From village to small town in contemporary China : the transformation of civic space

With the fast urbanization in contemporary China, "spontaneous" civic spaces rooted in the rural area-the spaces in which local people of different origins and paths of life can commingle without overt control by government, commercial or other private interests have been excluded from numerous newly planned and rebuilt villages/small towns. Current physical planning system is playing an important role in pushing this "modernization" process, called by the government. Through using the term "public space" rather than "civic space" in the national planning standards, which in Chinese context implies public ownership or direct management by the state, the development of civic spaces in the rural China is purposely or unintentionally adjusted away from its original direction in the west and away from the actual requirement of a healthy civil society. Through implementing physical plans based on these standards, the governments are actually assisting the process of intensifying surveillance and controls over "public spaces", and diminishing certain types of "spontaneous" civic spaces. To explore this emerging issue in the local-state context during modem time, the discussion begins by exploring the concept of civic space in China's natural growth settlements and its relationship to civil society, the state and economy.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Guo, Ming, M.C.P. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dennis Frenchman.

• Urban Studies and Planning.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/34175

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/34175