Postgraduate Program 2025 Spring  

Lectures on Selected Contemporary Chinese Urban Issues Lecture 13

Elaborate Urban Governance:

 Its Concept and Themes

Abstract

China's urban development is entering an era dominated by existing urban stock, where the role of urban management has become increasingly prominent. In early 2017, during deliberations with the Shanghai delegation, General Secretary Xi Jinping proposed that urban management should be as meticulous as embroidery. Since then, megacities like Shanghai and other highly urbanized areas across the country have actively responded by formulating five-year plans for refined urban management and continuously promoting multilevel initiatives.

Concurrently, the 20th CPC National Congress introduced, for the first time in the context of urban work, the conceptual triad of planning-construction-governance, highlighting the shift from urban management to urban governance. So, what exactly are urban management, urban governance, and refined urban governance?

This lecture focuses on refined governance in urban management, piercing through its political rhetoric to clarify its conceptual essence. Through domestic and international case studies, it explores three key themes—systems and synergy, rules and vitality, and public versus private rights—to reveal the practical value of this concept at a deeper level.

Lecturer

Lecturer:  Associate Prof. Minghao ZHOU

Time

May 21, 2025

Wednesday, 19:00-20:35

Venue

Room D1, 5F, Building D

College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University