This book is a succinct description of the politics of preservation in Beijing, Chicago and Paris. It makes two separate but connected arguments about the importance of political fragmentation and the nature of urban preservation. It is successful in its first endeavour, but some of the themes of comparative preservation could perhaps have been developed more fully.
The convincing discussion of why political fragmentation should be seen as an important variable in policy-making is well grounded in institutional theory. Yue Zhang argues that there are three types of political fragmentation. Functional fragmentation describes how different agencies pursue goals that fall within their own remit, and therefore work largely independently of each other with little communication, although overlap can create conflict. Territorial fragmentation is based on geographical jurisdiction, while intergovernmental fragmentation refers to a hierarchical system in which central and local actors either co-operate or compete for control. Multiple types of fragmentation can operate together, and personal connections, as well as institutional-based links and divisions, are important in determining how policy is implemented. Applying this complicated theoretical framework to cities with very different political systems could make the analysis confusing, but Yue Zhang carefully guides the reader through each city by structuring the descriptions of her case-studies in similar ways.
Indeed, each city is an example of a different type of political fragmentation: the functional in Beijing, the territorial in Chicago and the intergovernmental in Paris. Despite this, there are occasional moments where the argument is a little hard to follow, usually when Yue Zhang descends deep into the minutiae of individual preservation initiatives. The discussion of each case-study begins with an historical description of the institutions responsible for urban preservation and the related policy framework. The author then moves on to describe the nature of political fragmentation, paying particular attention to formal institutions of governance and some of the informal personal connections that are key to policy-making. Finally, specific examples of preservation highlight the importance of the institutional system in determining policy implementation.
In Beijing, there are five different agencies responsible for preservation beneath the municipality, which results in insufficient guidance from the state. Meanwhile, district officials engage with many levels of bureaucracy to implement policy, which may not be driven by a preservationist agenda. This is particularly the case with the rebuilding of Qianmen Street, just south of Tiananmen Square, where the process of demolition and rebuilding has led to an influx of luxury brands, and a destruction of the original commercial character of the street. In Chicago, the division of the city into wards means that aldermen have great power, and where preservation initiatives have their support and are contained within one ward, as in Pilsen, they can be very effective. This is in contrast to Bronzeville, where a loosely defined preservation area required the support of multiple aldermen, all with different agendas. Finally, in Paris, decentralization has given the municipal government more freedom to regenerate certain areas of the city, and policy diverges from the central state mandate, which is primarily concerned with protecting France's cultural heritage. In Les Halles, although the mayor compromised with multiple stakeholders, the needs of the local developer, who wanted to minimize disruption to business, took precedence.
The tension between preservation and regeneration runs through the book, a point that Yue Zhang makes in the introduction, when she notes how different agendas such as economic development, tourism or the promotion of national culture drive preservation. However, unlike with typologies of political fragmentation, less attention is paid to comparative issues in preservation agendas, motives and outcomes. There is little discussion of how different cultural notions of preservation affect the implementation of policy. For example, the tendency of some Chinese preservationists to recreate entire buildings in a facsimile of their original form, rather than protect what remains of the existing structure may be contributing to the destruction of some communities in older parts of Beijing, as it allows for more radical usage change than would perhaps be possible elsewhere. Turning to outcomes, there are several discussions of the impact of gentrifiation, and while these are reflective, at times it feels as though stories of displacement and the destruction of community life are afterthoughts. More detail could perhaps have been provided on the relationship between preservation agendas and motives, and how they contribute to or mitigate against gentrification in different parts of the world.
These are small points though. Yue Zhang has successfully highlighted how the fragmented nature of political systems in three different contexts determines the implementation of preservation policy. In doing so, she not only tells us much about preservation and regeneration in Beijing, Chicago and Paris, but offers a way to consider how different political systems might be compared.
