Mega-space: A spatial hegemony in urban China

Wang, Guanyu 2024. Mega-space: A spatial hegemony in urban China. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

With the mass production of urban space and the related social transformation amid rapid urbanisation in China, there have been broad discussions about understanding urbanisation with ‘Chinese characteristics’ and its relation to global urban study. To participate in the above discussions and fill the gap between the existing urban knowledge and the ‘Chinese characteristics’ of the urban, this thesis develops a future-oriented methodological alternative to investigate urban China by constructing critiques. This research constructs the concept of mega-space with the evidence of spatial bigness in Chinese cities and develops it as a tool to study urban China. It contributes to 1) unpacking the ‘Chinese characteristics’ of cities; 2) the methodological exploration to study China through a spatial-focused perspective with the lens of mega-space hegemony; 3) exploring the critical potential of mega-space. This thesis adopts the Gramscian interpretation of hegemony to politicise mega-space for urban critiques with input from Lefebvre’s spatial triad. It applies this spatial approach to three cases in Chengdu and Chongqing, China, revealing the construction, maintenance, and embedded struggles of spatial hegemony. Through three cases, this thesis suggests that mega-space refers to an urban project standardising the city with bigger scales rather than simply being big, reproducing China’s urbanisation system. Mega-space hegemony is constructed by the political triangulation to reaffirm the state in the tensions from the inherent imbalanced power relations, exclusion/inclusion, and urban problematics embedded in China as a condition for maintaining hegemony. These mega-spaces demonstrate an arena of ‘China Dream’ where individual production and consumption are integrated into the state-led authoritarian social framework as a future-oriented image of ‘Chinese characteristics’. To realise the critical potential of mega-space and its knowledge, the thesis suggests 1) a distinction between spatial critiques of mega-space aiming to intervene in urban China politically and those as theoretical reflections on knowledge through urban China; 2) critical mega-space as heterotopia in the city.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Geography and Planning (GEOPL)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > G Geography (General)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	hegemony, production of space, mega-space, Urban China, critical potential, global urban study, methodological exploration
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	19 December 2024
Last Modified:	19 Dec 2024 16:41
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/174814

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