Assembling land as a regional resource: A new pattern of state territorialisation in the Pearl River Delta, China

Abstract

In China, inter-city cooperation in joint development zones has intensified in recent years, with a shift in land assemblages from the urban scale to the city-regional scale. Such scalar-territorial dynamics, embodying land as a regional resource, have changed the conventional distribution and management system of land and shaped a new pattern of state territorialisation. Drawing on the inherent attributes of land, scarcity and immobility, this paper constructs a theoretical framework to explore how and to what extent land is socially assembled by varied territorial strategies. Through a case study of Shenzhen-Shanwei Special Cooperation Zone in Pearl River Delta, the paper reveals diffuse and porous power networks that operate flexibly at the city-regional scale to control land resources beyond administrative boundaries. And it is precisely because of the flexibility in cross-jurisdictional power flow that uncertainty per se is inherent in the new pattern of state territorialisation. Consequently, follow-up examinations on the ongoing scalar-territorial dynamics are needed in future studies.