Pro-growth urban policy implementation vs urban shrinkage: How do actors shift policy implementation in shrinking cities in China?

Urban policy implementation in shrinking cities has been problematic due to actors' different interests regarding managing shrinkage issues. This issue is presently influencing shrinking cities in China. Under the pro-growth urban policy at odds with the population decline tendency, actors' responses to policy implementation are complex and bear uncertain impacts on policy implementation outcomes. This paper brings up a conceptual framework from a new institutionalist perspective to uncover the implementation of the pro-growth urban policy in shrinking cities in China from the actors' perspective. An exemplary city, Fushun in Northeast China is investigated. It is found that development discourses in urban policy are reinvented by actors with their diverse responses to policy implementation. A pro-transformation coalition is built with actors collaborating on shared development goals, making compromises and developing new rules to deal of policy implementation issues. This coalition steers urban policy implementation and diverts its outcomes. This paper advances understandings on the forming mechanisms of actors' responses to urban policy implementation in shrinking cities. It is suggested that a collaborating platform with the empowerment of micro-scale networks and capacity should be adopted early on in formal planning processes in China and beyond to sustain the diverse development discourses among actors.