@phdthesis{Liu2006,
  author    = {Liu, Chong},
  title     = {The Contemporary Development of Qingdao's Urban Space - The Perspective of Civil Society's Participation in Chinese Urban Planning},
  doi       = {10.25643/bauhaus-universitaet.855},
  url       = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:gbv:wim2-20070818-9159},
  school      = {Bauhaus-Universit{\"a}t Weimar},
  year      = {2006},
  abstract  = {The main hypothesis of this research is that civil society's participation is able to improve the planning results in the Chinese city of Qingdao in the contemporary age. Qingdao is a young city developed from a German colony in eastern China. Apart from the powers of the government and the market, the 'third power', including mainly the power of volunteer citizens and the citizens' organisations, also positively promoted the spatial development in Qingdao's history. Since 1978's reform, Qingdao's great progress in urban housing, historic preservation, public space and urban traffic results mainly from the increasing strength of both the government and the market, while the government has always been the dominant promoter for urban construction. The actual planning mechanism - the government formulates 'what to do' itself and decides 'how to do it' with the market - has much limit in reacting to the rapidly changing situation, serving diversified social interests, and raising sufficient funds for the city's urgent demands in Qingdao. Searching for new development strategies based on the understanding of civil society in the Chinese context can provide a promising perspective on the urban studies of Qingdao. Chinese civil society can be understood as the intermediate sphere of individuals, families, citizen's organisations, social movements, public communication, and of the non-governmental body's non-for-profit involvement for the provision of public services between the state and the market. China has its own cultural tradition of civil society, and the modern civil society in China is showing its great potential in improving social integration and urban life. The Chinese government has started to advocate for civil society's participation in urban construction, and encouraging the 'bottom-up' mechanism in the planning-related issues through political statements and legislative approaches since the last two decades. The existing planning practice in China is able to demonstrate that civil society's participation helps improve the quality of Chinese urban planning realistically under present conditions, and that moderation of planning experts and the push of the authority are the key factors for successfully integrating the strength of civil society in planning. However, the power of civil society is not yet sufficiently discovered in Qingdao's planning. For better planning results, the city of Qingdao needs more initiatives to mobilize civil society in the planning practice, as well as more support to enrich the related studies. This thesis recommends that Qingdao establishes the 'Foundation for Collaborative Urban Solutions' through the joint efforts of the authority and civil initiatives, which aims at moderating and facilitating the strength of civil society. The suggested pilot projects include: a. The Community-based Housing Workshop for regenerating the living environment of the run-down communities, where the residents are willing to collaborate with the foundation with own efforts. b. The Heritage Preservation Workshop for suggesting an efficient supervision mechanism involving civil society which protects the historic heritage from being destroyed in the urban construction. c. The Public Space Forum for improving accessibility, quantity and ecologic function in the development of Qingdao's urban public space with the knowledge and creativity of both the government and the citizens. d. The Mass Transport Forum for a realistic strategy for funding the rail-based traffic system in Qingdao through enabling the civil society - especially the individual citizens and their households to invest. The 'Foundation of Collaborative Urban Solutions' is able to improve Qingdao's planning to cope with the urban problems the city are facing in its contemporary development, as well as to provide valuable reference for the further research of civil society's participation in Chinese urban planning.},
  subject      = {Stadtplanung},
  language  = {en}
}