Economic globalization hasincreasingly exposed nations regions, and cities to strong local competitionand inter-city rivalry. This is also the case in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of South China. As a highly dynamic growing mega-urban region, it has a longstandingreputation as China's economic powerhouse and as the "factory of the world".Once a pioneering area of market economy reforms, the PRD nowadays faces fiercecompetition with other major metropolitan areas such as Beijing-Hebei-Metropolisand the Yangtze Delta Region, including Shanghai. This calls for constantadaptation of urban development strategies, which nowadays progressively aim ateconomic restructuring from labor-intensive manufacturing towardsknowledge-intensive and service-oriented industries. The ascent along the valuechain is particularly apparent within economic clusters, which are along-established feature of China's local economy. However, despite therestructuring of the economy, there is still scope for an "upgrading"of existing clusters even when they seem to represent low value-added economicsectors. The Zhongda textile cluster in Guangzhou is a fascinating showcaseexample for this phenomenon. Not only is the textile manufacturing and tradingsector re-establishing its role in the city, but it has even proven possible toconduct the restructuring process in suit in a densely-populated and completelybuilt-up area. This paper will focus on the restructuring process as it tookplace over time in both economic and spatial terms. In the process, it willalso reveal how global and local forces interplay in shaping the physical aswell as the economic re-development of this cluster.
Friederike Schröder
Prof. Dr. Uwe Altrock is the project leader of the researchproject "Governability, Borders and Citizenship", which is also partof the Priority Program 1233. He is the chair of the Department of UrbanRegeneration at the University of Kassel.
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