Whither socially engaged municipalism? The Shenzhen Biennale as situated planning experiment

Keywords: urban entrepreneurialism, municipalism, China, urban villages, people-oriented urbanisation
Abstract Type: Paper Abstract

Abstract

While there is increasing acceptance that the Chinese state is now emphasizing the importance of addressing social issues arising from rapid urbanization, the precise ways in which Chinese municipalities can conceptualize and implement socially relevant plans remain opaque. Building on scholarship which argues for attention on the diverse logics and forms of planning in urban China, this paper introduces the situated planning experiment as a mechanism through which municipalities seek innovative planning practices to balance economic and social objectives in urban redevelopment. It offers a framing of the Shenzhen Biennale (UABB) as a situated planning experiment, tracing its influence on Shenzhen’s urban village redevelopment policy over fifteen years (2005-2020). The situated planning experiment views planning not only as already-made tools to support municipal entrepreneurialism, but focuses on the plan-making process as experimental tools of socially engaged municipalism. It also foregrounds local place-based innovative planning practices which incorporate the participation of intellectuals who act as advocates for marginalised groups in China. It shows how insofar as the UABB played an influential role in moving urban village redevelopment from demolition to incremental regeneration, the outcomes of the new plan present differentiated opportunities for migrants to make viable urban lives. The paper offers one possibility in theorising the changing relationship between municipal entrepreneurialism and urban planning and assesses how more socially engaged forms of urbanisation might arise (or not) in light of the Xi Regime’s recent focus on a people-oriented urbanisation.