Planning discourses, local state commitment, and the making of a new state space (NSS) for China: Evidence from regional strategic development plans in the Pearl River Delta

Grounded in the interpretive tradition, this paper applies the theory of New State Space (NSS) to China’s city regionalism. We argue that in the NSS effort in China, planning discourses enable a regulatory framework to be applied at the level of city region. City regionalism corresponds to the conceptualisation of NSS in two dimensions. First, the rise of the city region gives rise to a new territorial form of state administration. Second, the city region is made to be the most appropriate scale encapsulating capital–labour relationship (CLR). This study uses NSS to examine the regional strategic development plans (RSDPs) of the Pearl River Delta Region and presents two primary arguments based on an interpretation of the Outline of the Plan for the Reform and Development of the Pearl River Delta (2008–2020) (OPRDPRD) and the preliminary actions of various levels of government based on it. First, RSDPs serve as effective regulatory tools that not only enable new state administration articulating regulatory responsibility throughout the various levels of governmental hierarchy, but also elaborate the CLR in the interest of regional based industrial development, infrastructure construction, and formulation of social policies. Second, the city region has become a site for political rhetoric and related actions whereby regulatory order is unfolding in order to itself effect an economic restructuring and political reshuffle. Creating a city region is ‘planning ideological’ and solving problems is difficult because of the asymmetric jurisdictional power relations between municipalities. 本文依托诠释性传统，将 “新国家空间” 理论运用于中国的城市区域研宄。我们指出，在中国的 “新国家空间” 构建努力中，规划话语使得监管框架应用在城市区域层面。城市区域的概 念在两个维度上与 “新国家空间” 的概念呼应。首先，城市区域的崛起带来了国家行政的一种 新地域形式。其次，城市区域成为了容纳劳资关系的最合适尺度。本研宄运用“ 新国家空间” 理论来考察珠三角地区的区域战略发展规划，并基于对《珠江三角洲地区改革发展规划纲要 (2008-2020年)》以及各级政府据此开展的初步行动之诠释，提出了两个主要论点。首先，区域 战略发展规划发挥了有效监管工具的作用，不仅实现了新的国家行政，表述了各级政府的监管 职责，而且以地区工业发展、基础设施建设和社会政策制定为导向，阐明了劳资关系。其次， 城市区域成为了政治修辞和相关行动的舞台，监管秩序由此逐步形成，以求通过自身实现经济 上的重构和政治上的重新洗牌。设立城市区域属于“ 规划意识形态”，而由于不同城市之间司 法管辖权力关系的不对称，要解决问题仍然困难重重。