UGOD Seminar | Reconceptualizing Land Development in China: A Strategic Structure-Technology Nexus Approach
Supporting the below United Nations Sustainable Development Goals:支持以下聯合國可持續發展目標：支持以下联合国可持续发展目标：
China’s land development is often perceived as a state-led model. This presentation aims to deepen this understanding by examining it through the lens of a strategic Structure-Technology nexus, which integrates both the material processes of land development and the discursive processes of justification that highlight the diverse utilizations of land. I develop two key arguments by cross-fertilizing the economic sociology of land and cultural political economy. Firstly, the state strategically adjusts local land use and regimes to meet evolving geopolitical and political-economic imperatives. Secondly, due to the multiple affordances of land, various competing imaginations and interests have emerged, potentially hindering land (regime) change. Consequently, the state selectively represents land from a range of epistemological claims to justify institutional transformations and (re)development. These arguments are substantiated through an analysis of Shenzhen’s land development along its metro lines and the big data economy-themed land development China’s Big Data Valley in Guizhou, the first national big data pilot zone.
Professor Jiang Xu is Chair and Professor in the Department of Geography and Resource Management at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She has long been devoted to research on urban and regional development in China and is widely recognized as a leading scholar with substantial international influence in this field.
Professor Xu has served as a Council Member of the International Geographical Union, President of the Hong Kong Geographical Association, and Chair of the China Specialty Group of the American Association of Geographers. She currently acts as a policy advisor to urban governments in both Hong Kong and mainland China, Board Member of the Asian Geographical Association, Evaluator for the EU Research Foundation, and Reviewer for the Research Grants Council’s Self-Financing Institutions Scheme in Hong Kong.
She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Asian Geographer. Her research has been widely published in leading international journals in geography and urban studies. She has received numerous awards, including the Excellence in Research Award from both the University of Hong Kong and CUHK, the Best Paper Award from the International Development Planning, and the Top 1% Highly Cited Paper Award globally.