Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia 9789048534340

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Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia

Publications The International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) is a research and exchange platform based in Leiden, the Netherlands. Its objective is to encourage the interdisciplinary and comparative study of Asia and to promote (inter)national cooperation. IIAS focuses on the humanities and social sciences and on their interaction with other sciences. It stimulates scholarship on Asia and is instrumental in forging research networks among Asia Scholars. Its main research interests are reflected in the three book series published with Amsterdam University Press: Global Asia, Asian Heritages and Asian Cities. IIAS acts as an international mediator, bringing together various parties in Asia and other parts of the world. The Institute works as a clearinghouse of knowledge and information. This entails activities such as providing information services, the construction and support of international networks and cooperative projects, and the organization of seminars and conferences. In this way, IIAS functions as a window on Europe for non-European scholars and contributes to the cultural rapprochement between Europe and Asia. IIAS Publications Officer: Paul van der Velde IIAS Assistant Publications Officer: Mary Lynn van Dijk

Asian Cities The Asian Cities Series explores urban cultures, societies and developments from the ancient to the contemporary city, from West Asia and the Near East to East Asia and the Pacific. The series focuses on three avenues of inquiry: evolving and competing ideas of the city across time and space; urban residents and their interactions in the production, shaping and contestation of the city; and urban challenges of the future as they relate to human well-being, the environment, heritage and public life.

Series Editor Paul Rabé, Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA) at International Institute for Asian Studies, the Netherlands

Editorial Board Henco Bekkering, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands; Charles Goldblum, University of Paris 8, France; Xiaoxi Hui, Beijing University of Technology, China; Stephen Lau, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong; Rita Padawangi, University of Social Sciences, Singapore; R. Parthasarathy, Gujarat Institute of Development Research, Gujarat, India; Neha Sami, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bangalore, India

Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia

K.C. Ho

Amsterdam University Press

Publications Asian Cities 12

Cover illustration: Tampines Central Playground, Singapore Source: K.C. Ho Cover design: Coördesign, Leiden Lay-out: Crius Group, Hulshout isbn 978 94 6298 388 5 e-isbn 978 90 4853 434 0 (pdf) doi 10.5117/9789462983885 nur 758 © K.C. Ho / Amsterdam University Press B.V., Amsterdam 2020 All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the written permission of both the copyright owner and the author of the book. Every effort has been made to obtain permission to use all copyrighted illustrations reproduced in this book. Nonetheless, whosoever believes to have rights to this material is advised to contact the publisher.

For Poh Ling, Fei, Xiao and Ren Jie

Table of Contents Preface

11

Acknowledgements

13

1 Neighbourhoods for the City 15 1 Co-operative Elements in Neighbourhood Collective Action 17 2 Neighbourhood Interests and Social Movements 20 Placemaking21 Neighbourhoods for the City 28 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia 1 Cities as Engines for Growth and Loci for Consumption 2 Cities as Repositories of Culture and Heritage 3 Cities as stages for political action 4 Democratic Movements and State Decentralization of Power, and Post Political tendencies 5 Relationships between State and Local Neighbourhoods 6 Urban Developmental Pressures on Neigbourhoods 7 Summary and Introduction to the Five Fieldsite Cities

44 46 47 48

3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs 1 Introduction 2 Three Multi-Sited Approaches a Grounded Approaches b Analytic Ethnography c Comparative Case Approach 3 Study Guidelines a Research Direction: Guided by the literature b Site Selection: Informed by local researchers c Sites and the Link to the Larger Country Context d A Note on Single versus Multiple Cases e A Note on the Informant’s Role

57 57 59 60 62 64 69 69 71 72 76 77

35 36 40 42

4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises 1 Significance of Sungmisan 2 Sungmisan and Its Village Businesses a Sungmisan High School b Sungmisan Dure/Doorae Co-op c Sungmisan Community Kitchen d Doesalim, Sungmisan’s Resale Shop e Little Tree, Sungmisan’s café 3 Village Business Projects and Their Importance to the Neighbourhood 4 Sungmisan and Its Relevance to the City 5 Discussion and Summary 6 Looking Ahead

81 81 84 85 92 94 95 96 97 99 101 102

5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts 107 1 Significance of Mahakan 107 2 Rattanakosin as the Civic and Cultural District of Thailand 109 3 Pom Mahakan: People of the Fort 118 4 Discussion and Summary 122 a The Value of External NGO Support in Weak Communities122 b The Noise from Multiple Stakeholders 124 5 Looking Ahead 128 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses 1 The Significance of Tangbu 2 Creating Tangbu Cultural Park 3 The Neighbourhood’s Role in Constructing Heritage 4 The Role of the City Government 5 Looking Ahead

133 133 135 143 146 150

7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration 1 The Significance of Langham Place 2 Mong Kok and the Langham Place Redevelopment Project a Bird Street b Cooked-Food Stalls c Minibus Companies

155 155 159 160 160 161

3

4

Inserting Community Spaces into Langham Place a The Land Development Corporation and Its Role in Rebuilding the City b Do Government-Provided Amenities Matter? Looking Ahead

8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work 1 The Significance of Tampines Central 2 Government Initiatives at Community Bonding 3 Analysing the Consequences of Intervention in Tampines Central 4 Looking Ahead

163 163 168 174 179 179 183 186 196

9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building 203 1 The Social Life of the Neighbourhood 203 2 Neighbourhood and Urban Governance 206 a External (National and Metropolitan) Effects on the ­Neighbourhood 207 b Neighbourhood Activism Effects on the City and Beyond208 3 The Neighbourhood Social Amenity as the Fruit of Neighbourhood Activism: Its Formation, Attraction, and Regulation 210 4 Metropolitanization of Politics 218 5 The Different Faces of the City 220 Index

231

List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 2.1 Figure 4.1 Figure 4.2 Figure 4.3

Field site cities in Pacific Asia Sungmisan field site in Seoul Sungmisan School library Sungmisan School children commemorating the protest against the acquisition of Sungmisan hill Figure 4.4 Sungmisan Dure Coop (두레생협) Supermarket Figure 4.5 Sungmisan Community Kitchen

50 83 87 91 93 94

Figure 4.6 Figure 4.7 Figure 5.1 Figure 5.2 Figure 5.3 Figure 5.4 Figure 5.5 Figure 5.6 Figure 5.7 Figure 6.1 Figure 6.2 Figure 6.3 Figure 7.1 Figure 7.2 Figure 7.3 Figure 7.4 Figure 8.1 Figure 8.2 Figure 8.3 Figure 8.4 Figure 8.5 Figure 8.6 Figure 8.7 Tables Table 3.1 Table 8.1 Table 9.1 Table 9.2

Doesalim Resale Shop Little Tree Café Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok Museum of Siam, formerly the Ministry of Commerce site Pedestrian walkway leading to Fort Sumen with view of Rama VIII Bridge Fort Sumen Park Enhanced view of Loha Prasad after redevelopment Community yard at the Mahakan site Location of the houses in relation to the “clean” fort wall Tangbu Cultural Park field site in Taipei Ming Hwa Yuan Gallery in Building C Residents using the cultural school site Langham Place field site in Mong Kok, Hong Kong Mong Kok Cooked-Food Market in the Community Annex (Mong Kok Complex) Minibus Terminal at the side of the five-star Cordis Hotel on Shanghai Street Hong Kong Playground Association office overlooking Langham Place Tampines Central field site in Singapore Neighbourhood focus group discussion at work Site 1: Storage area for the void deck for Parkview RC at Block 857 Site 2: Trellis along the linkway Site 3: Mini hardcourt as the latest addition to the outdoor play area Site 4: Café in the background at the Palmwalk resident committee social area at Block 839 Site 5: Three cement chairs where pedestrians can rest before or after crossing the street Profile of five case studies Visual analytics summary Participation and its effects The social amenity and the city

96 98 111 113 114 115 117 121 121 138 140 141 158 161 162 173 184 185 188 188 189 190 191 74 192 211 213

Preface A 2017 New York Times article on the late Clive Davies quoted Melissa Manchester on Davies: “He always wanted me to be current and I always wanted to be timeless.” These two time frames are a good way of describing my intentions for writing this book. The title “The Neighbourhood for the City” is timeless in urban studies research. Simmel, Weber, and the Chicago School have all dealt with the problem of social relations in the city. And the literature is enormous. And yet the book is current because many of the old issues refuse to die, like the question of localised collective action and the issues and impacts this raise. I have taken a more materialist concept of community by focusing on neighbourhood projects and how these pull residents together and how these projects create amenities that critically add to the liveability of cities. New forms of urban development emerge in the political and economic changes faced by Pacific Asia’s largest cities. And new forms of urban governance are created by local state and neighbourhood partnerships. The book makes three contributions to urban studies. First, this book is one of the few in Asian urban studies adopting a multi-sited comparative approach in studying local action in five important cities (Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei) in Pacific Asia. This approach enables comparisons across a number of key issues confronting the city: heritage (Bangkok and Taipei); community-involved provisioning of amenities (Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore); and placemaking versus place marketing (Hong Kong and Taipei). Second, my focus is on local community efforts at the neighbourhood level as an increasingly important third way. This is a sustainable and equitable alternative to state and market avenues of provision in a contemporary urban environment that sees declining state funds for services and amenities and where market provision creates unequal outcomes. And third, most studies ignore city governments, or view them as antagonistic (rights to the city and social movements literatures), or consider them in terms of efforts at planning and economic development (global cities and urban economic competitiveness literatures). My focus is on the collaborative efforts city governments establish with local communities and how this ultimately speaks to the liveability and progressivity of cities.

Acknowledgements Whoever said research is a solitary activity has never considered the true effort of fieldwork. A multi-sited comparative approach cannot work without the insights and assistance rendered by local experts from these field sites. I take seriously the advice provided by Chabal and Daloz regarding the role of local experts in helping the researcher develop a better understanding of the local context. These friends gave generously of their time and advice. They are: Pornpan “Noi” Chinnapong, Tanaradee “Gai” Khumya and Orana Chandrasiri in Bangkok; Lui Tak Lok, Stephen Chiu, and especially Lam Kit in Hong Kong; Myungrae Cho, and Jiyoun Kim in Seoul; Im Sik Cho, my collaborator for the neighbourhood project in Singapore; and Huang Liling, Chen De-jun, Tai Po-fen, Kai Chiang and Hsieh Yun-Shuian in Taipei. I also thank Dr Paul van der Velde (Publications Officer), and Mary Lynn van Dijk (Assistant Publications Officer) at IIAS, as well as Dr Saskia Gieling (Commissioning Editor) and Drs Jaap Wagenaar (Production Editor) at AUP. I especially thank those who accompanied me for the first field site walk: Lam Kit in Langham; Myungrae in Sungmisan; and Liling in Tangbu. Dr Orapim, we did not do the walk in Rattanakosin, but you pointed out Fort Sumen to me and asked me to “take a look”. That look, in turn, brought me to Fort Mahakan and I consider this visit as the starting point of the book project. The final phase of the fieldwork was conducted during my sabbatical spent first in Taipei. Thanks to Sandra Ma for settling me into National Chengchi University. And to the late Huang Su Ren and the late Lu Yia Ling. The memories of our walks and talks are all the more precious with your passing. The Hong Kong portion of the sabbatical was eased thanks to Stephen Chiu and his gang of comrades at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. I am thankful to the two anonymous referees for their constructive comments, and to Paul Rabé, the Asian Cities Series Editor, who raised important questions and offered useful suggestions. The following grants that supported the long period of fieldwork that went into the making of this book is gratefully acknowledged. These are from the National University of Singapore (R-111-000-700-733, R-111-000-131-133, R-111-000-139-101 and C-111-000-222-091) the Singapore Housing and Development Board (R-111000-126-490, R-111-000-141-490) and the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC) Research Grant. The production of the book was supported by the National University of Singapore Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences Book Grant (R-111-000-165-651).

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And at an earlier time, my teachers who pointed me to urban studies: Bob Cooper; Eddie Kuo; Ed Laumann; and the late Gerald Suttles. It was as a University of Chicago doctoral student that a deeper engagement with the neighbourhood and the city emerged. These were lessons that burrowed deep and which I bring to Asian urban studies. Then, there are those with whom I had the type of conversations that stretched over many, many years. Chua Beng Huat, Mike Douglass and Anne Haila, I hope you see the fruit of our exchanges in this book.

1

Neighbourhoods for the City Abstract As the introduction to the book “Neighbourhoods for the City” takes a broad sweep of the urban studies literature to highlight the issues that are linked to the process of neighbourhood mobilization: relationships between neighbours; the tension between moving versus staying; placemaking; and the organization of local interests. Externally, the possibility of a collaboration between the neighbourhood and the city government exists and such partnerships are important for sustaining local action. Following Castells (1983), we see another possibility of how social movements will enlarge the local capacity for action. The factors enabling local participation at the neighbourhood level allow a conceptualization of neighbourhoods as the third way (Fallov, 2010) to city building, an alternative to state and market alternatives. The neighbourhood-based approach may play a special role in building a more diverse and liveable city. Keywords: neighbourhood interests, placemaking, social movements, neighbourhood relations, urban partnerships, neighbourhood as community

Neighbourhoods for the City represents a systematic attempt to understand the Asian city from the viewpoint of its neighbourhoods. By focusing on the neighbourhood, the book incorporates three distinctive features. The first is an approach that examines the types of relationships in which the neighbourhood are implicated, including, most importantly, their relationship with the city government. In particular, I will examine why city governments need to manage the social and political dimensions of their relationships with city residents and not just focus on managing the economic interests of the city. It is at this level that Asia becomes meaningful in the analysis. In particular, East Asia is a region of sustained economic development. This implicates its largest cities, which are the engines of growth and also of middle-class consumption. It also places an enormous strain on its neighbourhoods

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch01

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because of the pressures of gentrification and redevelopment, as well as the influx of new migrants to the city. At the same time, East Asia is also a region marked by political change in the form of democratic developments and pressures to decentralize authority from the central state. This, in turn, makes city governments more receptive to the aspirations and demands of its neighbourhoods. Secondly, by taking a perspective on collective action at the neighbourhood level, this book posts an answer to Tilly’s (1973) famous question “Do Communities Act?” Here, drawing on a long tradition in urban studies on the neighbourhood, I look at a set of considerations that are likely to propel the neighbourhood to act in accordance with its perceived interests. It is important to note from the onset that the reference point is the contemporary urban neighbourhood. It is in the contemporary urban neighbourhood where relationships with neighbours tend to be superficial, because so many daily activities are spent outside the neighbourhood ― in our workplaces, schools, and elsewhere for our social and recreational activities. Yet, the neighbourhood is where the home is located, and where residents physically spend much of their time after work and school, where they typically stay for years at a stretch. The neighbourhood therefore becomes a depository for memories. Within the neighbourhood, even the less significant relationships that are developed in everyday lives have meaning in shaping affiliations to place. These less significant neighbourhood relations may be the building blocks for collective action. It is this potential for action that turns a neighbourhood of residents into a community that acts based on a common interest. Thirdly, as the title suggests, this book seeks to examine the ways in which the neighbourhood and the city are interconnected. It is this book’s contention that many issues such as liveability, heritage, identity, social sustainability, and even citizenship (through participation), are produced and therefore should be addressed at the neighbourhood level. The more specific way in which neighbourhoods are connected to the city is through the use of their amenities. By drawing on the case studies of collective action on a neighbourhood level in five Asian cities, I intend to show, through examples of neighbourhood activism, how the neighbourhood is connected to the city. This set of connections involves both the learning process with external resource persons and non-government organizations that help the neighbourhood. Significant relationships between the neighbourhood residents and the city government are formed over the co-production of neighbourhood amenities. The neighbourhood remains connected with the city after the completion of the project, in terms of how the experience is

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shared with other neighbourhoods and interested organizations. Officials from key neighbourhood organizations may also go on to help the city in other capacities. Neighbourhood activism arises from efforts by residents to organize themselves to enhance or defend their neighbourhoods. These efforts are organized around neighbourhood projects (e.g. neighbourhood enterprises, a cultural park, the community annex [see Table 3.1 row 3]) and may be supported by government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The book will show how neighbourhood projects should be treated as social amenities that support the social life of the neighbourhood and, through amenity use by residents and visitors, link the neighbourhood to the city. Processes that begin at the neighbourhood level can scale up to the level of the city. The diversity of aspirations expressed at the neighbourhood level critically build up the social life of the city and enable a conception of urban liveability beyond the narrow confines of city indicators, which are popular in city ranking exercises. Neighbourhoods also build up the political life of the city. The collective action taken in the neighbourhood represents decisive steps in citizen action. This is an important local link in the shaping of city politics and a factor to consider in the accounting of urban constituencies by national political parties.

1

Co-operative Elements in Neighbourhood Collective Action

Peterson (1981: 20-21) points out that it is possible to identify city interests because the work of city governments link them in a network of relations to city residents and businesses. City governments are involved in a range of housekeeping and development functions that bring them into direct and regular contact with neighbourhood residents. In many instances, this makes them partners with the local residents of the city. There is, however, a range of local government responses to neighbourhood activism. At one end of the spectrum of the neighbourhood-government interaction, resistance and local collective action are an outcome of conflicting goals and divergent interests between communities and government. At the other end, there are the types of partnerships that require collaboration for the construction of neighbourhood projects. From the government’s end, this can come in the form of funding, regulatory approvals, and other types of advice and support. Somewhere in the middle of this spectrum is a mutual avoidance position. Neighbourhoods may embark on their own

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neighbourhood enhancement projects, largely ignoring the local government. However, more common is the situation in which local governments provide fairly basic services, ignore local neighbourhood aspirations, and perhaps pay a bit more attention to the local electorate when elections are near. Within the broad spectrum of neighbourhood-government relations is the possibility of collaboration. It is here that this book is situated. I argue that there are both conceptual and empirical bases for the alignment of interests between neighbourhoods and governments. There are good reasons why city governments will want to partner neighbourhoods in their projects. Bowles and Gintis (2002) point out that local residents are effective partners in neighbourhood projects because the proximity and inevitable contact among residents in daily life enhance the ability to enforce local norms and reduce free-rider problems. With proper government and legal supports, neighbourhood-level governance can be an effective agency to solve a class of problems at the local level. Likewise, Evans (1996) goes on to suggest productive ways in which the state can co-operate with communities through a complementarity of motives and tasks as well as an embedding of government-neighbourhood relations. Embedding comes about with the establishment of co-operative relations through the operation of statefunded projects. The embedding of government-neighbourhood relations is especially important to Evans (Ibid.) because the sustainability of local projects requires the active participation of residents. Classics on the work of city governments, such as Peterson’s (1981) City Limits and Clarke and Gailes’ (1998) The Work of Cities, focus on the critical developmental work of city governments in making cities more competitive. Instead, the focus of this book is the critical ties between cities and the neighbourhood. Competent city governments spend much time tending to their networks to make the city competitive. Much of the economic planning that cities do, creates the landscapes that make the cities iconic. This strengthens local industry against the vagaries of the global economic climate and ensures skilled labour remains and contributes to the city’s economy. But in terms of the city government’s relationship with neighbourhoods, it is the last mile of provision ― using a telecommunications provision analogy, the directing of resources to local areas and empowering residents and small businesses ― that makes cities liveable. This last mile of provision requires city governments to listen to what neighbourhoods want. On 21 December 2011, I interviewed a neighbourhood organizer from Sungmisan.1 At the time of my research, Mayor Park had been 1

The neighbourhood building projects of Sungmisan are discussed in chapter 4.

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elected Mayor of Seoul and the neighbourhood organizer in question2 was engaged to allow the city government to create more active neighbourhoods like Sungmisan. This opportunity was also a cause for reflection. He told me: The thing to remember is that the first generation here were not activists at that time. They just cared about their children’s education. However, people who want to copy Sungmisan’s model seem to have an activists’ identity, so they try to teach how to build a community, meaning they get used to the top-down way. In this context, replication seems to be difficult. So, when I attend the meeting organized by the city government for making communities like Sungmisan, I ask them to think of the reason why they want to make a community and what kind of community. (interview, 19 March 2014)

While city governments remain a central element in this book, other local organizations are also critical resources. Beaumont’s (2008) work on faithbased organizations in the city highlights several important points. Firstly, to the extent that welfare expenditures have either remained stagnant or been reduced in cities, both city residents-in-need, as well as local governments with small or declining purses are driven to depend even more on such organizations (Ibid.: 2020-2021). Secondly, while Beaumont touched upon this point tangentially, it is important to argue that faith-based organizations as well as more secular organizations have a history of working alongside the poor and needy, and such organizations have built a reputation and a sense of legitimacy and good relations in such areas. Thirdly, faith-based and secular organizations working in the city not only have bonding capital in the local areas where they work, they also have bridging capital in the form of networks outside such areas (Ibid.: 2021). An urban network of co-operating social organizations is what makes cities liveable and resilient. Gerald Suttles (1984: 284) reminds us that “local culture is not something that starts full blown but [is] something that accumulates.” The idea of a cumulative texture is intriguing in its promise, yet frustratingly difficult to pin down empirically. And while Suttles (1984) described a more general process, our interests are more narrowly circumscribed within the actions of neighbourhood organizers and their supporters, the work of non-governmental organizations in local areas, and the cumulative tendencies these create. In this regard, the city contains a 2 I have kept the anonymity of officials from government and NGOs unless they appear in other publications.

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number of circuits in which knowledge is circulated and adopted. At one end, there are more informal circuits, where tacit knowledge circulates as a result of the loose networks and forums that permeate throughout the city (McFarlane, 2011: 361). At the other end, the more formal and often government-initiated circuits are better resourced in terms of technical advice and project financing. Successful programme outcomes circulate under the positive-sounding term “best practices”. These practices often form the work of the government and the output of these circuits become urban policy. The exact nature of this transfer and its associated changes describe what McCann (2011) terms “urban policy mobilities”. While McCann (2011) clearly looks at policy that travels beyond cities, my focus is again on the city and its local areas, with the realization that many of the ideas that NGOs bring with them travel from other places and are modified in the process. The discourse of being efficient and competitive means that government agencies charged with improvements to the city create avenues for such learning among different organizations, providing the supply to match this demand (McFarlane 2011; McCann 2011; McCann and Ward 2012). Unlike government agencies, poorly resourced neighbourhoods with a stronger and more immediate local orientation tend to rely on informal networks as a source for ideas. They also tap into local and regional alliances to gain solidarity. To the extent that successful projects result in physical changes like a neighbourhood park or other local amenities, these are used, celebrated, and stand as an example for other aspirants. Organizers of neighbourhood projects and NGOs are often tied to loose networks. Within such forums, successes and progressive ideas are circulated in the city. Fine and Harrington (2004: 350) point out that “while the mere existence of small groups does not a civic arena make, a high density of independent small groups can provide individuals with multiple, and often cross-cutting, opportunities for affiliation, exposing individuals to varied experiences and points of view”. I see this at the level of neighbourhoods, where interests over a broad set of common issues encourage these informal, episodic connections that make the city, in McFarlane’s (2011) phrase, a “learning machine”.

2

Neighbourhood Interests and Social Movements

The urban social movements’ literature work at a scale beyond the specific neighbourhood. Castells (1983), for example, mentions the cumulative effects of coalition building, suggesting that successful movements require a larger, more widespread support base. Mayer (2006: 203) reviewing Castells’ The

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City and the Grassroots, pointed out that, over time, urban movements shift courses and embrace the new issues of the day. While urban movements certainly have their bases in the city, they are not tied to particular cities because their fundamental energies come from national and international connections. Hamel, Lustiger-Thaler, and Mayer (2000: 4), for example, pointed out that “broad-ranged movements have long harboured, at their core, a global dimension linking movement actions within different national contexts, to other collective actors”. And when these take on more formal organizational features, the goals of the organization become sharper, but, in their definition, may not connect as well to some of the neighbourhood’s other interests. Thus, over time, new issues take hold, leaving older issues, which may or may not be resolved. And while this is essential for city-wide change, to focus on such effects is also to ignore the other processes that are specific to particular neighbourhoods. While Castells (1983) is interested in understanding the victories at the level of the city, understanding the effects at the level of neighbourhoods is important in the context of the particular diversity of results successful neighbourhood action creates for the city. Not all neighbourhoods want the same thing, even in terms of improvements and additional public amenities. Understanding this diversity of aspirations and outcomes is important for the social life of the city. Placemaking A focus on neighbourhood motives requires an examination of placemaking, moving from the Castellian spotlight on episodic moments of protest resistance to more everyday forms of interaction and co-operation. In Everyday Life in the Modern World, Lefebvre (1968/1971: 24) notes: the quotidian is what is humble and solid, what is taken for granted and that of which all the parts follow each other in such a regular, unvarying succession that those concerned have no call to question their sequence […] and it is the ethics underlying routine and the aesthetics of familiar settings.

This statement forms the very foundation of our call to study the neighbourhood. While neighbourhood activities are humble and unassuming, we follow Lefebrve (1971/1991), who points out that the spaces of the neighbourhood are a sort of container, shaped by external forces (notably capitalist production modes and state practices) but containing the embodied logics

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of thought and action. The two parts of this dynamic are both important. Firstly, a top-down approach should note how external forces are inscribed (Merrifield, 1993: 521) and sedimented (Massey, 1984: 120) in place. And, as chapter 2 will show, this set of powerful economic and political forces is accounted for within East Asian cities. Secondly, the bottom-up perspective requires an understanding of “place specific ingredients” that create the propensity for action. What are these place ingredients? Aside from its concrete physical coordinates, place has both a design and a built form that shape interaction and behaviour, as well as a range of sentiments that its residents develop for it (Cresswell, 2004: 7). Commenting on the buildings (and this can apply more generally to the built environment of the neighbourhood as well), Gieryn (2002: 35) suggests that “buildings incorporate both agency and structure in the sense that we have implemented plans which result in the places we live in, and these in turn influence our behavior”. And placemaking can be seen as a diverse range of practices enacted by residents and small businesses. Some of these are just common everyday routines. In discussing the facets of placemaking, Harney (2006) makes the useful distinction of highlighting the quotidian (common everyday routines shared by the group), calendrical (specific dates, events, festivals celebrated or commemorated by the group), and monumental (statues, plaques, and other monuments that commemorate the work of its pioneers, or the collective experience of the group). Other efforts at placemaking include collective action focused on the neighbourhood. In thinking of collective action, it is important to contextualize neighbourhoods as places of choice for the majority of residents and places where they spend much of their family time and rest time. This character of the neighbourhood is captured in the neo-Marxist argument taken by Storper and Walker (1983: 6-7), that neighbourhoods provide the critical supports for the reproduction of labour: a measure of stability is necessary for workers’ sanity, nurture and happiness […] it takes time and spatial propinquity for personal support systems to evolve out of the chance contacts of daily life. More time is needed for the central institutions of daily life – family, church, clubs, schools – to take shape. The result is a fabric of distinctive, lasting local ‘communities’ and ‘cultures’ woven into the landscape of labour.

The idea, then, that residents and businesses want good for their neighbourhood forms a minimum but important basis for action. The outcomes of such placemaking actions may be modest when compared to the grand plans at

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place marketing the city. Through the use of trophy buildings (Olds, 1995), nevertheless, such local actions create some unity at the neighbourhood level, and the completed projects are a shared reminder of this unity (Ho, 2006). In thinking about the efforts and objective of placemaking, I am also informed by the concept of social sustainability as it applies to neighbourhoods. Social sustainability focuses not on the optimal but the minimum that is necessary for the social life of neighbourhoods. These activities and processes are not episodic but enduring. Social sustainability also relates to a localized and collective well-being in terms of the shared feeling of a sense of place. It is also powered by social capital needed for interaction, participation, and governance (Dempsey, Bramley, and Brown, 2011: 291; Neamtu, 2012: 125). Chaskin and Garg (1997: 634) point out that neighbourhoods act when they perceive an inability of local governments to solve local problems and issues. Charles Tilly (1973: 213) points out that “a group can’t exert collective control over resources without both social relations and some minimum of common identity”. And so, it is important to at least sketch out the conditions in which these conditions apply in the context of spatial communities. The fundamental assumption is whether proximity and co-residence have a special role to play in the building of the places of the city. The likelihood that residents in a neighbourhood have the potential to work together and act collectively is premised on the following elements: Boundaries of the Neighbourhood: Residential neighbourhoods are places where, apart from work and school, residents spend most of their lives and are arguably one of the most intimate of spaces encountered. Kearns and Parkinson (2001: 2103) identify the home area of the neighbourhood as the smallest unit in the neighbourhood: typically defined as an area of 5-10-minute walk from one’s home. Here residents would expect the psycho-social purposes of neighbourhood to be strongest […] the relaxation and recreation of the self; making connections with others; fostering attachment and belonging; and demonstrating or reflecting one’s own values.

This informal boundary between the self and the neighbourhood is important because it demonstrates how much of the self, and indeed the selves of those who live in the same household unit, is resourced as well as shared within the neighbourhood. It is the neighbourhood where everyday routines are found and also where significant moments are experienced. The daily

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routines of residents take them around the home area and perhaps a bit beyond to where the local amenities are: the convenience store; the market; the bus stop; the metro station; the park. Icons: Within the neighbourhood, which is an essential part of daily routine, residents build memories and attachments that are part and parcel of everyday lives. Hull, Lam, and Vigo’s (1994: 109) observation that “the urban fabric contains symbols (icons) that tell us something about ourselves and something about those to whom the symbols belong” aptly applies to the neighbourhood. Osborne (2001: 4) points out that “people produce places, and yet they derive identities from them”. Because residents regularly traverse the neighbourhood, they know it intimately and come to identify elements of this neighbourhood fondly, creating a local language made up of the symbols of the place: meeting places; rest places; food stops; and landscape and built environment features (the hill, the clock tower, the red house). I have noted earlier that neighbourhood icons tend to be humble compared to the monumentality of city icons (Ho, 2006). In contrast to city icons, neighbourhood icons (including neighbourhood schools and religious buildings) work to tie place histories to individual and family biographies and such projects are shaped by a shared experience of place and reinforced by shared values that went into the making of such projects. Relations among Neighbours: While attachment and sociability can be features of the urban neighbourhood, they represent, at best, communities of limited liability where commitments to the present neighbourhood may be given up if needs and aspirations are better met in a different locality (Kasarda and Janowitz, 1974: 329). While there are clearly social relations among neighbours, it will be difficult to find the type of strong community relations approximating Toennies’ Gemeinschaft.3 Without the economic co-operation and cultural beliefs binding the place-based community, everyday relations tend to be minimal as residents balance these with those at the workplace and school. It is also important to note Laurier, Whyte, and Buckner’s (2002) description of neighbouring as an occasioned activity, primarily because being a good neighbour also means respecting the privacy of others living closest to you. And so, neighbours should be helpful when the occasion calls for it, otherwise to be neighbourly is to be considerate and not to intrude. 3

For a review of the community studies tradition which began with Toennies, see Brint (2001).

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The neighbourhood relations literature paint a realistic view of the role of such relationships in the contemporary city. The notion of neighbouring as an occasioned activity references Mann’s (1954) useful distinction between manifest and latent neighbourliness. The type of overt activities often attributed to relations between neighbours such as greetings and chatting or visits to the home are associated with manifest neighbouring. The latent neighbourliness on the other hand, taps into the cognitive dimension and involves a positive attitude towards neighbours and a predisposition to act if and when the occasion requires it. Working with these two concepts, Mann (1954: 164) makes the point that “a high degree of latent neighbourliness suggests reliability coupled with respect for the privacy of other people’s lives and therefore appears more likely to be generally acceptable”. In thinking about the nature of neighbourly relations in the contemporary city, another useful distinction is made by Henning and Lieberg (1996: 8, 17) about the nature of weak ties. Terming neighbouring relations ‘weak ties’, Henning and Lieberg are careful to point out that neighbourly relations are more akin to Granovetter’s absent ties, which are relations in our everyday lives that are casual and sustained by nodding or greeting. However, such relations should not be dismissed as unimportant. Significantly, Henning and Lieberg’s (1996: 20, 22-23) findings from Sweden suggest that such superficial forms of weak ties are easy to maintain at the neighbourhood level and in everyday life. These encounters allow for the conversation that flows within such relationships to maintain a life of its own and, in the process, create feelings of home and security among neighbours. Manifest forms of neighbouring are likely to be minimal in the contemporary city because of other attachments and responsibilities that remain outside the neighbourhood (Mann, 1954; Henning and Lieberg, 1996). However, even minimum manifest forms of neighbouring, such as the regular exchange of greetings in our daily neighbourhood routines yield important social benefits. Such minimal social forms of encounter in our everyday lives make for a sociable environment. And because residents (especially owners) stay in the neighbourhood over a longer duration, they typically develop a responsibility to help their neighbours and are prepared to lend support should the occasion demand it. Move versus Stay: While the community of limited liability recognizes the potential for residents to move, do residents differ in their desire to stay? One way to understand the propensity of residents to act in relation to their neighbourhoods is from the framework of the exit, voice, and loyalty literature stemming from Albert Hirschman’s (1970) book of the same name.

