Entrepreneurial Governance and Land-Based Urban Growth Coalitions in the Development of Hongqiao Business District

In this chapter, I highlighted the governance mechanisms behind the Hongqiao project and argued that they could best be understood as forming a land-based urban growth coalition. This chapter looked at the way in which different new organisations exercised power as part of the project. The consequences on district administrations were particularly severe in the case of the business zone, where the district government found itself handing power and responsibility over to what is de facto a new district government. This reflected a shifting of power within the coalition, even as the Shanghai Municipal Government continued to exercise overall authority through the placing of prominent municipal officials to leading positions in key committees. While interpreting urban change in Hongqiao in terms of a land-based urban growth coalition, this chapter drew attention to the fluidity and malleability at the centre of the coalition.