Sustainable urban and village regeneration in China: implications for the Global South

我们的ESRC-DFID项目是在中国快速城市化的背景下发展移民村庄的，揭示了这些非正式住区的价值，并倡导原址重建村庄的方法。这些村庄是非正式开发的，但为低收入人口提供了负担得起的住房的宝贵来源。许多农村地区的村庄都受到城市化进程的影响。从农村到城市居民区的转变实际上是一个动态的过程。根据所处位置的不同，这些村庄呈现出从农村到城市居民点的全方位。虽然我们之前的研究集中在城市周边地区，但现在有了一个新的机会来考察城市和农村环境中的村庄。与这项研究相关的是，我们看到在农村聚落重建中的城市政策同时发生了一些变化。江苏省正在实施一项采用渐进式更新方式的乡村改善计划，而广东省则颁布了旧城区、旧村庄和旧工厂的更新(所谓的三旧更新，三九改造)。该项目将从江苏和广东选择一个村庄，以我们的原址更新原则作为村庄改善实践的基准，并将其作为示范项目，以充分开发中国城市和全球南方城市可持续城市更新的潜力。由于我们最初的研究项目提供了以证据为基础的社会科学研究，以证明原址重建的必要性，因此该项目支持“研究吸收”，将研究结果和原则转化为更具规范性的政策工具。为此，我们将开发一套乡村改善工具包，其中包括这两个试点乡村的具体例子。该工具包将详细探讨实现可持续重建的关键要素--土地、资本和居民。这种方法将造福穷人，并推广一些可行的当地做法，中国今天正在展示这些做法。虽然政策实践是对背景敏感的，可能不能转移，但这里产生的研究影响将为交叉培养全球南方的经验提供新的可能性。为了促进跨国学习，该项目将在伦敦组织一个影响研讨会，来自江苏和广东的政策用户以及国家政策研究所和专业规划组织参加。来自国际发展界的潜在用户也将被邀请参加。该项目将维持一个网站，以容纳这些试点项目的照片档案和扶贫再生手册，以加强研究影响。该项目旨在收集这两个大省的最佳实践，以探索它们在中国开发一条新型城镇化道路的潜力。随着中国将“新型城镇化”作为国家发展战略，将这种影响扩大到更广泛的国家实践的机会正在出现。

Our ESRC-DFID project on the development of migrant villages under China's rapid urbanization reveals the value of these informal settlements and advocates an in situ approach to village redevelopment. These villages are developed informally but provide a valuable source of affordable housing to the low-income population. Many villages in rural areas are affected by the process of urbanization. The transition from a rural village to an urban residential area is in fact a dynamic process. Depending upon their location, these villages present a full spectrum from rural to urban settlements. While our previous research focuses on peri-urban areas, there is an emerging opportunity to examine villages in the urban and rural environments. Related to this research, we are witnessing some concurrent changes in urban policies in rural settlement redevelopment. Jiangsu province is implementing a village improvement programme that adopts an incremental regeneration approach, while Guangdong province has promulgated the renewal of old urban areas, villages and factories (so-called 'three olds renewal', sanjiu gaizao). This impact and engagement project will select one village from Jiangsu and one from Guangdong to benchmark the practice of village improvement with our principle of in situ regeneration and present them as a demonstration project so as to fully develop the potential of sustainable urban regeneration in Chinese cities as well as cities in the Global South. As our original research project provided evidence-based social science research to demonstrate the imperative of in situ regeneration, this project supports 'research uptake' to translate the research findings and principles into a more prescriptive policy instrument. Towards this end, we will develop a village improvement toolkit, with concrete examples from these two pilot villages. The toolkit will explore in detail the critical elements - land, capital and residents - in realising sustainable redevelopment. This approach will benefit the poor and extend some viable local practices which are being demonstrated in China today. While policy practices are context-sensitive and might not be transferable, the research impacts generated here will present new possibilities for cross-fertilizing the experience of the Global South. To facilitate cross-country learning, the project will organize an impact workshop in London with the participation of policy users from Jiangsu and Guangdong as well as national policy research institute and professional planning organisations. Potential users from international development communities will also be invited to participate. The project will maintain a website to accommodate a photo archive of these pilot projects and a manual for pro-poor regeneration to enhance research impacts. The project aims to collect the best practices in the two major provinces to explore their potential for developing a new pathway to urbanization in China. There is an emerging opportunity for extending the impact to wider national practices, as China has adopted 'new styles of urbanization' as its national development strategy.