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One feature of this literature is the need for a trigger at the neighbourhood level to gauge the propensity for action. Such triggers would include a change in socio-economic status or ethnic composition (Feijten and Van Ham, 2009). Feijten and Van Ham (Ibid.: 2104, 2106) suggest that when faced with a trigger, those who move likely have the resources to do so and thus avoid the problems associated with the trigger. Permentier, Van Ham, and Bolt (2007: 207) note that the propensity to move is often weighed down by the sunk costs (both transactional and emotional) associated with place. They (2007:209-210) also point out that loyalty (choosing to stay) is likely to be linked to voice options. A useful way of thinking about the issue is from Donnelly and Majka’s (1996) two seven-year gap surveys of the impact of changes on the ethnic composition of a neighbourhood in Ohio, following high population turnover and increased crime. While they do not have information about the residents who chose the exit option, their observations about those who stayed and those who moved in are insightful. They (1996: 282) found that residents who stayed “are more connected in a variety of ways to the neighbourhood and to neighbours […] new residents of the neighbourhood expressed an even greater appreciation of diversity”. Thus, if some level of residential mobility and housing choice is assumed, then some evidence of Tiebout’s famous model4 holds, i.e. that residents will move to where there is a fit between neighbourhood characteristics and their preferences for the neighbourhood. For the purposes of this book, what is more important are the viewpoints of those who stay. Their preferences and behaviour suggest that the stayers are likely to depend on social capital and networks to effect positive change. The potential of using the voice option represents the basis of an active neighbourhood. For stayers, the routines of everyday life and the power of residence create a stakeholder mentality, which fosters co-operative behaviour while respecting norms of privacy. These sometimes create NIMBY (not in my backyard) tendencies but stakeholder attitudes also produce positive effects. As Hunter (1979: 285) points out “it is the sentiment that inheres in personal relationships of proximity, the common fate of shared space that defines the neighbourhood’s essential social bond”. Everyday forms of trust and 4 Tiebout’s (1956:418) assertion that “the consumer-voter may be viewed as picking that community which best satisfies his preference pattern for public goods” is mentioned by Dowding, John and Biggs (1994: 767) as one of the most-quoted paragraphs from one of the most-cited articles in urban politics. Their systematic review of over forty years of research suggests that at the general level, Tiebout’s work has important insights into residential consumer behaviour, but because the elaborations tend to be couched within economic modelling, much of this discussion tends to stay within the urban economics literature.

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co-operation and sociability are created through co-residence. Weak ties that are loosely connected provide the basis for collective action based on affiliation and a shared sense of meaning and destiny. Minimal forms of courtesy and casual talk create the starting conditions for awareness and mobilization. As suggested earlier, the mobilization process represents, in its formation, the idea of the neighbourhood as community, a coalescing of a shared identity and purpose around an issue or project. When the successful development of the project allows the project to become an amenity in the neighbourhood (school, park, museum, etc.), the element of identity continues to be shared through involvement in the amenity. Urban neighbourhoods are punctured by many external relations that keep residents occupied in their daily lives. If the idea of community only applies to the neighbourhood when common elements are realized by fragments of the neighbourhood, then in other moments, the neighbourhood exists as a community at rest and in waiting. In thinking of the community at rest and in waiting, it is helpful to think about what Hirschman (1984: 42-57, quoted by Abers [2000: 174]) terms “social energy”, elements of collective identity and the episodes of past efforts, successes, and even failures that are capable of being conserved for a long time during which actors may not be involved in collective action. The Neighbourhood and the Organization of Interests: The next chapter will provide in greater detail the political changes at the national level in East Asia and the effects these have on local government and neighbourhood action. In East Asia, governments set up “outposts” at the level of the neighbourhood and these organizations have both the ability for co-optation, but also representation of various grievances (Read, 2012). The presence of such grass-roots level state units does not prevent other neighbourhood groups from forming. Groups are most likely to be created through the loose networks that already exist at the neighhourhood level if individuals come to associate with a particular issue. Oldenburg (1989), for example, mentions that sociable places that draw in a regular crowd (the neighbourhood provides many good examples such as the park, playground, and café) allow co-associates to talk about a set of common topics in their lives and their surroundings, including the possibility of developments that they are not happy about, thus providing an informal forum for discussion. Fine and Harrington (2004: 345) suggest that through mutual association, framing occurs where local issues not only gain some elaboration, but these are framed within a larger context, connecting these issues with “broader ideologies, symbols and movements”. McFarlane’s (2011) notion of the city

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as a learning machine is a useful concept for understanding these forms of referencing as local issues gain some understanding and momentum through their alignment with circulating ideas. And to the extent that such forms of informal associations result in neighbourhood associations, Tilly (1973: 214) suggests that such associations create some stability of purpose via the storage and disposal of pooled resources. These mechanisms allow for the reproduction of belonging, identity, and sociability and work as a placemaking mechanism that builds and reinforces a sense of the local. Neighbourhoods for the City A prime focus of this book concerns the relationship between the neighbourhood and the city. The kinds of urban change I wish to examine start at and have some resolution at the neighbourhood level. This resolution is important for two reasons. To the extent that the outcome of neighbourhood organization and change are amenities that improve the social life of neighbourhoods, then these amenities also benefit the city in the sense that other residents and visitors to the city can have access to these shared amenities. The five case studies I examine cover a range of these amenities, from an alternative school, thrift shop, and food co-operative in the Sungmisan (Seoul) case, heritage sites in Tangbu (Taipei) and Mahakan (Bangkok), and a playground and café in Tampines (Singapore). With the exception of the Sungmisan school and the co-op, which require paid membership, the rest of the examples from these five cases can be termed social amenities because of their ability to be enjoyed by a wider group of visitors, beyond the residents of the neighbourhood. The case of heritage elements in Mahakan and Tangbu, in fact, do more. Because these are unique and represent an important part of the history of the city, their preservation goes some way in defining the nature of their respective cities. The resolution of these projects also relates to the city in another way. The neighbourhood is connected to other civic organizations in the city. The process of mobilization is often attempted with the help of other organizations and the successful outcome becomes an example for other aspirants. Organizers in a successful locality share their experiences in a city learning network. Besides the benefit of sharing amenities and knowledge, such localized participation brings other significant benefits to the city and country. The idea of a neighbourhood and city government partnership allows for local level aspirations to be discussed. The diversity of these aspirations is important. Not everything that is proposed can be realistically executed and the city must form councils to deliberate and select the more

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noteworthy projects that would bring value to the city. The results of these projects create the social liveability of the city, as this adds to the enhanced life spaces of the city. While some amenities of the city, such as museums and botanical gardens, are important in making the city attractive to visitors, it is the amenities of the neighbourhood that matter to its residents. Lastly, as will be detailed in the next chapter, providing opportunities for residents to participate in a collective project allows participants to learn citizenship. This is the case if citizenship requires citizens to contribute to the making of the country. And participation in their neighbourhoods represents a humble start and the project allows for the development of skills and experiences that are essential to an engaged citizenry. Fallov (2010: 790) suggests that the diverse sets of actions initiated by neighbourhoods may represent the “third way” as an “alternative to ‘state-centered’ Keynesian universalism and to ‘market-centred’ neoliberal strategies”. According to Fallov (Ibid.: 791), the third way involves an active citizenship developed through local collective action and capacity building at the neighbourhood level. I am mindful of making such a claim in terms of capacity and broad effects because neighbourhood level actions are sporadic. They are often inward-looking and, most of the time, they are poorly resourced and require support from local governments and NGOs. That said, the stakeholding frame of neighbourhood residents creates a set of more permanent interests that can result in collective actions. These collective actions first change the neighourhood, and through these changes they bring something to the city, as the following cases will show. One key but cautionary argument I will make in this book is that the initiatives created at the neighbourhood level create a fresh alternative to state-driven and market-driven ventures and, in this sense, it is a third way. The second key argument made in this book is that such neighbourhood initiatives do not remain local but impact the city in different ways. As will be introduced in chapter 3, the five cases detailed in this book act as examples that motivate and spur others to follow: as neighbourhood resources and public amenities for other city residents and visitors to learn and enjoy (Langham, Tampines, and Tangbu); as heritage projects that embody a fuller sense of place and city histories (Mahakan and Tangbu); and as social enterprises that are creative alternatives to market and state created ventures (Sungmisan). These represent the additive effects of neighbourhood-level changes on the city. So, understanding how these neighbourhood-level changes are then linked to the city is my way of forging ahead in examining city building and city effects. Therefore, Neighbourhoods for the City is an invitation to focus on neighbourhoods and their varied relations to the city. The position

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I take in this book is to accept the increasing social complexity in cities as the result of globalization, but to insist that at the grass-roots, at the level of neighbourhoods, there is a set of elements in place that enables sociability and sharing in the midst of a growing diversity, which creates the potential for collective action. And urban neighbourhoods, more than their counterparts in the suburbs, have a dynamic relationship with the city and perhaps, as a result of this, face more challenges. Neighbourhoods in large cities are at the forefront of change, in terms of migration, economic restructuring, and as stages for national politics. Urban neighbourhoods are regularly mobilized in city-wide efforts to improve the city, to reduce crime, or to beautify it; at the same time, they face the threat of a range of externally driven efforts: deindustrialization; gentrification; and redevelopment. This dynamic external environment confronting urban neighbourhoods requires them to be active in the shaping of the life spaces of its residents. While other external agencies, including the local government, can help, neighbours also need to act collectively. And to the extent that neighbourhoods are active, they have a special role to play in the building of a liveable city. My last reference to Castells (1983) is to say that our ultimate goals are similar, showing how organizing at the local level can lead to important returns in terms of the quality of urban social life. Castells (1983: 105) highlighted this by using San Francisco to point out that “the city became a space of co-existing interests and cultures, unthreatened by any major project”, most city residents “concentrated on this local existence, on the neighbourhood’s life, and on their home’s comfort and beauty”.

References Abers, R. N. (2000). Inventing Local Democracy. London: LynneRienner. Beaumont, J. (2008). ‘Introduction: Faith-Based Organisations and Urban Social Issues’, Urban Studies, 45(10): 2011-2017. Bowles, S. and H. Gintis (2002). ‘Social Capital and Community Governance’, The Economic Journal, 112(483): F419-F436. Brint, S. (2001). ‘Gemeinschaft Revisited: A Critique and Reconstruction of the Community Concept’, Sociological Theory, 19(1): 1-23. Castells, M. (1983). The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Chaskin, R. J. and S. Garg (1997). ‘The Issue of Governance in Neighborhood-Based Initiatives’, Urban Affairs Review, 32(5): 631-661.

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Clarke, S. E. and G. L. Gaile (1998). The Work of Cities. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press. Cresswell, T. (2004). Place: A Short Introduction. Oxford: Blackwell. Dempsey, N., G. Bramley and C. Brown (2011). ‘The Social Dimensions of Sustainable Development: Defining Social Sustainability’, Sustainable Development, 19: 289-300. Donnelly, P. G. and T. J. Majka (1996). ‘Change, Cohesion, and Commitment in a Diverse Urban Neighborhood’, Journal of Urban Affairs, 18(3): 269-284. Dowding, K., P. John and S. Biggs (1994). ‘Tiebout: A Survey of the Empirical Literature’, Urban Studies, 31(4-5): 767-797. Evans, P. (1996). ‘Government Action, Social Capital and Development: Reviewing the Evidence on Synergy’, World Development, 24(6): 1119-1132. Fallov, M. A. (2010). ‘Community Capacity Building as the Route to Inclusion in Neighbourhood Regeneration?’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 34(4): 789-804. Feijten, P. and M. van Ham (2009). ‘Neighbourhood Change… Reason to Leave?’, Urban Studies, 46(10): 2103-2122. Fine, G. A. and B. Harrington (2004). ‘Tiny Publics: Small Groups and Civil Society’, Sociological Theory, 22(3): 341-356. Gieryn, T. F. (2002). ‘What Buildings Do’, Theory and Society, 31(1): 35-74. Hamel, P., H. Lustiger-Thaler and M. Mayer (2000). ‘Introduction: Urban Social Movement – Local Thematics, Global Spaces, in: P. Hamel, H. Lustiger-Thaler, and M. Mayer (eds), Urban Movements in a Globalising World (pp. 1-22), Abingdon: Routledge. Harney, N. D. (2006). ‘The Politics of Urban Space: Modes of Place-Making by Italians in Toronto’s Neighbourhoods’, Modern Italy, 11(1): 25-42. Henning, C. and M. Lieberg (1996). ‘Strong Ties or Weak Ties? Neighbourhood Networks in a New Perspective’, Scandinavian Housing and Planning Research, 13(1): 3-26. Hirschman, A. (1970). Exit, Voice, and Loyalty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Hirschman, A.O. (1984). Getting Ahead Collectively: Grassroot Experiences in Latin America. New York: Pergamon Press. Ho, K. C. (2006). ‘Where Do Community Iconic Structures Fit in a Globalizing City?’, City, 10(1): 91-100. Hull, R. B., M. Lam and G. Vigo (1994). ‘Place Identity: Symbols of Self in the Urban Fabric’, Landscape and Urban Planning, 28(2): 109-120. Hunter, A. (1979). ‘The Urban Neighbourhood: Its Analytical and Social Contexts’, Urban Affairs Review, 14(3): 267-288.

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Kasarda, J. D. and M. Janowitz (1974). ‘Community Attachment in Mass Society’, American Sociological Review, 39(3): 328-339. Kearns, A. and M. Parkinson (2001). ‘The Significance of Neighbourhood’, Urban Studies, 38(12): 2103-2110. Laurier, E., A. Whyte and K. Buckner (2002). ‘Neighbouring as an Occasioned Activity: Finding a Lost Cat’, Space and Culture, 5(4): 346-367. Lefebvre, H. (1971). Everyday Life in the Modern World. (S. Rabinovitch, Trans.). London: Allen Lane. (Original work published 1968). Lefebvre, H. (1991). The Production of Space. (D. Nicholson-Smith, Trans.). Oxford: Blackwell. (Original work published 1974). Mann, P. (1954). ‘The Concept of Neighbourliness’, American Journal of Sociology 60(2): 163-168. Massey, D. B. (1984). Spatial Divisions of labor: Social Structures and the Geography of Production. London: MacMillan Publishing. Mayer, M. (2006). ‘Manuel Castells’ the City and the Grassroots’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 30(1): 202-206. McCann, E. (2011). ‘Urban Policy Mobilities and Global Circuits of Knowledge: Toward a Research Agenda’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(1): 107-130. McCann, E. and K. Ward (2012). ‘Assembling Urbanism: Following Policies and ‘Studying Through’ the Sites and Situations of Policy Making’, Environment and Planning A, 44(1): 42-51. McFarlane, C. (2011). ‘The City as a Machine for Learning’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(3): 360-376. Merrifield, A. (1993). ‘Place and Space: A Lefebvrian Reconciliation’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 516-531. Neamtu, B. (2012). ‘Measuring the Social Sustainability of Urban Communities: The Role of Local Authorities’, Transylvanian Review of Administrative Sciences, 8(37): 112-127. Source: http://www.rtsa.ro/tras/index.php/tras/article/view/75/71 (Accessed 26 October 2016). Oldenburg, R. (1989). The Great Good Place: Café, Coffee Shops, Community Centers, Beauty Parlors, General Stores, Bars, Hangouts, and How They Get You Through the Day. Saint Paul, MN: Paragon House Publishers. Olds, K. (1995). ‘Globalisation and the Production of New Urban Spaces: Pacific Rim Megaprojects in the Late 20th Century’, Environment and Planning A, 27(11): 1713-1743. Osborne, B. S. (2001). ‘Landscapes, Memory, Monuments, and Commemoration: Putting Identity in Its Place’, Canadian Ethnic Studies, 33(3):39-77. Source: http://epe. lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/300/citizenship_and_immigration_canada_metropolis/ landscapes_memory-e/putinden.pdf (Accessed 26 October 2016).

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Permentier, M., M. Van Ham and G. Bolt (2007). ‘Behavioural Responses to Neighbourhood Reputations’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 22(2): 199-213. Peterson, P. E. (1981). City Limits. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Read, B. (2012). Roots of the State: Neighborhood Organization and Social Networks in Beijing and Taipei. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Storper, M. and R. Walker (1983). ‘The Theory of Labour and the Theory of Location’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 7(1): 1-43. Suttles, G. D. (1984). ‘The Cumulative Texture of Local Urban Culture’, American Journal of Sociology, 283-304. Tiebout, C. M. (1956). ‘A Pure Theory of Local Expenditures’, The Journal of Political Economy, 416-424. Tilly, C. (1973). ‘Do Communities Act?’, Sociological Inquiry, 43(3‐4): 209-238.

2

The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia1 Abstract This chapter considers the broader political, economic, and cultural changes that impact cities and their neighbourhoods. Large cities are the engines of economic growth for the country, the repositories of a country’s or a region’s culture and heritage, the seat of government, and the centre stage of political action. These changes impact the city and make their way into the neighbourhood. And the capacity of neighbourhoods to act, in turn, also depends on the ways they are treated by city governments. This treatment is moderated by a number of political processes happening at the metropolitan level: democratic movements and the decentralization of authority; the post-political tendencies of the state; and the metropolitanization of politics. Keywords: urban politics, democratic movements, government-neighbourhood links, post-politics, urban economy, urban heritage

If neighbourhoods are more active in their capacity to engage city governments, it is because of political developments in this region of the world. Within Pacific Asia, South Korea and Taiwan, currently represent a historical moment in which democracy, place, and politics matter more than ever before (Park, 2008; Read, 2012; Chuang, 2013). In the context of Pacific Asia, it is important to note the role of the state in economic development. Rodan (1996: 4) calls the state the “Midwife” of industrial capitalism in the countries of Japan, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan. Scholarship has shifted in the three decades since the developmental 1 Pacific Asia is defined as the part of Asia on the west coast of the Pacific Ocean (Zhang, 2003: 1) and broadly encompasses the regions of East and Southeast Asia (Borthwick, 1992: 4; Douglass, 2002: 53). I will be highlighting the two component sub-regions of East Asia and Southeast Asia in this chapter.

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch02

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states literature emerged. Much of the rethinking has to do with the changing economic role of the state as well as the growing democracy movements in East Asia, particularly South Korea and Taiwan.

1

Cities as Engines for Growth and Loci for Consumption

Scott and Storper (2015:6) highlighted the role of economic synergies in explaining the foundation and growth of cities. These synergies are subsumed under the concept of agglomeration and they cite Duranton and Puga’s (2004) useful elaboration of agglomeration as involving the mechanisms of sharing, matching, and learning activities. Daniels, Ho, and Hutton (2012) noted how agglomeration mechanisms continue to play an important role in creating significant economic interdependences that favour the primate and capital cities of Pacific Asia. These largest cities have indeed been the loci of widespread economic change in the last 50 years, functioning as the main engines of their respective countries’ economic growth. For example, in the industrial development phase in the 1970s and 1980s, Fuchs and Pernia (1987) and Krongkaew (1996) have shown that the largest cities in Southeast Asia tended to attract the bulk of foreign direct investments. This, in turn, led to a division between the more traditional forms of manufacturing, such as cottage and primary processing industries, which have been spread out over smaller cities and towns, and the new forms of economic activities brought in by foreign direct investments, which concentrate in the largest cities. The largest cities often become sites for the location of mega projects, such as office complexes and convention centres, projects that are encouraged by national and regional governments in the hope of making their cities more competitive in relation to rival locations in other countries. By the 1990s, as land costs and wage rates rose as a result of economic growth, the largest cities in Pacific Asia were transformed into business service centres supporting production activities, which were now more geographically spread out. This reference to business services points to another classic term in urban studies: ‘the global city’. Made popular by Sassen (1991), the term is used to reference the new role of intermediation played by particular cities that allow the global economy to function effectively. In a recent reassessment of global cities, Sassen (2016) offers two reminders about city development, which Scott and Storper (2015) also note. The first is that global economic functions also spur the development of local economic activities (Sassen, 2016: 98; Scott and Storper, 2015: 7), which allows us to better understand

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the nature of these economic synergies. The second, and more significant for this book, is that both Sassen (2016: 100-101) and Scott and Stroper (2015: 13) were adamant in refuting the suggestion of a convergence or urban development towards a set of essential features. Economic synergies and intermediation may be ways of describing the way some cities develop, but as Sassen (2016) and Scott and Stroper (2015) take pains to point out, the national and local elements that define these interdependencies create different types of agglomerations. One such attempt at differentiation is Hutton’s (2005, 55-57) examination of the different service functions played by East Asian cities. For instance, Hutton highlights Hong Kong, Seoul and Singapore as major f inancial and business centres and Taipei and Bangkok at a lower level but hosting important regional business and industrial services (see Table 3.1, p. 57). Daniels (2012, pp. 20-21) provided a complementary classification by city prominence for the depth of financial services (Table 2.3, p. 21). Singapore and Hong Kong were described as having “broad and deep” representation of financial services at a global scale, Seoul having diversified financial services on a regional scale, Taipei being more of a specialist at the regional scale and Bangkok as a contender at the regional scale. More recent empirical work by Belderbos, Du and Goerzen (2017) takes the perspective of the locational choices of multinational companies and the need for international connectivity. Hong Kong and Singapore emerged as key nodes in the network of cities (see Figure 2.1). Another study by Barkham, Schoenmaker and Daams (2017) takes the perspective of tall office developments in gateway cities, highlighting the role of advanced producer services, the need for greater connectivity as driving the demand for central area office developments. Within their countries, these cities tend to control a major share of service activities. Taipei accounted for 56 percent of all producer service employments in Taiwan in 2001 (Ching, 2005, p. 43) while Seoul accounted for 32.6 percent of all producer services employees in 2008 (Kim and Han, 2012: 145). The shift from manufacturing to services represents an important change in the city’s occupational structure with a growing urban professional class. Lury (1996) has linked the presence of professional autonomy and the increasing significance of the peer group and shared professional culture to attempts at identity building against other class fragments, with lifestyle and consumption as the primary elements for cultivating this identity. More importantly, Lury (1996: 105) argues that consumption and taste vary according to the nature of work: bureaucrats have an unremarkable culture, public sector professionals display an aesthetic lifestyle and high culture,

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while private sector professionals have a postmodern lifestyle. Likewise, Thrift and Leyshon’s (1992) In the Wake of Money examines the professionals in financial services, the money they make and the money they spend, in the reproduction of life chances. Thus, Thrift and Leyshon’s (1992: 295) note that the rich spend “their money in tasteful ways, that is, in ways which would accrue social and cultural capital for themselves and their children”. This is a strategy for the rich, whether they amass their wealth through financial services, or any other economic activity. Urban professionals in f inance, accounting, law and other business services join the growing urban middle class formed by the successful economic development in East Asia (Hsiao, 1993; Robison and Goodman, 1996). The existence of such groups fuels a market for an increasing array of consumer durables and luxury items. Thus, alongside the significance of East Asian cities as the main machinery for realising the nation’s economic future, is their role as sites for consumption. Repeating Sassen’s (1991) point that the producer services role of global cities have in turn created an urban professional class whose consumption tendencies have led to the formation of an urban glamour zone, Huang (2004: 33) argues for Hong Kong that city managers promote this glamour zone such that this becomes the “only visible space”. Reinforcing this visibility is the increasing tendency for capital and large cities to be promoted as centers for tourism, given their full range of cultural and leisure amenities. The shift to services in the urban economy has led to new types of economic activities in the inner city. The new economy of cities represents the reformation of craft, high technology, business services, and design economic activities in the “commingling of the social and economic worlds of the inner city” (Hutton, 2008: 7). The presence of these activities in the inner city is an outcome of several factors. The need for speed and availability of varying skill sets as critical elements creates the conditions for local concentrations of specialist, professional and service f irms which organise around projects which are managed on the basis of personal networks (Grabher, 2002). Grabher (2002: 257) goes on to suggest that these collaborative ties can offer a high degree of stability and continuity over time. Grabher’s work on project ecologies suggests important collaborative ties around creative projects in the city, going some way to suggest the concentrations of such professions in the city. Another reason suggested by Lloyd (2010) is how some forms of creative work are supported by the marginal subcultures which exist in the inner city and how these types of production make their way to more conventional design, advertising and multimedia f irms. The

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city provides important inspiration for aesthetic creativity and allows for communities and networks of creative workers to emerge (Drake, 2003: 518). Besides these factors, the older housing stock, coupled with their co-location in less desirable parts of the city, create the lower rents necessary for smaller startup new economy f irms (Ho, 2009). These different activities come together in the built environment of large cities. The ongoing inter-city competition has resulted in city governments being pushed into playing a more entrepreneurial role (Harvey, 1989). And governments respond by refashioning the downtown core in attempts at place marketing, where new offices, work complexes and high-end residential complexes are planned to attract both capital and a professional class. Business visitors and leisure-related urban tourism play increasingly crucial roles, spurring the growth of hotels, convention centers and an array of service and retail related developments catering to both the professional and the visitor class. It is this set of activities which creates new tensions for the city as the desire for city governments to attract new transnational activities and highly skilled workers requires large place marketing projects (Olds, 1995). As such, these mega projects are created not only for their functions as offices, commercial outlets or living spaces, the symbolic value of these projects are just as important, as these collectively project the city’s status, which is now seen as a requirement for winning global investment in an era of intensifying intercity competition across national boundaries (Newman and Thornley, 2011; Marshall, 2013). And as manufacturing moves to lower cost alternatives, governments have responded with higher technology strategies2 and the building of technology corridors and science parks, which invariably benefit the largest cities because these are where the highly skilled labour and top universities are (Matthews and Hu, 2007; Sohn and Kenney, 2007; Wong, Ho and Singh, 2007; Ho, 2014). The entry of these new business services and high technology activities into the city invariably brings, with state encouragement, new transnational workers, adding greater diversity to the city (Ong, 2007). These socio-economic trends place significant redevelopment pressures on the city center and old inner city (and often working class, minority) neighbourhoods, where residents and small businesses face displacements from such redevelopment and gentrif ication efforts. The cases studies introduced later will capture these tensions. 2 Perhaps Hong Kong is an exception, see Baark and So (2006) and Thailand, a weak case of technology and innovation policies, see Brimble and Doner, 2007.

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Cities as Repositories of Culture and Heritage

The impetus to preserve heritage in the city is driven politically by how culture and nationhood is part of the political project of the country and economically by how heritage buildings are increasingly seen as viable places to live and work in and also as urban tourism attractions. The five cities chosen in this study, to varying degrees, host an important function as repositories of culture and heritage. They do this for three reasons. Firstly, compared to Europe and the United States, nationalism came late and is essentially a post World War Two phenomenon. Several countries experienced a recent history of war, and others continue to have turbulent domestic and regional conflicts. The experimentation to search for an appropriate political system continues to be an ongoing project for new nations in Pacific Asia, along with its attendant tensions and conflicts. Capital cities and large regional cities therefore play a significant role in this exercise, as the base of political parties, and as the staging areas for new leaders of the country. The political development of a country is captured as the heritage of nationalism and in the symbols of nationhood (Leitner and Kang, 1999; Salim and Kombaitan, 2009). Secondly, although nationalism is a recent phenomenon, urbanism has a much longer history. Cities in Pacific Asia were sites of kingdoms and religious complexes (especially Bangkok, see Figure 5.1). Therefore the creation of new symbolic forms as legitimising devices for political power raises the question of how these sit among a powerful range of older cultural and religious symbols marking the city. In Pacific Asia, this point is important because many of its largest cities are also capital cities. Such cities have a strong heritage layer in their built environment, which weaves together the narratives of place, identity, power, community and nationhood. And thirdly, residents in the largest cities have also become more diverse, primarily the result of rapid economic growth in the last three decades. These cities are home to an expanding urban mosaic of rural migrants, a significant transnational sector comprising professionals as well as labourers and service workers, an expanding middle class, and the urban poor. These changes have brought into existence a more complex form of urban politics to these cities and at the same time, require a set of symbols to fashion a unifying identity amidst the growing diversity. Heritage at the local level also has a role in the placemaking efforts of communities. Graham (2002: 1008) drawing on Lowenthal (1985, 1998) highlights the power of heritage elements in both respecting and providing a narrative to the past and in so doing, provides its proponents “with meaning, purpose and value”. Harney’s (2006) three forms of placemaking can also be

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applied to heritage. Heritage in placemaking has a material form with its associated monumentality. And when heritage is part of the living culture of the group, it has a quotidian element as well as a calendrical element in the form of everday practices, rituals and festivals. The monumental and calendrical facets of heritage in turn have the capacity to connect particular locales and groups to the larger city. Heritage as a potential economic resource has become of increasing interest to city governments in East Asia for a variety of interrelated reasons. First, as manufacturing now has a reduced presence in the more developed economies of East Asia, city governments have responded by shifting their attention to the cultural economy as a new economic strategy (Kong, Gibson, Khoo and Semple, 2006: 174; Daniels, Ho and Hutton, 2012: 3). And tied to the decline of manufacturing is the emerging policy discourse of urban regeneration and of the role of heritage elements in this discourse. Moore (2002: 325) for example, discusses urban regeneration in relation to the reuse of brownfield sites which are defined as “disused, underused, obsolete land parcels which assume these characteristics as a result of the political-economic processes created by industrial restructuring”. A set of socio-economic conditions are associated with such sites: unemployment, social exclusion, and worsening social conditions (Lang, 2005: 2). Given this mix, Furbey (1999) points out that urban regeneration conveys with it “quasi-religious expressions of hope, enthusiasm” (p. 430), and is an elastic concept which appeals to different constituencies (pp. 420, 429). Introducing an economic element in the process narrows the range of possible options embarked in the name of regeneration. The main benefit of such entertainment-led regeneration lies in its potential to strengthen the ability of city place marketing efforts through the creation of yet another facet to the city’s character (McCarthy, 2002: 106). The growing popularity of heritage in the cultural economy is in turn tied to a changing demand arising from the growth of an educated urban middle class increasingly attuned to the role of heritage elements in a deeper appreciation of the city. This is in turn tied to consumption and lifestyle elements in urban heritage as adaptive re-use of factory and other heritage buildings in gentrifying precincts (Zhong, 2012; Currier, 2012; Kong, Ching and Chou, 2015). While the early phases in such gentrifying precincts may be driven by artists in search of low rent studios, the convenience of the inner city and a desire for a more urban lifestyle, subsequent developments of such precincts are more consumption oriented due largely to their popularity with different urban population segments: middle class youths and urban professionals and tourists.

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With more economically driven place marketing attempts at heritage development and local attempts at linking heritage to placemaking, heritage becomes an important cultural resource. The differential approach to heritage is captured by Kong’s (2007: 384) distinction between peopleoriented versus place-oriented strategies of cultural production of new urban spaces as well as Lin and Hsing’s (2009) contrast between community-based strategies and entrepreneurial culture strategies. In both distinctions, a people-oriented or community-based strategy in heritage development reflects the placemaking aspect in which heritage development is initiated by a local group. Distinguishing cultural uses of heritage from economic uses (product oriented and entrepreneurial culture strategies) is an important step in understanding the influence of the stakeholders involved and the impacts of such projects. There is the ever present danger of allowing developmental pressures to overwhelm the cultural and social considerations associated with place. Loftman and Nevin (1995) for instance, coined the term “the prestige model” to describe a process which gives the leading role to the private sector in redevelopment while the government plays a supportive guiding role. Their analysis of projects in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and 1990s indicated that such property-led regenerative strategies failed to help the poor in these areas. Their position (1995: 311-312) for urban initiatives to generate socially just outcomes point them in the direction of neighbourhood-led initiatives. This danger should make local authorities work harder to ensure a better matching of outcomes. In this respect, Kavaratzis’s (2017: 99) call for a participatory branding that links residents with visitors through a sharing economy is a particularly useful way of thinking through the sharing and mutual benefits of heritage amenities in the city. Semm (2011; 85) provides a useful approach to think about cultural policies and urban regeneration by focusing on “how the institutionally valued neighbourhood milieu is arranged”. Such an approach will consider how the new elements are introduced into the neighbourhood, how these elements sit with the existing elements, and whether the process brings into play further changes which may have implications on the neighbourhood and the city.

3

Cities as stages for political action

In democratizing societies, there is evidence to suggest that governments do pay attention to the participation of its citizens and to the non-economic

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goals of society. Sellers and Walks (2013: 10) observe that the “metropolitanisation of politics” occurs when conditions increasingly require national parties to take urban constituencies into account. These conditions are most likely to develop when there are growing democratic tendencies. A significant part of the democraticizing process involves a number of institutional changes, such as between the legislature, the executive and the judiciary, and formal access in terms of the degree to which direct democracy procedures are institutionalised and a proportional electoral system allowing for more political parties. Spatially, it means a level of decentralization to lower levels to allow for greater participation (Kübler and Heinelt, 2005: 21). This refocusing of state and power, especially at the city level, can be more systematically explained through supply of and demand for localised power. On the supply side, the strong base of localised politics occurs precisely because of the more intimate scale of involvement between politicians and their constituents, compared to the national scale. While national politics and policy are important for the country and internationally, politics and policy at the city level become a sustaining context for the connection between politicians, civic groups and the people. For these reasons, the initial steps to a wider democratic movement begins at the local level “where local institutions of democracy are the most accessible locations for political skills to be acquired and practised” (Pratchett, 2004: 360). In East Asia, Taiwan is a good case of how a new political party lacking organisational strength and financial resources used the strategy of first gaining a foothold in executive positions in key cities (Lee, 1999: 113). While the urban represents the seedbeds for more national political changes, the reverse may also be true, that social movements at the national level can also bring about new spaces for local political action, as Castells (1983: 223) observed for Spain in the 1960s. On the demand side, the increasing disparities of opportunities and risks require a more territorialized system of politics to amplify a localised set of voices and garner resources to allow for a more even balance within the country (Savitch and Kantor, 2002, chapter 1). And to the extent that the policies of the national state have uneven effects, cities and sub-regions which have been disadvantaged by the central state’s policies may also be organised sub-regionally to counter the central state’s regulatory policies (Park, 2008: 46). At the city level, the decentralization comes from the expansion of democracy and is also critically linked to elected mayoral positions (Heinelt and Kübler, 2005: 191-192). In a more participative society, political leadership becomes an important factor in mobilisation around visions and agendas and cooperation among an expanding network of civil society groups. And

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if the mayoral position becomes a possible avenue for higher office, then this creates a way of understanding the initial connections between the acquisition of political skills in the context of the city, the sharpening of progressive policies in consultation with various civic groups, an exercise of charisma and leadership in bridging different societal segments, and an open pathway to national leadership. This shift from the national to the urban scale is important. Lyons and Lowery (1989) point out that fragmented systems3 have smaller residential bases. Therefore they do not have the scale to allow for a range of engagement on many of the issues of concern to residents. In contrast, consolidated governmental systems in larger cities, to the extent that these promote the use of constructive problem-solving arrangements, allow residents who have fostered strong local attachment opportunities for participation and support. With this evidence, Kübler and Heinelt (2005: 12) point to the role of consolidated metropolitan institutions, by creating genuine opportunities for residents to participate, “work to foster and enhance democratic citizenship”.

