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As Chinese cities are issuing talent attraction policies for foreign-educated professionals, there have been waves of Chinese academic migrants returning to the homeland. By using the transnationalism/trans-locality framework and based on 30 in-depth interviews in Guangzhou, this paper studies the identity (re)construction process of skilled Chinese returnees and their integration into destination cities after returning. First, the identity negotiation of academic returnees from the time when they were overseas is investigated, and how their reconstructed identities affect their return destination choice is explored. Meanwhile, the academic returnees' dual place selection rationale is analyzed, how a globalizing city and intellectual gateway like Guangzhou in a developing country acts to attract talents is revealed, and whether its sociocultural environment facilitates or hinders returnees' integration and attachment to the city of residence is uncovered. This paper contributes to the broader migration literature by providing a micro-level detailed analysis of skilled migrants' professional and daily experience after they return to their home country in the Global South. Also, it provides some talent policy implications for higher-education administrations and local governments. • Explores the identity negotiation of academic returnees from the time when they were overseas, and how their reconstructed identities impact their return destination choice. • Extends our knowledge of academic return migrants by focusing on their return destination selection and place attachment to an emerging global city of Guangzhou. • Uncovers how a globalizing city and intellectual gateway in a developing country attracts talent and how its socio-cultural environment affects returnees' place attachment. • Provides policy implications for helping returnees adjust to the socio-cultural environment in higher education institutions and local society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While urban redevelopment has been a global phenomenon for many decades, the redevelopment of urban villages (villages-in-the-city or c hengzhongcun) in China has attracted increasing scholarly attention in recent years. However, few studies focus on urban planning forces and their impacts on the redevelopment of urban villages, especially the transformation of open spaces. This paper therefore examines how urban planning transforms the space of urban villages through a case study of Yangji Village in Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province. The large increase in public spaces related to the transformation of Yangji results from collaborative governance driven by trends in urbanization and the work of urban planners. The latter are empowered by their strategic use of state support, professional knowledge and public interest incentives. However, in the Yangji redevelopment, as a state-hegemonic project, such planner-led collaborative governance remains limited in scope amid the exclusion of migrant tenants from decision-making. Although rarely regarded in the literature as playing a key role in redeveloping urban villages, this paper highlights urban planners as a salient force in the morphology of urban villages. Without challenging the hegemonic substance of urban village redevelopment, planners can coordinate with and occasionally manipulate other stakeholders to legitimate and facilitate negotiation during physical planning. Hence, redeveloped urban forms, rather than stakeholders' economic profits in short-term redevelopment, may influence urban lives in the long term due to planners' efforts. • Multiple stakeholders form collaborative governance in the physical planning of Yangji Village redevelopment to increase much open space. • The collaborative dynamics in the physical planning are built upon stakeholders' trust, fostered through informal meetings, led by planners, and fundamentally driven by urbanization. • Such collaborative governance is limited, largely due to the exclusion of migrant tenants. • Planners define the field of urban form beyond economic profit to improve redevelopment without challenging neoliberal and authoritarian hegemony. • State support, professional knowledge, and public interest ensure planners' leading role in collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing upon recent post-political critiques on ineffective participation and urban planning, this paper reflects on the challenges facing participatory and collaborative planning in China's latest neighborhood regeneration practices. In 2017, Guangzhou launched a new micro-scale neighborhood regeneration program that shifted the discursive emphasis on participatory planning while China strives to create a new national image of a "people's city". This paper critically examines the implementation of old community renovation policies in 32 Chinese provinces and 776 neighborhood regeneration projects in Guangzhou. By examining the objectives and outcomes of legitimate power over participation, we uncover institutional conditions, implementation issues, and local responses in different participatory planning configurations. We found that a "co-production" model emerged in China, highlighting the role of institutionalized participatory planning activities. The conclusion is threefold: 1) Shared objectives in the emerging neighborhood regeneration discourse constitute legitimate power over participation in China's neighborhood regeneration; 2) The outcomes of legitimate power over participation are reflected in the local responses to the "co-production" activities; and 3) The "co-production" model—to produce planning schemes through co-design and joint-negotiation among multi-scalar actors including planners and residents—performs as an alternative to immature collaborative planning in China. Local governments can skillfully avoid direct confrontations with residents by introducing the function of community planners. These institutional arrangements of "co-production" have profoundly impacted the reshuffling of the state-society relationship in post-political China. While the implementation of China's latest neighborhood regeneration policy shows post-political risks in terms of depoliticized narratives, instrumentalized planning strategies, and technicized planning tools, we find "co-production" to be fruitful in promoting substantive participation and stimulating the accumulation of local knowledge. • An analytical framework to conceptualize the legitimate power of participation in China's emerging small-scale neighborhood regeneration program. • A response to the debate between two