Premium
Recentering S outheast A sian Cities
Author(s) -
Goh Daniel P.S.,
Bunnell Tim
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
international journal of urban and regional research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.456
H-Index - 114
eISSN - 1468-2427
pISSN - 0309-1317
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2427.2013.01208.x
Subject(s) - grassroots , politics , state (computer science) , political economy , social capital , urban hierarchy , political science , political opportunity , decentralization , capital (architecture) , sociology , social movement , economy , geography , economics , law , archaeology , algorithm , computer science , population , demography
For nearly two decades now, scholars have been heralding the arrival of new urbanisms. One debate in rapidly urbanizing S outheast A sia concerns the convergence of W estern and A sian urban processes, and the riposte that interaction between globalizing processes and the historical momentum of local and regional forces make for complex A sian urbanisms. In recent years, attention has been drawn to the impact of decentralization, with consequences for the reorganization of the developmental state and the growing importance of private capital and urban social movements in driving urban processes and politics. This symposium offers the fresh lens of ‘recentering’ to discuss the urbanisms emerging from decentralization and the triangulating state–capital–social movement politics of the new urbanisms. Drawing on recent discussions of M anuel C astells' (1983) The City and the Grassroots , we seek to expand the conception of urban activism not just by considering non‐ W estern cases in the newly democratizing states of S outheast A sia, but also by considering cities as co‐agents of activism. We see the recentering of S outheast A sian cities as referring to political actions that take the city not only as site and repository, but also reflexively as identity in itself to be fought with, for and over.