4

Democratic Movements and State Decentralization of Power, and Post Political tendencies

The industrialization experience of South Korea, Taiwan and Singapore in the 1970s, and to a lesser extent Hong Kong, was the result of a strong state-led effort (Amsden, 1989; Chiu, Ho and Lui, 1997; Cheng, Haggard and Kang, 1998). In the process, a strong bureaucracy was developed to manage economic development. The establishment of a stronger, more advanced economy and a better educated citizenry resulted in national democracy movements which are driven by what Hage (1996) terms as governmental belonging, a type of nationalism in which there is a widely held belief that citizenship is tied to the right to govern the city and country. It is important to note that while Europe is looking at a more decentralized state apparatus requiring greater efforts at governance and coordination in order to create a more effective participative and delivery system (see for example, Heinelt and Kübler, 2005; Sellers and Walks, 2013), in East Asia, the focus 3 The backstory is the fruitful collaboration between Lyons and Lowery, who examined consolidated government systems (governments in larger cities where the governments are more bureaucratic) versus fragmented systems (smaller cities and townships where residential involvement is presumably easier) as a way to answer a range of questions raised in public administration around the type of urban governments and the involvement of their residents (see Lyons and Lowery, 1989).

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is on a strong post-independent national state system, which is gradually decentralizing in the wake of democratic movements (see for example, Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization [2006] on reforms in South Korea; Painter [2004] on democratic movements and administrative reforms in Taiwan). To the extent that decentralization has led to an increased metropolitan responsibility to raise local sources of revenue, along with reduced revenue transfers from the central government, this creates the conditions for urban neoliberal tendencies, where city governments become more entrepreneurial (Hill, Park and Saito, 2012: 20). This new type of urban managerialism has been elaborated in the recent and growing literature on post politics, which makes three interrelated points on politics and the city. First the focus on state management of its constituents. Swyngedouw (2005: 1995; 1997; 1998) highlighted the horizontal elaboration of different interest based actors working in collaboration with the state, a shift to more informal techniques of government, but at the same time, new standards of responsibilities and benchmarking are imposed on such actors as a condition for their participation and access to resources. Secondly, the goal of state actor strategies has been to secure the cooperation of the constituents in achieving a consensus outcome. Broadly, these strategies have been focussed on developing and maintaining a more consensual mode which replaces a more contentious, negotiation, bargaining mode characteristic of the democratic process (Deas, 2014: 2308). Moreover, the positive features of tolerance, discussion and conciliation, which are central to the deliberative process, would have been displaced by post-political strategies of expertise and technology (Clarke and Cochrane, 2013: 16). The process effectively “obscures the places and processes of decision-making” as private-public partnerships push local states to a pro-development, neoliberal stance and referendum voting works against the minority (Allmendinger and Haughton, 2012: 98-100). From the parties which have been silenced, there is a displacement of various positions which are perceived by their parties as proper and appropriate (Rosol, 2014: 76). Thirdly, if this form of cooperation is secured in different policy domains, the result will be the immobilisation of grassroots efforts, a post-political development in which dissent and protest are diminished and left to a residual collection of disenfranchised voices that are “rare, random and radical” (Beveridge and Koch, 2017: 31). The neo-liberal orientation of the state, its post political strategies, and state capacity needs more elaboration in the case of Asia. In a review of the developmental state literature, Yeung (2017: 84) noted that state developmental objectives have changed from strong home states nurturing

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weak domestic firms to weakened home states facilitating globally competitive national firms. Did the scaling back of state roles in development occur concurrently with a weakened state and the expansion of neoliberal practices? Hill, Park and Saito (2012: 16-17) noted that the Asian financial crises of the 1990s led to a reassessment of a freer market as a solution. The democracy movements in the 1980s and 1990s led to a challenge to the authority of the developmental state, particularly in regard to the close relationships between the government and industrial organisations. Park and Saito (2012: 294) are, however, careful to point out that the presence of neo-liberal practices should not be taken to mean the victory of neoliberalism over state-led developmentalism. Several of the case studies in the Locating Neoliberalism collection indicate that the state developmentalist regime is largely intact. Nor should the presence of a weakened state be the prime condition for neoliberalism. One chapter in Locating Neoliberalism in particular, compares healthcare reforms in Singapore and Hong Kong and showed that the strong state in Singapore was able to push for neoliberal reforms whereas the need for popular support for the legitimacy of the Hong Kong government inhibited health reforms there (Chiu, Ho and Lui, 2012). More generally, evidence of the developmentalist state legacy can also be seen in how governments manage the welfare system. Holliday (2000) has used the term “productivist welfare capitalism” to underscore the emphasis placed by East Asian governments on tying welfare provisions to building legitimacy and supporting production, arguing that “it is in the ways in which they pursue that objective (social solidarity and regime legitimation) that sets them apart” (p. 716). Kim (2017: 237) points out that given an existing strong state, but also strong industry and growing civil society, the analytical task at hand is not to see the state-market dimension as a singular type, but as “divergent and distinctive roles of the developmental state and its relation to the market and civil society”. City management tendencies in conditions of strong state, strong industry and growing civil society raise important questions for how the local state balances the neoliberal goals of market-driven economic growth in city building with the social goals of the city in general and neighbourhood attempts at collective action in particular.

5

Relationships between State and Local Neighbourhoods

Aside from building state legitimacy through general welfare provisions, legitimacy is also supported through the government’s relationships with

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residents in city neighbourhoods. Benjamin Read’s (2012) Roots of the State demonstrates how in several East Asian countries, state-sponsored neighborhood associations facilitate the cultivation of legitimacy at the grassroots level through the local units of the state and the networks these engender. Read (2012: 4) also cautions against a one-sided, top down view of state control and argues that such associations “serve as an important (sometimes the most central and vibrant) nexus of neighbourhood life”. Thus, the East Asian context requires us to acknowledge the role of the state at the most local of levels. At the same time, it is important for us to understand the conditions under which these organisations and the policies guiding them may be mobilised by locals to support the life of their communities. In other instances, the representatives of such organisations and their local support base may have visions different from what other residents want. Governments in East Asia develop networks which reach to the grassroots of the city. Although there is a co-optation element in such relations, within these networks, support and resources enable a minimal form of collective life to flourish. It is also important to note that this is not sufficient for local collective action. From the point of view of the grassroots, residents and small businesses demand a certain responsiveness from city governments. If a strong set of city wide local associations (including neighbourhood groups) develops, this represents one source for the development of an engaged set of urban policies and the creation of social amenities which improve the social life and well-being of the neighbourhood. This represents an important grassroots version of the liveability of the city.

6

Urban Developmental Pressures on Neigbourhoods

If the processes occurring within the neighbourhood are externally driven, this requires tracing these processes to a larger national and regional context. Large Pacific Asian cities form critical nodes in the development of their countries. As motors of the national economy, these cities are locations of new economic activities as well as established agglomerations of industry and services. In their roles as the seat of national and regional governments, these cities become significant stages for political action and change. In culture and tradition, cities function as depositories of the nation’s or region’s culture and heritage. The built heritage and intangible craft traditions, cultural rituals and festivals become a focal point for the national and regional identities.

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In turn, neighbourhoods in these cities are impacted in contradictory ways, stemming from the economic pressures in these cities, especially in terms of threats from redevelopment and gentrification. At the same time, cities in their economic roles attract a variety of migrants and the city appeals to neighbours to do more to help integrate newcomers to the city. The material and immaterial elements of especially inner-city neighbourhoods often are part and parcel of the city’s heritage, and these become sources of pride and are represented in the urban heritages of the city. Neighbourhoods are then implicated in both placemaking and place marketing efforts. These changes and demands require neighbourhoods to be active in maintaining the life-spaces (Friedmann, 2011) of local areas. At the same time, the collective projects which diverse neighbourhoods embark on may require some collaboration from local governments in terms of regulatory approvals and funding. The response of local city governments are in turn tied to larger political developments, particularly in terms of the democratic changes shaping parts of East Asia. In order to understand change and resistance at the neighbourhood level and the support these have from local government, it is essential to develop a more systematic understanding of the roles large cities play in the global and national economy, as well as the capacity of city governments to manage the diverse pressures in cities.

7

Summary and Introduction to the Five Fieldsite Cities

The five cities that were chosen for the study – Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei – reflect the political and economic developments discussed in this chapter. Figure 2.1 presents these cities in Pacific Asia region, along with their competitiveness scores4, costs of labour5 and urban populations6. The key points include: a The changing political system brought about by democratic movements in some Pacific Asian countries, notably Korea and Taiwan. The historical context and a deeper understanding of the capacities and inclinations 4 UNHabitat, Global Urban Competitiveness Report, page 69, “Table on Annual Ranking of General Global Urban Competitivess 2017-2018” Source: https://unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/GUCR2017-2018-Short-Version.pdf (accessed 4 December 2017). 5 EIU, City Data, Salaries and Disposable Income (23). 6 UNHabitat, State of the World’s Cities (2012/2013), Table 4 “City Population and City Population Growth of Urban Agglomerations with 750,000 or more in 2009”, page 152-168.

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of the local state are thus critical viewpoints to understand the success of local collective action. State action, which was a hallmark of the guided industrial development of Pacific Asia, is necessary to allow local governments to support neighbourhood ventures. The growing democratic movements also result in a local government being more responsive to aspirations at the neighbourhood level. Bangkok, Seoul and Taipei have the largest metropolitan populations in their respective countries. The urban electorate therefore becomes an important political force in determining the political developments of the country. The case of Sungmisan, Seoul (see chapter 4) and Tangbu, Taiwan (see chapter 6) show the influence democraticization movements, the metropolitanization of politics, and the power of political participation via neighbourhood action. b Three of the selected cities, Bangkok, Seoul and Taipei are also capital cities. Capital cities function as the depositories of the culture of the nation and these dynamics are especially clear to see for Bangkok. The development of Rattanakosin into a civic and cultural district has impacts on the lives of residents at Mahakan (see chapter 5). The development of Rattanakosin also highlights the tension between the national goal of preserving culture for Thais and the economic goals of international tourism. c Urban competitiveness remains the hallmark of the neoliberal tendencies of metropolitan governments for reasons discussed in section 1 of this chapter. As indicated in Figure 2.1, Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul rank high in urban competitiveness and this reflects the attention their governments pay to the economic development of their cities. The case of Langham Place, Hong Kong (see chapter 7) will illustrate how city government led redevelopment and regeneration of the inner-city combine with place-marketing attempts to economically sustain the competitiveness of the city. d Labour costs as a key component of competitiveness is also significant. As shown in Figure 2.1, Singapore and Seoul have the highest labour costs among cities in Pacific Asia and rely on imported labour to keep costs from spiralling even higher. Singapore in particular has embarked on neighbourhood bonding as a way of ensuring integration among its increasingly diverse population (see Chapter 8).

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Figure 2.1  Field site cities in Pacific Asia

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The Logic of Comparisons in MultiSited Research Designs Abstract Multi-Sited Research Designs raise the important issue of how we can design and implement a comparative research design framework in urban studies. Three multi-sited approaches (grounded, analytic, and comparative case) are discussed with each accompanied by an appropriate Asian case study as illustration. Having discussed these approaches, the chapter lays out a number of useful guidelines for qualitative researchers to consider: an inductive versus a deductive orientation; the role of local researchers in providing a deeper context for case selection; the link between sites and the wider country context; the trade-offs between studying single and multiple cases; and a note on the informant’s role. Keywords: Multi-Sited Research approaches, grounded theory, analytic ethnography, comparative case approach, field site-city links, Asian urban research

1 Introduction I did not know it then, but this book started in 2003 with the decision to pay attention to a site in Bangkok. I had finished an interview with a planner from the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority during my sabbatical at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand. The focus of that interview was city competitiveness and liveability and I had asked for examples of local government intervention. At the end of the interview, the planner suggested I visit Fort Sumen Park in the old Bangkok district, where the city has created a park in the midst of a congested inner city area, opening up a view of the Chao Praya River. The Sumen Park was indeed a precious intervention. With land acquired from an old government warehouse, the park was completed in time for the king’s birthday. It is well used and visitors enjoy a nice break under

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch03

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the shade of the trees. Fort Sumen Park affords pedestrians along Phra Athit Road a tantalizing and unhindered glimpse of the river, a rare view since much of the Chao Phraya River on the old quarter side of Bangkok is blocked by buildings. After visiting this park, it made sense to walk to Fort Mahakan, the only other remaining fort that was part of the old walled city of Rattanakosin, a short distance from Fort Sumen. When I got to Fort Mahakan, a different reception awaited me. There were banners in Thai and English. Something was going on and the villagers were watching me! When they saw I was an outsider, they sent a young man to meet me. I later came to know him as Kiet.1 When they found out that I was a visiting professor from Chulalongkorn, he proceeded to explain to me that the village was fighting eviction by the government. This was the start of my project. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) had unwittingly introduced me to my field site. The Bangkok case was the f irst and, of course, Singapore, my home country, would be the most familiar (Lofland and Lofland, 1984: 8). I had two disparate cases that were interesting in their own right, but my focus was on developing an understanding of cities in Pacific Asia (Northeast and Southeast Asia) at the neighbourhood level, understanding collective action, and how this links local residential groups to local governments and other stakeholders. The need to stay local within urban settings requires the researcher to confront the multiple linkages that are embedded within each study site. This problem is highlighted by Foster and Kemper (2002: 138) in their review of urban anthropology fieldwork practices: “where, faced with the choice between examining the internal structure of the group or the relationships of its members to the rest of the urban population, most anthropologists, following the community study approach, [have] chosen the former”. For anthropologists, the “community study approach” often favours ethnographic research: developing close personal ties with the people studied, a reliance on informants, and, where possible, living on site for an extended period of time. Such fieldwork choices necessarily mean a decision to keep the unit of observation down to a manageable level. The time needed to develop an intimate knowledge of the local area often involves research trade-offs. Suttles (1976: 14) points out the inherent difficulty of maintaining the intimate level of familiarity at the local level on the one hand and linking such observations to the wider society on the other. Hannerz (1980: 54) also 1 Pseudonym.

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highlighted this issue by reference to Matza’s (1969: 70-71) observation that Chicago school ethnographers “were blind to overlap and connection”, adding that later ethnographers shared this blindness by exaggerating the isolation of the social world that they studied.2 Case studies of single sites have been valued for their ability to uncover the complexities on the ground and for their role in developing an understanding of the local world. However, since the focus of urban studies lies precisely in the examination of the connections of the subject to its external relations, can the ability to generate insights be enhanced by the addition of more sites? In other words, will the mindful addition of more sites add an important variation in terms of our understanding of the neighbourhood-city relationship? And what are the key considerations in developing such a strategy? How can effective urban fieldwork be achieved beyond a single case?

2

Three Multi-Sited Approaches

A key consideration in a multi-sited design is the conceptualization of the relationship between sites. And as Hannerz (2003: 206) points out, in multi-case or multi-site studies, the relationships between the cases are as important as the relationships within the site or case. In particular, a number of methodological issues need to be worked out: the relationship between the nature of the research questions and explanation and how this is influenced by the unit of analysis; the levels of sampling; principle of selection; and order of selection. The aim, as expressed in Chabal and Daloz (2006: 171), is to “seek to devise a method able to account both for singular experiences and to provide a means of contrasting their evolution”. What options are there to develop a conceptually meaningful comparative research strategy? This problem is addressed by examining three approaches to qualitative comparative research and describing three studies whose research strategies approximate these approaches. By introducing these three approaches, I aim to show the association of particular research strategies 2 The collaborative ethnography approach explicitly takes a community position by suggesting co-conceptualization with local community participants (see Lassiter, 2005: 17). While this approach brings the researcher closer to the worldview of the community, it does not really address the “isolation” issue if the community, in a globalizing world, is increasingly influenced by external forces that local participants may be partially aware of. We return to this issue when the role of the informant is discussed in the concluding segment of the chapter.

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with epistemological positions and how these positions influence the way a comparative project is conceived.3 Walton (1992: 124) remarked that “case studies […] drift without anchor unless they are incorporated into some typology of general processes, made causally explicit within the case, and ultimately referred back to the universe which the case represents”. The key in comparative analysis lies in anchoring the cases within a conceptual thread that provides a logic to pull these cases together. If need be, the comparative logic would show what new cases to add to complete the comparative analysis. Working through these three approaches will help develop a set of guiding principles. a

Grounded Approaches

The link between epistemological position and research strategy is best demonstrated in the famous grounded theory inductive approach proposed by Glaser and Strauss (1967). The objective of grounded theory is to generate new insights from data rather than to verify hypotheses (which form the key objective of deductive approaches). The primacy given to data informs the approach to selecting cases, which requires the researcher to keep the task of concept formation undeveloped before entering the field. Glaser and Strauss state their position clearly in the following passage: The sociologist may begin the research with a partial framework of “local” concepts, designating few principal or gross features of the structure and processes in the situations that he will study […]. These concepts give him a beginning foothold on his research. Of course, he does not know the relevancy of these concepts to his problem – this problem must emerge […]. (Ibid.: 45)

This call to keep pre-conceptualizations4 undeveloped and let theorizing emerge from the field has several procedural implications. Firstly, the role of literature is relatively less important to the research endeavour. The focus on discovery leads to a healthy scepticism with regard to existing theory. In arguing against the opportunistic use of theory, 3 The main ideas outlined in these three approaches were developed in 2008 as a working paper (see Ho, 2008). 4 To keep the researcher’s mind unhindered by existing concepts does not mean, however, an unfocused research strategy. Glaser and Strauss (1967: 59) distinguish their research strategy from the ethnographic approach by arguing that the grounded approach selectively collects data to aid concept elaboration rather than full data on a group.

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Glaser and Strauss’s (Ibid.: 4-5) starting point in grounded theorizing is that data should discipline theory.5 Suttles (1976: 1) makes a similar remark in justifying the position taken by ethnographers that “theory is sometimes thought to distort or obscure one’s native, or somehow unguided, capacity for observation”. This position is aptly captured in the following passage by O’Brien (2006: 28): [The research strategy] encourages us to shop for existing theories and concepts before and after we head to the field, but not buy much of what we find, especially when interviews make it clear that our preconceived notions have led us to miss the real question or imagine a dilemma that does not exist […]. It attaches considerable importance to the subjective experience of interviewers and regards shoe-horning evidence into ‘illfitting categories’ to be just the greatest sin imaginable.

The adoption of an “emergent perspective” commits the researcher to keeping initial interviews relatively unfocused and only when patterns and relationships emerge does the researcher move on to more focused questions (Ibid.: 76). The initial sampling design is accordingly relatively uninformed. As noted by Cutcliffe (2000: 1477), because theory does not guide the initial sampling, some form of purposive sampling has to start the initial sampling process before the data analysis and conceptualization take over as a further guide. In fact, as Platt (1992: 31) points out, the research fieldwork site takes on the formal properties of a case only after insights emerge from the field. Such a position also fits with the use of existing knowledge in selecting the first case. Lofland and Lofland’s (1984: 8) useful manual on doing qualitative research begins with the observation that: “much of the best work in Sociology and other social sciences – within the naturalistic tradition and within other research traditions as well – is probably grounded in remote and/or current biographies of its creators”. This suggests that the first case in qualitative research is often the most familiar case.6 This interplay between biography and sociological imagination is particularly fruitful, because the researcher’s familiarity and insertion into the local context 5 They allow for the influence of existing ideas and models but point out that these elements must relate back to data (Glaser and Strauss, 1967: 5, 253). 6 In a related argument, Marcus’s (1998: 15) review of the development of ethnography within anthropology noted the need to shift from familiar subjects (which the researcher initially knows well and which guide the initial inquiry) to more distant subjects that may relate to themes and subjects of broader relevance to the discipline.

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generate significant guiding questions and connections. This intimate involvement with the local setting is also in keeping with the key concern in understanding the lifeworlds of the respondents. Glaser and Strauss’s suggestion of conceptual sampling proceeds from insights generated from the most familiar case. Through either minimum or maximum contrast, the research proceeds to add cases along a conceptual dimension informed by the first case (thus “grounded theory”) until saturation (no new insights) is achieved. The call to let conceptual insights emerge from the field represents an enterprise in which the researcher enters the field relatively uninformed and only leaves the field when the theorizing is complete (Ibid.: 224-225). Heimer’s (2006) discussion of her methods during her PhD fieldwork on local state corporatism in China7 serves as a useful example. From the onset, Heimer (2006: 59, 64) adopted an open-ended and exploratory approach, inspired but not influenced by existing work on the topic. Following the dictum of the grounded approach, she puts “discovery before verification”. Her departure from the “conventional anthropological approach” (Heimer’s phrase) was to sample examples of local governments that have been successful in promoting development, leading her to 12 counties in China. Heimer (2006: 65) terms this a “one case-multi-field sites” approach and this fits quite closely with what Glaser and Strauss (1967: 51-62) describe as the minimal contrast to conceptual sampling. As Heimer (2006: 69) points out, such a strategy is useful in uncovering the essential features of the phenomenon under study. Using this sampling strategy, Heimer (2006) was therefore in a better position to cross check similar material from multiple sites. This allowed her to gain a more in-depth understanding of why growth was promoted by local leaders. This invaluable ability to cross-check within a sample of similar examples allowed Heimer (2006) to assess the motives of government officials in promoting local development through “probing for similarities while downplaying variations across place (or across regime types)” (Ibid.: 69). b

Analytic Ethnography

The second approach is developed as a reaction to the grounded theory approaches.8 By Snow, Morrill, and Anderson’s (2003) reckoning, ethno7 Maria Heimer (Edin] (2000) “Market Forces and Communist Power: Local Political Institutions and Economic Development”, PhD Thesis, Uppsala University. 8 See Charmaz’s (2006: 178-179) distinction between the original version from Glaser and Strauss (1967) and subsequent elaborations independently by the two authors.

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graphic approaches have neglected theoretical insights in the search for understanding local subjectivities. They (Ibid.: 186) “suspect that very few ethnographers actually engage in theoretical discovery in the systematic manner Glaser and Strauss (1967) had in mind”. From this perspective, the idea of going into the field relatively uninformed seems naïve as it ignores potentially helpful literature that is available to the researcher. The strategy to keep adding new cases until saturation is difficult to achieve in practice. Can there be an end point to the study when multiple variables conspire to shape the reality in question? The approach suggested by Snow, Morrill, and Anderson (2003) puts theory back into the driver’s seat. Instead of allowing data to lead the researcher to discovery, the focus on extension or refinement of theory uses the existing literature as a guide to further research. Accompanying this shift to theory extension is also a shift from inductive to deductive approaches, in which an existing theory or study guides the selection of the next case. Summarized, the focus in analytic ethnography is “to explore the possibility of transferring concepts and theory representing social forms or types across diverse contexts” (Ibid.: 190). That an existing literature can be used to develop a sampling scheme is also very much in keeping with John Walton’s (1992: 121) point that “cases are ‘made’ by invoking theory”. By suggesting that theory guides the selection of cases, Walton (1992) is in favour of putting theory before the data and that cases only have a structure that is illuminated by an existing theoretical lens. Framed in such a manner, existing conceptual relationships guide the selection of sites, thereby creating the different desired contexts, which can elaborate concepts and furthers theorizing. In Flexible Citizenship, Ong (1999) takes a stronger analytic approach in discussing a particular social form or a new category of persons that has emerged, conditioned by, as well as taking advantage of, opportunities created by globalization. Ong (1999) lays out the conceptual arguments that guide the ethnography of transnational practices, one which specifies practice as shaped by domination as well as reciprocity, in which personal strategies relate to systems of governmentality, and in which the person and the state adjust to the unfolding socio-economic order.9 For Ong, the role of anthropological research in a globalizing world is where research provides “an enlarged space for telling the stories of modernity in ways that 9 There is more to Ong’s ambitious book. As the focus of the paper is on ethnographic research strategies, I skipped Part 3 of Flexible Citizenship, which utilizes various mass media material to construct the new Chinese subject and Part 4, which uses non-ethnographic material to develop the concept of governmentality in Pacific Asia.

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capture the interplay between culture and the material forms of social life” (Ibid.: 242). Chabal and Daloz (2006: 12) argue that “the theoretical ambitions of the discipline demand that the conceptual framework and its attendant methodology be clearly in place before any research is undertaken”. Ong’s conceptual arguments are nicely laid out; her research strategy goes some way to ensuring a multi-sited analysis. Thus, the focus on Chinese subjects keeps the geographic focus on China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the Chinese ethnic communities in Southeast Asia (Ong, 1999: 7). The social type that has been identified as “the flexible citizen” and the associated transnational practices, extend the geographic focus to America and Canada (Ibid.: 25). Thus, an analytic ethnography approach is useful in using theory as a compass to guide us to potential field sites and respondents. c

Comparative Case Approach

While grounded approaches advocate discovery and remain suspicious of theory, analytic ethnography takes theory extension as its primary objective and uses theory as a guide to sampling and research, the third approach attempts to strike a balance. Chabal and Daloz (2006) work within a comparative politics tradition and grapple with developing a comparative approach that will be faithful to the complexities of the local context yet driven by questions relevant in an existing literature. The place of theory is clear in their explanation of what they mean by an inductive approach: By thinking inductively, we only mean to express the fact that our approach consists in employing concepts and theories that are most relevant to the questions being asked and the cases being studied. (Ibid.: 172)

The call to use the existing literature as a guide is evident in their argument that “comparative analysis requires above all a degree of conceptual and theoretical abstraction” (Ibid.: 84) and their balance between theory and data: “the key to our approach lies in the quality of the ‘fit’ between the universal connotations of a […] concept and the unique local texture of the question being investigated” (Ibid.: 189). Thus, for Chabal and Daloz (2006), the process of inductive research is to refine explanation, not to generate concepts, the latter being the focus of Glaser and Strauss (1967). And while grounded approaches implicitly support a solo researcher model that has the researcher spending considerable amounts of time in the field and developing close links with the informants, Chabal and Daloz

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(2006: 83-84), being aware of the difficulty of the researcher amassing a variety of cases with sufficient local texture, provide the following advice: [the] […] approach requires a high level of local knowledge and it is not easily feasible for a single scholar to accumulate such data from a large number of distinct environments. [10] Comparativists can use judiciously the material [11] garnered by those scholars who have specialist knowledge. They can also work in collaboration or collectively. [12]

A comparative research focus in urban studies will clearly favour social research as a collective enterprise. Research teams of varying sizes spread out over several countries may be able to arrive at a powerful set of insights working in tandem on a common set of research problems. Indeed, Chabal and Daloz (Ibid.: 83-84) see research collaboration as an essential step in doing focused comparative research while maintaining thick description at the local levels. If the danger of analytic ethnography lies in using cases to conf irm conceptual arguments, then the inductive roots of the comparative case approach attempts to strike a balance. The approach offered by Chabal and Daloz (Ibid.: 186-187, 203) suggests a role in letting existing theory guide research through its concepts, linkages, and questions, yet takes a more inductive line by letting the local context speak to the researcher with regard to the relevance of such lines of reasoning and their limits. It is possible that judicious use of the existing literature may guide the researcher to select several sites to form a comparative set of cases. However, the adoption of an inductive position also requires the researcher to assume a position 10 A multiple site research design requires a more careful specification of the research problem and therefore represents a departure from the ethnographic tradition, which emphasizes a strategy of “collecting the fullest data on a particular group” (Glaser and Strauss, 1967: 58). If ethnography is def ined as an approach that uses observation, participant-observation, and open-ended interviews (Prus, 1996: 103), then what we have lost by not using ethnography is participant observation and the accompanying insights that come from a more intimate involvement. 11 The practice of developing a working knowledge through the local literature extends to site sampling as well. If the research question is specified, accessing the local literature on a potential case (e.g. an organization, a neighbourhood, etc.) aids the researcher by providing a set of case attributes that allows the researcher to make a decision with regard to the usefulness of the potential case either as a similar, or contrast case to other cases that the researcher is considering, in a multi-case or multi-site design. 12 For example, a multi-site research approach involving a team of collaborators can focus on a common research theme, leveraging a number of signif icant local cases in which each collaborator has specialist and local knowledge to facilitate comparisons.

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of openness, which then prevents the researcher from making a stronger variable specification with regard to selection beyond the initial case-driven guide. The inductive roots of this approach also require the researcher to invest enough time to understand various contexts (with the help of local collaborators) as a prelude to case selection. In this way, local knowledge can be deployed to specify, elaborate, and extend or constrain the boundaries of a concept. Compared with grounded approaches, the cultural comparative approach is less suspicious of theory’s polluting effects on data collection and yet Chabal and Daloz’s (2006) call to ask “real questions” represents an inductive call to research by reminding researchers to use the local context to reshape and recast questions stemming from theory and concepts. In considering the shift from a single to multiple cases and sites, an important question that the researcher must consider is whether the variables under question can be specified in advance and understood to the degree of specification expected in quantitative approaches. If it does, then more formal sampling methods may be applied to the selection of cases (see Ragin, 1987: ch. 6). Variation along some scale is only possible if the variable or relationship is identified and its essential properties understood. However, urban studies favour the case-oriented rather than variable-oriented approach because of its stress on local context. Moreover, when adopting a comparative perspective, urban studies tend towards comparisons between cities with regard to specific issues. Korff’s (1996) “In Global and Local Spheres: The Diversity of Southeast Asian Urbanism” may be used as an example of this approach. Korff begins his essay with an implication drawn from globalization literature, namely that economic globalization also produces a low-wage service class, which supports the transnational class. Shifting to the context he is familiar with, namely Southeast Asian cities, Korff (1996) points out that this low-wage service segment resides not just in low cost housing, but in informal housing settlements that contain ambiguous property rights. These, therefore, are open to redevelopment by businesses and authorities. Korff wants to see whether such locales contain associations that offer support for people lacking access to resources. Korff’s (1996) approach represents a balancing of a light borrowing of conceptual strands from the urban economic globalization literature, paired with stronger comparative insights from a variety of contrasting local contexts represented by different cases. Comparing these three examples further reveals the different research positions and strategies these studies take. All three illustrative studies paid considerable attention to how the particular Pacific-Asian geographic contexts inform the study. Heimer’s (2006) study was set within the economic

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ascendance of China as a rapidly industrializing country and Heimer was interested in understanding the role local government plays in successfully initiating development schemes. Ong’s (1999) study was one of the first to identify the transnational strategies of mobile subjects within the context of East Asian economic success. Korff (1996) was concerned about the power of the urban poor within the context of rapidly globalizing capital cities in Southeast Asia. Marcus (1998: 90-95), in his discussion of the object of study in the multisite ethnographic approach, asks a simple question: what are researchers “following” in their study? Heimer was tracking instances of a particular variable – examples of successful local development efforts. Ong was following particular geographically mobile subjects, while Korff (1996) was examining slums as sites of urban poverty and organization. Another issue in the selection of cases is the way these cases are related to each other. For Heimer (2006), the cases represented similar instances and because the minimal contrast approach was adopted, little can be said about the relationship between the cases. Ong’s (1999) sampling unit was focused on the subjects, individuals and households that are mobile, which therefore demonstrate transnational strategies. Korff’s (1996) approach to research can be examined at two levels. At the city level, Korff’s choice of Southeast Asian capital cities as sites for his comparative analysis of slum dwellers’ organization against the threat of eviction can be inferred from three lines of reasoning. Firstly, his reading of Southeast Asian scholar Norton Ginsburg (1955) leads to the argument that capital cities represent prime sources of urban power (and are therefore worthy cases) as the strong concentration of elites and institutions in such cities act as a constraint on the formation of rival urban power centres. Secondly, Korff (1996: 290) also suggests that while Southeast Asian capital cities are prime examples of urban power, this power is also more diversified, making alliances between local communities and external groups an interesting topic of analysis. Thirdly, as the capital city’s integration with the global economy is strongest among the cities in Southeast Asia, this link also presents a threat to local communities in their need to develop external alliances as a way to resist evictions because of increased demand for urban land (Ibid.: 293). At the level of the slum, drawing from his intimate knowledge of the three cities, Korff (1996) was able to develop an understanding of the lifeworlds of slum dwellers. He was able to contrast the hierarchical patron-client relations in Bangkok’s slums and the rather extensive links NGOs have with slum dwellers in Manila with the strong horizontal links slum dwellers have within their neighbourhood. Korff concluded that the vertical ties slum

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dwellers in Bangkok and Manila have, along with weaker state controls at the neighbourhood level, have allowed dwellers in these two cities to play a more active role in the development of the city. This is in contrast to Jakarta, where the affective ties are restricted to a smaller group of neighbours and weak vertical linkages. What is the researcher’s involvement in a multi-site research strategy? Both Marcus (1998: 97-99) and Burawoy, et al. (1991: 284) maintain the same high researcher involvement standards as single site studies by insisting on participant observation as a critical condition for understanding the lifeworlds of respondents. Such a level of involvement aimed at generating strong, grounded insights is not always possible in multi-site strategies. Heimer (2006: 61) employed interviewing as a data collection strategy and she was able to do 153 interviews with local officials and entrepreneurs at three administrative levels (village, township, and county). Cross-checking the information between different levels provided Heimer with greater validity. For the segment on transnational practices, Ong (1999) relied on interviews with individuals supplemented by home visits to obtain the “stories of modernity” and shifted her analysis to different conceptual levels by her focus on media portrayals of East Asia and on governmentality. Thus, by keeping her involvement in ethnography contained, Ong was able to move to other levels of analysis, which, when put together, was able to capture a larger fragment of globalizing Asia. Lastly, in Korff’s (1996) study, a combination of a long research involvement, reliance on the relevant literature and research collaboration informs and enables this comparative study. Korff did his early qualitative work on Bangkok’s slums (Korff, 1986) and his insights on informal housing in Manila came from his collaboration with Berner, a Bielefeld alumnus and Korff’s PhD student (Berner and Korff, 1995). Lea Jellinek’s (1991) well-researched ethnography Wheel of Fortune, as well as G. Somantri’s (1995) PhD thesis (another Bielefeld alumnus), were heavily referenced for the insights on Jakarta. Such a strategy echoes the remarks by Chabal and Daloz (2006: 83-84), quoted earlier, regarding the need to work collaboratively and also depend on material by other scholars. The choice of a particular approach influences the researcher’s data collection strategy and outcome. Embracing a grounded theory position, Heimer (2006: 64) was clear in “putting discovery before verification”. Such an approach allowed Heimer to understand the motives of government officials, but this finding remained very much a China experience. Of the other two, both studies pay attention to the relationship between theory and insights from the local context in shaping the research. I think the difference is one of emphasis. Ong (1999) placed stronger emphasis on the

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role of theory and general literature and did not dwell more deeply on the fieldwork, compared to the two other studies cited in comparison. This lighter involvement, however, allowed Ong to shift her analysis to other scales, resulting in a broader understanding of globalizing Asia. Korff (1996), on the other hand, pays less attention to the general literature in conceptualizing his study. He only uses it sparingly as a sampling lead (type of city) and once the comparative analysis is attempted, theory fades into the background. However, as mentioned earlier, Korff relies extensively on published ethnographic accounts to inform his comparative analysis.