currents in the post-political context—consensus-oriented and conflict-based. • Critically examines the implementation of old community renovation policies in 32 Chinese provinces and the participatory planning practices of 776 projects in Guangzhou. • "Co-production" reflects both the objective and the outcome of legitimate power embodied in the neighborhood regeneration process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The rising fluidity of the society in contemporary China has led to a restructuring of people's cognition and emotion toward their place of residence. Although a growing body of literature has attempted to identify place-based factors that influence residents' attachment to their neighborhoods in Chinese large cities, little effort has been devoted to unraveling the migrant-local distinction regarding the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment. Using both questionnaire survey data and in-depth interview data collected in 23 neighborhoods of Guangzhou, China, this paper aims to explore the meaning and mechanism of neighborhood attachment through the combination of both structure equation modelling and qualitative analysis. The novelties of this study relate to the focus of migrant-local distinction and to the breakdown of place attachment into its social and functional dimensions. Results from structure equation modelling show that local residents have stronger attachment to their neighborhoods than migrants. Migrants' neighborhood attachment is more related to its social dimension, as measured by social contact and social trust, and locals' neighborhood attachment is more linked to its functional dimension, as measured by satisfaction with living environment of the neighborhood. This paper enhances our understanding of the nature of place attachment by taking into account the effects of institutional constraints and migration experiences. Highlights • Social dimension and functional dimension contribute to place attachment. • Social dimension interacts with functional dimension. • Social dimension is an important predictor of place attachment for the migrant group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban planning exhibitions have been a long-standing element in planning culture, on a worldwide level. Until now, there has been a considerable gap in researching the efficiency of urban planning exhibitions in communication, especially from a quantitative perspective. Rooted in communicative planning and built on Generic Learning Outcomes and Contextual Model of Learning theory, this paper aims to explore the role of urban planning exhibitions in communication and the factors that influence their efficiency, using the recently opened Guangzhou Urban Planning Exhibition Hall (UPEH) as an example. The 115 participants in this study were divided into two groups (experimental and control) and asked to answer a series of urban planning questions before and after visiting the Guangzhou UPEH. Results showed that except for the level of education, the personal and sociocultural factors had no significant effect on changes in participants' knowledge on the subject. However, the physical factors of participants' visits, including the length of the visit, the number of exhibits seen by participants and the degree of engagement with the top-rated exhibits, significantly influenced learning about urban planning. The results demonstrated that urban planning exhibitions can provide inclusive platforms in facilitating planning communication and public engagement. • Measurement of public learning in a permanent urban planning exhibition • Participants significantly gain knowledge about urban planning after their visits. • Physical attributes of participants' visits significantly influence their learning. • Socio-cultural background of participants generally does not affect their learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The new millennium signified a new phase in the development zone-oriented suburbanization of China. Spurred by a new round of urban development strategies, development zones in many large cities face a need for enormous transformations and re-development. These areas have often been compared with the Western concept of “edge cities”, although in this paper we argue that this “imported” concept, in practice, bears little resemblance to the actual development tendencies in China. Taking a comparative approach, this paper presents a critical examination of edge urban formations in the Chinese context, and identifies the major differences between the concept in China and the United States. Drawing upon a case study of Nansha in Guangzhou, the unique paths and underlying dynamics driving these transformations are revealed. It is concluded that Chinese edge urban areas are being transformed from mono-function development zones into new fully functional cities. A city in China like Nansha reveals the dynamics of both state interventions and local actions in boosting the polycentric economies of large city regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The public participation process in the renovation of urban villages should not only ensure procedural justice but also guide the affective integration of residents. This paper explores the public's perception of the participation space and the process of affective construction based on a visual study of the Luofeng village renovation in Guangzhou. The aim is to elucidate how the space can be employed to create an affective atmosphere as a strategy for the renovation. The study reveals that participants focused on visual symbols carrying the narrative of daily life, evoking a positive emotional response to these elements. The public participation space successfully establishes a homey atmosphere and achieves the affective reproduction of residents through the creation of its physical environment, residents' embodied practices within it, and negotiated interactions among different subjects. Drawing on the case study, we advocate for the public participation process in urban village renovation to consider residents' embodied affective experiences. It provides a practical model that surpasses mere representation, with the intention of offering a reference for sustainable urban renewal. • The renovation of urban villages needs the affective integration of the residents. • Affective atmosphere creation provides a strategy for public participation. • Residents focus on the visual symbols that carry the narrative of everyday life. • To provide a practical pattern of public participation for urban renewal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the greater risk of flooding in cities due to climate