A few years ago, the State Council separated cities with a population of more than 10 million from "megacities" and added a new type of "megacities". In line with this, there is another very important change, that is, the original classification standard of urban population attributes has been changed from "registered population" to "urban permanent resident population". This means that cities need to plan and provide urban residents together with the provision of various management and services, including basic public services.
From the perspective of urban governance and renewal, megacities have several basic characteristics:
The first is large-scale. The sheer size of the population and the diversification of needs have led to enormous pressure on basic public services. For example, the subway traffic in Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou is tens of millions of people every day, and it is unthinkable that a major safety accident will occur. This kind of high-risk caused by large-scale and high-traffic makes urban operation always put safety in the first place, and cannot be taken lightly.
The second is high liquidity. Megacities are the distribution centers for the flow of people, logistics, transportation, information and capital, as well as a place for creating wealth, a place where diverse cultures meet, and a place for a better life.
The third is technicality. Modern information and communication technologies such as the Internet of Things, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, and artificial intelligence have produced smart platform application scenarios such as city brain and community communication through the integration of "device-network-cloud". Technology empowers urban governance, technology creates application scenarios, and technology empowers a better life, which is an important development direction for cities in the future.
I have studied, worked and lived in Shanghai for many years, and I have a personal experience: Shanghai people have a high vision, a wide field of vision, and a strong sense of benchmarking with international metropolises such as New York, London, Paris, and Tokyo.
Embarking on a new journey, Shanghai should speed up the construction of a modern socialist international metropolis with world influence. One of my experiences is that this is not to follow behind London, New York, Paris, and Tokyo, but to become China's Shanghai and the world's Shanghai, and to create a unique international metropolis that embodies the distinctive characteristics of socialist modernization and the essential attributes of a people's city.
Revolutionary change from urban organism to urban life to urban civilization
The traditional mode of urban development is a large-scale growth model. On the new journey, urban development must move towards an intensive and high-quality development path. In the pursuit of high-quality economic development, efficient government governance, and high-quality social life, I think a new standard can be added, that is, "high peace of mind and order". People come to the city for a better life, to be able to live here with peace of mind, and to regard the city they live in as a home for their life and soul. In a sense, this "high-minded and peaceful order" is a new expression of the Chinese's "relocation of peace and land".
Looking at cities from a new perspective, cities can be said to be the main carriers, main driving forces and even a new type of civilization for the development of human society. Urban development began with a focus on construction, then on construction and management, and now it has entered a new stage of equal emphasis on development, governance and services.
This will inevitably lead to a major transformation of urban development tasks, that is, a revolutionary change from the construction of urban organisms to the construction of urban life and then to the construction of urban civilization, and then put forward higher and more refined requirements for the modernization of urban development and urban governance.
The new task of urban governance and renewal lies in shaping a new dynamic mechanism. When we consider this issue clearly, we will find two dynamic mechanism shaping problems: first, the modernization of socialist megacities, central cities, and small and medium-sized cities is an important driving force for socialist modernization; second, the modernization of urban governance promoted by the good governance of "people's cities built by the people and for the people" constitutes the dynamic mechanism for sustainable urban development.
West Bund Dome Art Center, formerly known as the Shanghai Cement Factory Pre-Homogenization Warehouse, is a relic of a century-old industrial history. Photo by Haishaer
Further, the modernization of urban development is an important engine of national modernization, and the modernization of urban governance is an important development platform for the modernization of national governance. On the new journey of urban development modernization and urban governance modernization, it is necessary to pay more attention to the issue of urban fine governance focusing on urban renewal and community building.
In fact, urban management is roughly divided into two parts: professional management and comprehensive management. From the perspective of vertical professional management, the fields of urban fine governance mainly include municipal management, environmental management, traffic management, emergency management, urban planning implementation management, etc., and from the perspective of horizontal comprehensive management, the fields of urban fine governance mainly include the two fields of urban street comprehensive management and community autonomy.
For many cities, urban governance and renewal have reached an important juncture. I have summarized that urban governance is a combination of ten elements, that is, the process of reorganizing people, organizations, things, technologies, resources (platforms), values and other elements within a certain spatial scope through planning and emotional bonds. Any process of reorganizing and reconstructing the above elements or even all of them in a certain geographical space can be called urban renewal, or the incision is smaller, which is called community building.
If we insist on a definition, the so-called urban renewal is the process of reorganizing and reconstructing all kinds of activities carried by urban space, especially the process of reorganizing and reconstructing the content, form and function that are not suitable for the development stage, theme and task of the city.
For example, if you are the secretary of the street, you can build a development and governance model that conforms to local characteristics by clarifying the essence of the block development model based on the combination of elements within the scope of the street, and then straightening out and doing a good job of the phased goals, tasks, contents, forms, etc., especially the corresponding mechanisms.
In essence, urban renewal is the process of recombining the elements of urban governance, constituting the content system of urban space governance. On the new journey, the key content and direction of urban space governance mainly include three contents: first, to realize the integrated construction of ground space, underground space and three-dimensional space with horizon space (ground space) as the central axis; second, to realize the nested combination of physical space, virtual space and service space with the digital governance platform as the carrier; and third, to realize the integrated construction of production, life, survival, ecology and life "five-life community" with production, life and ecology as the main line.
