KITA Discourse Series 8/2022: Creating the Spectacular City in Everyday Life: A Governance Analysis of Urban Public Space in China

CREATING THE SPECTACULAR CITY IN EVERYDAY LIFE: A GOVERNANCE ANALYSIS OF URBAN PUBLIC SPACE IN CHINA

By

DR. RYANNE FLOCK

University of Wuerzburg, Germany

Chinese cities are making a name for themselves through “accumulation by spectacle“ (Guthman, 2008). Mostly analysing sport events and Expos in China’s municipalities, studies elucidate the fast change of the urban fabric and the interconnection of commercial profits with pro-state propaganda. These mega-events appear as a once-in-lifetime chance for a city, orchestrated during a specific time and in purpose-built venues. This paper, however, argues that during 40 years of reforming and opening up efforts of spectacularization expand to everyday life. I take the marginalisation of the urban poor, i.e. of street vendors and beggars, in Guangzhou as a starting point to understand governmental ideals, strategies and patterns of controlling public space. The data is mainly based on fieldwork, government documents, yearbooks, and newspapers. Engaging in the discussion on the “society of the spectacle” (Debord), the study elucidates governance strategies shaping public space for the external gaze. Urban management concentrates on areas serving tourism and commerce, memorial politics, and government relations. It follows the pulse of annual events and seasonal holidays, recurring political dates, exceptional mega-events, and 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.

TENTATIVE PROGRAMME

Date: 16 December 2022 (Friday)
Time: 10 a.m. – 12 p.m. (GMT +8)
Venue: KITA Meeting Room
Broadcasting Platforms: Zoom & KITA Facebook page (links below)

10.00 a.m.: Introduction by Moderator Dr. Rachel Chan Suet Kay, KITA Research Fellow
10.05 a.m.: Welcoming remarks by Distinguished Prof. Datuk Dr. Shamsul Amri Baharuddin, KITA Founding Director
10.10 a.m.: Seminar by Dr. Ryanne Flock
11.10 a.m.: Q & A session

PRESENTER’S PROFILE

Ryanne Flock is a postdoc research associate in the research project “Social Worlds: China’s Cities as Spaces of Worldmaking” (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research) at the Institute of Sinology, Würzburg University, Germany. Her research focuses on urbanization in the context of private and public spaces in China and sinophone Malaysia. She is the author of Shikumen Linong – Dwelling and Urban Change in Modern Shanghai (Lit, 2015), Public Space in Urban China: The Social Production in the Context of Urban Marginalization Processes (Franz Steiner, forthcoming), and coeditor of Family – Life – Pandemic: Words and Worlds of Chinese Rural Migrants (Böll Foundation, forthcoming). Her research interest in Malaysia concentrates on The Urbanization of Chinese New Villages in the KL Metropolitan Region: Changes of Society, Culture and Everyday Space (working title).

E-mail: ryanne.flock@uni-wuerzburg.de

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