3

Study Guidelines

A comparative research in urban studies will need to switch between the two modes of theorizing and data gathering. There are strengths to investing in an approach that derives questions and leads from the literature (which is a departure from grounded approaches). The existing literature should also provide clues to suggest which additional and/or comparative cases to select. At the same time, data should not be trotted out as confirmatory. Thus, in this sense, theory need not blind (as grounded approaches suggest) and theory should not blind (a danger in analytical ethnography). Theory should present a set of arguments against which the researcher reacts, with insights gleaned from local realities. As Chabal and Daloz (2006) remind us, the researcher also needs to be knowledgeable enough of the local contexts to let local insights reshape the questions and the anticipated relationships. Guided by this general principle, I lay out four guidelines: a

Research Direction: Guided by the literature

Within a multi-site framework, consulting with local researchers and the existing literature are crucial for highlighting potential themes and relationships to investigate. Within the constellation of relationships, previous knowledge suggests key variables as initial guides and provides an understanding of the variation of these variables. This position is important because it makes explicit that the researcher’s role is not to present a “comprehensive account of a self-contained set of social relations” (Gille and O’Riain, 2002: 278). It is, in fact, following a narrower set of variables with the researcher relying on local collaborators and local sites and cases to refine explanation in the fashion suggested by Chabal and Daloz (2006).

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It is also in this context that John Walton’s (1992:121) position that theory should drive case selection rings true. The logic of relations between cases or sites must by necessity be defined by a conceptual thread that comes out of an emerging literature in urban studies. This provides a strong rationale for a multi-site sampling framework. As laid out in chapter 1, the focus on the neighbourhood is to show how collective action at this local scale allows a variety of relationships to surface, the key elements of which are the supports from civil society and the response of local government. The response of local government is, in turn, tied to the type of city they administer. I was drawn to capital cities (Seoul, Taipei, and Bangkok) and self-governing cities (Hong Kong as China’s special administrative region and Singapore as a city-state), essentially because these represent seats of government and a stage for national politics and civil society action. The local governments of the three capital cities have special administrative status like Hong Kong. Singapore, as a city-state, has a national government that administers key functions of the city. To answer the comparative analysis question posed by Marcus (1998: 90-95), I am following instances of state response to local neighbourhood action. These are the two elements that define the sampling design. Firstly, the focus on state response led me to look for variation in the five cases in terms of the strength and the ability of the state to intervene in the built environment. Singapore is at one end of this spectrum, having an effective state mechanism, and Bangkok at the other end, having a weaker local state capacity. The other variable that the five cases elaborate is citizen grass-roots movements and how the expanding movement creates the space for local citizenry to act. This is where the cases of Seoul and Taipei become important as illustrative examples. Hong Kong emerges as an interesting case at the middle of the continuum, where its government is effective in land-use controls and there is an emergent active citizenry. The case of Singapore shows how the government is encouraging a more active neighbourhood response in its call for participation in the creation of neighbourhood amenities. Secondly, the focus on neighbourhood action requires a selection of cases of activism. This led to an attempt to identify outcomes of neighbourhood activism. It steered me away from neighbourhoods “at rest” and towards neighbourhoods where there have been signs of collective life in recent history. Evidence of such life is an amenity enjoyed by residents that has been an outcome of episodes of action or a continued negotiation or struggle with the city government over an issue.

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b

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Site Selection: Informed by local researchers

In an early discussion of the internal validity of ethnographic research, Lecompte and Goetz (1982: 50) pay special attention to the role of the length of stay (and by inference, insertion into the field) in the research site as the basis for establishing research claims. This, then, represents an important challenge in multi-sited research designs, i.e. the extent to which claims are compromised by the shorter research lengths devoted to a particular site in multi-site studies.13 Here, too, theory can blind, in the sense that a pre-existing set of concepts and relationships can lead to a verification exercise without due consideration of the context defined by the site. There are two ways to counter this bias. The first course of defence is the reliance on local researchers as guides into the field. It is increasingly difficult to keep to a position advocated by Burawoy et al. (1991: 284) and Marcus (1998: 97-99) and use single researcher participant observation in multi-site studies. The systematic involvement of other researchers in the fieldwork process has to be a critical intervention. The second course of defence requires Chabal and Daloz’s (2006: 187) catchphrase to “deploy relevant concepts” but “terrain drives analysis”. This interesting blended wisdom requires the researcher to let theory lead initially but allow the site to test and verify these leads. It is worth repeating the point made by Chabal and Daloz (2006:8384) about the difficulty of achieving a study of sufficient local texture in comparative case analysis without the help of local experts. This point needs to be stressed in developing a multi-sited research design. Local experts play a crucial role in helping the researcher understand the context in which a particular site becomes relevant in the elaboration of the study objectives. In this regard, knowledge of the specific field site was enhanced through advice and collaboration with colleagues in Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, and Taipei. In Bangkok, after an initial round of fieldwork in 2003, I was fortunate to be able to receive the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre research grant in 2008. This grant not only enabled me to return to the Mahakan field site, but, importantly, to pair up with local researcher Noi (Dr Pornpan Chinnapong a professor of architecture at the King Mongkut Institute of Technology Ladkrabang) and to benefit from two workshops. These workshops enabled researchers to present their findings 13 In this sense, the researcher’s claim that saturation is achieved through an extended stay in which new interviews confirm previous discoveries, is compromised. I thank Rachel Safman for raising this point during a seminar on 6 September 2007. I also acknowledge Chua Beng Huat’s point in the same seminar about the necessity of specifying the limits of one’s claim.

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to the team, which also included expert advisors (in particular Coeli Barry and William Logan).14 During a 2006 sabbatical at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I was introduced to a young faculty member, Dr Lam Kit. After dinner, Dr Lam Kit proceeded to show me his field site at Langham Place, which he wrote about in 2005 as part of his PhD thesis. This was the start of my interest in this project and in 2015, on sabbatical at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, I renewed my collaboration with Dr Lam Kit and we completed a full round of interviews with the key respondents that Dr Lam had first interviewed for his PhD thesis.15 Both the Taipei and Seoul sites were suggested by Dr Huang Liling from the National Taiwan University. Liling and I did a similar “walk” at Tangbu, where she introduced the case history and we met with the community planner involved in the development of Tangbu Cultural Park. I discussed the Seoul case with Professor Myungrae Cho, who heads an NGO at Sungmisan (Seoul, South Korea). He was able to do the initial field site walk with me. The walk included interviews with the neighbourhood community organization. In the case of Singapore, a research opportunity presented itself with the Housing Development Board’s interest in engaging local residents in Tampines Central. This was a project done in collaboration with Dr Im Sik Cho, a professor of architecture at the National University of Singapore. c

Sites and the Link to the Larger Country Context

The link between a particular site and the larger country context is a difficult one to deal with methodologically because it involves the interplay between processes that occur within the research locality and the question of how these processes are linked to wider processes. The discussion of case selection has been based on two essential premises: the neighbourhood as field site and the role of local government, requiring an understanding of the influences from the external environment beyond the neighbourhood. The neighbourhood as field site is a scaling down that enables a detailed level of context specificity to be achieved (Huotari and Rüland: 2014: 425). However, it is important to reiterate that a commitment to a more analytical approach, which is informed by literature, focuses the attention on a set of attributes at both the neighbourhood and the city-county level. These

14 The result of my collaboration with Noi is the article: K.C. Ho and P. Chinnapong (2013), “Conserving Bangkok’s Premier Heritage District”. 15 Lam, K., “From Urban Disputes to Democracy”.

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attributes are of concern to the researcher (“a case of”) rather than a more systematic grounding reflective of area studies (“what is”).16 The approach to making this “a case of” is a process of selection of variables relevant to the analysis. At the same time, this selection is also an abstraction from the myriad of characteristics that go into the nature of the site. When Chua (2014: 281) asserts that “the ‘truth’ of the particular case […] is multifaceted and difficult, if not impossible, to establish definitively”, he is suggesting that the true complexity of a case makes it difficult to make comparisons. In turn, Chua opts for a looser “referencing” frame, which, in his words, “relaxes the ‘criteria’ for comparison” (Ibid.: 274). Thus, referencing enables insights to be drawn through cases, but not through propositions, which hold to a strict comparative logic. In this sense, the possibilities and outcomes of neighbourhood organization are seen within a broader Pacific-Asia theme of a democratizing environment, or at least a call for governments to listen to and be responsive to the voice of the people. This awakening is most advanced in South Korea and Taiwan, which have experienced broad democratic reforms, but it can also be found in Hong Kong, where the people are coming to their own formulation of what Hong Kong wants post-1997. It can also be seen in Thailand, through its own experiments with democracy, and in Singapore, where a strong state built by a single, dominant party is experiencing a more sophisticated electorate and becoming more open to suggestions from the grass-roots. Table 3.1 provides a brief summary of the essential features of the five cases in this study. Sungmisan (Seoul, South Korea) shows the power of local initiatives in fostering sociability through the meeting of the basic functions of residents. The alternative school, coffee shop, community kitchen, thrift shop, and supermarket co-operative represent different types of locally managed businesses that bring in local residents through the meeting of everyday needs. This case represents a strong local community focus without much need for local government. Tangbu, set in one of the older parts of Taipei and confronted with industrial decline, represents a case of successful neighbourhood organizing coupled with responsive local government, which resulted in the creation of an amenity (the museum and the park) that not only meets the needs of the locals, but the needs of the city and beyond. The Tangbu Cultural Park allows locals to volunteer at the museum and this is a form of structured interaction between locals and visitors. The Mahakan neighbourhood is an integral part of Rattanakosin, 16 This helpful distinction is made by Pepinsky (2014: 442) in the orientation towards cases for comparativists and area specialists.

Effects of the project on the city

Neighbourhood project(s)

Government relation to neighbourhood

Profile of residents

Progressive but class-based local-owned commercial spaces, example of localized social economy

Middle-class home-owners The neighbourhood is self organizing and does not rely significantly on the local government Village/ neighbourhood businesses

Sungmisan (Seoul)

Table 3.1  Profile of five cases studies

Community curation and caretaking, a more inclusive view of heritage

Partial community curation, sugar museum represents significant facet of Taipei economic history

Building a community annex within mega office shopping and hotel complex Range of neighbourhood social and public services inserted into the city centre

Mahakan Heritage Village

Government is responsive to neighbour-hood

Tangbu Cultural Park

Langham Place (Hong Kong)

Working class and small businesses Government is in conflict Government is accommodating to with neighbourhood neighbourhood concerns

Squatters

Mahakan (Bangkok)

Working class Residents

Tangbu (Taipei)

Building a variety of neighbourhood amenities through consultation with residents A broader array of amenities attractive to residents and visitors

Working and middleclass mix Government works actively at cultivating neighbourhood ties

Tampines Central (Singapore)

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the old district of Bangkok. The proposal to let local residents manage the heritage in this neighbourhood with access to visitors represents an innovative attempt at community curation. This resident-managed project is quite different from the Tangbu Museum, which is managed by the Cultural Affairs Bureau. If successful, the Mahakan neighbourhood museum presents an alternative place history that is in contrast to the royal and religious elements of Rattanakosin, Bangkok. The cases in Hong Kong and Singapore reflect a greater involvement by their respective governments. Located in one of the densest parts of Mong Kok, Hongkong, the Langham Place project represents a partnership between the government and developer, involving the building of a hotel, an adjacent office tower with a shopping centre, and the building of the Mong Kok Complex (which is termed a Community Annex). Langham Place arguably represents an example of successful local governmentneighbourhood partnership. The resulting neighbourhood amenities (activity centre, food market, minibus terminus) are built into what is essentially a mega commercial project comprising a five-star hotel and an office-cum-shopping complex. The resettlement process was lengthy. Various affected local small business owners who organized themselves were able to extract effective concessions from the developer with the help of government agencies. Tampines (Singapore) represents an experimental project in one of the new towns of Singapore. While all new towns come built with amenities, this government-driven initiative attempts to build additional features by involving residents and other government agencies in the co-creation process. The objective is to improve residents’ daily lives through the provision of additional amenities that are reflective of their preferences. This is attempted through engagement with residents at cocreating the residential environment through the development of facilities. By incorporating residents’ preferences into the residential environment, the hope is that residents may linger and use the facilities on a regular basis. Through such involvement, there is a higher chance of meeting, thereby facilitating resident bonding. I have labelled these field sites as “neighbourhoods” and have demarcated their boundaries in the maps (Figure 4.1 for Sungmisan, Figure 6.1 for Tangbu, and Figure 8.1 for Tampines Central). These boundaries approximate the settlement area of the neighbourhood and comprise those residents who are involved in the action that resulted in various neighbourhood projects (see Table 3.1 row 4 for a list of neighbourhood projects) being created. The exception is Figure 5.1 (Rattanakosin), which lists Mahakan as part of the larger Rattanakosin Island because its troubles are tied to the government’s

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plans for the development of Rattanakosin as a cultural and historic district. The other exception is Figure 7.1, where Langham Place is demarcated because the resettlement of residents and businesses and regeneration of the area was tied to the building of this mega project. As the activism described in this case involved small business owners and not residents, Figure 7.1 indicates the community annex where these businesses have settled (cooked food sellers, minibus depot) along with other social services. The term “neighbourhood” is consistently used in the book to convey the importance of a place-based source of activism and its immediate spatial impact. Residents often refer to themselves collectively using terms like village or community (especially in Sungmisan and Mahakan) to signify their intimacy, common purpose, a place identity, and a shared membership. d

A Note on Single versus Multiple Cases

Besides the illustrative examples from Heimer (2006), Ong (1999), and Korff (1996), I have one more illustrative example from Michael Herzfeld’s (2016) wonderful ethnographic monograph Siege of the Spirits. Introducing and making the case of the Mahakan neighbourhood/village, Herzfeld (2016:2) notes that: Pom 17 Mahakan concentrates many dynamics in its small space; the tactical uses of history by poor residents and comfortable officials, the politics and ethics of eviction, concepts and consequences of attachment to place and past, the politics of culture with experiences of communities around the world.

The study has also been successful in referencing and extending the discussion of these concepts from the primary point of view of the neighbourhood/ village. Given Herzfeld’s long relationship with the villagers and people supporting the community, his account is deeply embedded in the lives, desires, and outlooks of his respondents. This represents a sacred ethnographic dictum of a period of sustained and intimate involvement as a basis of data collection and analysis. Several of the key persons in Herzfeld’s Siege of the Spirits are also in my account. I met Thawatchi (Ibid.: 36-37) as part of the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre project. I had the opportunity of hearing his impassioned explanation of what his village is going through as part of 17 Thai for ‘fort’.

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a fieldtrip that Noi and I organized to introduce our field site to the other research teams in the cultural rights project. Chatri (Ibid.: 141) is one person I interviewed at his Silpakorn campus. But I remain an outsider and my entry into fieldwork is through questions and not a sustained involvement. Herzfeld’s (Ibid.: 30) engaged approach is exchanged for a stakeholder approach. Following this approach, I interviewed different types of people, officials from the Committee on the Preservation of Rattanakosin, the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority, the Fine Arts Department, the Tourism Authority of Thailand, individuals like Chatri who have been closely supporting Mahakan, and Mahakan residents like Kiet. These are not just disciplinary differences but reflect quite different objectives. Like Herzfield (Ibid.: 2), I make a case for what the Mahakan village represents and the insights this inclusion can reveal (see “Significance of Mahakan”, in ch. 5 of this volume), but this promise of insights is tied to multi-sited design. e

A Note on the Informant’s Role

I followed the neighbourhood project (see Table 3.1, row 3) in each case, selecting respondents whose input could complete the story of the project (community-initiated in the case of Sungmisan, Tangbu, and Mahakan and government-initiated in the case of Hong Kong and Singapore). Adopting a stakeholding approach, I talked to different parties involved in the project: the residents; and various organizations that helped the neighbourhood and local government agencies, which had jurisdiction in some form over the neighbourhood project. In thinking about informants and their input, Ong (1999: 243) makes an important point that even local claims need questioning, since localized understandings need to be embedded within a context that is linked to other fluid macro processes. Johnson (1990: 36) points out that informants who are most active in the network, and who talk about events that occur regularly, provide more insightful and reliable information. By these two standards, the Seoul set of interviews is probably the strongest, since the focus was on the individuals managing the village businesses (including the school). In the Taipei case, I had to contend with two factions with conflicting views of what ought to be done for the neighbourhood. The Hong Kong site involved getting respondents to look back (after some 10 years) at local government interventions in terms of whether such decisions made a difference to the lives of local residents. Talking to Dr Lam, whose study was completed in 2005, both of us were struck by how the passage of time influenced the way

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respondents thought of the project’s outcome. The Bangkok case involved different government department officials who promoted the official stance or did not want to contradict the official stance on resettling the Mahakan residents or the official version of what constitutes history and heritage. Singapore’s government officials want the community bonding policy to work and, as the project consultant, I too had my hopes up. The value of consultation with local experts is easily stated as opportunities to new leads, appropriate concepts, and fresh interpretations. Seminars and workshops with a diverse audience are fruitful grounds for collecting comments and questions. This is often useful because these questions are posed from a background very different from the researcher. Often, many of the comments are confirmatory of the story gleaned from the different respondents, as was my experience of the Sungmisan case in South Korea. Sometimes, the most useful feedback throws you off and changes your take on the story. I am going to end this chapter with one such account. My visits to the Tangbu Sugar Museum fill me with joy and sadness. Joy because the park on which the museum sits is always filled with children riding their bicycles, and elderly folks sitting on the park benches. Sadness because when I enter the museum, there is no one there. Then I discovered the phrase “mosquito building”, a term the Taiwanese use to describe the under-utilized structures that local governments build as part of election promises but remain empty. I tested out this idea with Professor Chuang Ya-Chung, who wrote Democracy on Trial, suggesting that such outcomes were created by “too much politics”. It was a typically Singaporean way of thinking, the assumption that too much politics hampers state efficiency is a widely circulated opinion in the city-state. Ya-Chung smiled and said that there is perhaps “not enough politics”. By this he meant that the local government should have worked more closely with the residents to come up with a more sustainable outcome. This conversation led to my seeing the Taipei government’s position as responsive but not necessarily responsible.

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Chabal, P. and J. P. Daloz (2006). Culture Troubles: Politics and the Interpretation of Meaning. London: Hurst. Charmaz, K. (2006). Constructing Grounded Theory. London: Sage. Chua, B. H. (2014). ‘Inter-Referencing Southeast Asia: Absence, Resonance and Provocation’, in: M. Huotari, J. Rüland and J. Schlehe (eds), Methodology and Research Practice in Southeast Asian Studies, (pp. 273-288), Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave. Cutcliffe, J. R. (2000). ‘Methodological Issues in Grounded Theory’, Journal of Advanced Nursing 31(6): 1476-1484. Foster, G. M. and R. V. Kemper (2002). ‘Anthropological Fieldwork in Cities’, in: G. Gmelch and W. P. Zenner (eds), Urban Life: Readings in the Anthropology of the City, (pp. 131-145), Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press. Gille, Z. and S. O’Riain (2002). ‘Global Ethnography’, Annual Review of Sociology, 28: 271-295. Ginsburg, N. S. (1955). ‘The Great City in Southeast Asia’, American Journal of Sociology, 60(5): 455-462. Glaser, B. and A. Strauss (1967). The Discovery of Grounded Theory, New York: Aldine. Hannerz, U. (1980). Exploring the City: Inquiries Toward an Urban Anthropology. New York: Columbia University Press. Hannerz, U. (2003). ‘Being There…and There…and There! Reflections on Multi-Site Ethnography’, Ethnography, 4(2): 201-216. Heimer [Edin], M. (2000). ‘Market Forces and Communist Power: Local Political Institutions and Economic Development’, (Unpublished doctoral thesis), Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden. Heimer, M. (2006). ‘Field Sites, Research Design and Type of Findings’, in: M. Heimer and S. Thøgersen (eds), Doing Fieldwork in China (pp. 27-41), Copenhagen: NIAS Press. Herzfeld, M. (2016). Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Ho, K. C. (2008). ‘Meandering Beyond the Single Case in Urban Studies’, Working Paper 188, Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore. Ho, K. C. and P. Chinnapong (2013). ‘Conserving Bangkok’s Premier Heritage District: Ambitious Plans and Ambiguous Rights’, in: C. Barry (ed.), Rights to Culture: Language, Heritage and Community in Thailand (pp. 59-83), Bangkok: Silkworm Books. Huotari, M. and J. Rüland (2014). ‘Introduction: Context, Concepts and Comparison in Southeast Asian Studies’, Pacific Affairs, 87(3): 415-439. Jellinek, L. (1991). Wheel of Fortune: The History of a Poor Community in Jakarta. Sydney: Allen and Unwin. Johnson, J. C. (1990). Selecting Ethnographic Informants. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

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Korff, Rüdiger (1996). ‘Global and Local Spheres: The Diversity of Southeast Asian Urbanism’, Sojourn 11(2): 288-313. Lam, K. (2008) ‘From Urban Disputes to Democracy: Convention Theory and Urban Renewal in Hong Kong 1988-2008’ (Unpublished doctoral thesis), University of Warwick, UK. Lassiter, L. E. (2005). The Chicago Guide to Collaborative Ethnography. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Lecompte, M. D. and J. P. Goetz (1982). ‘Problems of Reliability and Validity in Ethnographic Research’, Review of Educational Research, 52: 31-60. Lofland, J. and L. Lofland (1984). Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Field Observation and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. Marcus, G. E. (1998). Ethnography through Thick and Thin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Matza, D. (1969). Becoming Deviant. Engelwood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. O’Brien, K. J. (2006). ‘Discovery, Research (Re)Design, and Theory Building’, in: M. Heimer and S. Thøgersen (eds), Doing Fieldwork in China (pp.27-41), Copenhagen: NIAS Press. Ong, A. (1999). Flexible Citizenship: The Cultural Logics of Transnationality. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Pepinsky, T. B. (2014). ‘Context and Method in Southeast Asian Politics’, Pacific Affairs, 87(3): 441-462. Platt, J. (1992). ‘Cases of Cases… of Cases’, in: C. C. Ragin and H. Becker (eds), What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry (pp. 21-52), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Prus, R. (1996). Symbolic Interaction and Ethnographic Research. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. Ragin C. C. (1987). The Comparative Method: Moving Beyond Qualitative and Quantitative Strategies. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Snow, D. A., C. Morrill and L. Anderson (2003). ‘Elaborating Analytic Ethnography: Linking Fieldwork and Theory’, Ethnography, 4(2): 181-200. Somantri, G. (1995). ‘Migration within Cities: A Study of Socio-Economic Processes, Intra-City Migration and Grassroots Politics in Jakarta’, (Unpublished doctoral thesis), Faculty of Sociology, University of Bielefeld, Germany. Suttles, G. D. (1976). ‘Urban Ethnography: Situational and Normative Accounts’, Annual Review of Sociology, 2:1-18. Walton, J. (1992). ‘Making the Theoretical Case’, in: C. C. Ragin and H. Becker (eds), What is a Case? Exploring the Foundations of Social Inquiry (pp. 121-138), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

4

Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises1 Abstract Sungmisan (Seoul) is the first of the five selected case studies. This neighbourhood in Seoul, South Korea, is known for being an active neighbourhood. And the key element defining the cohesiveness and sustainability of Sungmisan are the village businesses. As these businesses serve the regular life needs of the residents, users of these businesses are drawn into contact with each other over the use of these amenities. The alternative school in particular requires a larger and longer-term commitment because of the deposit that must be paid and due to the longer duration of the education process. The other social amenities – the community kitchen, the thrift shop, and the café – work in tandem to support the Sungmisan community. Although these are socially valuable to the community, these businesses are subjected to the discipline of the market as rising rents threaten the viability of these social enterprises. Sungmisan is important because these local experiences and practices have been codified by the city government for use in other Seoul neighbourhoods. Keywords: Seoul, village social enterprises, local participation, gentrification, community development, urban redevelopment

1

Significance of Sungmisan

A key strategy in the comparative case approach is the use of local experts as a way of overcoming the lack of detailed local information. Aside from invaluable knowledge, local experts also provide useful site contacts.

1 In the Sungmisan chapter, I kept the real names of my respondents because these are neighbourhood activists and the changes described here are very much part of their ongoing work and this is a way of acknowledging their community effort.

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch04

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Huang Liling,2 who suggested I look into Tangbu in Taipei as a possible field site, also recommended Sungmisan in Seoul, a neighbourhood where residents manage a number of neighbourhood strengthening projects. Following this lead, I emailed Myungrae Cho, with whom I had an earlier research collaboration. It turned out that Myungrae had written about this neighbourhood and its achievements in an October 2010 article published in Dangkook Herald. Myungrae was also running a non-governmental organization (NGO) called Environmental Justice, located in the Sungmisan area. So, at very short notice, Myungrae arranged to meet up with me. He brought me to the Sungmisan community centre and introduced me to the manager there. Together, we visited the neighbourhood enterprises and I had my first encounter with what was to be my field site in Seoul. The neighbourhood in the contemporary city is porous and open to different types of influences as well as a variety of threats from developmental pressures as the economy of the city grows. However, this does not mean that the internal capacity of the neighbourhood is weak. Of the neighbourhoods discussed in this book, Sungmisan (see Figure 4.1) stands at one end of the continuum, labelled an active neighbourhood. This activeness is expressed and reinforced by a number of neighbourhood business ventures. These ventures can be seen as a type of social enterprise in which the business is started with the objective of sustaining the neighbourhood as a community. Sungmisan in the context of Seoul is also an important feature to note. Seoul is known as a city with active neighbourhood level participation, in terms of placemaking by its residents (Cho, 2018), the cultural regeneration by small business owners (Kim, 2015), the pro-activeness of residents in working with the city government in cultural heritage preservation (Kwon, 2017a: 205; Chung and Lee, 2019: 1409), and energy self-reliance (Kim, 2017). At the city level, the Seoul metropolitan government has also worked with residents, visitors, NGOs, and design companies to develop a more grass-roots-derived and participative orientated city branding initiatives for Seoul (Joo and Seo, 2018). Sungmisan is a story of how a local area’s past struggles to defend a hill (Sungmisan mountain in Figure 4.1) is woven into the fabric of local identity. It is also a story of how students who reached adulthood and started families in Sungmisan in the 1980s embraced the democratic movement and became 2 A use of real names also applies to the academics, Liling and Myungrae, friends who helped me to select and understanding each case. This practice is very much in keeping with Chabal and Daloz’s (2006) approach described in section 3b of chapter 3.

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Figure 4.1  Sungmisan field site in Seoul

involved in the struggle at the local level (Han, Shim, and Kim, 2018: 135). The intense period of collective action brought the villagers3 together. This time together gave birth to a set of successful businesses, illustrating the interplay of the political (organized action), social (a sense of solidarity and friendship), and economic (businesses that are organized like social enterprises). These businesses allow for a number of critical processes that support the neighbourhood. The alternative school and supermarket cooperative bring residents together through a common enterprise. The school in particular keeps parents and students together for a significant time period defined by the duration of school-going. The school curriculum also shapes identification with the neighbourhood among the school children. Other businesses, like the resale shop and the café, become social nodes for residents to meet.

3 When the term “village” is appropriated as a descriptive term by the respondents, it has a strong communitarian and participative meaning. See Kwon (2017b) and Kim and Lee (2018) for a fuller discussion.

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Sungmisan and Its Village Businesses4

The history of Sungmisan’s attempts at organization began in 1994. Was there collective life before 1994 in Sungmisan? According to Mr Galsoop,5 Sungmisan was like any other neighbourhood in Seoul, without much collective spirit (interview, 21 December 2011). But in 1994, 20 households decided to live together as a way to organize their childcare arrangements and they proceeded to set up a centre for childcare. Mr Yoo6 said that the location of Sungmisan was close to several universities and convenient for young graduate student mothers from these universities. They chose Sungmisan because it was nearby and also because the area, at that time, was flood-prone, therefore housing was cheaper (interview, 21 December 2011). One more childcare centre opened in 1996 along with an after-school programme. From 2001 to 2003, the Seoul city government had planned to construct a water-reservoir tank on the hill. However, this site was a favourite play area for the neighbourhood children. In January 2003, when the municipal government decided to cut some trees at the top of the hill, the people here decided to set up tents to protect trees. During the daytime, mothers came here and stood guard. At night, fathers came to do the same duty with the mothers. During the daytime vigil, mothers spent the time discussing issues relating to education, village life, etc. Fathers spent the night talking as well. One interesting story, for instance, was about ice-cream. Their kids were fond of eating ice-cream but many of them were suffering from atopy, reactions to inhaled and food allergens. So, the mothers thought organic ice-cream was a solution and suggested selling this in the village. The fathers’ concern was about maintaining their cars, so they wanted to have a reliable car repair shop. Finally, in 2003, the municipal government decided to give up their project because of the villagers’ protest (movement). The villagers saw this as a victory, the result of their collective effort to resist the government’s plan for the hill. With the collective spirit at a high point, the villagers decided

4 Unless otherwise stated, the account of Sungmisan and its village business is described by Mr C.W. Moon, the manager of the Sungmisan Community Center during an interview on 22 October 2010. 5 At the time of the interview, Mr Galsoop (a nickname) was in charge of several programmes in Sungmisan. 6 At the time of the interview, Mr Yoo managed the Sungmisan Village Theatre and had written a book about the neighbourhood titled We Play at the Village.

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to implement the ideas that were shared during their protest. One of these was the supermarket co-operative, which opened in September 2003. In 2004, the idea of an alternative school, discussed earlier when the villagers protested against the government’s plan for their hill, became a reality in the form of Sungmisan School. This school provides alternative education for children from eight to 18 years or from elementary to high school. According to a teacher at the school, Sungmisan school integrates children with special needs with other students. The café in the school sells bread baked by children from the school. There is a well-stocked library that is open to the public. The school also runs an afterschool programme. The programme is flexible and teachers can switch between grades. Two other initiatives followed in 2007. The resale shop Doesalim and Little Tree, a café. Doesalim shop in Sungmisan village practices ANABADA, a Korean acronym for Conserve, Share, Exchange, Reuse, also referred to as the CSER movement or 3R. It is managed by 12 volunteers and is open from Monday to Saturday. Doesalim is entirely staffed by volunteers. The prices of the resale products are decided by the volunteer workers and half of the price of the product is paid in the form of an alternative currency called Dooroo (두루). Little Tree is conveniently located at the entrance of Sungmisan and operates as an informal meeting area for residents. Sungmisan provided examples of how practices promoted by different social movements are adopted at the neighbourhood level. This connection between the national and the local is important and shows how supports and interactions connect these two levels. These connections, taken collectively, reflect a type of governance structure in which various types of non-governmental organizations interact and form a system of practice that is developed alongside but not totally removed from state and market influences. a

Sungmisan High School

The alternative education movement in Korea started in the mid-1990s. A greater emphasis on an environmentally friendly education and an ecological environment for the students were among the reasons (see Ku, 2009, where Sungmisan was used as an example). Many residents sent their children to the alternative school kindergartens. There were already several kindergartens but no alternative elementary school for children from the village. As the children of the original settlers grew up and graduated from

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kindergartens, they decided to set up their own alternative school within this area. Mr Yoo, who sent his son to this school, mentioned the following reasons: I participated in forming an alternative school when my son entered middle school. He couldn’t adjust to the radically changed environment from primary school to middle school. There was more pressure, with studying and bullying. In middle school, there is a mood that, unless he becomes top of the class, there is no hope. Even if he enters a top university, there is no guarantee of good job. I also don’t think that good grades are relevant to a happy life for my son. (interview, 21 December 2011)

The convenient assumption that the neighbourhood is a community that is united in its values and orientations is an erroneous one, even for a progressive neighbourhood such as Sungmisan. Professor Cho Hae Joang, a cultural anthropologist and neighbourhood activist who once worked as a temporary principal of the school, was jointly interviewed with Mr Yoo. She elaborated on the interests of parents sending their children to Sungmisan School: There were several groups who sent their kids to alternative school like him (Mr. Yoo), who joined communal child-caring and set up a co-op. Those parents want their children’s lives to be happy, not focused on success […]. There is the second group of parents who were successful outside community and are taking all the benefits from an alternative school. They’re more calculating. [This group] knows that going through a regular school [their children] wouldn’t do so well. So, they would rather choose an alternative school than a regular school and somehow, they felt that they can send their children to top class universities [by choosing an alternative school system]. So, there have been a lot of conflicts between different types of parents. That’s the reason why I was invited as a [temporary] principal. So, we had many meetings and discussions quite intensively. Parents have different interests and their own ideas about an alternative school. (interview, 21 December 2011)

The total school enrolment in 2011 was 150 students and there were about 25 regular teachers, with the same number of helpers. Parents who send their children to the school pay a $15 million won deposit, which they can redeem after their children graduate. The monthly tuition fee is 650 thousand won (updated following a 17 March 2014 interview with Mr Park, Sungmisan

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Figure 4.2  Sungmisan School Library

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

School’s principal). Since 2010, the foundation fund’s deposit fee has decreased to $10 million won. This is non-refundable and goes towards paying for the school’s building loan. There is also a 5 million won deposit that is refundable when students leave. The monthly fee is 500,000 won. This level of financing allows for one teacher per 10 students,7 which strengthens student care and allows for more personal attention. The school is clearly well resourced, as can be seen from the well-stocked library (Figure 4.2). The good results the school has achieved over the years and the limited capacity mean that there is a waiting list for parents wanting to send their children to this school. Mr Park said, “we know that Sungmisan’s higher fee compared to other alternative schools is a barrier for parents […] so we keep trying to lower the fees”. Mr Park also said that the present enrolment is 170 students. Less than 10 per cent leave for other schools. Not all students start from the first grade of the school’s 12-year programme. Some students transfer to other schools. It is very flexible. According to the principal, the children enrolled in the school understand differences between Sungmisan School and other conventional schools. In order to let them decide for themselves 7 The figures cited are from the Sungmisan School website: http://www.Sungmisan.net (last accessed 20 Dec 2011).

