Rethinking urban governance in China's urban regeneration - case of art space development in Chengdu

In China, there has been a proliferation of new creative urban spaces in cities in the last two decades. Consequently, the governance of recognised creative spaces like urban art spaces in mega cities has been widely debated in academia. At the local level, government revenues depend heavily on property tax, so the government must boost property investment and attract more such investment. This has resulted in a pro-growth coalition between local governments and property developers in many creative space construction projects, with entrepreneurial urban governors often ignoring the interests of the local communities in the planning process. While many art spaces developed in Chinese cities have been criticised for following the property-oriented development strategy and becoming over-commodified, with the consequence of social eviction, there are also other art spaces developed by local authorities, through a more inclusive engagement with artist communities, notably emerging in more recent experiences. The research aims to address this phenomenon and to diversify the current research body by looking at the case study of the emerging city of Chengdu, whose cultural and creative industry development has been largely ignored in previous research. By studying the case of this second-tier city, where artist communities have been actively engaged in the planning process, this empirical research explores the challenges and opportunities artist communities face amid the place-making of Chinese cities. In doing so, the thesis works at the intersection of theoretical engagement with urban development, collaborative planning and governance, and community participation, exploring the changing nature of China’s government-society relationship at the local level.