change, spatial planning systems are increasingly expected to contribute to flood resilience. However, incorporating expanded adaption measures in conventional planning practices remains a major challenge due to institutional barriers. Based on the theories of historical institutionalism in relation to path divergence, this paper aims to understand the factors which determine the fate of innovations and departures from established practice. Using Guangzhou as a case study, the paper traces the history of the city's struggle against flooding from the 1920s onwards, building on documentary analysis, mapping and interviews. The findings highlight a deeply rooted attachment to engineering-based solutions to tackle flood risk. It also indicates that departing from an established path to embed nature-based and non-structural solutions in the planning system is more likely to take place in response to changing socio-economic needs and strong institutional support for changes, rather than in response to major flooding events. These findings provide lessons for policymakers and urban planners seeking to enact new policies to enhance flood resilience in spatial planning. • This paper explores the historical experience of Guangzhou's spatial planning system strving for flood resilience as well as the evolution of planning policies and flood governance. • This study brings with the notion path dependence and path deviation, originating from social science and governance management, to research on the change and continuity of planning policies. • This paper explores the conditions allowing for path deviation concerning institutional environment, socio-economic context and natural hazards. • This paper offers a theoretical framework for planning to act upon flood affairs through avoidance, defence, mitigation, preparation and evacuation. • This paper discusses the challenges of the Sponge City Programme and sheds light on the conditions for a successful transition from the current situation to new "Sponge City" practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With China’s rapid urbanisation driving its growing economy, the enlarging socio-spatial inequalities in the cities have received wide attention. Rather than following the largely studied residential spaces, this paper focuses on socio-spatial differentiation based on the spaces of one’s out-of-home activities. Using data of 1006 individuals collected by door to door questionnaires, this paper sets up the spatial and temporal autocorrelation GT coefficient to examine the spatial heterogeneity characteristics of high- and low income groups’ out-of-home activities in a continuous spatiotemporal framework. The factors and different mechanisms influencing the clustering of the activities are discussed to better understand social diversity in post-reform urban China. The results suggest that there is obvious spatial and temporal variation in high- and low income groups’ out-of-home activities, indicating that differing social spaces are not just limited to the macro-static residence-based living space, but also exist in the individual’s daily-activities space. Both high- and low income people have drastically different activity spaces and they may not interact much with each other. This is socially very significant because it means that there is considerable social isolation or segregation for both groups. The results also show that within the same income group there exists a divisive cluster with different formation mechanisms, including the job–housing relationship, the correlation of activity opportunities with those surrounding residential areas and the individual’s ability to access activities (that is, space–time accessibility). Structural transition can also impact on activities choices of various social groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the new appearance of ethnic congregation in a Chinese city that is intimately tied to the worldwide web of production and global commodity chains. Through an empirical case study, the paper examines how the formation of ethnic enclaves in urban China is driven by the global shift of international production and the interaction between global forces and locally-bounded attributes. Its proposition is that the ethnic enclave should be conceptualized as both part of a global system and a locally-constructed place. This study adds to the “global–local nexus” literature on urban transformation by showing transnational spaces are produced by both exogenous and endogenous forces under global shift of capital, production and people. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In the literature on the incorporation of immigrants, ethnic enclaves are described as residential spatial concentrations fulfilling several economic and social functions for its residents. This paper questions whether this model is applicable for understanding the African concentration in China. Based on fieldwork in 2012 and 2016, this paper tries to give an overview of the changing dispersal patterns of Africans in Guangzhou and to explain how the new African clusters are connected to the areas where African businesses are concentrated. The initial African clusters may have lost their dominant role in the housing of African migrants, yet they are the focal point of the African communities in Guangzhou, as both commercial and leisure activities remain concentrated here. We argue that while there is no enclave (anymore) in the sense of a contingent area where Africans constitute a big part of the population, the African clusters still fulfils some functions that are associated with an ethnic enclave. However, the obstacles that the Chinese authorities put in the way of obtaining a long-term residence permit make it highly unlikely that African clusters in Guangzhou will develop into the type of ethnic enclaves that are described in the Anglo-Saxon literature. • Existing studies have been limited in the interferences they could make about the important aspects of more long-term international migrants and their geographical configurations in particular in a long run period. • The present study tackles this problem by combining population data with detailed geographical data on African concentration from a cross-sectional perspective in 2015 and 2016. • This allows us to examine the effects of ethnic concentration at a wide variety of geographical scales - including the very local level - and to provide a detailed spatial configurations inside the African concentration. • Besides, we also have ethnographic data in 2012 and in 2016 beyond the African concentration to other clustering areas, with both geographical data and narrative