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whether they will stay with the school from elementary to middle school, entry to middle school is not automatic for graduating elementary school students. All students are required to take an entrance exam. This provides the opportunity for both students and parents to think about how much they want to stay in Sungmisan School. As the school does not follow the Korean Ministry of Education’s curriculum, the alignment between the school’s goals and that of students’ and families’ is especially important: When Sungmisan started, many parents didn’t trust the possibility of middle and high school. So, a higher percentage of them left Sungmisan after finishing elementary level. But these days, less than 10 per cent leave for other schools. For instance, some students who want to “make money”, find that Sungmisan would not be helpful. For some students who want to enter famous universities, Sungmisan is not a good place either. There aren’t many of those students. However, once students share their ideas, they develop reasons why they need to leave Sungmisan and persuade their parents with those reasons. I tell their parents to follow their children’s opinions and let them experience other schools, even if they may want come back later. (Park, 17 March 2014 interview)

Mr Park also said that about 60 per cent of Sungmisan students start from neighbourhood kindergartens, 30 per cent start from middle-high school level, and 10 per cent are transferred in the middle of semester (17 March 2014 interview). In the 21 December 2011 interview, Mr Yoo mentioned that the school has also increased the parents’ involvement in the neighbourhood. One danger to community life is when new residents seek village amenities without paying for the cost of involvement. The school actively seeks to broaden parents’ involvement, first with the school through its various volunteer programmes, but also significantly widening this to other neighbourhood projects. The long stay of their children in the school also means that parents should be interested in developing a long-term involvement with their place of residence. The school’s obligation to building neighbourhood strengthening practices is clear from this account: As you might know, this school is identified as “maeul” [literally meaning village or community] school. Then, what is a “maeul school”? It’s not

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easy to define the meaning. Based upon our 10 years’ experience, I can say that Sungmisan as a maeul school is playing a pivotal role to maintain the Sungmisan community. Without the involvement of the school, the community does not work well. It does not mean that Sungmisan school represents this neighborhood. There is no centrally or hierarchically organized system in this community. Just individuals or families who participate in particular programmes which draw their interests. Each unit works separately. But this school has a consistency and cohesion8 so it can become a central part of the community, binding various people and dispersed units. It’s a positive role of the school, rather than burdensome task. The process of making community is a very important part of our education, which naturally becomes the school’s curriculum. As a result, the more vitalised the community, the more students can work within this community. When more and more of our students find jobs within this community, it will guarantee the vitalisation of this community. Look at many workers in Korea who work until late [at night] without holiday. There is no real life for them. In this way, I think education at this school and community is closely linked with each other. (Park, 17 March 2014 interview)

I followed up this comment by asking Mr Park what some activities from the school are, which connect with the neighbourhood. Mr Park replied: Rather than special events, the way in which kids, parents and teachers participate all together in making a community is more meaningful. For instance, in elementary school, there is a programme called “grandmother’s table”. After cooking classes, there is food left over. So, teachers and students thought about what they could do with the food. In Sungmisan, there are several NGOs and one of them provided a list of senior residents who live alone. So, we began to deliver food to the elderly, most of whom are females. That’s why we call this program “grandmother’s table”. At first, our students cooked what they wanted to eat. But, while meeting the elderly, they found that they needed to adjust the food to their dietary needs, for example, to adapt to diabetic patients. They also learn how to communicate with the elderly. This kind of programme is a good example of how students participate in community activities. Middle 8 The word (응집성) in this context is referring to the group cohesiveness or the group consciousness the people in the school have. It refers to the tendency of the people to clique, group up and cooperate.

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school students learn about energy savings and apply various methods to their homes. They also teach elementary school students what they learn. High school students learn through internships at community businesses like a recycling shop. (17 March 2014 interview)

There is also a sustained connection between the school and the different neighbourhood businesses in Sungmisan. Mr Park explained: “Without any special explanation, students are already familiar with the village businesses. But, when we send our students to them, teachers introduce our students to village businesses and hold meetings to check whether students are doing well” (17 March 2014, interview). Sungmisan School is privately funded and is outside the government school system. I asked Mr Park how it is possible to get permission from the Korean Ministry of Education to start a school that does not follow the Korean ministry’s curriculum. He replied that all schools are to be regulated by Ministry of Education (MOE). But alternative schools are managed as a co-operative and these are independent from the government regulations. This is interesting for its alternative schooling method as well as in terms of being a neighbourhood school. As an alternative schooling system, Mr Yoo, who himself has a child in this school, points out that parents like him send their children to alternative schools because they want their children to be happy and not stressed by the very high workload and exam pressure created by the Korean state school system. The detachment of the school from the Korean Ministry of Education means that this school runs a more relaxed curriculum in which the children learn at their own pace, with a focus on discovery. The following is an example cited from We Play at the Village9 with regard to a self-directed learning plan: I want to keep a puppy at home for this semester. But my mom does not allow it because she thinks I can’t take care of the puppy by myself. So, I want to prove that I can do well […] And I will study math hard this time […]. (Yoo, 2010: 125-126)

Yoo (Ibid.: 125-126) noted that the curriculum pursued by the school requires all students to present their self-directed learning plan to teachers, parents, and mentors invited outside the school. After a discussion following the 9 I am grateful to Ji Youn Kim for translating the passages used in this chapter from Yoo’s (2010) book, We Play at the Village.

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Figure 4.3 Sungmisan School children commemorating the protest against the acquisition of Sungmisan Hill

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

presentation, each student sets their own study plan for one semester. In terms of age-graded learning, Yoo (Ibid.: 128-129) observes that the school sets different goals of learning: for lower grades of elementary school (grades 1-3), playing and enjoying a happy school life; for higher grades of elementary school (grades 4-6), immersion in planned projects; for middle school (grades 7-9), extending of diverse experiences and finding role models; for high school (grades 10-12), finding a vision of life and doing an internship. With reference to the point about Sungmisan being a neighbourhood school, Figure 4.3 below shows how the history of the neighbourhood is celebrated by the school. In this instance, Sungmisan’s victory over Hongyik University’s plan to develop the hill is captured and represented by recycling an old tent, debris of trees on the hill and well wishes pasted in front of the tent. Sungmisan School deserves more attention because of how this venture is intimately linked to the neighbourhood. Firstly, from the fees paid to get an education in this school, parents must express a commitment to stay in Sungmisan and participate in the school since this co-operative is collectively owned and managed by the parents. And because the school incorporates 12 grades, an average student is likely to be enrolled in the school for an

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appreciable period of time, tying the whole family to the neighbourhood for that timespan. There is, therefore, an added link to the neighbourhood other than residence, and this is the vital function of schooling. Thus, by managing the school in such a fashion, Sungmisan neighbourhood activists ensure the vital process of school is tied to the vital process of neighbourhood social life. Secondly, as depicted in Figure 4.3, the operation of the school is tied to the collective life of the neighbourhood. Important neighbourhood events are commemorated, neighbourhood or village businesses are invited to give talks to the students, and students work in the neighbourhood. This connection between the school and neighbourhood events and enterprises becomes an important way of reinforcing the social cohesion of the neighbourhood. Mr Park, Sungmisan’s school principal, sums up this relationship nicely: (The) more vitalised the community, the more students can work within this community. When more and more of our students find jobs within this community, it will guarantee the vitalisation of this community. Look at the many workers in Korea who work until late at night, without any holiday. There is no real life for them. In this way, I think education at this school and community are closely linked with each other. (17 March 2014 interview).

b

Sungmisan Dure/Doorae Co-op

This co-operative store now sells 2,500 items, mainly foodstuffs, other household items (see Figure 4.4), and a range of agricultural products through direct trade with local producers in Korea. This direct contact with producers allows a constant supply at a stable price. During my 2010 visit, after the store manager asked me where I was from, she proceeded to let me know that no products from the store are from Singapore (which is not surprising!). But sugar is from the Philippines, olives from Palestine, and coffee from Laos, Ecuador, and East Timor. All these are fair-trade imports10 and a percentage of the profits go back to the producers. 10 The fair-trade movement in Korea was started in the early 2000s by some civic groups and is currently spreading rapidly in the society. In 2003, there was an attempt to sell handicrafts imported from some Asian countries by “Beautiful Shops” but it was not successful. In 2004, Doorae Co-op imported Muscovado sugar from the Philippines and supplied it to their union members. In 2006, Beautiful Shop and YMCA imported coffee beans for a coffee business from Nepal and East Timor respectively. The fairtrade movement has become more prominent when the Korean Fair-Trade Organisation and the FairTrade Shop Ullim started the campaign by using education, publicity, publication of books, football and chocolates. The fair-trade movement in

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Figure 4.4  Sungmisan Dure Co-op (두레생협) Supermarket

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

The membership fee is 30,000 won a year. The co-op has 5,000 members, of which 3,000 are residents of Sungmisan while the rest live elsewhere. Park (2013: 52) notes that the co-op has an annual revenue of 5 billion won.11 The supermarket also stocks products made by residents, such as soap made by the elderly. I heard two reasons that led to the formation of the food co-op. The history of the co-op can be traced back to the Sungmisan residents protest against the proposed government project on Sungmisan Hill. Concerned that their protest against the government’s project was seen by the public as a NIMBY attempt, they advocated a pro-environment position. This position also evolved into an organic movement. The pro-environmental position of the neighbourhood has made Sungmisan rather well known as this neighbourhood has featured quite prominently on websites12 and in newspapers such as the Korea Jooang Daily’s 20 September 2008 article Korea has started relatively later than in western countries, where it started in the 1950s and 1960s, and also later than Japan where it started in the early 1990s. The total revenue of the seven Korean free trade organisations in 2012 was about 10.9 billion won. (http://fairtradekorea. net/?page_id=53, in Korean; last accessed 11 July 2016). 11 Approximately USD$4.23 million. 12 https://findingwhatworks.org/2012/05/22/seongmisan-a-village-within-a-city/ (last accessed 10 July 2016).

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Figure 4.5 Sungmisan Community Kitchen food preparation (left) and a kitchen assistant holding a cookbook with her recipes (right)

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

“Eco-Villagers Seek Utopia in the Green Hills of Mount Jiri”. In this article, Sungmisan was mentioned as an urban model of eco-villages, and in journal articles (e.g. Ku, 2009: 47-50), Sungmisan was highlighted as an exemplary case of an urban ecological community. The focus on organic produce at the co-op also fits well with parental beliefs about organic food as a way to support the long-term health of their children. c

Sungmisan Community Kitchen

In 2003, a community kitchen was formed, supplying organic cooked food three times a week to 60 households (see Figure 4.5, left photo). Significantly, the ingredients for the meals are sourced from the co-op, especially the perishables, which would otherwise have to be disposed of (Mr Yoo, 21 December, 2011). Two helpers from the kitchen contributed some of their best recipes to produce a cookbook called “Mother’s Dining Table Containing Nature”.13 One of the helpers is posing proudly with her handiwork (see Figure 4.5, right photo). Who is this food service catering to? I had assumed that the main group of resident customers would be the elderly residents. Mr Galsoop said that this service is too expensive for the elderly and that the main group utilizing the service are working couples who do not have the time to cook (interview, 22 December 2011). According to Mr Galsoop, the revenue from the food delivery is insufficient. This is supplemented by catering to the demand for such services outside the village (interview, 21 December 2011). This is an example of how (a) 13 An update from the 2014 visit was that the staff reported 50 households were on the scheme. Mother’s Dining Table Containing Nature was sold out!

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businesses work to support the social needs of the neighbourhood; and (b) how with this rather natural business extension, a wider public set of customers provide the patronage, which supports the needs of a segment of the neighbourhood. d

Doesalim, Sungmisan’s Resale Shop

The resale shop Doesalim 14 opened in 2007 and practices ANABADA, a Korean acronym for Conserve, Share, Exchange, Reuse. It is often also referred to as the CSER movement. It is managed by 12 volunteers and opens from Monday to Saturday. When I visited the shop in 2010, there was also a modest operation at the back of the shop, where workers produced goods such as masks for sale at the food co-op. By 2011, this sewing factory was closed due to insufficient demand for its products (21 Dec 2011 interview). During the interview, I expressed surprise that Doesalim was a viable commercial option. Mr Yoo said the resale shop had taken over its current premises when the food co-op vacated the space to move to a larger space down the road. The people who work here are volunteers. Mr Yoo commented that this shop makes the most financial contribution to the co-op. When Ji Youn, my research assistant, was paying for a used book during our 2014 visit, the sales clerk told her that if she were to bring her stuff to the shop, she will get vouchers (Doorae15), which she could use to offset purchases in other co-op stores in the village. Mr Yoo explains how this system works: For instance, if I sell my used stuff to this shop for 2,000 won, I get 1,000 in cash and 1,000 in doorae. With this 1,000 doorae, I can pay less than half of the money I need to pay at other shops [participants within this neighbourhood]. Here, when I sell my stuff to the resale shop, the important attitude is that I sell my belongings which are no longer necessary to me, but selling what someone needs. (interview, 21 December 2011) 14 The Doesalim shop in Sungmisan village is entirely staffed by volunteers. The price of the products is decided by the volunteer workers and half of the price of the product is paid in the form of an alternative currency called Dooroo (두루). 15 Sungmisan’s version of the community currency is one of several used in Korea. Community currency operates on the idea that promotes an economy with no debt, no competition and efficiency. This system requires trust in the community and through this they are promoting interaction between the people. This system gives a greater emphasis to the relationship between the people and promotes a sharing, trusting culture in the community (See Chun, 2007; Kang and Hong, 2015).

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Figure 4.6  Doesalim Resale Shop

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

This sounds like a great way of keeping customers in the village. Ji Youn thinks that because the shop offers vouchers to people for bringing items to the shop, this should be seen as a commercial transaction and this may motivate people to bring in goods of a reasonable quality. During the 16 March 2014 field visit, we took the opportunity to visit the other village businesses, including Doesalim. We were in the shop for about five minutes and while we were there, a well-dressed woman dropped off two items, a scarf and a small clutch bag, perhaps a testimony to the vibrancy of a well-stocked shop, quite similar to the photo taken in 2010 (see figure 4.6). e

Little Tree, Sungmisan’s café

A café called the Little Tree also opened in 2007 (see Figure 4.7). When it ran into financial difficulty, a group of teachers from Sungmisan collected money to support Little Tree. They were incapable of managing the business themselves, however, because of work commitments. In July 2008, it became a co-op.16 Given that Little Tree was located at one of the main 16 During the 2014 visit, we saw a notice in the café that included a photo of the owner and the family, which mentioned that the former owners have donated the premises to the neighbourhood

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entrances to Sungmisan (see Figure 4.1) it was naturally a meeting area for its residents. Therefore, in December 2011, this café was used to conduct three interviews. I spent two hours there on a Wednesday morning and another two hours in the afternoon. There were always people in the café. A mother with a small child was talking to two friends, spending over an hour there. Someone came into the café to leave some pamphlets at a spot designated for neighbourhood information. The three individuals I interviewed were well-known to the neighbours and they returned the greetings of people entering and exiting the café during our chat. Mr Galsoop called the café the “gate of the village” (interview, 21 December 2011). Little Tree’s location at the intersection of the road leading to Sungmisan makes it a convenient place where visitors may stop before venturing deeper into the village. After lunch at a nearby restaurant, my research assistant Ji Youn and I returned for the second round of interviews and the place was even more crowded. We took the one remaining vacant table. Neighbourhood residential profiles change over time. One of the issues discussed during the interview was generational tensions between long-time residents and new residents. While not denying the tension, Mr Yoo said that the long-time residents viewed the projects started by newer residents favourably, citing the Little Tree as an example, while Professor Cho (a former principal of Sungmisan school and who was interviewed together with Mr Yoo) added “with loving eyes” (21 December 2011). We were at Little Tree on 16 March 2014 around 10.20am for a coffee and to reflect on the field visit order. Ji Youn reported that a brief chat with the counter staff revealed that the café is busy from 2-4pm with kids after school, and a lunchtime crowd of housewives waiting for their children. The bulletin board inside the café we noticed in 2011 was still there. There was also a larger one to the side of the café. The small space given to the neighbourhood artisans and producers (noted during the 2011 visit) had been replaced by shelves of pastries for sale. However, there continued to be a space for these producers to sell their items in a prominent location across from the cash register.

3

Village Business Projects and Their Importance to the Neighbourhood

Sungmisan is one neighbourhood that has made a name for itself because of the businesses it manages. Collectively, these businesses may represent a and this is now managed as a co-op business.

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Figure 4.7  Little Tree Café

Source: Author, 22 October 2010

localized social economy, as Park (2013: 50) suggests, because these businesses are managed with the welfare of the neighbourhood community in mind. However, this is not to suggest that all businesses developed by Sungmisan worked well. One idea floated by the men in the village was the need to find a reliable workshop for their vehicles. This led to the decision to start an auto repair shop called Cha Hospital. Villagers who were excited about the success of earlier ventures placed high hopes on Cha Hospital. A variety of reasons, including the inability to find a reasonable rental workshop location, led to a the business being established at a site inconvenient for the villagers and this, in turn, resulted in low profit margins and the inevitable closure of the business in 2009. Was the failure of this venture a big blow to the community? In We Play at the Village, a book about Sungmisan, Mr Yoo (2010: 180) mentioned that the failure of this venture was regrettable, “as it was the first time we experienced such a failure since we started. We didn’t want to accept our failure. It was like our village failed”. During the 2011 interview, Mr Yoo said that some 80 persons invested in the project, so the loss was spread out. He joked that successful village ventures are managed by women. When the men took on a project – the Cha Hospital was an all-male project – the project failed (interview, 21 October 2011). My sense is that the community took the failure in its stride and moved on. It is

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also an accepted perception of business ventures that some are successful and some fail. In spite of the failure of Cha Hospital, there have been a number of major successes: the alternative schooling system, the food co-op, the community kitchen, and the resale shop. The annual sales of these businesses make them prof itable and created about 150 jobs. More importantly, the key leaders at Sungmisan created a set of businesses that take care of residents of all age groups, from children to elderly persons. This is significant as it reflects a strong position on social sustainability by keeping people in the neighbourhood and creating neighbourhood strengthening practices. At the macro level, these businesses addressed global matters such as fair trade and the organic food movement. It is important to note that these developments occurred without the help of the government. This became clear during the interview about Sungmisan with the Mapo district officers. The officers noted that many of Sungmisan’s residents are professionals and upper middle class. Consequently, their activities did not need much support from the government. Indeed, the district government provided only minimal support (interview, 19 March 2014). Generally, funding came in the form of initial financing from residents and later from profits arising from the co-op businesses. The importance of an active neighbourhood is not lost on district officials: Beyond the Sungmisan community, we realised the importance of maintaining the ‘village’. The district we need to manage is so large that we cannot take care of every single citizen. But, within the village or community, people know each other much better than the officials do […]. Villagers know their neighbour better than us. For instance, when someone is too poor to eat, officers can’t discover it easily but a neighbour will notice the problem faster than us. (interview, 19 March 2014)

4

Sungmisan and Its Relevance to the City

The idea of active residents who participate collectively in the building of the neighbourhood and the city is something that Park Won-soon worked hard to introduce to the city of Seoul when he became mayor. As a mayor who has a background as a human rights lawyer and a civic activist, Mayor Park (2014: 433) argued that “citizens should no longer be at the receiving end of city policies. They should be at the forefront, playing an active role in shaping city policies. The more citizens are involved in the city’s decision-making

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process, the more city policies benefit their lives”. Mayor Park invited Mr Yoo, the activist whom I interviewed in 2011 and 2014, to form an NGO, the Seoul Community Support Center (SCSC). This NGO was meant to help coordinate efforts by the Seoul City Government to help communities develop. This centre opened in August 2012.17 The key principle, said Mr. Yoo, in a 19 March 2014 interview, was that the new approach represented by the SCSC was not from top-down, but from the bottom up, with the Sungmisan experience as an example. The new position states that the government supports research by providing funds and resources, and action (output) should be bottom-up. Mr Yoo elaborated that the SCSC staff operate as consultants between government ministries and communities: There are three steps to support community: the pre-application step, the screening and selection step, and the post-application step. For the f irst step, SCSC helps the community f ind information about public funds and educates them about how to apply for funds. For the second step, SCSC sends staff to all communities which applied for funds to check whether applicants are capable of conducting their projects. More importantly, when SCSC staff are sent to a particular community, the officer is already an expert on the local area. Our staff are experienced activists, respectively based in 25 districts in Seoul and recommended by each district. So, our staff do not only conduct field research in local areas but they also become mentors for communities. Based on field research, SCSC staff submit an evaluation report to ministries for screening. For the post-application step, once some groups are chosen, our staff work closely with them. (19 March 2014 interview)

Mr Yoo highlighted that the ultimate goal is to develop local capacity and efficiency to a level that makes SCSC redundant. SCSC is an organization covering the whole Seoul metropolitan area. At the beginning, SCSC was necessary to make an overall framework for this project. More localized centres to support dispersed communities were needed. By 2014, of the 25 administrative local districts in Seoul, 18 were in the process of developing 17 The point made in this chapter is how a particular neighbourhood’s experience can be used to enhance city policies. See Cho and Križnik (2017: 121-127) and Ryu, Lee, and Lee (2017) for a fuller review of community building projects in Seoul and community participation. On the issue of community participation, Kim and Cho (2017: 19) raised an important issue of whether the city government is advocating participation or whether this is a post-political government ploy. See chapter 9 of the monograph for a fuller discussion of this tension.

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their own centres. SCSC will transfer some functions to localized centres when these are capable. Generally, SCSC will focus more on policymaking, research, and innovation of administration. Localized centres will focus on education and consultation. Before climbing the stairs to reach SCSC, we noticed a board at the foot of the stairs showing the places where there is support for various city neighbourhoods. The representation displayed a distinct pattern of less support for richer neighbourhoods. As Dr Se Hoon Park (from the Korean Research Institute for Human Settlements, who helped me set up and came along for the interview) noted, some of the communities (notably Kangnam, a wealthy area south of the river, had sparse representation). When asked if this were true, Mr Yoo noted that the rich do not need to mingle with other people. The poor may need more top-down government support. For the extremely poor, a more effective welfare policy is needed with direct government services. These tendencies imply that the two income extremes – the rich neighbourhoods and the very poor neighbourhoods – are disengaged from community projects for reasons associated with their income position.

5

Discussion and Summary

Two important clarifications need to be made with regard to participation. The first is to avoid the potential misconception that every resident in Sungmisan participates in these village projects as volunteers, customers (co-op, resale shop, and kitchen) or students (alternative school). According to the Mapo Statistical Service, the number of residents living in Sungmisan village is 135,962 (as of April 2011). Taking the example of the food co-op membership, of the 5,420 members, about 3,000 come from Sungmisan. If a generous household size is assumed and each member buys co-op items for a household of four persons, only 1,200 persons or slightly less than 10 per cent of the actual residential population are linked to the co-op. The point is that residents of urban neighbourhoods have easy alternatives to the co-op type of businesses (childcare, kitchen, food co-op, etc.). Even in the face of easy access to a range of goods and services, the Sungmisan case demonstrates that non-market neighbourhood-based options can grow and prosper. Sungmisan ventures meet the material and also social needs of those who participate. They also continue to be open to the other 90 per cent of the residents, who may wish to join at another point. What is also important is the mutual effects of businesses on one another, for example the food co-op supporting the community kitchen.

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In short, Sungmisan represents a neighbourhood where village businesses create a materialist conception of a place-based community, building interests and activities among residents to create a network of friendly affiliations. As Sungmisan School principal Mr Park noted, while his school does not necessarily represent the neighbourhood, the outreach activities of the school (and other village businesses) actively create a community space in the Lefebvrian sense in the everyday lives of the Sungmisan residents. The degree to which they step into this space will, in turn, depend on their interests and needs. The other clarification is the need to take into account evolutionary processes in Sungmisan. Each new generation of residents may have different needs and preferences. A good village needs to incorporate these differences and there is evidence from Sungmisan that this has occurred. The food co-op and school were started by the first generation of villagers and the Little Tree café represents new businesses set up by newer residents.

6

Looking Ahead

Our 2014 walk in Sungmisan brought us to the hill where neighbourhood activism started, when villagers started thinking about the idea of village businesses as they guarded the hill to prevent the government from building a reservoir on part of the hill. We walked past the Hongik School on the way down from the hill. Ji Youn asked the guard who was standing outside this gate several questions. The guard told us that the school had started operation in August 2012. There are 1,000 high school students, 500 elementary school students, and another 500 middle school students. The guard thinks that the plan to build the dormitory for foreign students from Hongik University to the side of the front gate is now on hold because of opposition from the neighbourhood. Earlier in the day, when we were about to walk into the Little Tree, we saw a protest sign in front of the café. We had the opportunity to ask one of the counter staff at Little Tree what was going on. She said that while Sungmisan neighbourhood had nothing against foreign students, Hongik reneged on their earlier decision to donate a portion of their land for neighbourhood purposes. So, the protest was to mark Hongik’s failure to deliver on their promise. Having just walked past Hongik School, Ji Youn asked the elderly lady manning the counter if there was an impact of the school opening in 2012. She asked if Ji Youn was looking for a place to rent at Sungmisan, and also said that the price of houses had

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increased, with some parents who send their children to the school moving into the neighbourhood. Sungmisan residents also send their children there. While the Sungmisan case shows how the village businesses built up by an active neighbourhood provide a bedrock that can continue to reinforce neighbourhood cohesiveness, new changes work to weaken this influence. The building of the Hongik School in Sungmisan represents the beginning of significant changes to Sungmisan. At 1,000 students, compared to only 170 students for Sungmisan alternative school, Hongik has already made Sungmisan a more attractive place to live in for other city residents, and housing prices have increased as more households with children studying in Hongik have moved in.18 When I asked Mr Yoo why the Little Tree had applied for a SCSC grant to upgrade their business, he said there are now new cafes in the area (presumably because of the increase in the high school population from Hongik) and Little Tree is facing more competition (interview, 19 March 2014). Thus, while this chapter has documented the social economy that was created by an active neighbourhood and how these business elements, in turn, continue to reinforce relations in the neighbourhood through the provision of amenities and services, this strong foundation coexists alongside other new changes, such as the entry of Hongik School, which may possibly erode some of the success previously enjoyed by the neighbourhood. This suggests that the elements of the neighbourhood’s social economy must compete for the residents’ attention and loyalty. As I was putting the finishing touches to this chapter, Ji Youn emailed to say that the Little Tree Café had closed in July 2017. With the presence of Hongik School, rents and property prices have been rising and the Litte Tree Café property was sold. The new building owner asked the cafe to vacate the shop in 2015 but the café has an extended two-year lease through a negotiation by the Seoul Metropolitan Government. With rising rents, it will be difficult for the café to find a new location in Sungmisan. When we met for a recent semester, Ji Youn mentioned yet another change. Rising rents has forced the community kitchen to move away from Sungmisan’s main thoroughfare Sungmisan-ro to a cheaper location closer to Sungmisan Alternative School. Ironically, it seems that for all the good work village businesses are doing in the Sungmisan, this work can be unsettled by the 18 This is part of a wave of speculative urbanization and its accompanying displacement that has been noted by Shin and Kim (2016) and Lee (2018). Displacement has also resulted from government-initiated redevelopment projects (see Kim, 1990; Kwon, 2017b). Cho and Kim (2016) documents a successful example of anti-displacement mobilization.

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market through commercial gentrification, precisely because these village enterprises are managed commercially. Such enterprises do not enjoy the protection afforded by the government, for example, the GIC (government, institutional and community) provisions in the Langham Place project (see chapter 7).

References Chabal, P. and J. P. Daloz (2006). Culture Troubles: Politics and the Interpretation of Meaning. London, UK: Hurst. Cho, M. R. (2018). ‘Ethnic Place-Making in Cosmopolis’, in: Y. Cabannes, M. Douglass and R. Padawangi (eds), Cities in Asia by and For the People (pp. 313-339), Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. Cho, I.S. and B. Križnik (2017). Community-Based Urban Development: Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul. Singapore: Springer. Cho, M. and J. Kim (2016). ‘Coupling Urban Regeneration with Age-Friendliness: Neighborhood Regeneration in Jangsu Village, Seoul’, Cities, 58, 107-114. Chun, K. (2007). ‘The Situation of Korea Community Currency and the Activities of Hanbat LETS. Source: http://base.socioeco.org/docs/korean_ccs__english_. pdf (last accessed: 11 July 2016). Chung, H. and J. Lee (2019). ‘Community Cultural Resources as Sustainable Development Enablers: A Case Study on Bukjeong Village in Korea compared with Naoshima Island in Japan’, Sustainability, 11(5), 1401-1414. Han, S.J, Y.H. Shim and J. S. Kim (2018). ‘Comparative Study of Neighborhood Community Reconstruction in Seoul and Beijing’, Korea Journal, 58(2), 113-140. Joo, Y. M. and B. Seo (2018). ‘Transformative City Branding for Policy Change: The Case of Seoul’s Participatory Branding’, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(2), 239-257. Kang, J. and B. Hong (2015). ‘Community Currency in Korea’, International Journal of Community Currency Research, 19(D): 72-80. Source: https://repub.eur.nl/ pub/78666/ (Last accessed: 13 February 2019). Kim, J. (1990). ‘Urban Redevelopment of Green Belt Villages: A Case Study of Seoul’, Cities, 7(4), 323-332. Kim, J. Y. (2016). ‘Cultural Entrepreneurs and Urban Regeneration in Itaewon, Seoul’, Cities, 56, 132-140. Kim, H. (2017). ‘A Community Energy Transition Model for Urban Areas: The Energy Self-Reliant Village Program in Seoul, South Korea’, Sustainability, 9(7), 1260.

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Kim, J. and M. Cho (2017). ‘Creating a Sewing Village in Seoul: Towards Participatory Village-Making or Post-Political Urban Regeneration?’, Community Development Journal, 1-21. Kim, S. and K. Lee (2018). ‘A Study of Living Village Characteristics Through Types of Residential Areas and Resident Cognitive Tests in Seoul, Korea’, Journal of Asian Architecture and Building Engineering, 17(2), 291-298. Kwon, H. (2017a). ‘Villagers’ Agency in the Intangible Cultural Heritage Designation of a Korean Village Ritual’, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 23(3), 200-214. Kwon, H. (2017b). ‘Urban Redevelopment and the Expulsion of a Village: An Urban Village in Seoul and Residents’ Responses to the Redevelopment Project’, Community Development Journal, 53(4), 637-655. Ku, D. W. (2009). ‘The Emergence of Ecological Alternative Movement in Korean’, Korean Social Science Journal, 2: 1-32. Lee, S. Y. (2018). ‘Cities for Prof it: Prof it-Driven Gentrif ication in Seoul, South Korea’, Urban Studies, 55(12), 2603-2617. Park, W. S. (2014). ‘In Seoul, the Citizens are the Mayor’, Public Administration Review 74(4): 442-443. Park, T. J. (2013). ‘Empirical Study of Sustainable Community Development in South Korea: A Special Focus on Village Community’. Source: http://papers.ssrn.com/ sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2346576 (Last accessed: 11 July 2016). Ryu, H., Lee, J. S. and S. Y. Lee (2017). ‘Participatory Neighborhood Revitalization Effects on Social Capital: Evidence from Community Building Projects in Seoul’, Journal of Urban Planning and Development, 144(1), 04017025:1-13. Yoo C. B. (2010). We Play at a Village (우린 마을에서 논다). Seoul: Alternative Culture Press (또하나의문화).

5

Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts Abstract The Mahakan neighbourhood is situated in Bangkok’s old town, Rattanakosin. As the site of the Grand Palace and Wat Pho, the government has enacted legislation to make Rattanakosin into a civic and cultural district. Mahakan residents have an extended engagement with the city government over the right to stay, helped by local NGOs. Drawing on the advice of experts, Mahakan residents have made a case for making their village a heritage site in line with the Rattanakosin district cultural plans. This project is significant for its attempts to preserve community heritage. Experts argue that the Mahakan site may be the only traditional Thai neighbourhood (old teak houses, without fences, along the canal) left in Bangkok and is therefore worthy of preservation. Interviews with various government officials revealed a different perspective. Mahakan residents have demonstrated their resolve and their responsibility by building a community centre in their village to document the neighbourhood heritage. However, their f ight has lost ground as the government has demolished the houses. Keywords: Bangkok, urban heritage, urban redevelopment, intangible heritage, civic and cultural district, community development

1

Significance of Mahakan

Sungmisan exists as a strong, active neighbourhood that is capable of maintaining its strength through a collectively funded set of amenities and services. The Sungmisan model was adopted by a responsive and progressive city government led by Mayor Won Soon Park.1 The Mahakan neighbourhood represents the opposite, a neighbourhood whose residents have a weaker 1

From an interview with Mr Yoo on 21 December 2011.

