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Urban village regeneration has been considered an effective way to achieve the vision of transforming the arrival cities in China to affordable cities. However, the existing research into urban village regeneration does not pay enough attention to the group of rural migrants, and the dynamic process of their participation is indistinct. With a theoretical underpinning of the conception of Arrival City and Affordable City and the ladder theory of participation, this paper attempts to understand the practices of rural migrants' participation in urban village regeneration and, more importantly, to unpack the underlying mysteries of the transition process from arrival cities to affordable cities in China. The paper finds that rural migrants are involved in urban village regeneration indirectly, as opposed to directly or not participating at all. Before a regeneration project take places, they are expelled and ostracised by the alliance of "government-developer-villager" because of their informal identities. After the project, middle-class migrants lived in the regenerated urban villages but suffered from social exclusion. Most of the migrants gather in the newer urban villages or form new arrival cities in the urban periphery, resulting in potential social conflicts and a vicious cycle of "regeneration – migration – regeneration – migration". The vision is realised only in the environment and discourses from the alliance, but not in terms of rural migrants. China's urban transition from arrival cities to affordable cities is incomplete and one-sided. This transition, guided as it is by the existing mechanism of urban village regeneration, undermines social equity and causes social conflicts, which is not sustainable. These findings and proposed corresponding suggestions can serve as valuable references for the practices of public participation in urban regeneration that are underway in developing countries or where there is eagerness to transition effectively from arrival cities to affordable cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research on urban form typologies has largely relied on qualitative classification methods, resulting in subjective and limited analyses. Recently, the emerging data-intensive studies often use a single clustering algorithm and parameter setting, raising concerns about the reliability of the findings. This paper introduces a novel clustering analytical framework for conducting typological studies on urban form that yield stable and reliable results. We employ clustering ensembles, which can combine multiple clustering algorithms to further provide a comprehensible output that facilitates interpretation and knowledge generation. By applying the new framework using 3D building data in Guangzhou, we identify eight typologies of urban built forms and reveal a consistent polycentric pattern across different clustering algorithms and parameter settings. The findings have implications for urban land use planning and regulations by integrating 3D representations of urban form. • A novel clustering analytical framework for studying urban built form is developed. • The proposed framework utilizes clustering ensembles to yield stable results. • The results identified eight distinct typologies of built forms of Guangzhou. • The proposed clustering analytical framework can be applied to other urban research settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the seriousness of the problem, the city government does not wield much power in its attempt to reduce exhaust gases. While vehicle emissions are the main source of local pollution, they have regional environmental consequences. So far, localized measures to address regional smog are far from effective. This paper explains that local efforts are confined by economic interests and priorities that lie within the jurisdictional boundaries which find addressing local air pollution through limiting car ownership and use as politically unacceptable. Also, incomplete pollution data in China in general makes it difficult for city officials to come up with targeted and innovative approaches that can bring additional emission reductions. The paper further argues that without a strong and direct commitment to radically reducing current levels of vehicle-based pollution through a set of complementary behavioral modification measures, continued reliance on temporary technical fixes is likely to exacerbate the urban air pollution problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The social and spatial patterns of ageing population in urban China illuminate the influence of the socioeconomic transformation associated with the dual economic system. Guangzhou, one of China's megacities, is used as a case study in this paper. Data from the 2010 National Census were used to examine the spatial differentiation and the related factors of ageing communities in Guangzhou. Using social area analysis, the study identified six categories of ageing communities: traditional inner-city communities, traditional danwei residential communities, commercial housing ageing communities, danwei compound ageing communities, immigrant ageing communities, and rural ageing communities. The paper analyses the reasons and processes leading to the clustering of the elderly population in each category of areas associated with distinctive spatial patterns of ageing differentiation. These patterns suggest that the socio-spatial differentiation of ageing communities is a joint outcome of urban development, housing policies, personal status and family relationships. The dynamics of both ageing in place and ageing with migration had a dual impact on the spatial, social and ecological patterns of ageing communities. The spatial differentiation of ageing communities in the study area should be taken into account when formulating urban planning and public policies. In addition, a dynamic public facility and service allocation system is also necessary to meet the needs associated with evolving socio-spatial urban restructuring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research into public participation in urban regeneration holds a significant position in global urban research, with a considerable body of literature describing the practices of multiple stakeholders' participation in diverse institutional contexts. In the centralised dynamic context for China's urban regeneration, the institutional arrangements and