Evaluating the Effects of Urban Spatial Transformations

本项目研究城市重建对城市建成环境的居民和其他使用者的影响。 该研究将分析城市政府和规划项目，以改善公共生活，刺激消费，娱乐和城市旅游，并建立公民行为规范。 具体而言，研究将侧重于这些项目的实际效果和结果，以及这些效果和结果是否符合政府和城市规划的目标。 该项目将在中国三个内陆城市进行，这些城市正在进行商业和住宅建筑环境的大规模重建项目。 初步的实地考察表明，市政官员认为，这种重建是通过引入新的市场经济发展形式，使旧的社会主义建筑和城市规划现代化的一种方式。 但官员们也倾向于将城市改造项目视为能够改善居民行为，创造“和谐”发展的“文明”城市。 持批评态度的学者认为，这些项目虽然往往提高了许多城市居民的生活水平和消费，但也应该被理解为加强了国家对公民的惩戒权。 本研究将实证检验实际效果和结果是否符合城市规划者的目标，并在这样做，将解决两个重要问题：1）这些项目确实改变居民的行为在显着的方式？2）这些项目实际上是否增强了中国的国家权力？ 通过回答这些问题，本研究将提供一个有根据的实证研究，质疑关于威权国家权力的性质以及城市规划和城市建成环境是否是这种权力的有效输送者的流行假设。研究将由科罗拉多大学博尔德分校（CU）和贵州民族大学（GMU）合作进行。 实地工作将直接涉及以合作方式培训来自美国和中国的年轻学者。 这项研究将帮助来自中国相对贫困和孤立地区的学者与更广泛的国际学术界，特别是美国学术界建立联系和联系。 通过在大众媒体以及学术和更广泛的城市规划媒体上发表，结果将有可能影响学术界和政策界。 该项目将包括在CU和GMU举办的研讨会，小型研讨会和会议，讨论研究结果的学术和政策影响。 研究结果将在美国地理学家协会和亚洲研究协会的年会上发表。

This project examines the effects of urban redevelopment on residents and other users of the urban built environment. The research will analyze urban government and planning projects that seek to enhance public life, stimulate consumption, recreation and urban tourism, and establish norms of civil behavior. Specifically, research will focus on the actual effects and outcomes of such projects and whether those effects and outcomes match the objectives of government and urban planning. The project will be carried out in three interior Chinese cities undergoing large-scale projects redeveloping both the commercial and residential built environment. Preliminary field reconnaissance suggests that such redevelopments are viewed by municipal officials as ways of modernizing older socialist architecture and city plans by introducing new market-oriented economic forms of development. But officials also tend to view urban redevelopment projects as capable of improving resident behavior and creating 'civilized' cities with 'harmonious' development. Critical scholars have suggested that such projects, while often improving standards of living and increasing consumption for many urban residents, should also be understood as enhancing state disciplinary power over citizens. This research will test empirically whether the actual effects and outcomes match the objectives of urban planners and, in doing so, will address two significant questions: 1) do these projects indeed change resident behavior in significant ways? and 2) do these projects in fact enhance state power in the case of China specifically? By answering these questions, this research will provide a grounded empirical study that interrogates popular assumptions about the nature of authoritarian state power and whether urban planning and urban built environments are effective conveyors of that power.Research will be collaborative between the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) and Guizhou Minzu University (GMU). Fieldwork will directly involve the training of young scholars from both the United States and China in a collaborative manner. The research will help scholars from a relatively poor and isolated region of China develop networks and ties to a broader international, especially US, academic community than they would otherwise not have. By publishing in both popular media as well as academic and broader urban planning outlets, results will have the potential to influence both the academic and policy communities. The project will include workshops, mini-symposia, and conferences at both CU and GMU addressing both the academic and policy implications of research findings. Results will be featured at the annual meetings of the Association of American Geographers and the Association for Asian Studies.