A Study On The Harmonious Development Of Guangzhou University Town Under The Sociospatial Perspective

The so-called Harmonious Society (H-society) is taken as the goal of China'ssocietal development. Against this backdrop, urban planning needs to be adjusted.Using Guangzhou University Town (GUT) as a case study, this thesis endeavors todevelop theories for urban planning to construct an H-society.It highlights that H-city, as a widely accepted urban philosophy, will betransferred from pure spirit upon urban space. Through literature review, it points outthe development trajectory of H-city should be: Harmonious (H) form—H-spatialfunction—H-societal and economic 'rationality'—H-diversity and multiplicity (returnto Human dominated perspective)—H-people and people, people and nature.With a sociospatial perspective as well as the philosophy of 'H-city', it puts out aconcept of 'Harmonious social space'. H-social space includes the harmony ofphysical space, economic space, behavioral space and institutional factors. And it isargued that the model should be convergent rather than divergent. It is important toexamine the outcome of urban planning through these perspectives.On the basis of these analyze, it argues that the study of university towns shouldfocus on the four dimensions: physical, economic, behavioral, and institutional space.And a framework to be used in the empirical study is also given out.After in-depth empirical studies of GUT based on the long-term fieldwork, withinterviews and questionnaires, it is found that GUT is in fact a divided blockcomposed of fragmented social spaces. Social space in GUT is segregated in terms ofnot only behavior, economic, and other issues, but also physical spaces especiallypublic space. As such, social space of GUC is featured by segregation andhomogeneity. The four villages are segregated from the campuses as well as publicspace. Accordingly, GUT is neither an H-society nor H-society.During upon the theory of 'public domain', it is argued that the strategy ofsociospatial adjustment should target on making diversified public space and improvecommunicative space. In order to reach the destination, urban space of GUT needs tojoin villages and campuses together to develop a closely connected new social space.In this way, the thesis gives out detailed strategies to develop societal, behavioral,economic space, and to adjust institutional mechanisms.