Assembling city-regional imaginaries: The making of Chinese city-regions under state entrepreneurialism

Abstract

In this study, we examine the formulation of city-regions in post-reform China under state entrepreneurialism. While existing literature largely identifies city-regions as new and concrete scales of spatial governance and/or geographical agglomeration, it often overlooks their conceptualisation as economic imaginaries and the actors and constitutive knowledges involved in these efforts. To address this gap, we reveal the diversity of economic imaginaries constituting the Yangtze River Delta city-region, one of China’s most prominent megaregions. We identify the emergence of three types of city-regional imaginaries, each rooted in distinct theoretical lineages, geopolitical rationalities and material practices: vertical ordering of competitiveness, horizontal ordering of balanced development and endogenous innovation. These imaginaries reflect conflicting interests and political tensions deeply embedded within the governance framework of state entrepreneurialism, where the state maintains a dominant role while leveraging market mechanisms to reconcile competing goals of growth, equity and sustainability.