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Departing point of this study
The theories
of growth machine and urban regime have constrained explanatory power in social
contexts outside the United States, partially because they presume a specific
set of sociopolitical conditions in which urban growth coalitions are embedded,
and have paid insufficient attention to the relations between macro conditions
and growth coalitions (Davies 2003; Lake 1990).
This study intends to enhance our understanding of the variation of growth politics
in urban settings of transitional societies by paying critical attention to the
sociopolitical contexts of growth politics.
It takes
Shanghai as a case to explore the forms and dynamics of state-led growth
coalition in the residential sector in transitional China. Unlike existing
studies of China’s urban growth which concentrate on the planning and decision
making of urban development at municipal or district levels, this study pays
attention to the management of growth related conflicts, and thus offers a more
satisfactory explanation regarding the continuity of urban growth.
