Redeveloping China’s Villages in the Twenty-First Century: The Dilemmas of Policy Implementation is an ANU Press book authored by Lior Rosenberg and published in 2024. The book is reviewed for JCA by Xiao Ma of the Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, School of Design, University of Melbourne in Australia.
The reviewer notes that rural redevelopment has had a new impetus since the mid 2000s, and welcomes Redeveloping China’s Villages in the Twenty-First Century as it fills a “policy research gap and explores the different execution trajectories and outcomes of the Village Redevelopment Programme in two regions: the industrialised Chenggu County in Shandong Province and the predominantly agricultural Beian County in Anhui Province.”
This book addresses the modus operandi of local governments, integrating the questions of why and how rural redevelopment policies are implemented. The book reveals the causes of policy failure in China’s rural development, leading to outcomes that diverge from the original plans. To address these issues and especially inequality, Rosenberg argues that “new priorities and approaches are needed, pointing out the demand for specific action plans from the highest levels of the political hierarchy rather than the rough vision within consistent implementing actions from various local regions.”
Redeveloping China’s Villages in the Twenty-First Century is available for free download from the publisher.
JCA 