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

我们的esrc和英国国际发展部关于中国快速城市化背景下移民村发展的项目揭示了这些非正式定居点的价值，并倡导采用就地重建的方法进行村庄重建。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。农村地区的许多村庄都受到城市化进程的影响。乡村向城市居住区的转变实际上是一个动态的过程。根据位置的不同，这些村庄呈现出从农村到城市住区的完整范围。虽然我们以前的研究主要集中在城市周边地区，但现在有一个新的机会来研究城市和农村环境中的村庄。与本研究相关的是，城市在农村聚落再开发方面的政策也发生了一些同步变化。江苏省正在实施一项采用增量再生方法的村庄改善计划，而广东省则颁布了旧城区、村庄和工厂的更新（所谓的“三旧更新”，三旧改造）。这个具有影响力和参与性的项目将在江苏和广东各选择一个村庄，以我们的原地更新原则作为村庄改善实践的基准，并作为示范项目进行展示，以充分发挥中国城市以及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基于证据的社会科学研究，以证明原位再生的必要性，该项目支持“研究吸收”，将研究成果和原则转化为更具规范性的政策工具。为此，我们将开发一套村庄改善工具包，其中包括这两个试点村庄的具体例子。该工具包将详细探讨实现可持续重建的关键因素-土地，资本和居民。这种方法将使穷人受益，并推广一些目前正在中国示范的可行的地方做法。虽然政策做法对具体情况敏感，可能无法转移，但这里产生的研究影响将为全球南方的经验提供新的可能性。为了促进跨国学习，该计划将在伦敦举办一个影响研讨会，由江苏和广东的政策使用者、国家政策研究机构和专业规划机构参与。来自国际发展社区的潜在用户也将被邀请参加。该项目将设立一个网站，收录这些试点项目的照片档案，并编制一份扶贫重建手册，以加强研究影响。该项目旨在收集这两个主要省份的最佳实践，以探索它们在中国发展城市化新途径方面的潜力。随着中国将“新型城镇化”作为国家发展战略，将其影响扩展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.