Restructuring Beijing: upscaling a megacity toward the capital city-region

Abstract

Beijing has been undergoing significant spatial restructuring, aiming to transform itself from a sprawled megacity into China’s capital city-region. This paper develops a theoretical framework to reveal the inter-connection among spatial restructuring, spatial fix, and crisis management, then the case of Beijing is employed to illustrate this framework. Based on the analyses of the motivations, practical measures, and challenges associated with Beijing’s spatial restructuring, this research finds that the spatial restructuring of Beijing is an outcome of the state upscaling its spatial governance, and it can be considered a spatial fix for the crises linked to decentralization, capital accumulation, and regional competitiveness. This paper employs an ongoing case in order to facilitate a better understanding of how a world-class city attempts to solve its various crises through spatial restructuring.

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