<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="6.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>17</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Jack Linchuan Qiu</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">A City of Ten Years: Public/Private Internet Development in Nanhai</style></title><secondary-title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">positions</style></secondary-title></titles><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2010</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2010</style></date></pub-dates></dates><urls><web-urls><url><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">http://positions.dukejournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/18/1/253</style></url></web-urls></urls><volume><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">18</style></volume><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">253-277</style></pages><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">&lt;p&gt;Does the Internet, a key technological infrastructure in contemporary&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;urban China, facilitate the emergence of private entrepreneurs&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;and autonomous citizens? Who deserves the credit? Chinese national&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;leaders answered &amp;quot;yes&amp;quot; to the first question and pointed to&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;themselves as the answer to the second. This essay maintains,&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;however, that local state actors played the central and effectively&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;centralizing role in informatization (&lt;i&gt;xinxihua&lt;/i&gt;) projects in&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;Nanhai City, Guangdong province. Through local e-government&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;projects and a series of policies regarding land use, financing,&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;and personnel training, the Nanhai government was able to shape&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;the emerging local e-conomy in a way that limited entrepreneurial&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;autonomy for small-scale start-ups in the Internet industry.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;The highly centralized informatization campaign fundamentally&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;reversed Nanhai's renowned decentralized model of rural industrialization.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Through this process, a fractured system emerged for the public&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;and private meanings attached to informatization and to the&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;city itself. This was manifested in everyday practice and discourse&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;among local policymakers, entrepreneurs in both new and old&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;economies, and average residents with different (mis)perceptions&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;of the Internet influenced by their gender. At the formal policy&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;level, the trend toward centralization was most obvious, revolving&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;around the formation of a nebulous &amp;quot;public&amp;quot; network space being&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;constructed by the city using technological, administrative,&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;and rhetorical devices. Yet the &amp;quot;private&amp;quot; practices and perceptions&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;of Internet that defined Nanhai's informational landscape persisted&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;in a fractured manner at the same time, leading to major corruption&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;scandals and the implosion of the grandiose technology campaign.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;To understand such a paradoxical process, this article examines&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;the contextual and internal factors for Nanhai's Internet buildup.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;From a critical and historical perspective, it highlights a&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;long-term seesaw battle along the problematic public-private&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;borderline regarding issues of urbanization and informatization&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;in contemporary Chinese cities.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This article reflects on the restructuring of local power relations&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;and the role of &amp;quot;informatization&amp;quot; policy discourse therein.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;A crucial, yet often overlooked, dimension of reform in China&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;today is the migration and subsequent transformation of technosocial&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;meaning across different scales of public and private operations.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;The discursive process often has a transnational reach and tends&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;to follow a political logic that usually only makes sense against&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;the backdrop of the local history.&lt;sup&gt; &lt;/sup&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img height=&quot;30&quot; width=&quot;0&quot; alt=&quot; &quot; src=&quot;http://positions.dukejournals.org/icons/spacer.gif&quot; /&gt;</style></abstract><issue><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2</style></issue><section><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">253</style></section></record></records></xml>