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch05

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voice when articulating their demands. The reason for this is they are poor, informal settlers reacting to a city government that has threatened to take back the land for redevelopment into a park, as part of the plan to establish the Rattanakosin civic and heritage district plan. I literally stumbled onto Mahakan as a f ield site. On the morning of 11 March 2003, I interviewed a planner2 working at the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) to get a better understanding of economic planning in Bangkok. We discussed tourism planning at Rattanakosin in terms of efforts to make it a civic and heritage district. At the end of the interview, the planner suggested I visit Santichaiprakarn Park on Phra Athit Road to witness a successful case of a planning intervention on the part of the BMA. Santichaiprakan Park has created open access to the Chao Phraya River for local and foreign visitors alike and is a green oasis in a highly built-up old quarter of the city. The space is used by many people. I went to the park in the afternoon and saw the beautiful Fort Sumen. I decided I should visit the only other fort left in the old walled city, which was Fort Mahakan. There, a different sight greeted me. There were banners stating the right of the residents to live in Mahakan. Having decided that I was too tall and too fat to be Thai, the villagers sent a young man who spoke some English to meet me. His name was Kiet and this was the beginning of my 15-year encounter with the Mahakan field site. The Mahakan field site is important for this book because it represents several critical elements. Firstly, it elaborated the point made in the introduction that neighbourhoods in the city are under regular threat from city building efforts and from gentrif ication. In the Mahakan case, it was an ambitious project to transform Bangkok’s old quarter, Rattanakosin, into Thailand’s civic and heritage district. This project has much to do with the ambition of nation-building by preserving key elements representing royalty and religion in one place.3 Secondly, although the neighbourhood is weak, it is not inactive. The Mahakan neighbourhood represents a case of the urban poor being helped by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and learning to assert a claim in keeping with the proposed plan of Rattanakosin. In so doing, the Mahakan neighbourhood has embarked on a rather unusual strategy of 2 In keeping with the convention adopted in the last chapter, I do not use the names of government officials interviewed and only the name of the department that they work for is used. The real names of academic experts are used. 3 Interview with a Committee on the Preservation of Rattanakosin official, February 2009.

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making a cultural rights claim linked to the heritage of its neighbourhood. This represents a departure from the actions of other informal housing settlements when faced with eviction. And lastly, the Mahakan case is also important because it sheds light on an important tension between the civil bureaucracy and politicians. For example, a Bangkok governor sided with the Mahakan residents’ right to stay, only to have his decision challenged by his own administration a few months later (Aruninta, 2009). 4 This tension suggests a weaker state apparatus in terms of its effectiveness in governing the city.

2

Rattanakosin as the Civic and Cultural District of Thailand

As the Mahakan site is set within the Rattanakosin area, the old quarter of Bangkok, the fate of its residents is intricately tied to the story of how Rattanakosin became the focus of planning for Thailand’s historical district. Rattanakosin Island is Bangkok’s premier royal district (see Figure 5.1). It is where King Rama I built his new capital in 1782. Like many pre-capitalist cities, Bangkok was built as a fortified city. Small and compact, the inner-city area was encircled by protective walls, forts and moats dug on the east side and the great Chao Phraya River curving around from the northwest to the south. This walled old city core constitutes what is presently known as Rattanakosin Island. The design of Bangkok as the capital city followed a cosmological concept based on the previous capital of Ayutthaya, with the Royal Palace and the Emerald Buddha Temple forming the key elements of the city centre (Boonchuen and Ho, 2006). As indicated in Figure 5.1, Inner Rattanakosin comprises the land bound by the Chao Phraya River and the canals Khlong Rohng-mai,55 Khlong Khumueang-doem, and Khlong Talat. Outer Rattanakosin is bound by outer canals Khlong Banglamphu and Khlong Rop Krung. At the top section of the map, where Khlong Banglamphu begins from the Chao Phraya River, is Fort Sumen. The fourth fort tower to the right of Fort Sumen is Fort Mahakan and the immediate area around the fort is the present-day Mahakan village and the field site.

4 5

For a more detailed account, see Herzfeld (2016: 126-147). These terms follow the spelling in the map

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In 1978, the Ministry of the Interior appointed the committee for the conservation of Rattanakosin Island. There has been a sustained multi-agency effort to conserve what is one of the most important cultural heritage sites of Thailand. The 1981 Cabinet decision imposed strict controls on Inner Krung Rattanakosin, prohibiting any new structures in this area and restricting the renovation of existing structures (Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin, 2004, 38). Subsequent Cabinet decisions as well as Bangkok Municipal Authority Regulations built on these controls by extending them to the banks of the Chao Phraya River as well as to other sub-districts (Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin, 2004, 39-41). The two master plans drawn up by the Committee and approved by the Cabinet in 1997 and 2000 include the protection and improvement of heritage attractions as well as the plans to reduce traffic congestion and the creation of green spaces in the form of parks and corridors (Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin, 2004). The plans also involve the Chao Phraya River, which runs through the district, as well as the canals, which mark the inner and outer boundaries of the district.6 This set of measures and its redevelopment plans make Rattanakosin Island the most highly regulated area in Thailand. While it is recognized that Rattanakosin is the royal district, it will be a simplification to think of Rattanakosin simply in terms of its royal influence. Sanam Luang, for example, at the heart of Rattanakosin Island, has evolved from an exclusive royal ground in the early period of Bangkok (1782-1851), hosting royal ceremonies and events as well as rice farming, to become a place for celebrations and exhibitions (1851-1925). With the change to a constitutional monarchy in 1935, Sanam Luang gradually became a public and civic space. Sanam Luang’s status as a civic space is also tied to its proximity to Ratchadamnoen Avenue and the Democracy Monument (Chinnapong, 2008). Thus, the open space of Sanam Luang has the potential of becoming a staging area for periodic citizen mobilization, which then proceeds to Ratchadamnoen Avenue. In this sense, as Thailand’s political modernization process developed, new civic elements also flourished alongside the cultural heritage stemming from Rattanakosin’s royal past. 6 On the specific issue of preserving the Rattanakosin Canal, see Noppamas Chansiri (1999). In particular, Chansiri (1999: 86) suggests that “there is potential to re-establish the canals as more passive public spaces, connectors of key public spaces on Rattanakosin Island, and as tourist destinations and interpretive routes”.

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Figure 5.1  Rattanakosin Island in Bangkok

Source: Redrawn and translated7 from an early period map produced in Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin (2004, p.15)

Since the 1980s, tourism has been the largest revenue earner for Thailand (Higham, 2000: 131). It was also around this time that Thailand started focusing on heritage tourism (Peleggi, 1996: 435). However, tourists tend to focus on Bangkok as the gateway to Thailand, with a smaller proportion 7 I am grateful to Soontree Siriinntawong for the translation of Thai terms in the map to English. Thanks to Dr Saroja Dorairajoo and Dr Irving Johnson for additional help with the Thai terms in the map.

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of visitors moving beyond the capital city. In recent years, Thailand has enjoyed remarkable tourism growth, with inbound international visitors increasing from 7.24 million in 1998 to 35.38 million in 2017.8 The expanding tourism sector confirms Bangkok’s status as an international tourist destination with Rattanakosin Island as a key tourism attraction. This sets the context for the study. An early Bangkok Post article (“Saving the past,” 2001a) mentioned that six million foreigners visit the Temple of the Emerald Buddha and Grand Palace annually, and also cites a Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) study estimating a potential 16 million annual visitors to Rattanakosin. In 2016, Travel and Leisure magazine rated Bangkok’s Grand Palace in Rattanakosin as the most visited attraction in Asia, and the 40th in the world.9 The expanding visitor numbers put pressure on hotel development on the fringes of the cultural district, especially in Khao San and the Phra Athit Road area. There are also increasing pressures created by tourist coaches and vendors selling tourist souvenirs at the major attractions. Rattanakosin Island is a project that is vital for the preservation of the cultural heritage of Thailand and in defining Bangkok’s status as a cultural centre in the world. On the eve of the change of governors, Thanong Khanthon, the managing editor of The Nation, wrote an open letter to Khun Apirak Kosayodhin, the soon-to-be-elected governor of Bangkok, of which the following is an excerpt: When you take office tomorrow as the sixth elected governor of Bangkok, you will assume responsibility for guiding the development of one of the world’s great cities. During your election campaign, you promised to focus on tackling the capital’s notorious traffic, clean up its pollution and protect the security and property of its residents. These are all fine goals, but in truth they constitute the everyday work of the Bangkok governor. If you would like to go down in history as the city’s greatest governor, you should devote your energy and time to reviving Old Bangkok to reflect its grand spiritual heritage, which is unmatched anywhere else in this world. This means building world-class museums and renovating the city’s landmark buildings, monuments, statues and temples so that Bangkok can really re-emerge as the cultural centre of Southeast Asia and beyond. (‘Revive Grandeur of Old Bangkok’, 2004) 8 http://www.thaiwebsites.com/tourists-nationalities-Thailand.asp (last accessed 18 March 2018). 9 https://www.tatnews.org/bangkoks-iconic-grand-palace-makes-worlds-50-most-visitedtourist-attractions-list/ (last accessed 7 April 2018).

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Figure 5.2  Museum of Siam, formerly the Ministry of Commerce site

Source: Author, 27 February 2009

The interviews with the Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (March 2003) and with the Committee for the Preservation of Rattanakosin Island (March 2003) revealed the extent of the planning effort, the key to which was the relocation of government ministries to Chaeng Wattana and the adaptive re-use of such buildings to show off the cultural heritage of Thailand. A significant example is the conversion of the Ministry of Commerce Building into the Museum of Siam (see Figure 5.2). Another success is the restoration of Sumen Fort Park. Along with Fort Mahakan, Fort Sumen represents a significant legacy of the once fortified royal city that existed in the early period of Rattanakosin (see Figure 5.1). The interview with the Committee on the Preservation of Rattanakosin revealed how, from a planning perspective, the restoration of Fort Sumen was important as a way of opening up to the public the view of the Chao Phraya River and access to it, as well as providing green spaces in a very built-up central area.10 The restoration was also important in its efforts to bring some of the mangroves, an indigenous plant species, back to the 10 Interview conducted on 1 April 2003.

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Figure 5.3 Pedestrian walkway leading to Fort Sumen with a view of Rama VIII Bridge

Source: Author, 27 February 2009

banks of the river. A former officer from the Fine Arts Department (FAD), who was involved with the restoration, remarked that before the work of the restoration process could take place, some 80 households, comprising up to 200 to 300 persons who were squatting on the land, had to be resettled. The Bangkok Metropolitan Authority took many years to carry out this resettlement.11 The pedestrian walkway along the river leading from the old Phra Athit Pier to Fort Sumen Park was completed in 2008. This walkway opened the Chao Phraya River to the public, allowing access to parts of the river previously blocked by buildings. Rattanakosin Island’s status as the historic core of the city has meant that both sides of the Chao Phraya River have been heavily built-up. Having both Fort Sumen redeveloped as a park and a pedestrian walkway along the river has provided users with an unparalleled view of the scenic Chao Phraya River, as well as the beautifully lit, majestic Rama VIII Bridge in the evening (see Figure 5.3). More importantly, both locals and tourists use the park and pedestrian walkway. In one of my several visits to Fort Sumen Park in the late afternoon, I saw families with young children, courting couples, and small groups of school children and women seated on the lush green lawns of the park under the trees. The seats lining the riverbanks were all taken up by park 11 Interview conducted on 27 February 2009.

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Figure 5.4  Fort Sumen Park

Source: Author, 25 September 2008

users enjoying the sunset, with the gentle breeze from the river and the stunning Rama VIII Bridge in the distance (see Figure 5.4). There was a couple playing badminton. Fort Sumen park is also a popular photography site for wedding couples. Clearly, from the public usage patterns, this project is highly valued by both locals and visitors alike. The conservation of Rattanakosin Island has a clear objective in nation-building by allowing Thais to see the nation’s cultural achievements and royal and religious splendour in one place. What is of great importance to the Thais is also of interest to tourists. A senior off icial at the Bangkok Department with the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT), conf irmed the importance of Rattanakosin Island as a premier tourist attraction (24 February 2009 interview). The importance of major Rattanakosin sites to visitors is not diff icult to gauge. For example, Tripadvisor, a key travel site, listed three Rattanakosin sites among the top 25 Landmarks in Asia in 2017 (ForeignAffairs.co.nz; 7 June 2017). These are: the Temple of the Reclining Buddha in Wat Pho (4th); the Grand Palace (9th); and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (within the grounds of the Grand Palace) (14th). The following blog comment

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shows both the beauty of Wat Pho as well as the general problems of Rattanakosin as a top tourist destination: I found so much peace looking at this giant Buddha’s face. The Reclining Buddha is a huge statue laying in a temple much too small for its sheer size. He completely dominates the environment, and looking at him in contemplation, somehow it comforts you. I only needed to take some minutes, to actually look, not to photograph. Gosch (sic), it’s so hard ignoring those tourists, who are so stressful with running around, making noise and pictures […]. (24 November 2009 entry)12

The challenge of rising tourist numbers is not limited to the congested key tourism sites in Rattanakosin. The development of tourism amenities in the area also faces the same challenge. A case in point is the changes in Banglamphoo district, which is in outer Rattanakosin. In an ethnography study on Khao San, Sørensen (2003: 847-848) observes that “the Khao San Road area in Bangkok is probably the epitome of the backpacker ghetto”. Sørenson notes that from the 1980s to early 2000, the Khao San area grew rapidly and consolidated its reputation as a backpacker destination. In 2008-2009, this development had expanded along Soi Ram Buttri into Phra Athit Road. There are two major issues related to this development. The first is the displacement of local residents and businesses to make way for this mode of development. In the Phra Athit-Soi Ram Buttri area, old teak houses have already either been converted or demolished to make way for tourist and backpacker amenities. The second issue is whether this type of development is something in keeping with the overall plan for Rattanakosin. Sørensen (2003: 856) lists cheap travel as one of the key traits in the culture of backpackers. He points out that “how much do you pay” is a common way of opening up a conversation between backpackers. According to a more specific survey by Kumar and Ross (2006: 41), Khao San Road had “100 guest houses, 125 food stalls, 20 travel agencies and 120 shops selling music, souvenirs and textiles”. Whether this type of commercial expansion should be encouraged in a heritage district is something the authorities will have to decide. The continued preservation and renovation of this cultural heritage district is complicated by a number of factors. The renovation of Wat Ratchanadda (Loha Prasad) is a case in point. The changes to this site involved 12 http://irininja.blogspot.com/2009/11/wat-pho-temple-of-reclining-buddha.html (last accessed?).

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Figure 5.5  Enhanced view of Loha Prasad after redevelopment

Source: Author, 26 September 2008

the demolition of the Chalerm Thai Cinema13 that was blocking the view of this beautiful temple and Loha Prasad. The demolition enabled unblocked view of the site from Ratchadamnoen Road (see Figure 5.5). According to Prof Yongtanit Pimonsathean, the demolished cinema was one of the early modernist efforts by a member of a new breed of architects who were trained abroad and conscious of instilling a new national identity for Thailand (interviewed, 26 February 2009). This example shows that conservation and redevelopment in the central city areas are often contested because of the highly dense nature of development. Redevelopment priorities may be in conflict with other groups. In this case, they are architectural historians, who felt that the cinema should have been preserved because it reflects an important period in Bangkok’s history. Other challenges remain. My 1 April 2003 interview with a Committee on the Preservation of Rattanakosin official highlighted the ambitious plan to move the 66 government ministries and departments out of Rattanakosin, 13 According to Patsorn Sungsri (2004: 117), Chalerm Thai was built in 1949 as a playhouse and in 1953 was converted into a cinema.

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many to the Chaeng Wattana government complex. When she indicated that half of the offices had moved out, I commented that this was good news. She replied: [B]ut […] now the Rattanakosin area is very popular with tourists […] the government offices have been relocated, but we now have the tourists and related businesses […] new backpacker areas like Khao San developed and the traffic is still a problem in the Rattanakosin area. I think the traffic was much heavier a few years ago.

Towards the end of my interview with a Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) official from the Department of Bangkok), I asked him what some of the more important problems were related to the development of Rattanakosin. He replied: Convincing the people living in Rattanakosin that this place has to be developed. Secondly, the budget and how this is divided among the stakeholder government ministries. When the government and the people inside [Rattanakosin] understand and think with the same vision, everything will become easy. [From TAT’s point of view] marketing and promotion is very easy. (interview, 24 February 2009)

Rattanakosin has a wide array of attractions coexisting with congested traffic both from local commercial activities as well as a rising tourist population. At the same time, realizing a fuller version of the Rattanakosin plan by the government, along with the commercially driven developments (boutique hotels, restaurants, and souvenir shops) puts pressure on the resettlement of long-time residents living in this area. It can also mean the potential destruction of local heritage.

3

Pom Mahakan: People of the Fort

This subtitle is taken from a 2004 video of the same name produced by the Center on Housing Rights and Evictions. This settlement of some 100 households live in an area that has been designated as a conservation site. Following the success of Phra Sumen Fort, work was scheduled to start on Fort Mahakan, one of two surviving forts in what was previously the walled compound of the palace (see Figure 5.1). According to a 2002 announcement by Nikhorn Wairatchapanit, director of the BMA City Planning

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Department, the BMA would renovate the fort and the adjacent city wall and turn the four-rai area14 around it into a public park. Half the area would be expropriated from around 110 households in the neighbourhood (‘Fort to be Fortified’, 2002).15 Although the resettlement of Fort Sumen households took years, it was still relatively easy compared to the Fort Mahakan site. As Fort Sumen functioned as a government storage yard, it was a case in which the government took back the land it owned. The Mahakan site, on the other hand, was of multiple ownership. It was settled by households that were engaged in a number of activities, most notably street vending, the manufacture of firecrackers, and the making of bird cages. When this news of the BMA efforts to evict the Mahakan villagers was reported, there was considerable support from the media. The Bangkok Post reported support from human rights activists and academics at a Thammasat University forum as well as from the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (‘UN Urges Rethink’, 2003). Two years later, it reported a call by Arkin Rapeepat, Chairman of the Thai Community Foundation, to Governor Apirak Kosayodhin, urging the execution of the Mahakan residents’ plan to let Mahakan be turned into a living museum, allowing residents to stay and contribute to the heritage of the area (‘Apirak Urged to Back Living Museum Plan’, 2005). My own fieldwork visit to the Mahakan neighbourhood in February 200916 indicated that, in the years following the BMA threat of eviction, there was evidence of neighbourhood organization and consolidation with help from external organizations, such as from the Community Organisations Development Institute (CODI). In 1999, the settlement created a “communitysaving group” to motivate members to fight for housing rights. In terms of neighbourhood organization, villagers managed to convert several of 14 About 6,400 square metres. Source: http://www.convert-me.com/en/convert/units/area/ area.thairai.en.html (last accessed 18 March 2018). 15 The BMA, in fact, had a much longer involvement with the Mahakan neighbourhood. When I brought this subject up in my interview with a senior official from BMA’s Land Acquisitions, he indicated that: “BMA bought the land not by expropriation, gradually, in the beginning, in 1960 they bought one parcel, in another four years, they bought two parcels, in then in 1973 (Thai 2516) they bought seven parcels. And within the same year, the Ministry of Finance give the parcel that has the Fort to let BMA be responsible, to take care of the Fort” (interview on 10 June 2011). 16 The research was funded by NUS Staff Research Support Scheme Grant (C-111-000-222-091) “Rattanakosin as a Cultural District, NGOs, experts and government agencies”, and enabled by Thailand Research License NRCT research licence 0002.3/0714. I am grateful to my Thai research assistants Tanaradee and Orana for their assistance in helping me organize the fieldwork during September 2008 and February 2009.

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the houses, which were vacated by the residents, who accepted the BMA compensation, into useful sites. There is a playground for the children, a laundry yard, and neighbourhood spaces with places to sit and chat. There was also a modest library documenting the history of the place and a building for gatherings, which they designated as a community learning centre and a place for Thai massage (see Figure 5.6). Writing about the Fort Mahakan community and their community spaces, Herzfeld (2006, 140-141) observes that for the Mahakan community (and for the urban poor in general) community spaces are of great importance in facilitating social interaction. Residents therefore treat community spaces as intimate places to relax and talk while simultaneously respecting them as shared amenities. The remaining households that are in the f ireworks trade now dry their wares on concrete roofs where the threat of fire is minimized. The neighbourhood leaders (including Kiet, who sat with the leaders during the February 2009 interview) also told me that they made sure the empty sites have some function so that there will be no new squatters. At the edge of the neighbourhood, where a metal wall was built to fence off the fort structure from the neighbourhood near the boat landing site, was a huge pile of rubbish. Neighbourhood leaders told me that this was left by vagrants and other users of the park. They also mentioned that villagers are vigilant against various intruders. Observations noted during the walk through the Mahakan settlement indicated a well-organized and clean neighbourhood. Moreover, once Fort Mahakan was renovated, the villagers were very respectful of the fort wall, which is sited just a few metres away from their homes. Once the lighting and other fixtures were removed in the restoration of the wall, this “emptiness” was respected by the villagers (see Figure 5.7).17 In terms of help from external agencies,18 most visible is the help rendered by the Department of Architecture at Chulalongkorn University, which researched the history of the place and sites of significant historical interests and have placed signage on these sites. In my February 2009 tour, conducted by the neighbourhood leaders, I saw the following signage: (i) Fish Maw Soup, a delicacy of the Mahakan village; (ii) the site of Praya Petch Playhouse, the first Likay 19 playhouse in Siam; (iii) Baan Maharee 17 Fine Arts Department former employee who was in charge of renovating Fort Mahakan (27 February 2009). 18 Tiamsoon Sirisrisak (2009: 408) also mentioned that this neighbourhood received support from NGOs and politicians over their right to use the site. 19 Likay drama is a type of Thai performing art that was originally developed for the entertainment of the royal household. According to the Mahakan leaders interviewed on 25 February 2009, the site of the first likay drama troupe was housed in the Mahakan neighbourhood.

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Figure 5.6  Community yard at the Mahakan site

Source: Author, 25 February 2009

Figure 5.7  Location of the houses in relation to the “clean” fort wall

Source: Author, 25 February 2009

Banleng Adeet, which is the home of a Thai musical instrument craftsman; (iv) Significant Wooden Houses where the officers of the Court resided; (v) the home of a sculptor who made figurines in Hermit exercise poses; (vi) the home of ancient gold melting artisans; (vii) fighting cock farming; (viii) Mahakan bird cages. I see this signage as significant because these

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help validate the historical signif icance of the neighbourhood to both visitors as well as residents. In my attempt to discover whether the Mahakan residents received support from nearby settlements, on 27 February 2009 I visited the adjacent Samyod neighbourhood. My understanding from the conversation with an elderly resident was that the residents of this neighbourhood knew of the issues facing the Mahakan residents but did not offer direct support. My sense is that their legal residential status meant that they largely minded their own business and left the management of the adjoining neighbourhood to the authorities and the Mahakan residents.

4

Discussion and Summary

a

The Value of External NGO Support in Weak Communities

Askew (2002, 148) observed that in Thai slum settlements “the existence of strong, weak, united or divided communities is tied to the circumstances and settlement histories, but the more important question here is how the slums (as social formations) and slum dwellers (as agents) have incorporated the ideas and methods and language introduced by NGOs”. Mahakan is a textbook case of what Askew referred to. The Community Development Institute (CODI) was important in helping the neighbourhood organize. A community leader highlighted the close association with the CODI and other NGOs and how he, as a community leader, was part of an important set of NGO networks: In 1999 we got together […].This time, we had CODI. Staff from CODI asked what we needed and we told them our problems […].After that, in 1999, we set up the community saving group as a tool for motivating people in the community in fighting for housing rights at Mahakan Fort. CODI was part of the people who set up the organization of communities who were in trouble with housing […]. Now, we are in the network of NGOs, such as the Four Region Slum Network that works throughout the whole country, Assembly of the Poor, and the Urban Poor Community Organization […]. I am myself part of an NGO. I was trained and shared experiences among a group of people in organizations”20

20 Interview with three Fort Mahakan leaders at the neighbourhood centre, 25 February 2009.

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In a video produced by the Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction (COHRE),21 Mahakan leader Thawatchai clearly articulated the language of NGOs when he framed his objectives in terms of preservation and linked the struggles of his neighbourhood to Thai national heritage: In my view, this community is an ancient one. The community has tried to preserve the old houses, the sacred tree and our way of life here; and so, we should come together and talk about preserving it because it’s not just our community heritage, but part of Thai national heritage. I believe people from other countries will understand this point about preserving national heritage. Heritage is part of our history, which will be remembered in the future if we preserve it now.

The support from academics has also been critical to the Mahakan settlement. The help rendered by Chulalongkorn University for the research on Mahakan’s heritage elements, led to the signage being placed at the Mahakan site. Chatri Prakitnontakarn, a lecturer at the Silpakorn University Faculty of Architecture, is a key member of the team that produced a study of Fort Mahakan as part of an agreement between then BMA Governor Apirak Kosayodhin, the rector of Silpakorn University, and Mahakan leaders to show the BMA’s good intentions in fostering community participation.22 The research team helped to clarify and strengthen the importance of the ancient teak houses to the settlement. The research team also raised the issue of cultural identity and the importance of the Mahakan’s intangible cultural heritage, such as its manufacture of birdcages, pottery, and gold smelting industries, and likay, a performing arts form.23 Chatri told us in an interview that one focus of the research team is captured in Professor Srisak Wallipodom’s definition of the Fort Mahakan village as “the community at the edge of the city wall” (chumchon charn kumpang phra nakorn). He said that the unique feature of the Mahakan community is that it represents an 21 Pommahakan: People of the Fort (video) produced by the Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction, 2003) Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72hRsF8qe0s (quote starts 2.09 min) (last accessed 11 May 2019). 22 Interview conducted on 18 November 2010. The fieldwork was supported by The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre (SAC) Research Grant, Saving, Redeveloping and Living Rattanakosin, project on “Research on Culture and Rights in Thailand”, with collaborator Dr Pornparn Chinnapong. 23 Is intangible heritage worth preserving? Chatri replied that in the world of Thai dance, the Likay dance form does not have the same status as Khon, the royal playhouse form. It appears that we are getting the same story about the lack of recognition for “lower” forms of heritage, which tend to be of lower status (18 November 2010 interview).

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old settlement that has no fences at the periphery of the royal city with its fort and wall and along the khlong. This is unique and has a history which is worth retelling.24 Significantly, the study team also proposed a solution to the present conflict between the BMA and the neighbourhood. This is to allow the residents to stay at the present site on condition that they are willing to undertake activities that also have historical value. In addition, every household would have to play a caretaker role by taking turns at neighbourhood-watch duty and upkeep of the neighbourhood, all without payment in return. Mahakan would be open to the public, and four museums would be set up displaying intangible heritage activities associated with the area (birdcage manufacture, gold smelting, cock fighting, and pottery). During the 23 June 2010 SACorganized field site visit meeting with Thawatchai Woramahakun, the Fort Mahakan Community leader mentioned that the neighbourhood adopted Chatri’s recommendation as a condition for staying on the Mahakan site in their proposal to BMA. This stewardship and community curation model is clearly a well-thought out plan and one that the neighbourhood may not have been able to develop without the support from Chatri and his team. The value of support from external parties in the Mahakan case is quite comprehensive: the heritage signage from Chulalongkorn University, which is important to both residents and visitors alike in terms of a reminder of the historical value of the place, the training provide by COHRE, supporting skills of the residents in their continued struggle to stay, including the conceptualization of a narrative that justifies their right to be in Mahakan along with a visible demonstration of responsibility of the residents to take care of their neighbourhood, as evidenced in my February 2009 visit. And thirdly, the contribution from Silpakorn University to how the conflict can be reasonably resolved with a stewardship and community curation plan that works within the broader heritage objective defined in the Rattanakosin plan. It is one that provides a place for working-class heritage alongside the royal and religious elements central in the Rattanakosin plan. b

The Noise from Multiple Stakeholders

This support from NGOs for Mahakan should be set against the larger context of divided opinions with regard to the conservation and redevelopment of 24 This recommendation is found in chapters 6 and 7 of the report produced by Chatri Prakitnontakarn, “Master Plan for Conservation and Development: The Community of Ancient Wooden Houses, Pom Mahakan”.

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Rattanakosin. The study indicates that the Rattanakosin conservation effort is complicated by four issues. First, at the level of the government, there is a danger of multiple actors having different points of view and vested interests. For example, the Rattanakosin Preservation Committee’s support for conservation may not necessarily coincide with TAT’s emphasis on tourism when large numbers of tourists strain the cultural district. Moreover, the case of the Thammasat student protests shows how different governors may have different projects for the district in the process of interpreting the vision for Rattanakosin Island. An interview with a senior official from the Fine Arts Department (FAD) indicated another divided opinion with the Committee with regard to the Kurusapa School for Printing. The committee had recommended the demolition of the building for a park or garden. The Banglamphu neighbourhood petitioned for its preservation on the basis that this was the first school for Thai printing and sent the proposal to the Director General of the FAD. The FAD registered the building as a heritage building because it felt the preservation of the school was important for the history of Thailand.25 There was also the case of Governor Samak Sundaravej proposing to build an underground carpark to relieve tourist traffic congestion in the Rattanakosin area. At one level, this may have been a pragmatic solution to the traffic congestion problem and could be seen to be in keeping with the Masterplan objectives. But as pointed out by Pthomrerk Ketudhat, a professor at Thammasat, Sanam Luang is a sacred space and belongs to the entire nation (“Earthy Values”, 2001b). This also prompted Senator Sophon Suphapong to urge local residents to stand up for their constitutional rights to help preserve their environment and cultural heritage (‘Senator Urges Residents’, 2001). This problem is also elaborated on in a 2001 comment by Kemtat Visvayodhin, chief of the Bureau of the Crown Property’s Conservation Project Division: They [civil servants] are given tasks to perform that are in line with some policy formulated by politicians who are completely uninformed, and who look at the situation only in terms of benefits to be derived. When the idea of preserving old buildings or neighbourhoods is advanced, these politicians see the ones who propose it as trying to block progress. But, actually, we are talking about a form of development that is within the framework of cultural conservation. (‘The Case for Restoration’, 2001)

Another issue has to do with the notion of heritage. The masterplan focuses heavily on heritage linked with Rattanakosin’s royal activities and buildings. 25 Interviewed 19 November 2010.

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What is less clear is the other forms of heritage. Two examples can be used to illustrate this point. The renovation of the Tha Tien shophouses documented by Yongtanit Pimonsathean (2007) pits the Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin against the local residents. The beautification plans, with its provision for open spaces, would mean the demolition of existing structures and a potential loss of a long-established way of life. The chairman of the Tha Tien settlement said that the Tha Tien quarters, built during the reign of King Chulalongkorn as a commercial hub, was a link between the old and the new Bangkok (‘Tha Tien Market’, 2002). The Tha Tien case shares many similarities with the Mahakan site, in that a master plan with a particular vision of improvements is competing with local heritage. It involves a historical commercial district in the case of Tha Tien and historic wood houses as well as ancient crafts in the case of Mahakan. Pak Klong traders’ strong resistance to the plan to turn the area into a tourist park represents another example of place-based resistance (‘Development Plan for Flower Market Rejected’, 2004). In this regard, Sirisrisak (2009: 410) makes an important point: “recreating an impressive atmosphere of a historic town is frequently seen in tourism development. However, it has been realized that the replica work without the life of local people is not preferable for the visitors […]. Thus, the way of living such as traditional businesses and food should be maintained and presented”. Thus, following Sirisrisak (2009), it is important to keep both tangible (heritage buildings) and intangible elements (ways of life and practices) in place in heritage preservation. Another example of contested spaces has to do with contemporary architecture and pits the Committee against the architecture fraternity. The Committee’s call to restore Rattanakosin to its original state, when it was a royal district, means that structures that postdate this period would have to go. These more recent structures may, in fact, have cultural significance, which adds to the heritage of the district. For example, Bangkok Post (‘A Vision Splendid’,2001) argued that the plan to demolish the National Theatre and the Music and Drama school was misguided, given the historical and cultural significance of both the structure (the National Theatre) and the activities conducted there (the school). The call by the Bang Lamphu Civic Group to renovate the historic Kurusapha printing house (Thailand’s first printing school) into a neighbourhood museum is another example (‘Group in Bid to Save Historic Building’, 2003). The removal of the Chalrem Thai Cinema (which, incidentally, according to Chatri Prakitnonthankan, was commissioned by the People’s Party) is another case in point. As Professor

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Chatri points out, these buildings “are part of what shaped our modern culture” (‘Preserving our Heritage’, 2008). In this regard, therefore, Rattanakosin as a heritage site needs a broader definition of heritage. This definition would need to be one that would incorporate both the strong royal cultural traditions as well as those that incorporate a more complete set of local traditions of the old capital. This incorporation should include the heritage elements found in Mahakan village. The reality is that Rattanakosin is very rich in traditions and many of these can be included without losing the strong appeal of this area in the hearts of Thais and the eyes of visitors alike. The balance between city government action and local participation is a difficult one to maintain. The successes of Rattanakosin represent sites where decisive action has been made, as in the case of Fort Sumen Park and the adaptive re-use development of museums. The adaptive reuse of former government offices such as transforming the Ministry of Commerce site into the Museum of Siam shows clearly the benefits of cultural preservation and beautification. The Fort Sumen Park restoration raises a difficult question. The restoration of Fort Sumen involved the resettlement of some 80 households living on the Sumen site. This intervention raises the issue of the choice between the right of the urban poor to stay and the possible greater good to the city through Fort Sumen Park. It is with redevelopment, when buildings are demolished and a way of life is obliterated, that greater care and concern as well as consultation need to be exercised. In such instances, being more prudent in redevelopment may actually be wise, although this has led to frustrations on the part of the authorities concerned. In such instances, the passage of time, with additional input, may actually clarify the problems concerned and allow for more well thought out development to occur. My own assessment on the matter is that the process is as important as the decision. Thailand has in place responsive NGOs and active neighbourhood groups. The outcome of such a political environment may slow down the decision-making process of the local government, but time is actually important for producing better outcomes if this allows input to be collected from multiple parties when assessing local claims. After all, as Khun Thanong Khanthon pointed out in the open letter to Governor Apirak Kosayodhin (‘Revive the Grandeur of Old Bangkok’, 2004), the development of Rattanakosin as a cultural district will determine the future of Bangkok as a great city and cultural centre of Southeast Asia. This is surely the most important objective and one which must be pursued. However, the outcome has to be one for which the best solution can be found through deliberation.

