The everyday political economy of local governance in China: bridging relational and territorial thinking

This paper develops a spatialised everyday political economy (EPE) by integrating relational and territorial thinking. Drawing on an 11-month ethnography in Houhai village, a rapidly transformed surfing hub in China, it shows how governance emerges from everyday practices that articulate relational infrastructures with territorial instruments. The analysis identifies three steps: enactment, translation and recalibration, through which spatial transformation unfolds. Empirically, it demonstrates how macro-instruments gained traction through pre-existing networks, producing stratification, selective inclusion and exit. Conceptually, it advances EPE by incorporating spatial logics, while using this framework to clarify how state power is constituted and unsettled within everyday life.