The demolition of high-rise buildings in Shaoxing: Heritage fantasies, or dellussions of de-growth?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.37230/CyTET.2024.221.14Keywords:
Demolition, High-rise buildings, Shaoxing, ChinaAbstract
The study of historic cities in China has neglected to focus on the so-called ‘second-tier cities’, where local authorities put forward extreme urban heritage conservation initiatives. This article studies the case of Shaoxing, in Zhejiang province, subject to a process of degradation since the 1980s and 1990s due to the construction of large-scale structures. Since 2019, the local government carries out the unusual plan of demolishing 178 high-rise buildings, in a particular interpretation of the postulates of degrowth discussed in Europe in the last decades. Through the analysis of planning and media news, complemented by visits, this contribution analyzes Shaoxing's ‘degrowth’ within new developmentalist dynamics with heritage as an economic driver.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Plácido González-Martínez

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