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Looking Ahead

In April 2016, BMA has once again placed an eviction notice for residents to vacate Mahakan (‘Final Countdown’, 2016). Thawatchai has again risen to this challenge and appeared on the Thai local media to say that the community will not move and offer several solutions as to how the community can help in maintaining the fort as a tourist attraction. Bangkok Magazine Online ran a 26 April 2016 article titled ‘Green vs. Community: The Future of Mahakan Fort’. The article included several key persons I have met for this project: Thawatchai, representing the voice of Mahakan residents, and Sakchai Boonma, BMA’s Land Acquisitions Director, who maintained that all the original owners have been compensated. He explained how the BMA will move forward with the plan. He also raised the possibility that the wooden houses may be conserved but that the residents will have to move. Chatri from Silpakorn University also warned of “dead space” if the park is created. In May 2016, I made another visit to Mahakan. The residents at Mahakan had a heightened sense of suspicion resulting from the need to defend their settlement and way of life again. The Fort Sumen conversion has proven to be beneficial for the larger good, but Fort Mahakan represents a very different site. It is not just the Fort but the long wall that has to be preserved, leading to Chatri’s observation of dead space if a park is to be built behind the wall. The wooden houses ought to be kept as the BMA Land Acquisitions Director suggests, but these have to be managed and curated in a way different from the museums in Rattanakosin. And this is a really innovative way for the people at Mahakan to partner with the Fine Arts Department (FAD) and the BMA in becoming the custodians and curators of this heritage. They may not be the original settlers and do not have the same cultural rights for other native groups, but there is a role for these residents to play in ensuring visitors have a sense of the Mahakan story. In terms of incentives, the Mahakan case represents a potential coming together of a local group that is motivated and committed to maintaining the site in return for the right to stay on that site, and for the government to allow this site to represent a more complete history of Rattanakosin. In this way, the neighbourhood’s history can be intricately connected to a larger history of the nation, and the service of the neighbourhood to contribute to the city and country. But it is already too late. The BMA has started demolishing some of the 18 houses identified as built in the 19th century (‘BMA Denies Promise’, 2018). Besides the destruction of the heritage houses, the ancient trees at the site are also at risk of being cut down (‘New Mahakan Fort Saga Beckons’, 2018). The careless renovation of the pier structure (Tuek Phraya Yannaprakat)

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without consulting the FAD was another issue (‘BMA Shows More Disregard’, 2018 and ‘Mahakan: An Awful Example of Renovation’, 2018). By April 2018, residents of Mahakan had been removed and a new public park was built and opened on 24 July 2018 by the BMA governor. (‘Teary Farewell as Residents Evacuate’, 2018 and ‘Mahakan Fort Opens as a Public Park’, 2018). Chatri Prakitnonthakan of Silpakorn University summarizes the problem best: ‘Beautification’ is invoked as a justification for an urban reorganization that threatens existing ways of life and ignores the aesthetics values and social needs of poorer residents. (‘Ancient Fort Community’, 2018)

The struggle of Mahakan residents has been broadly supported by academics, NGOs, and Thai newspapers. That the residents were removed from the Mahakan site using a civil law based on the legal rights of landowners (‘Something Rotten in Handling Mahakan Fort Issue’, 2018). Although the new use of Mahakan as a park represents a social use of land, the means by which the site is acquired favoured an economic, market interpretation over a social alternative proposed by Mahakan residents as the caretakers of the site. This outcome, in turn, reflects an inability by the State to recognize the value of local histories and ways of life and cultural practices as worth protecting and showcasing (‘Folk History, Culture at Risk’, 2018). The Mahakan case also highlights a deeper, societal inequality. As we should infer from the Chatri quote above, the eviction of Mahakan residents reflect a larger structural issue, which is that of the weakness of the poor and marginalized groups in society in relation to the power of the state bureaucracy. With the dismantling of Mahakan village, a key heritage site that would have broadened the rich history of the great city of Bangkok has been lost forever.

References Aruninta, A. (2009). ‘Rehabilitative Landscape in the Old Communities in Bangkok, Thailand’. Source: http://www.academia.edu/221468/Rehabilitative_Landscape_in_the_Old_Communities_in_Bangkok_Thailand. (Last accessed 20 November 2016). Askew, M. (2002). Bangkok: Place, Practice, and Representation. New York: Routledge. Boonchuen, P. and K. C. Ho (2006). ‘Bangkok as Capital and Emergent World City, in: K.C. Ho and M.H.H. Hsiao (eds), Capital Cities in Asia-Pacific: Primacy and Diversity (pp.119-135), Taipei: Center for Asia-Pacific Studies.

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Chansiri, N. (1999). ‘The Historic Canal System in Bangkok, Thailand: Guidelines for Re-establishing Public Space Functions’, (Unpublished master’s thesis) Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA, USA. Chinnapong, P. (2008). ‘Bangkok’s Sanam Luang (the Royal Ground): From a Historic Plaza to a Civic Space, in: M. Douglass, K. C. Ho and G. L. Ooi (eds), Globalisation, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia: The Social Production of Civic Spaces (pp. 254-267), London: Routledge. Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin and Old Towns (2004). Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin. Location: Office of Natural Resources, Environmental Policy and Planning. Herzfeld, M. (2006). ‘Spatial Cleansing’, Journal of Material Culture, 11(1-2): 127-149. Herzfeld, M. (2016). Siege of the Spirits: Community and Polity in Bangkok. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Higham, J. (2000). ‘Thailand: Prospects for a Tourism-Led Economic Recovery, in: C. M. Hall and S. Page (eds), Tourism in South and Southeast Asia: Issues and Cases (pp. 129-143), Boston, MA: Butterworth Heinemann. Kumar, S. and W. Ross. (2006). ‘Effects of Pedestrianisation on the Commercial and Retail Areas: Study in Khao San Road, Bangkok’, World Transport and Policy, 13(1): 37-48. Peleggi, M. (1996). ‘National Heritage and Global Tourism in Thailand’, Annals of Tourism Research, 23(2): 432-448. Sirisrisak, T. (2009). ‘Conservation of Bangkok Old Town’, Habitat International, 33: 405-411. Sørensen, A. (2003). ‘Backpacker Ethnography’, Annuals of Tourism Research, 30(4): 847-867. Sungsri, P. (2004). ‘Thai Cinema as National Cinema: An Evaluative History’ (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Murdoch University, Perth, Australia. Yongtanit P. (2007). ‘Cultural Resources Management in Historic Community in Bangkok: The Tha Tian Case’, Urban Culture Research vol.4: 11-24 Urban Culture Research Center, Chulalongkorn University Printing House. Available at: http://pioneer.chula.ac.th/~sbussako/Articles/articles%20for%20publication/ yongtanit%20pimonsathean.pdf (last accessed: December 2009).

News Articles ‘The Case for Restoration: Preserving Historical Buildings is a Good Idea (2001, February 1) Bangkok Post. ‘Saving the Past’ (2001a, April 18) Bangkok Post. ‘Earthly Values’ (2001a, April 18) Bangkok Post. ‘A Vision Splendid’ (2001, June 23) Bangkok Post.

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‘Sanam Luang – Senator Urges Residents to Stick Up for Their Rights’ (2001, July 8) Bangkok Post. ‘Tha Tien Market-Samak’s Plan to Clear “eyesore” Hits Snag’ (2002, August 18) Bangkok Post. ‘Fort to be Fortified’ (2002, August 27) Bangkok Post. ‘Rattanakosin Conservation-Civic Group in Bid to Save Historic Building’ (2003, December 8) Bangkok Post. ‘Mahakan Fort-UN Urges Rethink on Plan to Evict Community’ (2003, June 1) Bangkok Post. ‘Development Plan for Flower Market Rejected’ (2004, December 24) Bangkok Post. ‘Conservation/Mahakan Fort Development: Apirak Urged to Back “Living Museum” Plan’ (2005, March 25) Bangkok Post. ‘Preserving our Heritage’ (2008, April 18) Bangkok Post. ‘Green Space vs. Community: The Future of Mahakan Fort’ (2016, April 26) Bangkok Magazine. Source: http://bk.asia-city.com/city-living/news/future-mahakanfort-green-space-community. (Accessed 16 July 2016.) ‘Final Countdown for Fort Mahakan Community’ (2016, April 6) Bangkok Post. Source: http://www.bangkokpost.com/learning/advanced/922233/countdownending-for-historic-mahakan-fort-community (last accessed 16 July 2016). ‘Something Rotten in Handling of Mahakan Fort Issue’ (2018, February 12) Bangkok Post. ‘New Mahakan Fort Sage Beckons’ (2018, April 29) Bangkok Post. ‘Ancient Fort Community in Bangkok Loses 25-Year Battle against Bulldozers’ (2018, May 4) Reuters News. ‘BMA Shows More Disregard for Heritage’ (2018, June 25) Bangkok Post. ‘Mahakan: An Awful Example of Renovation’ (2018, August 2) Bangkok Post. ‘Revive the Grandeur of Old Bangkok’ (2004, September 5) The Nation ‘BMA Denies Promise to Save Mahakan Houses’ (2018, January 30) The Nation. ‘Teary Farewell as Residents Evacuate Mahakan Fort’ (2018, April 23) The Nation. ‘Folk History, Culture at Risk Unless Officials Learn from Mahakan Fort Fiasco: Academics’ (2018, April 28) The Nation. ‘Mahakan Fort Opens as a Public Park’ (2018, July 25) The Nation. Source: https:// www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30350778 (last accessed 5 June 2019).

6

Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses Abstract While Mahakan (Bangkok) (see chapter 5) reveals a lost battle in terms of community heritage preservation, Tangbu (Taipei) represents a successful case of transforming a set of sugar warehouses into a museum set within a park. The difference between the two cases can be attributed to the democratization movement in Taiwan and the resulting responsiveness of the government to local demands. The Tangbu project is also set within a historic moment, when Taipei installed its first elected mayor. This institutional change created the context for responsiveness and also the entry of more progressive elected officials. Although mobilization led to the successful construction of the Tangbu Cultural Park, there are questions about its sustainability; critics of the project see it as a white elephant (or, as the Taiwanese call it, a building that only mosquitoes visit). Thus, in the context of local collective projects, getting a project built is not the same as ensuring it is sustainable. What is needed is a continued collaboration between local government and community to keep working to make Tangbu Cultural Park appealing to visitors. Keywords: Taipei, urban heritage, urban redevelopment, adaptive reuse buildings, community museum, community planner

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The Significance of Tangbu

If Sungmisan reflects a strong, active neighbourhood working largely without the need for government support, and Mahakan represents a case of a weak but active neighbourhood supported by NGOs and academics in the face of a weak government, then the case of Tangbu shows support from a responsive government. This form of community empowerment forms a key initiative in government-local area relations. This partnership has taken the form of heritage conservation (Wang and Lee, 2008; Lin and Hsing,

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch06

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2009; Den, 2014), adoption of creative city policies1 as well as a broad range of community-based services and events (Tsai, 2014). The case is significant because the collective projects of neighbourhoods like Tangbu are supported by efforts of the city government. These efforts occur at the regulatory level and also enable resources to translate local aspirations into actual projects. An important component of this system is the provision of a community planner. In a system that encourages its citizens to be active, the community planner is necessary for locating a thread through the cacophony of voices at the local level and working out a compromise that is acceptable to various government agencies. The Tangbu case can be paired with Mahakan because the neighbourhood action, involving the conservation of three storage warehouses, is focused on the heritage of the area. Making a heritage preservation argument requires a number of important elements similar to those in the Mahakan case. Symbolically, it is important that a case be made that what is being preserved is of value, not just to the neighbourhood but to the city. The idea of value is underscored by the opportunity cost, which must be foregone by shelving alternative redevelopment plans in favour of preserving the heritage site. Secondly, if government funds are used to support a heritage site, public scrutiny and accountability are also part of such forms of intervention and the ongoing management of the site. A common gauge is often the number of visitors to the site. This is unlike the Mahakan case, in which visitor numbers were likely enhanced because it is an integral part of the larger civic and heritage district of old Bangkok called Rattanakosin. The Tangbu case is rather isolated as the site is located at some distance and in an opposite direction from the nearest attraction, which is Longshan Temple (see Figure 6.1). If visitor potential is used to justify public management of local heritage sites, and if visitor potential is poor, other forms of boosting visits to the site may be necessary. Thirdly, a case for heritage often requires the state to take over the management of an important cultural amenity. This, in turn, raises the question of the continued involvement of local residents after the site has been designated as heritage. Indeed, this is precisely what has been denied to the Mahakan neighbourhood, in spite of calls from the public to let the Mahakan residents be the stewards and curators of the Mahakan fort site. 2010 marked seven years since my first visit to a field site, in this case the Mahakan Fort in Bangkok. With subsequent visits, I completed two rounds 1 This is perhaps less of a partnership, as demonstrated by Lin and Chiu (2018: 7) in the case of the creative city agenda.

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of interviews in February 2009 and November 2010. During the course of our discussions to identify a suitable site in Taipei, Huang Liling handed me a small book produced by the Taipei City Government called Community Action: Taipei Stories. This book contained 15 accounts of neighbourhoods that have organized themselves to develop projects such as the preservation of heritage homes, the saving of old trees, the building of parks and community/local area museums. With the Mahakan fieldwork insights fresh in my mind, I was drawn to Tangbu’s efforts to save and restore the old sugar warehouses. Mahakan’s local history was intricately connected to Bangkok and Thailand’s cultural and political history. Tangbu’s heritage also represents a facet of the economic history of Taipei as a sugar-processing site during the Japanese colonial period. On 17 September 2010, Liling took me to Tangbu. The last stage of restoration work was almost complete. The machinery was still in place, some workmen were there, the trees planted were still supported by wooden stakes and patches of sugar cane were planted strategically as a reminder to the would-be visitor of the origins of the site. As we walked, Liling briefed me about the history of the place and the key players in the process. Then, we met Chen De-jun,2 the community planner for Tangbu. De-jun filled us in on the local processes involved in converting the site into a park with three heritage buildings while Liling provided the larger context in which these changes took place. The case took on significance because of the role the local residents played in organizing the protest, the advice from academics in the process, and the role of the city government in helping the process along through negotiations with the owner. The wider political process of the democratization of Taiwanese politics, the institutionalization of mayoral elections, and the accompanying consequence of city government responsiveness were considerations that determined the selection of the Tangbu site.

2

Creating Tangbu Cultural Park

The three warehouses that formed the Tangbu Cultural Park are the last remnants of a well-known sugar-producing factory in Taiwan that had a daily 2 I am grateful to Ms Chen for her insights and am struck by her continued commitment to Tangbu even after the project has ended. As a practising community planner, De-jun plays an important role in explaining to visitors, academics, and government officials the vital histories and heritage of Taipei’s neighbourhoods.

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output of five tonnes of sugar.3 The Taipei sugar factory came into existence soon after the Keelung-Hsinchu railway was completed in 1907. The factory is connected to both train lines, hauling sugar cane from the South and transporting processed sugar to the Keelung port. Being close to the Xindian and Tamsui Rivers was also important because some of the sugar cane arrived by boat. The Taisugar corporation, which assumed ownership of the sugar factory, began selling off the land and, by the 1970s, the area had become a mixed-use industrial-resident development.4 Mr Li, the Chairman of the Tangbu district, indicated that the 1990s fared no better, as China Times, one of Taipei’s major newspapers, moved the production of the newspapers away from the area, removing some 2,000-3,000 workers from the area (interview, 24 February 20125). Many of the small businesses in the area, which depended on the newspaper workers, left and rentals for vacated premises were low (Hsia, Cheng, Chen, and Tai, 2002: 143). Thus, in the midst of declining industrial activity in the area, there was talk of new commercial interest in redeveloping the warehouse site. Tangbu residents responded when news surfaced of the demolition of the sugar warehouses and reusing the land for a 700-bed nursing home, called West Park Hospital.6 In the course of the discussion, the residents changed their focus from opposing the nursing home to advocating for a park.7 According to a neighbourhood leader and former chairman of the Tangbu Cultural Society, when the residents heard about West Park’s possible move into Tangbu, they became very concerned about how this would affect the residents (interview, 21 February 2012). There were already two other medical facilities in the nearby area.8 Residents were concerned about whether the addition of a third hospital would create a negative image 3 From a 31 December 2005 PowerPoint file prepared by Ms Chen De-jun as part of her role as community planner for Tangbu. 糖倉的春天051231, slides 6 and 7, used with permission. 4 糖倉的春天051231, slides 10 and 11. 5 The February 2012 interviews at Tangbu were ably assisted by Kay Chiang, who not only organized the interviews, but also tracked various sources and translated key portions of the interviews. 6 糖倉的春天051231, slide 11. 7 糖倉的春天051231, slide 12. 8 These are Aiai Yuan (Taipei Private Aiai Nursing Home), which used to be a private charity facility for homeless people, and Jen-Chi Sanatorium (Liaoyangyuan療養院) (Taipei Jen-Chi Relief Institution), which used to be a private charity facility for people with mental illnesses (interview with former Tangbu Cultural Society chairman, 21 February 2012). Website sources: Ai Ai Yuan https://www.facebook.com/pages/Ai-Ai-Nursing-Home/265927613582977 (last accessed 18 July 2016) 仁濟醫院Taipei Jen-Chi Relief Institution: http://www.tjci.org.tw/ (last accessed 18 July 2016) 81 beds (hospital in Wanhua District)

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for the neighbourhood. They also worried about the siren noises from the ambulances transporting patients as well as the risks of infection. These sentiments became the driving forces for Tangbu in mobilizing to stop the development of the hospital. The former Tangbu Cultural Society chairman then remarked that they consulted a number of academics over the matter. Of particular significance in defining the course of action was Professor Lin Chien-cheng 林健正 from Chiao Tung University (who would later become the Tangbu cultural society chairman). He proposed that “the Taisugar land is semi-public land. It had therefore to provide a proportion of the land for a green park space”. As a result, Tangbu residents started to call for a park plan instead of protesting against the sanatorium. According to Chen’s (2000: 27-28) thesis, Professor Lin got this idea after meeting Professor Hsia Chu-joe, a colleague from the National Taiwan University. Chen (2000: 28) reported the following conservation between Lin and Hsia: Professor Lin [Chien-cheng] mentioned: “In fact the key moment in our protests was when we talked to Professor Hsia [Chu-joe]. He started with the question ‘What do you want?’ Then he said, ‘There is no way for you to protest for changing the land use to commercial use. Others would look down on you […] and I will not support you.’ When he said that, we understood. Then he elaborated that the land of Taisugar could be regarded as ‘semi-public land’ and should be released for public use”.

The outcome of this neighbourhood mobilization is a preserved heritage site with three warehouses (buildings A, B, and C) a testimony to the time when Taipei was an important centre for the production of sugar for Japan,9 and a park that is accessible to the public, of which the primary beneficiaries are the immediate residents (see Figure 6.1). Building A is located at the main entrance and houses the museum. About a third of Building A has some computers at one end, with an open space that can be booked for various activities. During one of my visits, a group of elderly line dancers were just finishing their session. Computer classes for the residents are also held regularly. There is also a free traditional medicine clinic for residents. Presently, the Cultural Affairs Bureau manages this space and local residents 9 According to a long-time resident and former employee of Taisugar, cut sugar cane can last about three days before the sugar yield decreases. This meant that the sugar factories had to be located close to the fields. When these fields in Taipei gave way to development and the factory closed down, the warehouses continued because they functioned as a holding area before the ships at the Keelung port were ready to transport the sugar (interview, 24 February 2012).

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Figure 6.1  Tangbu Cultural Park field site in Taipei

have to apply to the Bureau for permission to use the space. The chairman of the Tangbu district hopes to be able to negotiate with the Cultural Affairs Bureau for the management of this area. Both buildings A and B are managed by the Cultural Affairs Bureau, which has leased Building B to the Ming Hwa Yuan Arts and Cultural Group. Building C is the largest of the three buildings, on land owned by Taisugar (see Figure 6.1). Building B is used by Ming Hwa Yuan as a practice space for its troupes. Ming Hwa Yuan is one of Taiwan’s most successful arts groups. According to an official from the Cultural Affairs Bureau (CAB), the high ceiling of Block B was ideal for its transformation to a practice space. As part of the arrangement for its use, Ming Hwa Yuan has devoted a substantial proportion of Building C to a museum open to the public from Friday to Sunday. This CAB official pointed out the rationale of choosing Ming Hwa Yuan as tenant: Ming Hwa Yuan is well-known in Taiwan. Frankly speaking, we actually thought about it [renting the warehouses to performance arts’ groups] for a long time and asked a lot of people to visit the place. Before renovation,

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we invited several people to visit, yet most of them were not interested in this place until the Ming Hwa Yuan came. This [Ming Hwa Yuan’s interest in the space] was due to their [Ming Hwa Yuan’s] demand for development. Ming Hwa Yuan is a large Taiwanese opera group, and has developed a lot of sub-groups, a bit like the Cirque du Soleil having several groups. Ming Hwa Yuan hopes to develop like other successful international groups. It lacked space for rehearsals. This demand has increased, since their performances are currently large-scale and outdoors. They have giant stage props, so space for storage is needed. So, at that time when they came to see the place, they quite liked it. The place could serve as storage for stage props and as a headquarters for operations between Taipei and other cities. So, part of the space could be their administrative office. (interview, 23 February 2012)

The CAB officer also said the museum allowed the troupe to connect with the local residents. She hopes that Ming Hwa Yuan can do a bit more public outreach in the form of workshops and public education classes. When I visited on 24 February 2012, the elaborate costumes and props for the play Madam White Snake had just been put on display (see Figure 6.2). As one of Taiwan’s most successful arts groups, its outdoor performances garner between 80,000 to 140,000 audience members, according to our chat with the guide from the museum.10 Figure 6.1 also shows a fairly large garden surrounding Buildings A and B. Since February 2012, this area has been transferred into the care of the Parks & Street Lights Office. During the interview, the Tangbu District chairman outlined various ideas for the park: We had a little music performance here in the garden. I plan to set up a small stage this year. If we have a larger budget next year, we can have a large one. I plan to hold karaoke activities for about one or two months. At dusk, residents can come to the park for tea, and enjoy some leisure time after a busy workday […]. In the past we felt that we had to climb up a mountain to appreciate cherry blossoms, but we can plant the trees here. If we grow them successfully, it will be no problem to bring large numbers of visitors here. Because we have Ming Hwa Yuan, the museum and a display of Ming Hwa Yuan’s artefacts here, this will help attract tourists. (interview, 24 February 2012) 10 This guide is an employee of Ming Hwa Yuan and not a resident of Tangbu. She describes herself as both a fan and an employee.

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Figure 6.2  Ming Hwa Yuan Gallery in Building C

Source: Author, 24 February 2012

By the former Tangbu Cultural Society chairman’s own reckoning, it was a combination of the passion of the local residents, the incidental or accidental encounters with academics and experts, who provided advice, and resources11 and timing.12 The spirits, hearts, and minds of the Tangbu villagers are captured in the couplets pasted over the entrance of the previous site of the neighbourhood school (see Figure 6.3). The three banners say: (a) [on the right of the photo] “The historic Tang sugar factory historic monument, love over generations”; (b) [on the left of the photo] “Building culture, generations prosper”; and (c) [above the doorway] “Pass on cultural uniqueness to future generations”. The

11 For example, Professor Hsia offered his students as assistants to research the heritage of the Tangbu site (Department of Urban Development (2006) “A Neo Sugar Doctrine-Homage to the Old Sugar Industry” Taipei Community Stories, p.111). 12 The mid-1990s, when Tangbu residents were organizing, was a time when the blue and green parties were about equal in terms of their influence. Chen Shui Bian was the president of the country while Ma Lin Jiu was the mayor of Taipei. Both parties were eager to win voters, therefore willing to show local residents that they cared.

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Figure 6.3  Residents using the cultural school site The site, located directly across from the carpark entrance, has since been sold to a private tenant.

Source: Slide 7 from 糖倉再利用現況報告060729. Dated 27 July 2006. The file was prepared by Chen De-jun in her capacity as community planner for Tangbu.

Tangbu community planner Chen remarked during our interview when looking at this photo: Look at this set of couplets, […] this was written by master Li when we founded [the society] Li Kuan-min. I found that the Tangbu Cultural Society indeed had the spirit of what we had been doing together: our mission to pass the torch to next generation (xinhuo xiangchuan薪火 相傳). I indeed had some expectations. All the ideas of management of the Tangbu Cultural Park were discussed in this space. (interview, 21 February 2012)

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I had asked a senior official of the Department of Urban Development and editor of the Community Action: Taipei Stories, what makes Tangbu worthy of inclusion in the neighbourhood mobilization stories along with the 14 other cases. He replied that the Tangbu story is important because it shows how a “bland” neighbourhood can create an identity and a new confidence for itself through its particular form of neighbourhood action: [When] I selected those 15 cases, I selected some typical cases, and some which presented dramatic processes and uniqueness. Put it simply, I regard Tangbu as this: it used to be a space with no uniqueness. In this space, a community looked for its cultural identity within the city and looked for its industries in the city. So, the community tried hard to negotiate with Taisugar and China Times for the space. […] The entire process is, I think, a community without identity finding its own position in its search for culture. The reason I selected this case was that it was far more meaningful than simply renovating the park. I would like to talk about this [core value/ significance] by presenting this case. This is why I have introduced this case to many other places. I also encouraged the community members [of Tangbu] to talk about their case everywhere. I also suggested that many community colleges introduce this case to their students because I believe this story is able to touch others and motivate new actions. (interview, 22 February 2012)

Writing about the Yungkang project, Chuang (2005: 385) noted that “mobilizing around park preservation [Yungkang neighbourhood] allowed the area’s residents to explore the meanings of place. In this process, they defined, imagined and literally created shequ (community)”. My sense is that this effort has created the same effects for Tangbu. The power of community, that of the residents coming together for a concerted goal, is best expressed through the words of three persons whose opinions are captured in a video13 produced to commemorate the process: How did they come to have such a varied group of different occupations and identities? There are professors, teachers, hawkers, chairmen; their common goal was to obtain a community park, to protect the history of

13 “The story of how the residents of the Dali Street community fought for the park – A Community Building Documentary”, Tangbu Cultural Society, October 2007. I am grateful to Esther Ng Xinyi for help to translate the text and to Ted Chen for updates.

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this community. (Taipei County [presently known as new Taipei city) Deputy Mayor – Chen Wei Ren The example of the Dali Street Park was definitely the first in Taiwan. It was the first case that was initiated by the public, by the community. The Urban Planning Program defeated the government’s program, and the government accepted it in the end. A proposal by the community – this was a very rare process. I feel that this is a very special point in Taiwan’s community movement history or even urban planning history; it represents the approach of a new period – when the public might raise their voices about the land in the city from the bottom-up and achieve their dreams through the process of urban planning. (OURs14 Director – Peng Yang Kai At first there was only Dali Street – the Dali Street community didn’t exist; the community was built and mobilized by the residents during the process of fighting for the park. Going back to the power of mobilization, their self-mobilization and them calling themselves a community made it a reality – from then on, it ceased to be just a geographical street. (National Taiwan University – Professor Xia Zhu Jiu)

3

The Neighbourhood’s Role in Constructing Heritage

Making a heritage preservation argument requires a number of important elements. Firstly, it is important to make the case that what is being preserved is of value not just to the neighbourhood but to the city. Secondly, a heritage site that has to be sustained as a case for its importance is often publicly evaluated in terms of visits to the site. The most persuasive argument for preservation is with regard to its tourism potential and if this is absent, other forms of deriving visits to the site may be necessary for the continued relevance of the site in the eyes of the public. Thirdly, a case for heritage often requires the state to take over the management of the important cultural amenity. This, in turn, raises the question of the continued involvement of Tangbu residents after the site is designated as heritage. The former Tangbu Cultural Society chairman began the meeting by taking a tour of the grounds and a walk around the neighbourhood. He was clearly passionate about Tangbu’s heritage when he talked about the bricks used in the construction of the warehouses, which came from a Japanese company 14 The Organization of Urban Re-S. OURs is a community empowerment group that supports residents in neighbourhood improvement (Peng, Kuo, and Lin, 2010: 145)

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that made high quality bricks with the “TR” (Taiwan Rennga” stamp, (臺灣 煉瓦株式會社). This refers to a Japanese enterprise that produced bricks in Taiwan around the 1910s. The tour illustrated how a case for heritage was built: (a) the importance of sugar as one of the four commodities of colonial Japanese Taiwan (the others being coal, tea, and tobacco); (b) Tangbu as the last remnant of a sugar producing economy in Northern Taiwan; (c) the millstone, one of four displayed in the museum being a northern style model, smooth versus the teeth or gear-like shape of the southern style models.15 The active construction of significance represents one element of community curation (Brown, 2009: 146). Another key element is the direct role of residents in contributing to the museum’s main exhibits. According to the 15 Smile Curve report published by the Department of Urban Development, the former Tangbu cultural society Chairman was responsible for bringing four millstones from his home village in Maoli for the museum (see footnote 81). A former Taisugar employee and Tangbu resident knew his trains and where they were and negotiated with Taisugar to get train number 349 to the park, paying a symbolic value of $1, with the city government funding the transportation cost through a community project grant. Tangbu community planner De-jun Chen’s research on the history of sugar in the storyboards and the tracing moulds used by visiting schoolchildren was featured in the museum. The former Tangbu Cultural Society chairman’s millstone research also represents a layperson’s contribution of information to the exhibits. This interpretation is, however, challenged by the Cultural Affairs Bureau officer whose Department is in charge of running the museum. She remarked that since the millstones are in the museum, more rigorous research is needed in terms of whether there is indeed a northern versus southern “style” of millstones used for crushing sugar. This, I think, represents one tension between Tangbu amateur historians attempting to add their interpretation to museum exhibits and government officials who are concerned with expert validation of accounts. This tension and the control of the museum space by the Cultural Affairs Bureau serves to constrain the role of Tangbu residents in managing the affairs of the museum. Among the various displays were photos that a long-time Tangbu resident 16 contributed and the land deed that a former Taisugar employer and Tangbu resident rescued from Taisugar. 15 A point proudly made by the Tangbu Cultural Society former chairman, on the basis of his own research, during a recorded tour of the museum: “I deeply studied these four millstones. In a time when technology was not so advanced, they were difficult to make”. 16 This resident was asked by the Chairman of the Tangbu district to be present during our interview on 24 February 2012. His father and grandfather were employees of Taisugar.

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These examples define the very nature of community curation as attempts to create a history of an area. And because many of these local areas capture an everyday “bland” history, the exhibits that form the museum collection are accordingly so. For example, a museum volunteer was accompanying me to an interview with a former Taisugar employee when the volunteer made a small detour. We stopped at the sugarcane patch on museum grounds and he proceeded to explain the two different types of cane, one for the production of sugar and the other for daily consumption. He also elaborated on the hard work involved in harvesting the cane for the people to eat during the one-day sugar cane festival. Tangbu residents and museum volunteers may talk about details, like the “TR” bricks that went into the building of the warehouses and the sugarcane patch. While their roles may be modest, it is significant that these volunteers have become the bearers of Tangbu’s history and triumphs in successful mobilization. The latter point was reinforced by the CAB officer, who wished that Tangbu resident volunteers did not spend so much time extolling their victories during the tour and would spend more time on the exhibits. The volunteer role continues to empower residents because (a) it legitimizes these individuals as part of the larger Tangbu Cultural Park project; (b) their duties are performed on a regular basis and provides a reinforcement of how their own identities are tied to Tangbu’s identity; and (c) the role allows for the sharing of an important piece of local area history that is relevant to Taipei’s history as a sugar production centre. The humble Tangbu sugar museum contains three components. The local area’s history in terms of its connection to the sugar industry, various physical exhibits related to the production of sugar, and a child-friendly set of exhibits at the end of the museum close to the exit. Ms Jiang is planning to change part of the exhibit because she thinks this makes the exhibitions fresh and will bring in repeat visitors. Ms Chen, the Tangbu community planner, has more ambitious plans in the form of a heritage trail that will link Tangbu to other better-known spots in the Wanhua District: Dali Street is actually only a spot in the Wanhua District. Wanhua has Huaxi Street, Longshan Temple […] places favoured by Japanese tourists. I imagined how to arrange a trail for Japanese tourists which would bring them here [Dali Street]. This place can be accepted by the Japanese easily, because they know that in the past the Japanese had a sugar industry here. (interview, 21 February 2012)

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My own assessment is that the Ming Hwa Yuan display may not be sufficient to draw the interest of visitors who will have to make the 1.5- to 2-kilometre trek from the other, more established visitor attractions of Longshan Temple and Bopiliao (see Figure 6.1) to visit Tangbu Cultural Park. The drama group has already enjoyed considerable success and this will spur public interest in the exhibits. Moreover, because the costumes and props are designed to dazzle the audience, their collection in the museum space allows visitors to enjoy the spectacular display and fans to relive their experience of the live performances. However, as noted earlier, this display is only open during the weekends. I visited the Ming Hwa Yuan site in early January 2015 and noted the closure of the exhibit for two months (8 November 2014 to 18 January 2015) in order to put up a new exhibit. The practice of refreshing the displays to include newer props and costumes is an important one, especially for small museums, but the closure for two months in order to facilitate this change means that visitors will have to be in the know and plan in advance or end up going there and being disappointed. The fact that the gallery is open free of charge to visitors and that Ming Hwa Yuan is really not dependent on gate receipts from this small gallery may also contribute to the lack of urgency in keeping the gallery open the whole year round.

