Abstract:

Motivated by institutional incentives and performance pressure, the governance of shrinking cities is a policy process and a resource reorganization activity. Local governments typically react to urban shrinkage by drawing on resources from superior governments and utilizing their own idle resources while applying multiple approaches to deconstruct and implement the tasks and objectives of the higher-level’s developmental and spatial planning. Shrinking city governance is driven by a compound effect of bureaucratic, interest-based, and reform logic. And it exhibits several procedural characteristics, including: a combination of macro-planning guidance and local policy experimentation; the interplay of resource allocation by administrative force and horizontal intergovernmental collaboration; and, the restructuring of administrative division scale and the streamlining of administrative agencies. Through analyzing relevant policy texts and practical forms, we can reasonably anticipate the functions of the governance of shrinking cities. They include promoting people-centred city construction, achieving the coordinated development of new urbanization’s spatial pattern, and constructing a balanced development order for a modern nation. The governance of shrinking cities should be based on an optimized planning mode that accumulates the potential for intensive and connotative spatial development. The goal should be the capacity for sustainable urban development that links internal and external resources, and consolidates the collaborative governing efficiency of pluralistic actors through centering on institutionalization.

Key words: shrinking cities, urban governance, political logic, new urbanization, high-quality urban development