Urban Development in Southeast Asia

This Element proposes a conceptual-methodological vantage point that examines urban development to address power inequalities.

Rita Padawangi (Author)

9781108705608, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 July 2022

75 pages
22.8 x 15.1 x 0.6 cm, 0.15 kg

Urbanization as a process is rife with inequality, in Southeast Asia as anywhere else, but resistance and contestation persist on the ground. In this element, the author sets out to achieve three goals: 1) to examine the political nature of urban development; 2) to scrutinize the implications of power inequality in urban development discussions; and 3) to highlight topical and methodological contributions to urban studies from Southeast Asia. The key to a robust understanding is groundedness: knowledge about the everyday realities of urban life that are hard to see on the surface but dominate how the city functions, with particular attention to human agency and the political life of marginalized groups. Ignoring politics in research on urbanization essentially perpetuates the power inequities in urban development; this element thus focuses not just on Southeast Asian cities and urbanization per se, but also on critical perspectives on patterns and processes in their development.

1. The politics of urban development in Southeast Asia
2. Historical 'Debris' in Southeast Asia's urban development
3. Planning for urban development
4. Studying urban development in Southeast Asia
5. Political ecology and environmental justice
6. Southeast Asia's urban futures
References
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Urban & municipal planning [RPC], Social discrimination & inequality [JFFJ], Fantasy [FM]