data. • According to these different types of data, we find supports to our argument that the African concentration in Guangzhou is different from the ethnic enclave model in Anglo-Saxon literature in the Chinese context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Large-scale and diffuse population flow amplifies the localized COVID-19 outbreak into a widespread pandemic. Network analysis provides a new methodology to uncover the topology and evolution of the population flow and understand its influence on the early dynamics of COVID-19 transmission. In this paper, we simulated 42 transmission scenarios to show the distribution of the COVID-19 outbreak across China. We predicted some original (Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen) had higher total aggregate population outflows than Wuhan, indicating larger spread scopes and faster growth rates of COVID-19 outbreak. We built an importation risk model to identify some major cities (Dongguan and Foshan) with the highest total importation risk values and the highest standard deviations, indicating the core transmission chains (Dongguan-Shenzhen, Foshan-Guangzhou). We built the population flow networks to analyze their Spatio-temporal characteristics and identify the influential sub-groups and spreaders. By removing different influential spreaders, we identified Guangzhou can most influence the network's topological characteristics, and some major cities' degree centrality was significantly decreased. Our findings quantified the effectiveness of travel restrictions on delaying the epidemic growth and limiting the spread scope of COVID-19 in China, which helped better derive the geographical COVID-19 transmission related to population flow networks' structural features. • 42 transmission scenarios were simulated to test contribution of different original epicenters to seeding COVID-19 in China. • An importation risk model was built to test contribution of population flow among multiple epicenters to spreading COVID-19. • A population flow network was built to capture evolution of COVID-19 transmission and identify influential spreaders. • This paper quantified the effectiveness of travel restrictions on reducing the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper attempts to analyse the politics of urban renewal through the anatomy of the conflicting discourses on the changes in China's urban villages. Specifically, this paper investigates the case of Liede Village, Guangzhou, a typical urban village in China, and its innovative reconstruction model. Based on the methods of participatory observation, in-depth interviews, and textual analysis, this paper finds that the official media conducted a top-down construction of Liede Village's reconstruction as a mainstream social and economic activity from which a modernised model for Chinese urban renewal has been strongly established; the villagers also respond to the strong construction of the official media coverage by conducting bottom-up protests that aim to safeguard their rights through alternative discourse constructions. In this sense, this study found that urban renewal is not only physical or socially related but politically related. There are significant differences in the discourse construction methods and operational logic of different power subjects. To resolve these conflicts, the discourse knowledge systems within urban villages should be reformed so that the Chinese government can more effectively govern these complex social spaces. This paper provides an alternative understanding of China's urban renewal from the perspective of discourse politics, which enriches existing studies on urban sustainability, social justice and urban governance for the wider human geographers, urban scholars and sociologists, especially the wider discussions on urban renewal in other countries. • Insufficient understanding of different stakeholders is the source of many social problems. • Official media carries out a top-down construction of Liede Village's reconstruction. • Liede villagers responded to social injustices through bottom-up protests. • Different power subjects have different discourse construction methods and practical logic. • The methodology and main conclusions of this article are applicable to other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of accessibility has been widely employed to understand the jobs-housing relationship in US cities. However, relevant studies in Chinese cities are rare. Little attention has been paid to accessibility modelling, variations among population groups, and the influence of land use arrangement and transport infrastructure in Chinese cities. To address this deficiency, the present paper provides measures on the job accessibility of workers with different hukou status in Guangzhou. The study yields the following findings: 1) inner-city districts have better job accessibility compared to suburban areas; 2) local hukou workers have significantly higher job accessibility than non-local hukou workers; 3) job suburbanization seems not to be effective in improving job accessibility or narrowing the gap between local and non-local hukou workers; and 4) investment in public transport would significantly improve the mobility and job accessibility of non-local hukou workers and help to alleviate accessibility inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has witnessed a surge of rural-urban migrants over the past three decades. Although a plethora of literature has shed light on the low quality of migrants' lives, little research has been done to understand how migrants evaluate their own lives in host cities, and no study has been undertaken to link migrants' subjective wellbeing with their residential environments. Using the data collected from a questionnaire survey in Guangzhou and multilevel linear models, this paper examines the determinants of migrants' subjective wellbeing in host cities. It particularly focuses on the extent to which and the ways in which migrants' social ties and residential environment influence their subjective wellbeing. The results indicate that, in general, migrants have a lower level of subjective wellbeing than local residents, and the cognitive and emotional components of migrants' subjective wellbeing are influenced by different factors. The sense of relative deprivation, social support, and neighbourhood social environment matter in determining the cognitive component of migrants' wellbeing (life satisfaction) but have no impact on the emotional component of their wellbeing (positive and negative affect). No evidence shows that neighbourhood cleanliness and neighbourhood amenities influence the level of