Chinese strategies of experimental governance. The underlying forces influencing urban restructuring in the Pearl River Delta

摘要

Pragmatic Chinese ideological slogans like "groping for stones crossing the river", "no matter if it's a black cat or a white cat, as long as it catches mice it's a good cat" became guiding principles for a multitude of experimental approaches to new developments in the realms of Chinese economic, political, socio-cultural, and physical urban transformation since the beginning of reform and opening up in the late 1970s. Today, these concepts find their daily expression in so-called conceded informality. This paper illuminates the characteristics of nowadays typical, Chinese decision- and policy-making processes in the field of urban restructuring, with a focus on the informal and experimental aspects of flexible conceptual frameworks.