBM模型测度2005~2014年中国东部沿海地区53个城市（不包括港、澳、台、三沙市）的城市发展效率,并分析其时空差异特征及其影响因素。结果表明：① 考虑非期望产出的城市发展效率值低于不考虑非期望产出的城市发展效率值,并且更符合城市实际发展; ② 中国东部沿海地区城市发展效率整体水平不高,波动幅度大,阶段特征明显,整体呈先上升后下降的趋势;③ 在时空分析特征中,城市发展效率的区域差异明显,近2 a有缩小的趋势;整体城市发展效率空间呈现“北部围绕青岛市,中部围绕上海市,南部围绕深圳市”的发展格局;④ 在影响因素分析中,经济规模对城市发展效率产生正向影响,第二产业结构水平和污染处理能力对城市发展效率产生负向影响,传统的加工制造业、高耗能重污染工业和污染处理不到位是导致城市发展效率降低的主要原因。     

中国城市网络团购市场供需协调性评价——基于30个省会城市的实证分析

以30个省会城市为研究对象,从宏观尺度揭示中国城市的网络团购市场供给规模与需求潜力的协调性特征。结果表明:团购市场供给规模较大的城市主要集中在中国东部和西部地区;东部地区城市的供给规模和需求潜力的协调发展程度整体较好,供需失调现象明显的城市主要集中在西北地区;团购市场供给规模及其与需求潜力的协调性均遵循以经济发展水平为标尺的等级式扩张路径。餐饮、娱乐和旅游酒店3类团购市场供给规模相对需求潜力表现出了较明显的过剩现象。城市经济发展水平是团购市场供需协调发展的根本动力,团购市场供给规模和需求潜力水平是团购市场协调发展的直接动力。     

Technologies of austerity urbanism: the “smart city” agenda in Italy (2011–2013)

In the heyday of the late 2000s financial crisis, austerity urbanism became a dominant practice of state financial restructuring—an intensification in the encroachment of the neoliberal project into the agendas of local governments. In the specific case of Italy, which faced political and economic distress between 2011 and 2013, “smart city” policies became one of the foundational political technologies for the implementation of austerity measures. In this paper, I analyse how the smart city provided a lexicon for urban austerity through a series of different sites and vehicles of policymaking, from practitioners to companies and other institutions. I argue that smart city discourses and practices functioned as a political technology that was effective in justifying cost containment measures and supporting the shift to pro-innovation public expenditures. Yet, at the same time, the smart city techno-utopian vocabulary created spaces where other meanings and, potentially, alternative political outcomes were made possible by diverse alignments of knowledge and expertise.     

Governing a city of unicorns: technology capital and the urban politics of San Francisco

San Francisco is now widely considered to be the most important city in the world for the location of new technology start-up firms, especially high valuation “unicorns,” and is increasingly seen as both a locational and metaphorical extension of Silicon Valley. In this paper, I trace some of the political strategies and tensions that have accompanied the city’s prominence in this area, and in particular the distinctive role of technology and venture capital in the political economy of urban development. The paper has four empirical sections. It describes (1) the political machinations surrounding the 2011 and 2015 municipal elections, which saw the election of Ed Lee as Mayor with significant support from individual technology investors such as Ron Conway and Marc Benioff, and accompanied by various “tech-friendly” policy shifts; (2) the foundation of the “tech chamber of commerce” sf.citi as a means of enhancing the policy influence of the tech industry in San Francisco; (3) the introduction of a low taxation regime in the city’s Central Market area that has attracted technology companies such as Twitter as tenants; and (4) the urban policy tensions associated with the evolution of new “sharing economy” firms such as Uber and Airbnb, which have aggressively challenged municipal regulations in the taxi and property rental fields. Throughout these machinations, we can see a reshaping of capital fractions, with venture and angel capital increasingly involved in reengineering the labor, housing, and public transport markets of the city in order to circumvent the accumulation problems that tech investors had suffered in the earlier dot.com failures.     

近代云南城市空间演化的外生动力分析

对19世纪70年代至1949年云南的城镇空间演化进行了纵向梳理和横向比较,研究了交通与政治两种演化影响因素的变迁,结果显示:(1)在1910年滇越铁路通车之前的清末,对外交通线路的兴衰对沿线城市空间演化有明显的影响,交通区位因素是云南城市空间演化的主要外生动力。(2)进入民国之后,地方政府对城市的建设管理和资源投入能力都强于清代,中心城市获得的资源尤其明显,因此政治因素开始成为中心城市空间演化的主要推动因素。(3)在空间分布上,铁路交通对城市演化推动的极化程度明显高于传统交通方式,因此,在交通因素与政治因素的协同作用下,在民国时期昆明城市演化的外生动力明显强于省内其他城市。     

Four decades of urban sprawl and population growth in Teresina,Brazil

The expansion of medium-sized cities in Brazil has increased significantly since the 80–90's decades. In that period, most of the urbanization process was represented by the agglomeration of the population in the major metropolitan areas such as São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Nowadays, the rural-urban movement in Brazil is predominantly affecting cities with less than 1 million inhabitants, located particularly in the Center-West and in the Semiarid Northeast regions. The city of Teresina, the capital and largest city of the Brazilian state of Piauí, is one example that has shown an accelerated process of urban development. In this context, this paper seeks to discuss the urban sprawl of Teresina over the last four decades (1974–2014), associating its trends of urban expansion and population growth with their social and environmental implications. The results of our work indicate that urban sprawl in Teresina has been continuous over the years and getting faster in the 2010–2014 period. High demographic density areas are located mostly in peripheral zones, where the low-income population dominates. The population density varies across the city, and it is far from the standard proposed by the urban legislation. Thus, urbanization in Teresina is characterized by the sprawl of its municipal boundaries, intra-urban densification and verticalization, and an increase in population, especially in areas of low-income neighborhoods.     

The role of cultural and creative services in the evaluation of the world urban system

Traditionally, academic evaluation of the world urban system has been based on economic approaches and focused on primary cities. However, the recent convergence between economic and cultural spheres, known in specialist literature as the ‘new economy’ or ‘cognitive–cultural capitalism’, requires the inclusion of secondary cities and cultural parameters, such as creative and cultural services, to obtain knowledge of the world urban system with greater accuracy. Accordingly, the authors have developed the Synthetic Index of Cultural Components (objective 1). Subsequent statistical treatment through a principal component analysis and a cluster analysis not only shows a representation of the multifunctional character of the world urban system (objective 2) but also identifies the cultural specializations that urban planners use to position cities worldwide (objective 3). The results demonstrate that the reputation of a city derives not only from its productive economic character but also from other cultural creative services that give meaning to its multidimensional perspective. The authors conclude that these services are empirically valid when the cultural dimension is measured, as they are illustrative of the cultural mechanisms that help cities to supply symbolic, experiential, and cultural capital, all of which are vital in the competitive context of globalization.