Abstract
Yue Zhang’s interest in the topic of urban preservation is fed by her concern over China’s vanishing historic sites during aggressive urban transformation. Her interest is not confined to the Chinese context as she observes that other countries are faced with the same dilemma of preservation and urbanisation. Her starting point may be a similar one to others. Her book, however, adopts a novel approach to explore the paradox of urban preservation by revealing its political underpinnings – the complex governance and policy process. The book is based on empirical data collected from 24 months of fieldwork and 210 interviews in three cities – Beijing, Chicago and Paris. In this book, an examination of the political fragmentation theory – as reflected in the government archives, policy makers and urban inhabitants through the process of urban preservation in the three cities – provides the basis for understanding how the outcomes of urban preservation are influenced by different types of political fragmentation.
Zhang’s work is theoretically rich. The conceptual foundations are drawn from a comprehensive body of political science literature on the meanings of political fragmentation in different political contexts. In Chapter 1, Zhang identifies three typologies of political fragmentation that affect policy process: first, functional fragmentation features an ‘authority segmentation among bureaucracies at the same administrative level’ (p. 5); second, territorial fragmentation manifests the ‘spatial division at the same tier of the state apparatus’ (p. 6); and third, intergovernmental fragmentation appears among ‘bureaucracies at different tiers of the state apparatus’ (p. 7). This is a thorough and careful comparative definition as each type represents the dominant pattern of political fragmentation in Beijing, Chicago and Paris, respectively, with different likelihood to create obstacles in the policy process and predicable governance approaches to overcome fragmentation. The theory of political fragmentation is fruitfully explored further in the final chapter, demonstrating the applicability and generalisability of the theory through the lens of other cities with different urban settings. For example, Rome provides another example of functional fragmentation, New York of territorial fragmentation and Prague of intergovernmental fragmentation. She also notes that although many cities feature a complex of different types of fragmentation, a dominant type can still play a pivotal role in specific cases or regions.
It is not easy to compare cities that are embedded in different political regimes and historical backgrounds but Zhang displays a clear and comprehensive overview by picking out essential historical elements of each city, to help with a better understanding of how different types of political fragmentation are formed in different historical contexts. The most enjoyable part of my reading was to move back and forth to see how the three cities in the book reflect on each other in terms of preservation practice and policy approach.
Beijing’s preservation practice is still in the early stage, whereas Chicago and Paris have a longstanding tradition of urban preservation. In some ways, urban preservation takes place in the three cities because of similar public concerns over massive and indiscriminate destruction of the built environment. For example not only Beijing, but also other Chinese cities are faced with situations similar to what happened in Chicago in the 1960s. A government-supported real estate boom leads to the wholesale demolition and displacement of residential areas, usually in the name of urban renewal. The social and urban fabric is dissected by the construction of freeways and expressways.
However, the purposes of the preservation initiative in the three cities are significantly different. First, as Zhang noted that Beijing’s ‘symbolic preservation’ is used by local government to legitimate the renewal process, to serve capital investment and to create a better image for the city. This is an interesting reflection on Michael Goldman’s ‘speculative urbanism’ (2010), as this symbolic urban preservation displays a sign of urban regeneration that goes beyond the scale of individual cities. In the name of urban preservation, large cities in China have strived to produce new spaces and to promote their global image with the help of mega-events. For example in Zhang’s study cases, the preservation practices in Beijing is spurred by 2008 Olympic Games. Second, Chicago’s urban preservation is referred to as ‘mosaic preservation’, which is used by resource-poor communities for the purpose of economic growth and neighbourhood revitalisation. However, with the increase of land value in many neighbourhoods, Chicago has become one the most gentrified cities in America (Harley, 2013). As the gentrifying trend is interwoven with issues such as race, class and the authenticity of local cultural, tensions emerge in the policy process of urban preservation. Third, urban preservation in Paris begins with the national government’s initiative to protect the built environment against urban redevelopment and to strengthen the French national identity. However in recent decades, with the autonomous empowerment by the state’s decentralisation reform, the Paris municipality begins to propose a new development agenda, trying to ensure that urban redevelopment meets both cultural heritage and economic demands. This leads to what Zhang names ‘joint urban preservation’, which acts as a channel for bureaucracies at different tiers of the state apparatus negotiate and compromise on urban issues.
To explain how different types of political fragmentation influence the policy process of urban preservation, Zhang examines in detail eight preservation cases in the three cities. First, Beijing is a typical case with function-oriented segmentation of authority. Zhang demonstrates that owing to a lack of communication and coordination among functionally fragmented agencies, some government departments are left with substantive autonomy for rent-seeking practices, whereas others are incapable of applying the preservation plan on the ground. In these cases, rather than preserve cultural history or social fabric, Beijing’s functionally fragmented authority leads to a symbolic urban preservation, which in reality facilitates demolition and degrades the inhabitants’ quality of life. Indeed in recent years, a very interesting yet controversial trend of urban preservation in China has emerged as the production of nostalgia for the ancient dynasties in urban space as a modernising technique. Unlike those homogeneous skyscrapers that dominate in large cities, this trend is considered by local governments and social media as inscribing history in the urban built environment. It is in this setting that functional fragmentation influences the way cities change physically. Second, the political authority in Chicago is characterised by territorial fragmentation that is associated with a longstanding tradition of aldermanic prerogative. The city is divided into wards, within which alderman acts as local monopoliser and influences the local issues significantly. Using two cases of ethnic neighbourhood preservation, Zhang demonstrates how powerful an alderman is in shaping the decision-making process within one’s ward. In one case a preservation proposal is approved by the local council as a result of the alderman’s support, in spite of the majority of local residents voting against it; whereas in the other case, a locally favoured preservation programme is ignored by the aldermen, because of the possibility of weakening their autonomy. Zhang argues that the aldermanic fragmentation creates territorial preservation featured as mosaic, and leads to issues on the limits of local democracy and public participation in Chicago. Third, Paris is an example of intergovernmental fragmentation, which is demonstrated by three redevelopment cases in the book. The urban preservation in Paris has become a battlefield between the national government and Paris municipality to compete for control over urban space. By comparing the three types of political fragmentation, Zhang also concludes that the intergovernmental fragmentation in Paris is more likely to be overcome by effective coordination than the other two types in Beijing and Chicago. Therefore the preservation in Paris is more likely to mediate between urban redevelopment and the continuity of urban character with elements from the past.
Overall, The Fragmented Politics of Urban Preservation is an exceptionally well-structured and clearly written book. This book is both theoretically sound and empirically interesting. I enjoyed the process of being guided by Yue Zhang, travelling through the eight cases in three fascinating global cities, and unveiling the profound questions about the policy process behind urban preservation. The book should be of interest to any scholars and students of urban politics, governance in historic preservation and urban preservation in general.