Urbanism as a State project

Abstract

This chapter shows that the use of state violence goes hand in hand with another dimension of state action, that is co-option of villagers by the imposition of what Henri Lefebvre refers to as 'official urbanism'. It aims to reflect upon the use of official urbanism to advance China's 'urban age', and addresses two analytical objectives by dissecting green belt policy in Beijing. The articulation between Beijing's green belt and official urbanism was established through the ideological connotations of the former. The chapter illustrates that official urbanism, as an ideology, has been successfully instilled into the national ethos, imposing it upon the population as a new and desirable way of life, which in turn supports the state's project of urbanism. It concludes that urbanism is one and the same expression of politics of urban space, with the Party-state's ideological, economic and political ambitions put at the centre.

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