Doctoral Dissertation Research: Variegated Geographies of Ecological Urbanization: Eco-Cities in the Global South and the Global North

这一博士论文项目通过生态城市的概念阐述了绿色城市化的出现，以及它在全球北部(欧洲和北美)和全球南部部分地区(亚洲)之间的循环。生态城市，将城市建设成可持续的生态系统，作为全球超高速城市化和城市环境问题的解决方案，已被广泛接受。其基本原则是从北美和西欧城市的后工业经验中发展而来的。然而，当生态城市范例被应用到西方世界以外的地方时，它必须协商当地特定的背景，包括当地的政治景观和当地特定的规划逻辑和文化。这项研究考察了中国的生态城市是否以及如何体现了这种多样化的生态城市化，以及中国的生态城市是否以及如何也产生了新的生态城市化规范，这些规范通过国际规划社区和政策网络回流到全球北方。通过对上海东滩生态城项目(中国与英国合作)和天津滨海生态城建设项目(中国与新加坡合作)的比较研究，本研究将阐明中国通过其最突出的生态城市项目出现的特殊生态城市化形式，以及它们与欧洲和北美发展的生态城市原则的关系。本研究采用了多地点(上海、天津、新加坡、伦敦)、多方法的研究设计，包括档案研究、与关键信息提供人的半结构化和开放式访谈以及参与者观察。作为一种城市比较，它考察了四个研究地点之间的联系如何影响每个节点发生的事情。这项研究还将评估西方城市和可持续发展理论是否足以解释全球南方新兴的生态城市化范式。这项研究为了解中国的绿色城市化制度的功能提供了新的见解，以及生态城市模式如何在北美和欧洲以外的地区变得差异化和多样化。这项工作将有助于提供有关跨国政策转移和城市政策流动性的知识，促进对当代生态城市化议程传播和传播的理解。这一发现将引起国际上规划者和城市政策制定者的兴趣，因为这些案例研究越来越多地被国际社会视为生态城市化的最佳实践模式。随着美国城市制定更具生态可持续性的战略，了解其他地方现有生态城市倡议的成功和失败，以及它们对美国的适用性将是重要的。研究成果将通过学术和其他中英文出版场所广泛分发给各种不同的学术和专业受众。作为博士论文研究改进奖，该项目将提供支持，使有前途的研究生能够建立独立的研究生涯。

This doctoral dissertation project considers the emergence of green urbanism, as articulated through the concept of eco-cities, and its circulation between the Global North (Europe and North America), and parts of the Global South (Asia). Eco-cities, building cities as sustainable ecological systems, have been widely embraced as the solution to hyper-urbanization and urban environmental problems across the globe. Its basic tenets were developed from the post-industrial experiences of North American and Western European cities. Yet when the eco-city paradigm is applied beyond the Western world, it must negotiate locally specific contexts, including local political landscapes and locally specific planning logics and cultures. This research examines whether and how eco-cities in China exemplify such variegated ecological urbanization, and whether and how Chinese eco-cities also generate novel ecological urbanization norms that circulate back into the Global North via international planning communities and policy networks. Through a comparative study of the Dongtan Eco-City project in Shanghai (a China-UK collaboration) and Binhai Eco-City under construction in Tianjin (a China-Singapore collaboration), this research will elucidate the particular forms of ecological urbanization emerging in China via its most prominent eco-city projects, and their relationship to eco-city principles developed in Europe and North America. The research utilizes a multi-sited (Shanghai, Tianjin, Singapore, London), multi-method research design, including archival research, semi-structured and open-ended interviews with key informants, and participant observation. Designed as an urban comparison, it examines how connectivities between the four research sites shape what happens at each node. The research will also assess the adequacy of western urban and sustainability theories for explaining newly emergent ecological urbanization paradigms in the Global South.The research provides new insights into the functioning of green urbanism regimes in China, of which there is limited knowledge to date, and into how eco-city models become differentiated and variegated as they move beyond North America and Europe. The work will contribute knowledge on transnational policy transfer and urban policy mobility, advancing the understanding of the contemporary diffusion and dissemination of ecological urbanization agendas. The findings will be of interest to planners and urban policy makers internationally, since these case studies are increasingly presented in the international community as 'best practice' models of ecological urbanization. As American cities strategize about becoming more ecologically sustainable, it will be important to understand the successes and failures of existing eco-city initiatives elsewhere, and their applicability to the US context. Research results will be distributed widely to a variety of different academic and professional audiences, through academic and other English and Chinese venues of publication. As a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement award, this project will provide support to enable a promising graduate student to establish an independent research career.