Creating the spectacular city in everyday life
A governance analysis of urban public space in China
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 10859872 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ryanne Flock (0000-0003-2622-155X, University of Würzburg, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 61 |
| Issue | 6 |
| Pages | 1094-1110 |
| Publication date | 2024-05-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Urban Studies (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0042-0980 • E-ISSN: 1360-063X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00420980231201549 |
| OpenAlex | W4389143735 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 13 |
| References cited | 55 |
Chinese cities are making a name for themselves through what Guthman calls an ‘accumulation by spectacle’. Studies elucidate the fast change of the urban fabric and the interconnection of commercial profits with pro-state propaganda during mega-events. The spectacle appears as a once-in-lifetime chance for a city, orchestrated during a specific time and in purpose-built venues. This article, however, argues that efforts of spectacularisation expand to everyday life. I take the marginalisation of the urban poor in Guangzhou, that is, street vendors and beggars, as a starting point to understand governmental ideals, strategies and patterns of controlling public space. The data is based on fieldwork, government documents, yearbooks and newspapers. Engaging in the discussion on what Debord termed the ‘society of the spectacle’, I explain how urban management concentrates on areas serving (1) tourism and commerce, (2) memorial politics, (3) government relations and (4) transport and traffic; and follows the pulse of (1) annual events and seasonal holidays, (2) recurring political dates, (3) exceptional mega-events and (4) regular urban development campaigns. These zones and periods of increased control intertwine and culminate in an ‘ideal’ public space excluding poverty and other elements contesting the city’s success images
Business · China · Civil engineering · Corporate governance · Economic geography · Everyday life · Geography · Government (linguistics · Political science · Politics · Public space · Sociology · Spectacle · Tourism · Urban planning · China's Socioeconomic Reforms and Governance · Engineering · Hong Kong and Taiwan Politics · Law · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Everyday dog politics
Counter-mapping place ballet for urban design
How public are they? Privately owned public spaces in Shanghai, China
Staging the thousand-park city
The aesthetic politics of memory anchoring in urban redevelopment at Shibati, Chongqing, China
Fractal Borders
The requirements of being a beggar
First Time in the European Rally Championship
From livelihood to livestream
Behind the Faces of Aestheticized Urbanism in Tunxi, China
Memory-led sensory gentrification
Nusantara as Spectacular Fix
When penalties are framed as protections
Hyperbuilding
Images of Power
Sites and sounds of national memory
Party-State Capitalism in China
Sovereign Power and the Law in China
Mega-events and Urban Image Construction
Staging China. The Politics of Mass Spectacle
Naked City
Empowering regional economy with a spectacular space
Migrant Street Vendors in Urban China and the Social Production of Public Space
Unequal cities of spectacle and mega-events in China
This is a private-public park’
Are Street-Level Bureaucrats in China Hardnosed Cops or Consultants? An Institutional Account of Policing Behavior in Autocracy
Glittering Guangzhou’
Aspirational urbanism from Beijing to Rio de Janeiro
Soft Policies of Exclusion
Urban spectacles as a pretext
Resisting Urban Spectacle
The ‘lamentable sight’ of homelessness and the society of the spectacle
Urban spatial restructuring, event-led development and scalar politics
Reclaiming public space
Beyond unemployment
Urban growth, from manufacturing to consumption and financialization
Accumulation by spectacle and other teachable moments from the 2008 Beijing Olympics
Informality and the state’s ambivalence in the regulation of street vending in transforming Guangzhou, China
Police Civilianization and the Production of Underclass Violence
China in 2009
The Beijing Olympics as a Campaign of Mass Distraction
Performative Governance
Focal Points, Dissident Calendars, and Preemptive Repression
Performance Legitimacy” and China’s Political Adaptation Strategy
Flexible Accumulation Through Urbanization
Marketing Mardi Gras
Moving to keep still
Governing neoliberal authoritarian citizenship
Civilising urban public space
The Seductions of Resistance
Constructing a new private order
From authoritarian development to totalist urban reordering
Mass Persuasion as a Means of Legitimation and China's Popular Authoritarianism
The Charisma of Power and the Military Sublime in Tiananmen Square
Max Weber, Collected methodological writings
Reshaping China's Urban Citizenship
Sanitizing Public Space in Olympic Host Cities
Visibility
The Rivalry of Spectacle
| Unique citing works | 13 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 13 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 13 |