State-society relations in urban transformation: airport-related urban development in Central China

Keywords: Airport-related urban development, land development, state-society relations, rural transformation, China
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Airport-related urban development has been a phenomenal pro-growth strategy worldwide with its impetus to job creation and economic development in specific industries. While previous studies have extensively discussed the dynamics of territorial politics shaped by state and non-state actors’ interests and strategies in various types of land development, the relations between the state and society in governing airport regions received less attention. To analyze the state logics of territorialization and the social responses to (rural-)urban transformation, we investigate the development of the Ezhou Huahu Airport – Asia’s first dedicated freight hub airport in Central China. This project occurred in converting large tracts of rural area to construction land assembled along with an airport economic zone. Findings are based on the research methods of field study, in-depth interviews, questionaries, and documentary analysis. We posit that: (1) Territorial authority is consolidated through politics of distribution conditioned by airport industry’s specialization and China’s institutional transformation. (2) State-society tensions may be mitigated due to residents’ less involvement in environmental planning and perception of environmental risks and the relative satisfaction with the profit from transformation of rural space. (3) Multi-subject collaborative governance is formed against the logic of capital games, negotiated governance and institutional uncertainty in airport regions. This study can help us to better understand airport-related urban development’s implications for governing strategies to improve state-society interactions in the process of urban transformation.