migrants' subjective wellbeing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Guangzhou has experienced a pattern of dual-track urbanization since economic reforms began in the 1980s. Industrialization and an increasing population have caused the city to relocate jobs and housing to the suburbs. Simultaneously, town governments have developed township and village enterprises (TVEs) and built affordable housing in villages. TVEs have become major industrial processing centers, and the towns that house them have seen the emergence of co-location effects whereby migrant workers become concentrated in urban villages and live near TVEs to optimize their commuting time. It is argued that these co-location adjustments are heavily influenced by institutional policies. This paper reports the results of two surveys, the first a questionnaire survey administered in Shijing Town and the second comprising a series of in-depth interviews carried out in two of Shijing’s urban villages. The results show that a high proportion of the respondents worked and lived in Shijing Town or one of the research villages. Most respondents spent a short time commuting to work. The results also suggest that the pattern of co-location among migrant workers and TVEs observed here reflects the desire to optimize commuting time. Some respondents noted that they had relocated to the research villages because they were ineligible to apply for public housing due to the hukou system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The process of globalization has already become one of the dominant contexts in which cities adjust and reshape their economic, social, political and cultural structures. Moreover, the influences of globalization operate not only upon urban economic restructuring but also upon the symbolic production of the city image. In line with globalization and urban entrepreneurialism, the meanings of cultural elements are produced and circulated to symbolically represent values and the identity of the city itself. In this paper, we discuss how the image of a “globalizing Guangzhou” is produced through the symbolic meanings of the metro station advertisements in Guangzhou, China. We argue that this special process of cultural production reflects the city’s intensifying involvement in the globalization process. The principal discovery of our research is that the globalization process has profoundly shaped the representational meanings of metro advertisements and has thus helped shape the image of a Chinese city that actively participates in globalization. To achieve this result, we performed a content analysis and qualitative interpretation of some of the most important meanings conveyed by the city’s advertisement designs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The absence of a sound theoretical foundation is a major problem in urban conservation planning. This paper suggests the basis for a solution that harnesses the concept of urban landscape units. The nature and application of this concept are discussed in relation to the problems faced by urban conservation in China, where the pressures for change to, and the removal of, the traditional urban fabric are greater than practically anywhere else in the world. Parts of two conservation areas in Guangzhou are examined. Comparisons are made between the conservation proposals of the City and those based on urban landscape units. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Evaluation of plan implementation is very complex, and empirical study is scarce due to the methodological difficulties. Over the last two decades, there has been a great deal of urban planning activities and rapid city development in China, but there is a lack of evaluation of plan implementation. This research aims to help bridge this gap, and it explores to what extent a plan has been implemented and what factors have affected plan implementation, taking the Guangzhou city master plan as a case study. It adopts the grid overlay method and compares the land use plan and actual land use to obtain the result of accordance, deviation and unfulfilment. The discrepancy between the land use plan and actual land development is examined based on both land use type and the spatial planning management unit. By analyzing several cases at the site development control plan level, this paper explores why the land development is not consistent with the land use plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neighborhood social capital and mental health are intrinsically interlinked. Nonetheless, there has been scant evidence on how neighborhood ties influence the mental health of residents in affordable housing in Chinese cities. The main objective of this paper is to examine the underlying pathway via which neighborhood tie affect mental health; specifically, to investigate effects of social ties between affordable housing residents and nearby commercial private housing residents; and secondly, those of the social ties within the same affordable housing community. We selected four typical affordable housing communities in Guangzhou City comprising a sample size of 400 participants and employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to systematically explore the different pathways through which these two types of social ties affect mental health at the neighborhood level. In particular, we focused on whether the current development trend for affordable housing surrounded by commodity housing would create issues of social comparison that could negatively impact the mental health of those residents in affordable housing. Our results report that both types of neighborhood tie have a positive effect upon mental health of the affordable housing residents. The reported evidence indicate that Guangzhou's mixed housing development approach did not adversely affect the mental health of residents due to social comparison issues, with the residents' community satisfaction being beneficially associated with mental health. Our study suggests that optimizing planning of neighborhood housing, in terms of type and diversity can be a preventive intervention to creating a healthy space that promote cross-class interactions between mixed community residents, thereby enhancing the mental health of affordable housing residents. • It examined whether neighborhood ties influence the mental health of residents in affordable housing. • It explored the different pathways through two types of social ties affect mental health at the neighborhood level. • Cross-class interactions between mixed community residents could enhance the mental health of affordable housing residents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]