Abstract
This article investigates a case of planning contestation in Shekou, a development zone in Shenzhen, China, where the municipal government and a centrally administered state-owned enterprise competed for planning powers from 1998 to 2015. The article proposes a “proprietary model” of planning, in which planning powers function as residual control rights that derive from the party-state’s ownership of urban land and allow local agents of the party-state to maximize land-related revenue. When, as in Shekou, more than one party-state actor claims to exercise ownership, it can result in competition for control over planning processes and the creation of multiple rival plans.
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