Social Sciences in China (Chinese Edition)

No.12, 2017

The Center City Transformation in the Era of Globalization and Its Path

(Abstract)

Chen Heng and Li Wenshuo

Since the mid-20th century, the center cities of developed economies have generally undergone a dual transformation of their economic and spatial structures. This includes the de-industrialization of their economic structures, or replacement of manufacturing industry by service industries as the mainstay of the urban economy, and the development toward metropolitan status of their spatial structures, i.e., the emergence as the main form of urbanization of the replacement of center cities by metropolitan areas consisting of center cities and their suburbs. This process has plunged center cities into economic, social and other difficulties, in an urban crisis so profound that it was once thought irretrievable. However, center cities have not lost their core role in metropolitan areas. From the mid80s, they began to experience a revival, developing new economic, social and cultural features. Despite this, the revival of center cities has not been straight forward, and their negative effects are increasingly apparent. These are mainly manifested economically in terms of unbalanced economic development and income disparities; socially, in terms of social stratification; and politically, in terms of the difficulty of coordinating the governance of metropolitan areas. This article takes a historical approach, delving into, reconstructing and reflecting on the past from the Second World War on, so as to sort out the changing fortunes of center cities from decline to revival. We stress their motive forces, distinctive features and influence and study the challenges they face and the measures taken to deal with them, with a view to summing up the rules governing urbanization.