‘The tiger’s leap’: The role of history in legitimating the authority of modern Chinese planners

Abstract

Much has been written about the ways in which recent economic reforms have changed Chinese cities. Chinese planning is often discussed as a profession in an equivalent state of flux, as urban planners struggle to develop a new concept of their role that can find a coherent middle course between conflicting priorities: the pursuit of market-driven growth; the demands of a centralised and relatively authoritarian state; and the need to maintain a participative openness to local communities. This paper questions this emphasis on coherence within professionalism, arguing that planners in modern China define their role by sliding between very different sets of values and priorities. The term ‘public interest’ acts as a pivot in this negotiation, allowing the tensions between competing rationales to be downplayed. Furthermore, the challenges of the contemporary context do not entail leaving history behind but rather using it as a creative resource for ideas of legitimacy, authority and professionalism. Inspired by Walter Benjamin’s reflections on history, we argue that earlier models of professional authority from the Confucian and socialist traditions are mined and reinvented to cope with the uncertainties of professional decision-making in a highly conflicted present.