New Era Small Town In Southern Development And Governance

In the new era, great changes are taking place in China in the environment and driving forces of urbanization, such changes are particularly remarkable in southern Jiangsu. Dominated by new liberalism, the urbanization in southern Jiangsu shows a trend of urban-bias. The emergence of buyer's market in China calls for economic reconstruction. The external institutional change and internal inconsistency of "Sunan model" also play a role in the transformation in southern Jiangsu.The rapid development of small towns was the main power and form of urbanization in southern Jiangsu. Different from the western classic path of urbanization, the establishment and transform of "Sunan model" was once the most unique sample of rural urbanization in China. In the transitional context, small towns in southern Jiangsu are confronted with pressure due to the resources, environment and policy, which brings uncertainty to the future of small towns. Against this background, the analysis of small towns in southern Jiangsu has certain typical significance and guiding function.First of all, this paper defines the time period——"new era", as well as the concepts and connotations of "small town", then reviews relevant research results about transformation and small town. After that, the paper reviews the history of small towns in southern Jiangsu, in order to evaluate the role of small town in Sunan urban system. In a macro-level, globalization which is dominated by the new liberalism, path dependence and path metastasis of "Sunan model", the emergence of buyer's market are well described as background in new era. In a micro-level, Wujiang is chosen as a typical case region to construct an analysis framework. Statistical methods and geographic information visual representation are used to demonstrate the development of small towns in the past dozens of years, including spatio-temporal variation of population, spatial expansion and spatial pattern transition.On the basis of the above, this paper centers on the time background and policy background, and the motivation factors and the resistance factors are discussed. Factors such as household registration system reform, township merger, export-oriented economic development and township enterprise restructuring influence the development of the small towns in different ways. Construction fund shortage and culture texture faultage are the main restricting factors for the small towns in Sunan. The governance structure of small towns in southern Jiangsu is also explored from the perspective of stakeholders who participate in the governance. The local government plays a leading role in the governance of the small towns, city planning and land management are the main methods for local governments. Along with the deepening of market economy, the privatization of public services offers a chance for the enterprises to participate in the governance of small towns. In addition, the power of civil society and NGOs is rather weak in China, and commerce chambers are the main part of public participation.