Consistencies and inconsistencies in urban governance and development

This research focuses on urban governance and development, by using Beijing as an example. It first shows that Beijing's key industries have changed from some low-end, heavy industries to some high-end, high-tech industries. These changes occurred alongside several fundamental transformations in Beijing's urban governance model. Specifically, Beijing's urban governance has increasingly reflected its own needs, and become more complicated characterized by a growing number of policies and a wider range of policy instruments, which are often industry-specific and target at certain industrial sectors. We further call for more attention not only to the role of the state in urban development, but also to what has been done by the state in practice. Our empirical results confirm the co-existence of consistencies and inconsistencies between what has been said in policies and what has been done in practice in Beijing's urban governance and development. Whether the city government follows its own policies announced beforehand is dependent on the intensity of technology use of industries, the potential economic and social impacts of industries, and the specific locations of industries in the city.