Transition Management in Urban China: Co-creation of New Homes or a Monopoly Game?

Abstract

This chapter places empirical applications and review of established Transition Management principles in the metropolitan areas in coastal China. Based on content analysis and semi-structured interviews, an overview of state envisioning processes of urban sustainability is first presented as a conflicting context for the disequilibria observed in the environmental governance system across the metropolitan areas. The interactions of observed disequilibria grounded locally potentially weaken the state-led envisioning processes. With the presence of challenges in state-led transitions, the chapter proceeds to case studies in Shenzhen, the city that is practicing the state-led sustainability visions, to analyse how local dynamics of resource and organisational landscape are integrated in the transition process.