Urban Megaprojects as Disorderly and Unruly Endeavors
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Submitted
December 30, 2020
Published
December 30, 2020
Keywords:
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Urban megaprojects, development, competitiveness, management, governance, sustainability, urban prosperity
Abstract
Megaprojects have multiplied around the world as an urban response to the pressures of neoliberalism and globalization in favor of development, competitiveness and innovation. The protagonists of the megaprojects adopt a narrative of international competitiveness, framing a discourse dominated by the rhetoric of economic survival. The response has been urban transformations in which governments and private sector actors have struggled to position their cities and services within a global socio-political division of labor, production and consumption, and to coordinate their local networks with the requirements perceived or real aspects of an increasingly deregulated and neoliberal international economic system. It seems clear, then, that the phenomenon of megaprojects is intrinsically linked to the logic of growth, development, qualitative urban transformation, wealth creation, competitiveness and prosperity. One of the consequences of this overall framework is that megaprojects usually evolve from an orderly planning project to a disorderly an unruly endeavor. The complexities of construction, operation, management and governance of large projects entail a series of stochastic processes where risk and unpredictability become fundamental components of urban economic life.
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References
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Bachmann, J. & Burnett, J. (2012). Infrastructure and the Environment in Chinese Cities: Prospects for Improvement. China Business Review, July 2012. https://www.chinabusinessreview.com/infrastructure-and-the-environment-in-chinese-cities-prospects-for-improvement/.
Bunnell, T. (2013) Encountering Kuala Lumpur Through the «Travel» of Urban Megaprojects, in del Cerro Santamaría, G. ed. Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley: Emerald.
Carnes, S. (2016) The Case for the Innovation District as a Sustainable Economic Development Tool in the Knowledge Economy, Georgia Tech Center for Urban Innovation, February 1st, https://gtcui.wordpress.com/2016/02 / 01 / the-case-for-the-innovation-district-as-a-sustainable-economic-development-tool-in-the-knowledge-economy /.
Curran, W., ed., (2017) Just Green Enough, New York: Routledge.
Davis, D. and O. Flores (2013) How to Defeat an Urban Megaproject. Lessons from the Mexico City Airport Controversy, in Del Cerro Santamaría, G. Ed. Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View.
Del Cerro Santamaría, G., ed. (2013) Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Del Cerro Santamaría, G. (2019) Megaprojects, Sustainability and Competitiveness in the United Arab Emirates, Unpublished Fulbright Scholar Project Proposal, New York City.
Fainstein, S. (2001) The City Builders. Property Development in New York and London, 1980-2000 (second edition), Lawrence: University Press of Kansas.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2014) What you should know about megaprojects and why. An overview. Project Management Journal, 45(2), 6–19. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj
Friedmann, J. (2005) Globalization and the Emerging Culture of Planning, Revised version of a paper originally prepared for UN Habitat (Nairobi), in March 2004, found at http://www.scarp.ubc.ca/faculty%20profiles/friedmann-paper2.htm
Harris, M. (2017) Competitive Precinct Projects. The Five Consistent Criticisms of “Global” Mixed-use Megaprojects, Project Management Journal 48(6), pp. 76-92.
Joo, Y. (2013) New Towns in South Korea. Then and Now, in del Cerro Santamaría, G. ed. Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley: Emerald.
Luo, Z. et al (2017). Pollution and Road Infrastructure in Cities of the People´s Republic of China. Asian Development Bank Institute, Working Paper no. 717. https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/239581/adbi-wp717.pdf.
Meadows, D., J. Randers, et al, eds., (2004) The Limits to Growth. The 30-Year Update , New York: Chelsea Green Publishing. See also the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program http://www.igbp.net.
Miller, A. (2013) The Afghan Ring Road Megaproject, in Del Cerro Santamaría, G. Ed., Urban Megapeojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Ness, D. (2018) Sustainable urban infrastructure in China: Towards a Factor 10 improvement in resource productivity through integrated infrastructure systems, The International Journal of Sustainable Development and World Ecology 15 (4), 288-301.
Novy, J. & D. Peters (2013) Railway Megaprojects as Catalysts for the Remaking of Post-Industrial Cities? The Case of Sttutgart 21 in Germany, in del Cerro Santamaría, G. ed. Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley: Emerald.
PRCMEE (2016). China´s National Plan on Implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People´s Republic of China. http://english.mee.gov.cn/Resources/Plans/Plans/201803/P020180316511712813464.pdf.
Ryan, B. (2013) Monstruous Moral Hybrtids in the American City, in del Cerro Santamaria, G. ed. Urban Megaprojects. A Worldwide View, Bingley: Emerald.
Schwärzel, K. (2017). China´s fight against desertification should not be done at the cost of water security. The Conversation, October. https://theconversation.com/chinas-fight-against-desertification-should-not-be-done-at-the-cost-of-water-security-83678.
Smith, B. (2018, July 24th). China: Environmental Issues, Policies and Clean Technology, AzoCleanTech. https://www.azocleantech.com/article.aspx?ArticleID=546.
Southerland, D. (2017). China´s Global Infrastructure Initiative Raises Environmental Concerns. Radio Free Asia, September. https://www.rfa.org/english/commentaries/china-obor-09292017160823.html.
Watkins, D., Lai, K.K.R. And Bradsher, K. (2018, November 18th). The World, Built by China. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/18/world/asia/world-built-by-china.html.
World Bank (2018). China - Systematic Country Diagnostic : towards a more inclusive and sustainable development (English). World Bank Group. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/147231519162198351/China-Systematic-Country-Diagnostic-towards-a-more-inclusive-and-sustainable-development.
XinhuaNet (2018) China Approve s Three Demonstration Zones on S ustainable Development, February, http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2018-02/24/c_136997243.htm .
Authors
Santamaría, G. del C. (2020). Urban Megaprojects as Disorderly and Unruly Endeavors. The Academic Research Community Publication, 4(2), 40–51. https://doi.org/10.21625/archive.v4i2.754
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