practices of public participation and the evolution processes between them still remain "black boxes". This paper aims to clarify the institutionalisation process of public participation in China's urban regeneration. Using the historical institutionalism perspective, this research adapts the institutionalisation framework proposed by Burns and Scapens (2000) to the analysis of participatory governance in China's planning context. It analyses three phases of urban regeneration in Guangzhou and provides corresponding case studies for an in-depth analysis. The findings reveal that the success of public participation in urban regeneration varies across phases, mainly due to the degree of government power sharing and the inclusion of non-governmental actors in decision-making through genuinely participative interactions. This research develops an institutionalisation analysis framework and notes that the proposed institutionalisation path only partially applies to public participation in China's urban regeneration. The institutionalisation of public participation from the institutional realm to the realm of action in China's regeneration practices departs from hysteresis, which is the opposite of synchronisation in historical institutionalism. The root cause of this inefficient institutionalisation and its separation from practice is the imbalance in the allocation of power resources. These findings provide institutionalisation insights into the interrelationships between the evolution of policy and practices of public participation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: This paper is the second in a series of three papers aimed at understanding the emissions of vehicles in China by conducting on-board emission measurements. This paper focuses on light-duty gasoline vehicles. In this study, we measured 57 light-duty gasoline vehicles (LDGVs) in three Chinese mega-cites (Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen), covering Euro 0 through Euro IV technologies, and generated CO, HC, and NOx emission factors and deterioration rates for each vehicle technology. The results show that the vehicle emission standards have played a significant role in reducing vehicle emission levels in China. The vehicle emission factors are reduced by 47–81%, 53–64%, 46–71%, and 78–82% for each phase from Euro I to Euro IV. Euro 0 vehicles have a considerably high emission level, which is hundreds of times larger than that of Euro IV vehicles. Three old taxis and four other Euro I and Euro II LDGVs are also identified as super emitters with equivalent emission levels to Euro 0 vehicles. Of the measured fleet, 23% super emitters were estimated to contribute 50–80% to total emissions. Besides vehicle emission standards, measures for restricting super emitters are equally important to reduce vehicle emissions. This study is intended to improve the understanding of the vehicle emission levels in China, but some key issues such as emission deterioration rates are yet to be addressed with the presence of a sufficient amount of vehicle emission measurements. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]

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]

Previous studies mainly focused on rural-urban migrants' homeownership preferences from discrete life events. Few studies concentrated on skilled migrants' homeownership outcomes and aspirations from family lifecycle theory. To fill these gaps, this paper, based on a questionnaire survey in Guangzhou, used the Probit regression models to investigate why skilled migrants' homeownership outcomes and aspirations vary among different family lifecycle stages. It found that skilled migrants in the bachelor stage and newly married couple stage are less likely to become homeowners in Guangzhou; the possible reason is that they lack the adequate wealth to purchase housing due to lower income and insufficient savings. With the income and savings increasing, skilled migrants in the full and empty nest stages are more likely to become homeowners in Guangzhou. In addition, skilled migrants in the bachelor stage, full nest stage, and empty nest stage are more eager to access homeownership; the possible reasons include homeownership accumulating wealth rapidly, homeownership providing housing stability, and homeownership tied with quality educational resources, and giving children housing support. Skilled migrants in newly married couples have a higher tendency to rent housing because they do not decide to settle in Guangzhou permanently, and renting housing is more flexible. These findings can provide strong evidence of the gap between skilled migrants' housing tenure outcomes and aspirations in China's super cities from the family lifecycle theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Drawing upon insights from geographical political economy, this study examines the causal processes and mechanisms that underlined the growth and adaptation of state-owned enterprises in mechanical and electrical sectors (SOMEEs) in a leading Chinese city since market reforms. It reveals that the geographically specific and historically contingent political economy in which SOMEEs in Guangzhou were situated before economic reforms was the fundamental force underlying their successful adaptation in the post-reform period. SOMEEs in Guangzhou prior to market reforms were placed in a geographical political economy characterized by a special market orientation toward the production of low-end machinery for local needs and a loosely-coupled political linkage with the state apparatus. While such place-specific market and institutional relations were not favorable to the growth and survival of SOMEEs in Guangzhou in the Mao era, they have constituted an important source of regional advantage to enforce both market competitive pressure and hardened budget constraints on SOMEEs in Guangzhou and propel them to adopt efficient market-adaptation strategies and practices during the post-reform period. There is a need for ‘scaling up’ the theorization of regional advantage to go beyond the exclusive emphasis placed on the institutional dynamics endogenous to regional economies and take more seriously the unequal positions of regions within the extra-local structural relations of actually existing political-economic regimes. The paper advocates a place-contingent treatment of soft budget constraints in future studies on state-owned enterprises in China and other transitional