Journal | Annali di Ca’ Foscari. Serie orientale
Journal issue | 53 | 2017
Research Article | Urbanization and Sustainability in China. Towards a Transformative Change?
Urbanization and Sustainability in China. Towards a Transformative Change?
Verso un cambiamento trasformativo?
Abstract
Since the 1990s China has witnessed an urbanization process with no parallel in history. It is no overestimation to say that the country’s future will be largely shaped by it. To many respects, Chinese urbanization is stretching to the very limit the capacities of the environment to sustain development. On the other hand, it is portrayed as a crucial driver for innovation. This paper aims at shedding light over China’s urbanization potential to bring about transformative change for sustainability. It does so by analyzing the political discourse and official objectives of urbanization. Results show that sustainability has taken roots in Beijing’s approach to urbanization. However, its narrative and objectives remain anchored to the same conventional ideas of incremental development, which to this day has inspired post-reform China’s path to modernization. The potential for transformative change in China’s urbanization appears therefore limited.
Submitted: Dec. 20, 2016 | Accepted: March 14, 2017 | Published June 20, 2017 | Language: it
Keywords Urbanization • Sustainability • Policies • Political discourse • Transformative change • China
Copyright © 2017 Daniele Brombal. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
Permalink http://doi.org/10.14277/2385-3042/AnnOr-53-17-11
