Understanding China’s green transitions through urban spatial transformation: the (re)production of waterscapes in the Xinzhou River, Shenzhen

Abstract Green transitions have emerged as a salient ecological and political-economic practice in urban China over the past decade. Most studies on such transitions have focused on the role of technological innovations and market instruments in facilitating economic upgrades and green development. However, the spatial analytical perspective, which interprets green transitions through their manifestations in urban ecological spaces, remains underexplored. This paper uses the Xinzhou River in Shenzhen as a case study and argues that nature is inseparable from human society and that green transitions represent a reconfiguration of socionatural relations amidst urbanization. We conceptualize urban waterscapes not merely as physical containers of water but also as socionatures embodying political agendas, institutional changes, social power, and symbolic meanings. Through an extensive review of archival material and semistructured interviews, our analysis delineates three distinct ontologies of waterscapes produced and reproduced in Shenzhen’s urbanization process: first, a drainage channel that the state created to attract and protect global capital for urban development; second, an “ecological fix” to help the local government fulfill environmental protection mandates and sustain development; and third, an image of quality urban life offering recreational, aesthetic, and ecological functions and a new means to foster a harmonious human-water relationship and sustainability. The transformation of the Xinzhou River’s waterscapes illustrates the complex interplay and mutual shaping that occurs among the state, the economy, nature and society, revealing the relational, dialectical and materialistic nature of China’s green transitions.