Fordism-Keynesianism gradually transited to neoliberalism during 1970s economic recession in capitalist society, shifting urban governance from managerialism to entrepreneurialism. At the same time, China’s 1978 political-economic reform has led to a rapid development and a profound urban transformation characterized by globalization, neo-liberal decentralization and marketization over the past thirty years. To sustain the development and further promote the transformation, mega-events as one of those entrepreneurial policy programs are increasingly favored and widely used by city policy makers. Adopting urban entrepreneurialism as the theoretical perspective, this research explores mega-events, aiming to resolve two debates concerning urban entrepreneurialism and mega-events in the context of China: whether mega-events are effective and sustainable ways for China’s urban development in entrepreneurial city discourses and whether Chinese cities and their local states are entrepreneurial in nature in mega-events? It then takes Shanghai Expo 2010 as the case, focusing on how the Expo as entrepreneurial city action impacts on Shanghai’s urban transformation and how different stakeholders behave in the Expo development. Analysis of the case provides some findings resolving the debates. First, through landscape reconfiguration, spatial restructuring and new sources provision, Expo 2010 effectively transforms Shanghai city within a short time, showing entrepreneurial city qualities in diminutive spatial scale. However, it fails to improve social life except those who under high media exposure and is powerless to impress the world as China has little voice in the Western mainstream media. Moreover, while Expo 2010 generally benefits sustainable development by using energy saving technologies in Expo Park, by creating “Shanghai Mode” rehabilitation for affected communities and by preserving industrial and cultural heritage for future creative industry development, it still negatively impacts general urban living and causes exorbitant investment. Then, entrepreneurial governance is manifested in Expo operation as municipal government unites various stakeholders to ensure the smooth progress of the event, a process explicable by both urban regime and growth machine models. The private sectors are encouraged by municipal government to join Expo market as sponsors or developers and are mobilized interests triggered by Expo opportunities. Civil communities play auxiliary roles that must be united by government to achieve long-term growth. Urban planners are important inter-mediators among stakeholders in Expo, serving municipal government for urban growth. Although “Local Developmental State” model exhibits at municipal level as “development” represents the primary legitimizing principle of the state above those of individuals and the plan-rationality suppresses the market rationality, the “Entrepreneurial State” model can better interpret the nature of government in terms of coordination and partnership in Expo 2010. The government start-ups commercially operate in financing, investment attraction and land development, actively cooperating with private, foreign capitals and other social forces. These findings imply that the event-led restructuring is overall effective for the transformation of urban order from traditional industries to flexible leisure consumption, from monocentric city to polycentric mega-city region, consistent with the tide of postmodern city. They also imply that the operation of Expo by municipal government is entrepreneurial in nature, corresponding to the emerging neo-liberalization with Chinese characteristics. / published_or_final_version / Urban Planning and Design / Master / Master of Philosophy

This thesis studies the planning and negotiation process engaged in the conceptualization and initial stages of Vancouver's waterfront urban renewal project Concord Pacific Place at the False Creek North waterfront, Vancouver. Numerous articles have devoted attention to the physical form of this urban renewal development. However current discourse on Concord Pacific Place overlooks the planning and negotiation process, which has been integral to its urban renewal success. It is for this reason that my thesis sets out to study the planning and negotiation process in an effort to offer a new perspective on Concord Pacific. To contextualize the development of Concord Pacific Place over the two decades between 1987 and 2007, this thesis surveys the introduction of high-rises in the city of Vancouver, looking at the city's apartment typology prior to the redevelopment of False Creek North, a brief history of Expo 86 and the planning and negotiation process behind B.C. Place, as well as the planning and negotiation process that has transformed the former Expo land into the master-planned urban neighbourhood at Concord Pacific Place. This thesis also identifies the results of the planning and negotiation process that have contributed to the False Creek North development. The material gathered includes a collection of historical and background information on the transformation of the City of Vancouver in general and in particular the False Creek North site found in published accounts, consultation of the archives of Concord Pacific, and interviews with key players involved with the development of Concord Pacific Place. City planning officials were also consulted on issues pertaining to the basic planning principles of the City of Vancouver as well as the decision-making process involving City planners and developers. This research highlights the importance of the relationship between the City planners and the developer as well as participation from the public throughout the planning and development stages of the Concord Pacific Place development. It points out specific initiatives that were established as a result of this megaproject, the main challenges and limitation encountered with the process. It also identifies lessons learned at the end of the journey.

For over three hundred years, including its most recent, "Fordist" phase, industrial capitalism has been shaping the organisation of territory, fostering urbanisation and the emergence of the great cities and industrial regions. Recently, many observers have suggested that Fordism is in crisis and a period of transition is underway to a "post-Fordist" economy, the characteristics of which are antithetical to those of Fordism. Though territorial aspects are in many ways at the core of the post-Fordist school, particularly the so-called "rise" of the industrial district, regional and especially urban factors are not systematically dealt with in the literature. There is scant empirical evidence of the territorial organisation of the post- Fordist productive systems, nor a clear delineation of the logic behind this particular structure of territorial organisation. Drawing on evidence of three case studies of industrial districts in the Third Italy, the central thesis put forward is that the pattern of cities and regions that has been evolving relatively smoothly since the beginning of the industrial era is currently undergoing a dramatic reorganisation, as a result of a new logic of post-Fordist capital accumulation. New patterns of uneven development are being forged, that are in many ways a reversal of previous and long-standing urban and regional evolutionary trends. The role of spatial and territorial factors in the evolution of certain forms of post-Fordist organisation of production are also explored. In basic outline, the thesis: o argues that we are entering a post-Fordist era and industrial districts can be marshalled as evidence of this; o offers explanations as to why these particular territorial systems of production emerged in the Third Italy, and how they relate to the logic of post-Fordist accumulation; and o concludes that post-Fordism is associated with a reorganisation of urban and regional territory at all geographical scales: regions, urban systems and the urban hierarchy, intra-urban and intra-district space.

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This thesis studies the planning and negotiation process engaged in the conceptualization and initial stages of Vancouver's waterfront urban renewal project Concord Pacific Place at the False Creek North waterfront, Vancouver. Numerous articles have devoted attention to the physical form of this urban renewal development. However current discourse on Concord Pacific Place overlooks the planning and negotiation process, which has been integral to its urban renewal success. It is for this reason that my thesis sets out to study the planning and negotiation process in an effort to offer a new perspective on Concord Pacific. To contextualize the development of Concord Pacific Place over the two decades between 1987 and 2007, this thesis surveys the introduction of high-rises in the city of Vancouver, looking at the city's apartment typology prior to the redevelopment of False Creek North, a brief history of Expo 86 and the planning and negotiation process behind B.C. Place, as well as the planning and negotiation process that has transformed the former Expo land into the master-planned urban neighbourhood at Concord Pacific Place. This thesis also identifies the results of the planning and negotiation process that have contributed to the False Creek North development. The material gathered includes a collection of historical and background information on the transformation of the City of Vancouver in general and in particular the False Creek North site found in published accounts, consultation of the archives of Concord Pacific, and interviews with key players involved with the development of Concord Pacific Place. City planning officials were also consulted on issues pertaining to the basic planning principles of the City of Vancouver as well as the decision-making process involving City planners and developers. This research highlights the importance of the relationship between the City planners and the developer as well as participation from the public throughout the planning and development stages of the Concord Pacific Place development. It points out specific initiatives that were established as a result of this megaproject, the main challenges and limitation encountered with the process. It also identifies lessons learned at the end of the journey.

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 190-197).