Creating a new socio-technical regime in China: Evidence from the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. (June 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hu, Mei-Chih; Wu, Ching-Yan; Shih, Tommy
• Is Part Of: Futures. Volume 70(2015:Jun.)
• Page Start: 1
• Page End: 12
• Publication Date: 2015-06
• Subjects: Eco-City -- Tianjin -- Urbanization -- Socio-technical regime -- Transformation -- Economic transition; Economic forecasting -- Periodicals; Technological forecasting -- Periodicals; Economic policy -- Periodicals; Prévision économique -- Périodiques; Prévision technologique -- Périodiques; Politique économique -- Périodiques; Economic forecasting; Economic policy; Technological forecasting; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 330.0112
• DOI: 10.1016/j.futures.2015.04.001
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0016-3287

Abstract

Highlights: A hub-and-spoke model for China's urbanization. China's goal of achieving socio-technical transformation by eco-urbanization. The example of the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City. Technologies for urban transport, energy, water supply, and waste treatment. Smart city systems management. Abstract: The Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-City (SSTEC) in China was designed to leverage Singaporean expertise in top-down city planning, systematic management, and water treatment technologies and act as a replicable hub-and-spoke model. This study shows that an expansion of the scale of urbanization, and its transformation into the focal point of the hub-and-spoke eco-city model will enable China to advance as an international pioneer, by the creation of a new socio-technical regime dependent on green and ecologically sustainable systems. In particular, the potential capacity of China's new socio-technical regime, built on eco-cities, is based on its capability to (1) create a vision for a smart energy system; (2) drive down the cost of renewable energy equipment and devices; (3) support local industrial clusters for socio-economic development; (4) implement effective policies for city-level solutions; and (5) standardize and replicate these strategies in the new regime as a whole. In the top-down landscape approach, the public authority's integrated administrative capability and capacity is important as a means by which to link the various types of stakeholders. This has to be done, in the process of managing a city's transition and reducing the risk of transformational failure, by reinforcing the four types of capital assets – namely manufacturing capital, natural capital, human capital, and social capital.