From entrepreneurial to managerial statecraft: New trends of urban governance transformation in post-pandemic China

The global financial crisis started a new context of late capitalism and austerity urbanism. Instead of a unidirectional governance transformation towards entrepreneurialism, rising finance and financialisation, pervasive state roles in state capitalism and post-growth municipal radicalism are competing trends. Previously, China witnessed private entrepreneurship, economic devolution, and housing commodification at the turn of the millennium. They have been portrayed as urban or state entrepreneurialism. These governance features were transformed as China entered Xi Jinping’s new era. This paper revisits the transformations in post-pandemic China and finds that rising state capital, re-centralisation of spatial governance and party-state co-governance represent the shift from entrepreneurial to managerial statecraft. The new trends broadly echo changing capital–state–society relationships in the world today. Beyond market rationality, the state mobilises capital and society to pursue strategic intentionality. The transformation has been exacerbated by pandemic urgency, post-pandemic economic downturn and greater geopolitical tension.