2024 Regional Studies Association Winter Conference. London, UK. 07/11/2024-08/11/2024.

Handuo presented her work in a parallel session with the title ‘Governing Urban Green in Chengdu, China: A Perspective of State Entrepreneurialism’. The presentation discussed the reasons behind and the approaches employed by the Chengdu municipal government to achieve a sheer immensity of urban green spaces, represented by a 7,000-kilometer greenway system. The presentation revealed the local party-state leader’s political commitment to the Chinese national state’s Ecological Civilisation and a post-industrial aspiration for the urban economy. On the ground, the municipal government had to mobilise a wide array of economic interests and market actors, particularly property development, to finance and materialise the greenway. Chengdu’s greenway development illustrates state entrepreneurialism. The state plays a dominant role with extra-economic intentionality, whereas entrepreneurial operations and financial expansions have been major implementation approaches.