Yawei Chen 2007: Shanghai Pudong: Urban Development in an Era of Global-Local Interaction. Amsterdam: Delft University Press

摘要

The 2008 Olympics brought world attention to the speed and assertiveness of China's self-conscious projection of its modernity in the form of spectacular urban built projects. Before Beijing's transformation, came Shanghai's Pudong, following the earlier instant metropolis of the Pearl River Delta's Shenzhen. Indeed, the two main questions dealt with in this book concern 'the main factors responsible for the speed achieved by the Pudong development' (p. 337) and the extent to which this phenomenon 'reflect[ed] the characteristics of a developmental state' (p. 337). Key explanations focus on the role of new networks leading to new forms of urban governance, along with the role of global and intellectual capital underlying the project and its contribution to shaping the form of the city. A basic question dealt with in this case study concerns whether the urban outcome of the avowedly developmental state's drive can serve as a replicable or desirable model for other countries climbing the ladder of modernization. The assertion that China's ascension poses an alternative to prevailing models based on earlier and largely Western-derived experience generates much attention - laying aside the example of Japan, which pioneered successful modernization transformation in Asia.