We know that there are five major revitalizations for rural revitalization, namely industrial revitalization, talent revitalization, cultural revitalization, ecological revitalization, and organizational revitalization. In fact, cities also need to be revitalized, and urban renewal is further faced with eight renewal requirements: industry, space, planning, infrastructure, organization, culture, talent, and ecology.
The "2023 Shanghai International Urban and Architectural Expo" was held at the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition and Convention Center, and the picture shows the display of Zhangyuan urban renewal project. Photo by Haishaer
Through technical governance and end-of-line governance
Converge the order of management services
What is the direction of urban governance and renewal?
So far, Western theories on urban development have focused more on such a paradigm: based on the combination of production factors and power such as land, capital, information, technology, and manpower, the theoretical paradigm of "growth alliance" and "growth machine" oriented to economic growth in the field of urban development has been formed.
"People's city built by the people, people's city for the people" is a huge leap forward in the theory of urban governance and renewal, and one of the highlights is the creation of a new theoretical paradigm of "people's city theory". Based on this important concept and the new urban theory paradigm, I believe that the focus of urban governance and renewal includes the following three aspects:
The first is to eliminate urban diseases. After the scale of the existing city, it is difficult to eliminate urban diseases, and the key is how to minimize their harm.
The second is to meet the needs of digital transformation, focusing on building a digital development ecological platform, a digital industry ecosystem, and a digital governance ecosystem.
The third is to build a "five-life community". As mentioned earlier, the "five lives" not only refer to the traditional production, life, and ecology, but also add two "lives", that is, survival and life. Whether it is "three lives" or "four lives", they all need to settle on the ultimate goal and care of life.
Why is there a special emphasis on the question of survival and life in the digital age? A person from birth to death can theoretically be done in a room. Doctors can provide door-to-door services, education can be carried out online, and even people's friendship and mate selection can be achieved through the Internet. In other words, people can access various resources for survival and development through the Internet. At a time when people's way of living is undergoing major changes due to the advent of the digital age, we need to think more about the fundamental issues of survival and life.
Back to the real world, we used to like to talk about the production of urban space, but now we can say that we have reached a new stage of emphasizing urban governance and renewal. On the new journey, the focus can be on creating various new scenarios for urban service applications, such as pocket parks in Shanghai, urban parks in Chengdu, global service governance scene construction in Guangzhou, and property management ecological platform in Xuanwu District of Nanjing. At present, all kinds of "virtual and real" public spaces have been densely scattered around us, and the construction of a large number of service application scenarios derived from them needs to attract more attention.
In recent years, through the construction of urban grid comprehensive management platform, government service integration platform, regional party building service platform and other urban refined governance carriers, urban professional management and comprehensive management have been gradually connected and integrated in a technology-enabled way. As a result, the reform of the comprehensive law enforcement system of urban management, the reform of the comprehensive market supervision system, and the comprehensive reform of social security system have also been deepened.
On this basis, the modern city has initially formed five major orders - urban space order, environmental order, traffic order, safety order, and service order, and organically integrates management, service, and order through technical governance and terminal governance, so as to promote the process, list, intelligence, institutionalization, and rule of law process of urban governance.
Walking in the streets and alleys of Shanghai, you can often encounter small but beautiful pocket parks, the picture shows the "Healing Garden" next to the Huangpu District Civil Defense Building. Photo by Zhang Chi
I have a friend who used to be the director of the planning bureau of a district in Shanghai. He has the following views on the issue of megacity renewal, which I think are based on the wisdom of real life:
The first is the problem of renovating old areas caused by the expansion of cities and the widening of municipal roads; second, the problem of renovating and using the original sites after government agencies are relocated to new areas; third, the transformation of dilapidated houses and old shantytowns in central urban areas, which is an urgent problem for people's livelihood projects; fourth, the protection and renewal of historical and cultural blocks; fifth, the transformation, protection, and renewal of old industrial plants; sixth, the renovation and transformation of early industrial parks; and seventh, "urban villages" Eighth, the renovation of non-complete public housing and the renovation and renewal of the factories of restructured enterprises.
In view of this, the focus of urban governance and renewal in the next step is to coordinate the three major structures of space, scale and industry, the three major links of planning, construction and management, the three driving forces of reform, science and technology and culture, the three major layouts of production, life and ecology, and the three main bodies of government, society and citizens, so as to improve the overall, systematic and sustainable nature of urban work.
In the final analysis, we must adhere to the implementation of the important concept of "people's cities built by the people, and people's cities for the people", and strive to find a new path of "people's city theory" that surpasses the "urban settlement theory" and "urban growth machine theory" of human society, and create a new realm for the development of human urban civilization.
Tang Yalin is a second-level professor at the School of International Relations and Public Affairs, Fudan University, director of the Center for Metropolitan Governance Research, and co-editor-in-chief of Fudan Urban Governance Review.
Column Editor-in-Chief: Gong Danyun Text Editor: Xia Bin Title Image Source: Li Maojun Photo Editor: Cao Liyuan
Source: Author: Tang Yalin