economies. [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: Based on Landsat remote sensing data and by means of specific extraction and supervised classification of remote sensing information, a dynamic study was carried out on urban expansion of the built-up area of Guangzhou City in different periods. A detailed analysis was made of the area, orientation and rate of variation of urban expansion of Guangzhou City in the period of 23 years lasting from 1979 to 2002, and a model for urban expansion was proposed in this paper. As demonstrated by our research results, urban expansion of Guangzhou City is very fast with high speed development of the economy. In the 23 years period, the built-up area of Guangzhou City attains a net increase of 325.5 km2, and reaches 397.4 km2 in 2002, which is nearly 4.5 times of that in 1979 and means an annual average expansion of 14.2 km2 and an annual growth rate of 19.7%. The model of urban expansion in Guangzhou City is basically characterized by radial expansion centered on the old city town, which takes the form of expansion in rings, in layers and along major traffic routes. Here the rate of urban expansion varies in different periods, and is the most outstanding in various periods in the east of the city. The built-up area of Guangzhou City is highly correlated with the gross domestic product (GDP), total population, urban resident income and urban traffic of the city, which are the dominating driving factors for expansion of the built-up urban area of Guangzhou City. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Multiyear inventories of vehicular emissions in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 1995 through 2005 have been developed in this paper to study the vehicle emissions trends in China''s mega cities during the past decade. The results show that the vehicular emissions of CO, HC, NO x and PM10 have begun to slow their growth rates and perhaps even to decline in recent years due to the implementation of measures to control vehicular emissions in these cities. However, vehicular CO2 emissions have substantially increased and still continue to grow due to little fuel economy improvement. Passenger cars and large vehicles (including heavy duty trucks and buses) are the major sources of vehicular CO2 and CO emissions while large vehicles were responsible for nearly 70% and 80% of the vehicular NO x and PM10 emissions in these mega cities. Motorcycles are also important contributors to vehicular emissions in Guangzhou and Shanghai. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Rather than a bad case of urban sprawl, the physical expansion of China''s megacities may be viewed as a combination of ‘urban spill over’ and ‘local urban sprawl’. This paper reviews land use regulations in their institutional context and argues that conflicts in land use regulation are related to ideologies of land ownership and embedded in different planning doctrines. These hypotheses are investigated with special reference to Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China. The evidence suggests that entangled land use regulations for “urban” and “rural” land have imposed serious constraints on urban growth, while the contradictions of different policies and regulations in the use of rural lands for urban construction have led to intensive and unhealthy competition among stakeholders. As a result, not only have the costs of land conversion from rural to urban uses increased, but the spatial development of Guangzhou has been distorted. The implications of these failures for future policy are discussed with emphasis on the reform of the land use regulation system. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This study examines the current prospects for and obstacles facing the implementation of social impact assessment (SIA) and participatory planning in the People''s Republic of China. During the past two decades, rapid urbanisation and the conversion of rural land for urban development have led to numerous social conflicts and tensions between the Chinese government and its people. SIA and public participation in development decisions have received increasing attention from the Chinese authorities as possible ways to tackle the problem. Based on a Guangzhou case study, this paper argues that the assessment and mitigation of adverse impacts on the community from urban development have been carried out with different objectives, core values and principles when compared with those in Western societies. It concludes that the poor prospects of SIA and collaborative planning in China lie not only in the weak framework for environmental legislation, but also in all institutions concerning state–society relations, the socialist governing ideology and traditional Chinese culture. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Households in Chinese cities today have to increasingly rely on the market to satisfy their housing needs. The growing freedom in choosing one''s own residence implies increased variations in all aspects of housing consumption. Examination of individuals’ housing preferences is crucial in understanding these variations. This paper studies the housing preference of Guangzhou people through choice experiments framed in state-of-the-art experimental design methods. Joint logit models comprising both neighbourhood and dwelling attributes are estimated for all subjects and for various sub-samples classified by family income, age, education, nature of employment organization, district of current residence, etc. The models are then used to compute utilities for different attribute levels, the impacts of these attributes on choice probabilities, and the relative prices that the subjects are willing to pay for buying a home in different districts, with different accessibilities, of different types, etc. Neighbourhood and location-related attributes are found to be more important than dwelling-related attributes in home purchase decisions. Further, factors such as family income, age, education, nature of employment organization, etc. are found, to various degrees, have affected housing preference. Based on the preference structures revealed, we envision a new urban morphology to take shape in Chinese cities which is not too dissimilar from the ones in cities in the West, with the inner core dominated by the aged and the urban poor and the outskirts occupied by younger people and the rich and well-educated class. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]