4

The Role of the City Government

Feeling upbeat about their success in getting the warehouse as a museum, Tangbu’s neighbourhood activists had considered the idea of claiming the museum as theirs and managing it. It is important to note what Professor Hsia said when he was consulted: We had considered our capability to adopt the park and historic monuments. We went to ask Professor Hsia Chu Jiu about this question later. He put it clearly: ‘You cannot adopt it. The only thing you can do is to work here, not adopt it as if you are the owner. Because you would need to be able to afford large expenditures on air conditioning, electricity and activities, and there is no way for you to invest such a large budget.’ Prof. Hsia spoke in unequivocal terms: ‘You can help but cannot adopt the place. You do not have the capability to adopt.’ The reason why we are here as volunteers is because we treat the Cultural Affairs Bureau as the major body. They can use their budget on lights and air conditioning. The costs for air conditioning are significant. Only the electricity of building B and C is paid for by Ming Hwa Yuan. Other fees including remuneration

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for volunteers, although small, are still a considerable burden for us. Even though you pay for the expenditure through holding activities, the Cultural Society is not capable of this. (Chen Jin Yao, Chairman of Tangbu Cultural Society, Interview, 21 Feb 2012)

Professor Hsia’s advice provides an important insight into the nature of government-neighbourhood partnerships that, perhaps too often, the role of the local area effort is played up (and, indeed, this should be credited) but often, the missing piece is the work the government has put into making the projects like Tangbu a successful one. And there are three parts to the role of the government in the Tangbu Cultural Park. The f irst is how the city government worked with the stakeholders in enabling the Tangbu site to be converted to the Tangbu Cultural Park. A 30 January 2015 discussion with Tai Po Fen, a professor of Sociology at Fu-Jen Catholic University and a resident of Tangbu who is involved in the Tangbu project, indicated that the city government used heritage-related acquisition legalization that allowed the government to acquire the Tangbu site land from the Taisugar Corporation in exchange for the floor area from the Tangbu site to be transferred to another property that Taisugar could develop at a higher plot ratio.17 According to Professor Tai, this right can also be sold to other property developers. Secondly, an added consideration is the cost involved in the redevelopment of the site into the Tangbu Cultural Park. Professor Tai indicated that this area has been re-zoned from industrial land to a mixed used development, allowing owners to redevelop their sites to a higher plot ratio and pay a fee for this new capacity. The China Times negotiated with the city government to pay for the Tangbu Cultural Park redevelopment instead of paying the fee. Thus, the Taipei city government exercised their regulatory powers to effect the transfer and redevelopment of the site. The third point, also pointed out by 17 The regulation Professor Tai mentioned is the Cultural Heritage Preservation Act (Article 35), ‘Regulations of Bulk Transfer for Historic Sites’. The size of the floor area that was transferred is documented on page 75 of Chung’s PhD Thesis “Analysis of Property Rights Protection in the Alteration of Urban Plans and the Transfer of Floor Area Ratios”. The case had been designated as ‘Tangbu Cultural Park’, Taipei City Heritage No.106 on 23 September 2013. The more general legal provision is provided under Urban Planning Law (Article 83-1) “Regulations of Urban Building Capacity Transfer”. This regulation allows for the right to transfer the floor area of a piece of land acquired for public facilities, preservation, and maintenance of buildings of memorable or artistic value and historical monuments, and provision of public open space. I am grateful to Yun-Shuian Hsieh for following up on this set of regulations and for tracking down Chung’s dissertation.

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Professor Hsia, is the continued cost involved in running the facility, which is a sum more than the Tangbu residents can bear. The Tangbu story has illustrated a case of successful neighbourhood mobilization, continued NGO support, and state involvement. Throughout the interviews, I have heard accounts of the debilitating effects of interpersonal conflicts and this must be examined and put into context.18 Taipei City government’s Department of Urban Development (DUD) officer said it best when he referred to residents’ search for significance and also how the DUD needs to divine a path through different interests by f inding common ground. The first part of the DUD officer’s observation should be framed within the broader context of Taiwanese politics and civil society. A start can be made from Huang’s (2005: 86-87) observation that a key point in participatory planning was Shui Bian Chen’s attempt in 1994 to differentiate his politics from those of the Kuomintang Party by calling for small projects to improve urban space, as opposed to big business developments, neighbourhood participation, and to preserve local place memories.19 This viewpoint became inscribed into planning philosophy and neighbourhood action in the 1990s, resulting in a neighbourhood development plan called the Programme of Regional Environmental Transformation and the creation of a community planner programme. This represented a shift towards a community-based agenda (Raco, Imrie, and Lin, 2011). The Tangbu story is located within the changing politics of the country, the emergence of civil society, and neighbourhood action in the 1990s. The national context of the democratizing political environment is anchored at the city level, where the key player in national politics is often the elected mayor, whose engagement with the different constituencies are the first steps to a more responsive city government.20 The case is significant because the high level of local participation is supported by efforts of NGOS as well as the city government, which provides resources to develop neighbourhood projects. An important component of this system is the provision of a community planner who understands planning guidelines 18 See Kang (2017: 19-20) for an elaboration of neighbourhood based conflicts surrounding the implementation of a community empowerment project in Ka-lāk-ā neighbourhood in Wanhua district, Taipei. 19 Den (2014: 259) traced the shift in government focus to local area communities to Lee Teng Hui. 20 See Chuang (2013) chapter 6 for a fine-grain analysis of the democratizing political environment of Taiwan, the growing grassroots community movements, and the responsiveness of the Taipei municipal government.

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and other government regulations and who also works with the residents to translate their aspirations into reality. The most visible signs of city government support have been its willingness to bargain with Taisugar, allowing for a higher plot ratio for one property redevelopment in exchange for heritage designation for another. This opened the way for the release of the three warehouses. The designation of the site as a cultural heritage site then facilitated the management and maintenance of the site. The Cultural Affairs Bureau also played a key role in sourcing for displays from other sugar museums in southern Taiwan. However, the entry of the Cultural Affairs Bureau to the management of the site also meant a certain curtailment of the involvement of the residents. With the Cultural Affairs Bureau as site managers, the residents’ role is limited to volunteering at the museum. However, this limited role in no way dampens their enthusiasm. Members of the Tangbu Cultural Society use their legitimate positions as museum volunteers to share with visitors the history of successful neighbourhood participation. Another issue is what is considered “knowledge” worthy of the museum. The previous Tangbu Cultural Society chairman went to great lengths to talk about the “northern” versus “southern” styles in sugar millstones. However, the CAB off icer remains sceptical and points out that more systematic research is needed to establish the differences. An amateur, oral history type of approach is thus contrasted against the more research-based approach of the Cultural Affairs Bureau. The Tangbu story must also be understood in terms of the wider political dynamics of the country and the city. The achievements of Tangbu would not have been possible without the mayoral system shifting from an appointment-based system to an election system in 1994 (Huang, 2005: 85). Since this change, Taiwanese politics and government have payed increasing attention to local concerns in at least two signif icant ways. First, is the power and effectiveness of the Taipei mayoral position. The position of mayor in the capital city is one that is coveted by ambitious and influential politicians from both the Kuomintang (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), because this is widely seen to set the stage for the Taiwanese presidency. Ying Jeou Ma from the KMT and Shui Bian Chen of the DPP were both former mayors of Taipei who became Taiwan’s presidents. Taiwanese politics has also been open to the circulation of academics into the system. Indeed, as we have seen, academics have been pivotal in defining the strategy and course of the Tangbu efforts to secure the Cultural Park. Academics have, in turn, followed their ideals and ideas and transformed them into more systematic action by going into politics.

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Ng (2014: 87; 2015: 261), for example, highlighted a progressive academic who became the Cultural Affairs Bureau Minister in 2001 and supported the conversion of Treasure Hill in Gongguan district into a heritage site. Such political leadership with ideas nurtured in academia can create the conditions for change within government bureaucracy and, in turn, make such organizations more responsive to aspirations from localities. That said, it is important to note that such community-based policies sit alongside other government urban renewal and redevelopment policies and initiatives that are more pro-market, favouring developers, and often threatening older neighbourhoods (Jou, Clark, and Chen, 2016; Lin Huang and Lin, 2018).

5

Looking Ahead

Tangbu community planner Chen has developed a wide variety of activities and programmes for Tangbu Cultural Park 21 but, to date, less than half of what Ms Chen proposed has been realized. This is partly because these functions have been managed by government departments like the Cultural Affairs Bureau and the Parks and Recreation Department. Another key factor is the residents reverting to their regular lives now that the initial threat of the hospital has been neutralized. Most importantly for the majority of the Tangbu residents, the land surrounding the museum has also been turned into a tranquil park for residents to use for their exercise and also for children to play. Individuals like Ms Chen, the community planner as well as the former Tangbu Cultural Society Chairman and Precinct Chairman are all passionate, want the best for Tangbu, and want to do things for their neighbourhood, but the momentum seems lost now that initial objectives have been met. The only regular avenue for active residents is to volunteer at the museum and tell visitors of the history of their neighbourhood. At first sight, the Tangbu warehouses will seem modest to the visitor as a heritage site. As sugar warehouses, the buildings were built for function and not to impress. The buildings are without much of the ornate beauty of a typical heritage building that would impress the visitor. At close to a hundred years old, these buildings seem “youthful” in the context of heritage structures. Unlike temples, palaces, markets, and other publicuse preserved buildings, the warehouses have a humble and non-descript function as storage sites, which kept them out of the public eye. In contrast to public-use buildings, warehouses tend to be in more remote, stand-alone 21 糖倉再利用現況報告060729, slide 2, from the PowerPoint file developed by Ms Chen.

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locations. As places evolve, temples and markets in particular become the focal points of the urban society. Over time, these focal points attract a range of supportive, complementary uses (Firey, 1945). The place assumes a character and identity like that of the “Bird Street” mentioned in chapter 7. Without such features, the Tangbu Cultural Park will need more effort to support its character and attractiveness to visitors. The Taiwanese have coined the phrase “mosquito building” to describe the under-utilized structures that local governments build in an effort to gain election support or in response to popular pressure (Taipei Times, 12 October 2015; Taipei Times, 1 November 2016). These buildings remain empty or poorly attended and only mosquitos inhabit the building. These forlorn buildings exists as a testimony to the failure of state-society partnerships to work towards a sustainable solution on building use. It is a failure of imagination, a failure of effort, and a waste of initial energies and expenditures used in the construction of the project. For the heritage buildings to play a more significant role, the issue raised by Professor Chuang at the end of chapter 3 needs to be addressed, i.e. that there is “not enough politics”. By this, he meant that citizens must continue to engage their government in a more sustained fashion and not just stop when the initial impetus is cleared. The Cultural Affairs Bureau needs to work with local residents to build up the museum and to realize more of what community planner Chen has envisaged. The possibility that Ming Hua Yuan may not have its lease renewed after it expires may just be the opportunity that Tangbu residents need to rethink how the Tangbu Cultural Park can move forward.

References Brown, M. F. (2009). ‘Exhibiting Indigenous Heritage in the Age of Cultural Property’ in: J. Cuno (ed.), Whose Culture? The Promise of Museums and the Debate over Antiquities (pp. 147-165), Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. Chen Hsing-chun [陳幸均] (2000). ‘The Spatial Practice of a Community in an Old Urban City Centre: Case Studies on Community Movement of the Dali Street Community in Wanhua’ (老市中心社區的空間實踐：萬華大理街社區運動 的個案研究) (Unpublished MSc Dissertation) National Taiwan University Graduate Institute of Building and Planning. Chuang, Y. C. (2005). ‘Place, Identity, and Social Movements: Shequ and Neighborhood Organising in Taipei City’, Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 13(2): 379-410.

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Chuang, Y. C. (2013). Democracy on Trial: Social Movements and Cultural Politics in Postauthoritarian Taiwan. Hong Kong: CUHK Press. Chung L. N. (1997). ‘Analysis of Property Rights Protection in the Alteration of Urban Plans and the Transfer of Floor Area Ratios – A Case Study of the New Subdivision Plan for the Dali Street Area in Wanhua District’ (Unpublished doctoral thesis), Department of Land Economics, National Chengchi University, Taipei, Taiwan. Den, W. (2014). ‘Community Empowerment and Heritage Conservation: The Experience of Beitou District in Taipei City, Taiwan’, The Historic Environment: Policy & Practice, 5(3), 258-274. Department of Urban Development (2006). Community Action: Taipei Stories. Taipei City Government. Firey, W. (1945). ‘Sentiment and Symbolism as Ecological Variables’, American Sociological Review, 10(2), 140-148. Hsia, C. J., Cheng, L. Chen, H. C. P. F. Tai (2002). ‘Toward a Citizens’ City: The Dali Community Movement of Taipei’, Taiwan: A Radical Quarterly in Social Studies, 46: 141-172. (in Chinese) Huang, L. L. (2005). ‘Urban Politics and Spatial Development: The Emergence of Participatory Planning’, in: R. Kwok (ed.), Globalizing Taipei: Political Economy of Spatial Development (pp. 78-98), London: Routledge. Jou, S. C., E. Clark and H. W. Chen (2016). ‘Gentrification and Revanchist Urbanism in Taipei?’, Urban Studies, 53(3), 560-576. Kang, M. J. (2017). ‘Reconstructing Spatial Narratives as a Mode of Action Research and Planning – Dialogical Community Actions of Urban Regeneration in the Neighborhoods of Ka-la̍ k-á, Taipei’, Action Research https://doi. org/10.1177/1476750317733806 . Lin, C. Y. and W. C. Hsing (2009). ‘Culture-Led Urban Regeneration and Community Mobilisation: The Case of the Taipei Bao-an Temple Area, Taiwan’, Urban Studies, 46(7), 1317-1342. Lin, T. C., F.H. Huang and S. E. Lin (2018). ‘Land Assembly for Urban Development in Taipei City with Particular Reference to Old Neighborhoods’, Land Use Policy, 78, 555-561. Lin, W. I. and S. Y. Chiu (2018). ‘The Mobilisation of Creative City Building as a New Mode of Governmentality in Dihua Street Neighbourhood, Taipei City’, Geoforum. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2018.05.02. Ng, M. K. (2014). ‘Intellectuals and the Production of Space in the Urban Renewal Process in Hong Kong and Taipei’, Planning Theory & Practice, 15(1), 77-92. Ng, M. K. (2015). ‘Knowledge and Power in Regenerating Lived Space in Treasure Hill, Taipei 1960s-2010: From Squatter Settlement to a Co-Living Artist Village’, Planning Perspectives, 30(2): 253-270.

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Peng, K. H., Y.C. Kuo and C. Y. Lin (2010). ‘Community Planning’, in: R. Bristow (ed.), Planning in Taiwan: Spatial Planning in the 21st Century (pp. 137-163), London: Routledge. Raco, M., R. Imrie and W. I. Lin (2011). ‘Community Governance, Critical Cosmopolitanism and Urban Change: Observations from Taipei, Taiwan’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 35(2), 274-294. Tsai, T. I. (2014). ‘Strategies of Building a Stronger Sense of Community for Sustainable Neighborhoods: Comparing Neighborhood Accessibility with Community Empowerment Programs’, Sustainability, 6(5), 2766-2785. Wang, H. J. and H. Y. Lee (2008). ‘How Government-Funded Projects have Revitalized Historic Streetscapes: Two Cases in Taiwan’, Cities, 25(4), 197-206.

News Articles ‘Maoli, the County that Debt Built’ (12 October 12 2015) Taipei Times. ‘Mosquito Buildings to be Put to Good Use’ (1 November 2016) Taipei Times.

7

Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration Abstract Langham Place (Hong Kong) stands out among the five cases as a mega project and as an inner-city regeneration project. Besides the residents, three other small business groups were relocated to make way for Langham Place: small bus operators, cooked-food sellers, and bird traders. The chapter documents the long and drawn-out negotiation process by these groups. Langham Place is also noteworthy for the attempt to interview these groups ten years after the mega project was built. This set of interviews was undertaken in order to gain perspective on whether the needs of the community are being ignored with new uses entering into old areas. The research documented the insertion of the community annex (Mong Kok Complex) into Langham Place, the post-resettlement outcomes of the affected small businesses, and the social change that the mega project has brought into the area. Keywords: Hong Kong, redevelopment, regeneration, resettlement, mega project, inner city, urban change

1

The Significance of Langham Place

While the preceding field sites – Sungmisan, Mahakan, and Tangbu – are low density city neighbourhoods, Langham Place, by contrast, is a high-rise, high density, mixed-used development located in Kowloon. Kowloon, in turn, has been characterized as “the busiest place in the world” by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2011), with an average density of 130,000 persons per square kilometre.1 Belinda Yuen (2009), in her Hong 1 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ‘Mong Kok: The Busiest Place on Earth’, 4 November 2011. Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-11-03/the-busiest-place-on-earth/3611032 (last accessed 25 July 2016).

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch07

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Kong entry to the Encyclopaedia of Urban studies, reported the Mong Kok density at 116,531. At upwards of 100,000 persons per square kilometre, any attempt at redevelopment brings with it challenges of resettlement but, at the same time, new possibilities are introduced to an old, established area. During a sabbatical visit to Hong Kong, my hosts introduced me to Lam Kit, who was in the final stages of writing his thesis. They thought it would be a good idea to visit one of his field sites. And so, on 24 November 2006, Lam Kit and I visited Langham Place. A month or so before Christmas, the decorations were up and, on a Friday, the crowds were there in the early evening. At the time of our visit, Langham Place had been open for business for barely two years and was keen to welcome shoppers during the festive period. But it was not the lights and the 15 levels of shopping, or the 59-storey tower, or the five-star Cordis Hotel 2 (arguably the most lavish hotel built in Kowloon at that time), which intrigued me. Tucked away at the back of the hotel is an annex building that houses the Mong Kok Cooked-Food Market, along with a number of other community amenities, a kindergarten, and a social service centre to help youths in the area. What really captured my attention was the minibus terminal located in the bowels of the annex (see Figures 7.1 and 7.3). This annex building is located at the street level of Shanghai Street, a prime real estate location in Mong Kok. I remember asking myself the following question: “What f ive-star hotel would allow a bus terminus within the building?” This anomaly in land-use was the result of government provisions for Langham Place, an important mega project in Kowloon. This confirmed my decision to research Langham Place. The Langham Place Project is interesting as a case study for several reasons. Firstly, it is the only case in this book representing a public-private partnership. The private-public joint venture partnership enabled both parties to exercise their role in developing the project. The government (Land Development Corporation [LDC]) acquired fragmented lots in the congested area and assembled them into a single site, while the developer (Great Eagle) paid the costs of resettlement. Profits from the redevelopment would be shared (South China Morning Post, 4 January 1997). Secondly, the scale of the project is important. In the introductory chapter, I argued that residents in inner-city neighbourhoods live in fear that they will be resettled because of redevelopment pressures in the city. This is best illustrated in the Langham Place project. The site covers an area of 129,000 square feet, affecting 1500 households and 6000 persons (South China Morning Post, 9 June 2

Formerly known as Langham Place Hotel.

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1999). Thirdly, the project affords us an understanding of the government’s position in this project. The government saw the Langham Place project primarily in terms of an urban regeneration project aimed at renewing an old, congested, and dilapidated part of Mong Kok. Economically, it had envisioned the renewal of the area through retail and office development rather in the same way that the Times Square project led to an uplifting of Causeway Bay when it opened in 1993 (South China Morning Post, 7 April 2004). As far as the households were concerned, affected residents could either accept cash compensation, which was attractive (South China Morning Post, 28 April 1996), or opt for a rehousing option (South China Morning Post, 27 September 1995). If the LDC offered housing is similar to those in the Hong Kong’s New Towns, then Anthony Yeh’s (2011: 32) observation that when compared to the old areas of Kowloon, new towns “with more spacious layouts between buildings and well-planned open spaces have made such high-density environments a far better place to live” may be true when resettled families in this area move into LDC provided housing. Better residential environmental quality is also supported by Xue, Manuel, and Chung’s (2001: 19) observation that the Mong Kok public space provision per person is two square metres per person in Hong Kong’s new towns and only 0.5 square metres per person in Mong Kok. And with respect to social benefits, what is also important is to understand the community facilities provided in the Langham area as part of the agreement for the redevelopment of the place. It is with this in mind that I worked with Lam Kit to interview some of the parties involved in this process approximately ten years after the Langham Place Project was completed. I basically wanted to know whether the government’s effort to put in place such facilities had made a difference to the area. The key question arising out of the Langham Place case was how it is possible that such a large commercial project, which obviously targeted the affluent, professionals, and youth, encompasses seemingly disparate social amenities like a bus terminus and cooked-food court/market (see Figure 7.1). The process of incorporating these social amenities into the Langham Place project is important. Langham Place was officially opened on 25 January 20053 and ten years have passed. Work on citizen and community movements often focus on the mobilization effort and ends when the mobilization objectives are achieved. It is important to revisit a case years later and see whether these developments have made a difference in 3 Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Langham_Place_(Hong_Kong) (last accessed 28 November 2017).

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Figure 7.1  Langham Place field site in Mong Kok, Hong Kong

the lives of those who were directly affected as well as those who use the amenities after redevelopment has occurred. One of this book’s objectives is to highlight the role of the government in city building. This is not just paying attention to the economic factors, but also the social objectives underlying this process. It requires an understanding of the capacity of the state to fulfil such objectives and the way in which they work with the community in question. The Langham Place project illustrates an important moment in 1988 when a new agency was created, tasked with an important urban regeneration role. And the Langham Place project (LDC reference tagged K24) represented phase 1A of what was to be a long list of urban renewal projects launched in different places in Hong Kong. Phase 1A saw the development of several mega projects with super-high-rise towers in inner city areas and Langham Place was part of this. How did the people who handled this first phase of redevelopment view this flagship project, along with its social and community provisions, ten years on? Also central to this book’s concerns is the role different place-based vested interests play in securing their objectives. Over time, do these outcomes still matter to the individuals and groups? The Hong Kong case provides a unique 4

Adams and Hastings (2001a: 249 [Table 1]).

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opportunity to follow up on the data collected by Lam Kit for his PhD thesis on Langham Place.5 Langham Place was officially opened in January 2005. After a decade of operation, how do the cooked-food sellers, the minibus operators, and the bird sellers view these amenities? It is also important to note that these amenities should not relate just to the people who fought for them, but also to the city at large. And the question of benefits to the city should include other activities that now operate in the community annex, a kindergarten as well as a youth services agency. What follows in section 2 is a short summary of the resettlement experience based largely on a reading of Lam Kit’s (2008) PhD thesis. Section 3 is developed specifically to address the question of whether these interventions matter to the individuals affected by the redevelopment, and whether these changes matter to the city at large. The answers to these questions come from interviews conducted in 2015 with a sample of small business owners and representatives of the organization involved in the resettlement process.6

2

Mong Kok and the Langham Place Redevelopment Project

The Land Development Corporation (LDC) was a statutory corporation created in 1988 and tasked with urban renewal in Hong Kong. The Langham Place project in Mong Kok fulfilled all the prerequisites for redevelopment. The site area covered by the project involved six streets (Argyle, Hong Lok [where the bird traders were located, giving raise to the name bird street], Nelson, Portland, Reclamation, and Shanghai [South China Morning Post, 4 January 1997]). The area was already a thriving mixed-used commercial and residential area. The quality of the built environment was a different question altogether, however. From its early agricultural roots came the food processing, layered with industrial and then increasingly commercial and retail uses as population densities increased (Tsui, 2004). In an early article on Mong Kok, Lai (1986: 11-12) pointed to the interaction effects between the type of economic activities (small-scale production and service-oriented trades) and the presence of low-wage workers “resorting to flat sharing […] and environmental deprivation in order to obtain employment opportunities provided in the vicinity”. These workers are often single and 80 per cent of the housing stock were rental units (Ibid.:11). The poor maintenance by 5 Lam, K. “From Urban Disputes to Democracy”. 6 The help Lam Kit provided in these interviews was funded by author’s research project ( R-111-000-700-733).

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property owners led to derelict buildings and vices such as gambling and prostitution found entry into these areas (Yau, 2011). With congestion and over-building, there was a serious lack of social and community amenities in Mong Kok (Lau, 1995: 98; Tsui, 2004:14). Great Eagle Holdings was chosen as a partner after a public tender. The LDC began the lengthy process of resettlement negotiations, which began in 1993 and ended in late 1997 (Lam, 2008: ch. 7). The Langham Place project resettlement involved a number of small businesses that had a long history in the area. And because these were similar trades and operated in the same area, the businesses acquired a common interest in the resettlement negotiation process. Such common interests along with varying degrees of organization and experience created unique challenges for the government. a

Bird Street

From the accounts provided by Fok (2004: 57-59) and Lam (2008: ch. 7), the ‘Bird Street’ at Hong Lok street slowly acquired its character, evolving from the 1950s to the 1970s. A survey conducted by the LDC in April 1994 listed 81 bird traders (Fok, 2004: 59). The complementary activities, like the selling of bird feed, feeding bowls and bird cages naturally co-existed. This concentration of a single trade in one small street meant that Hong Lok street was a natural destination for bird lovers. Other hawkers took advantage of this character and customer traffic and started selling other goods such as foodstuff, clothes, and watches. Resettlement negotiations were lengthy and a solution was finally agreed on when the LDC found an acceptable site for the resettlement of the bird traders (Lam, 2008: ch. 7). b

Cooked-Food Stalls

Examining the street markets in Yau Ma Tei, Kinoshita (2001: 85) makes an interesting observation that the very high densities of housing in this area means that homes function mainly as a sleeping area. With all other domestic space kept to a minimum, the street has assumed the added function as a dining space. To support this point, Kinoshita (Ibid.: 86), pointed out that 70 per cent of the 50 residents interviewed in Yau Ma Tei indicated that they would eat at cooked-food hawkers and restaurants nearby for their meals. This is a likely reason for the existence of the cooked-food stalls operating in Shanghai street. Lam (2008: ch. 7) point out that while some of the 30 licenced food stalls in this area accepted compensation, the ones who wanted to stay in the area continued lengthy

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Figure 7.2 Mong Kok Cooked-Food Market in the Community Annex (Mong Kok Complex)

Source: Author, 24 November 2006

negotiations. They accepted the settlement only when the regulatory authority, the Urban Council, helped this group get lots in the new food court/market that was built in the Mong Kok Complex/community annex (see Figure 7.2). c

Minibus Companies

Leong’s (2000: 37-48) history of the development of light buses in the 1960s highlighted several key features. Their growth was the result of a rapid population increase in the New Territories. This population growth led to a huge demand for affordable public transportation between the New Territories and Kowloon, a demand that was unmet by the Kowloon Bus Company. This demand resulted in the unregulated growth of minibuses. The regulation of these buses as a form of public transport was a major challenge and only improved in stages (Leung, 2000: 81-100). Lam (2008) pointed out that the slow government regulation meant that there was no designated area for minibus stops. This meant that minibus stops evolved as minibus drivers worked out where to stop to collect passengers. With some regularity and over time, these places became common knowledge among

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Figure 7.3 Minibus Terminal at the side of the five-star Cordis Hotel on Shanghai Street

Source: Author, 24 November 2006

minibus passengers as minibus stops. These locations gradually evolved into minibus stops in the 1970s. The government then stepped in and formalized these minibus stops. The Langham Place development affected one of these stops. Lam (Ibid.: ch. 7) detailed the lengthy negotiations between the minibus groups and the LDC over location, a basement versus street level lot, the number of bus berths, and the entry and access points. These negotiations ended when the LDC allocated most of the ground floor of the Mong Kok Complex (community annex) as the minibus terminal (see Figure 7.3). The Langham Place development reflected the outcome of a long, contentious process of vested interest groups battling to maintain their economic livelihoods. Lam (2008) detailed the support received from different government agencies for the affected trades: – Minibus operators/drivers and the Transport Department, where the support from this department resulted in a minibus terminal being built at the back of the five-star hotel. – Cooked-food stall operators managed to get support from the Urban Council to provide them with a special section in the community annex structure, built to accommodate the Cooked-Food Market. – The Urban Council also stepped in to provide land for the new Bird Market, thus preserving the famous bird street by allowing the operators to move from Hong Lok Street to its new premise in Yuen Po Bird Garden.

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In addition to the provision of these areas, Lam and Ho (2012) noted that the Planning Department and the Social Welfare Department managed to get the developer to provide new floor space for public, civic, community, and social service uses. The Home Affairs Department and Social Welfare Department stepped in to decide how to allocate such space. The Home Affairs Department established a community hall for the Mong Kok district whereas the Social Welfare Department allocated the space for two voluntary social service agencies to set up a youth service centre and a kindergarten.

3

Inserting Community Spaces into Langham Place

a

The Land Development Corporation and Its Role in Rebuilding the City

As cities age, they require a continuous process of intervention by the government in their blighted, disused, and dilapidated areas so that the city can open up space for new economic activities, thereby allowing the urban economy to be renewed and livelihoods improved. In this regard, urban renewal can take on an aspirational sense. Furbey (1999: 430) points out that “contemporary urban regeneration is also permeated by religious and quasi-religious expressions of hope, enthusiasm and the search for radical personal and corporate ‘rebirth’”. Commenting on the impact of housing prices of the Langham Place project in Mong Kok, Yau (2011: 99) noted that “although the costs and benefits of a redevelopment project can be non-monetary […] one usually makes use of net monetary gains for various purposes such as measuring a government’s effectiveness in an urban redevelopment project”. This ‘usual’ interpretation of measuring the effectiveness of redevelopment primarily in economic terms should be carefully considered alongside the social goals of bringing a higher standard of housing as well as improved amenities to the urban poor. In undertaking urban redevelopment, the city is simultaneously confronted with the social role of resettlement. This role assumes greater significance since the people who live in such areas are likely to be older and also poorer. As Jayantha and Ming (2015: 382) note for the case of Hong Kong, “the real victim of redevelopment can be the tenant groups, especially existing tenant groups (residents and small shop owners)”. It was in this context of the economic and social goals of redevelopment that the LDC was created. Adam and Hastings (2001a: 1485) cited an earlier work by Fong (1985), noting that the public-private partnership model was

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developed in accordance with the Hong Kong government’s philosophy of minimal government intervention and its belief that the private sector should be the main driving force, while the government plays a secondary role in making sure social and economic goals are met. Cuthbert and Dimitriou’s (1992: 196) study of the LDC’s role in the redevelopment of Shau Kei Wan noted that where the LDC was needed, precisely in blighted areas where there was multiple ownership of small, fragmented plots, there emerged a situation in which development companies were unable to use f inancial incentives in order to assemble the requisite land to redevelop the area. In these areas, the LDC can use their authority to acquire small plots and resettle tenants. They (Ibid.: 198) also pointed out that the LDC, in partnering with private developers, was in a position to stipulate provisions for community and social facilities where none had previously existed. Understanding the role and the capacity of the government in each of the cases presented in this book is important. The Hong Kong government certainly has the administrative capacity to intervene in the built environment. Comparing the cities of London and Hong Kong in terms of resilience and recovery planning in the face of economic downturns, Raco and Street (2012: 1070) stressed that Hong Kong has a powerful government administrative structure in which civil servants are both the decisionmakers and implementers of policy. However, this administrative capacity is tempered by a clear ideology with regard to the role of the market. The civil service adherence to preserving the primary role of the market principle has been pointed out by many scholars. Fong (1985: 289) noted that “the primary force behind the LDC still falls within the government’s basic philosophy of minimal intervention. The government does want to do something about urban redevelopment for a variety of reasons, but it does not wish to take on all the responsibilities, especially on the financial and administrative side”.7 Another reason, as pointed out by Raco and Street (2012: 1078), was that the Hong Kong government has preferred to let the private sector create the resilience and dynamism in the urban economy instead of the public sector, because of the fear of fostering a greater dependence on the state. This dominant ideology plus the fear of corruption led to a less powerful and less resourced agency (Adams and Hastings, 2001a: 1487). Lam Kit managed to track down a former planner K.K.8, who worked on the Langham 7 Cited by Adams and Hastings (2001a: 1485; 2001b: 247). 8 Pseudonym.

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Place project. Our interview with her indicated the constraints this set of considerations has imposed on the LDC: The British knew that they were about to leave and were therefore not willing to lay down financial resources for redevelopment. The uncertainty about what the future political ecology would be like was another consideration. There was the issue of buildings built before World War II, and we have experienced building collapse. The key resource given to the LDC was the power to invoke the land resumption ordinance use. The LDC has the right to ask the government to invoke this ordinance, but no other financial resources were provided. Redevelopment meant resettlement and in many case this involved people too poor to move, which was why they continued to live in these areas. There was the prevailing thinking that ‘nobody should be rendered homeless’ and the LDC has to handle this issue by themselves. The LDC ordinance specified redevelopment activities had to adhere to a ‘prudent commercial principle’, which meant that the projects LDC undertook cannot make a financial loss. We had to refer all projects for approval by the government planning department. Each project must demonstrate a financial plan and if they use the land resumption ordinance, we must demonstrate clearly that the project must product results that show public benefit. So, the proposal for redevelopment must include a rehousing plan, the scale, the resettlement housing provisions and the sums. Because of these conditions and requirements, the LDC used the joint venture as the model. (interview, 10 April 2015)

The weaknesses of the joint venture model are apparent. Without substantial financial resources, the LDC was significantly disadvantaged and had to depend on large developers for finance. Thus, it had to focus on sites that could turn a profit after redevelopment and ignored other dilapidated sites in more marginal and less central areas, which were also in urgent need of redevelopment (Adams and Hastings, 2001b: 253). The assessment of the LDC was that it was project-based rather than people-based, and pro-growth and dependent on private sector resources (Ng, 2002: 143, 145). These factors show how the political context of the 1980s, i.e. the need to address both the social (dilapidated buildings and the unsanitary conditions of the urban poor) and the economic (freeing up land for new uses at a higher yield), without the strong capacity given to the agency in charge, led to the creation of the joint venture model for the redevelopment of Hong Kong’s inner city. It is also clear that the LDC operated with

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significant constraints. Government approval had to be obtained at critical stages of the project development. K.K. highlighted two consequences arising from this scrutiny and approval-seeking process. Firstly, the onus was on the LDC to find solutions to the issues it faced. For example, in the resettlement of the minibus drivers, the Transport Department let the LDC assume the responsibility of finding a location for the bus terminus since Langham Place was their project. The Transport Department provided guidance on the layout of the bus terminal, for instance, the number of bus lines and the entry and exit routes, but the task of finding a suitable location rested on the shoulders of the LDC. Secondly, because the LDC had to find its own solutions to the resettlement process and could only invoke the land resumption request to the government as a last resort if talks failed,9 the LDC worked hard to negotiate settlements. K.K. felt that the generous GIC (government, institutional, and community use) provisions at Langham Place were because of these negotiations. K.K. recalled that the vested interests in the project (the bird sellers [the initial plan was for the bird market to be built on site], the cooked-food sellers, and the minibus drivers) had all wanted to monopolize space at the street level to the point that the developer was wondering whether there was any ‘meat’ (space at the street level) left for them. Indeed, if the space allocation at the Shanghai street level is scrutinized, Cordis (formerly Langham Place) Hotel is squeezed in between two GIC provisions: the park and the Community Annex (see Figure 7.1). Noting that this was land acquired at great financial cost, the provision and the siting of GIC uses are quite generous. The LDC’s record of balancing the social and economic goals of urban redevelopment will continue to be debated by scholars in Hong Kong. A senior LDC official10 also emphasized the constraints that came with the formation of the LDC, the lack of financial capital (they had to borrow), the requirement that the LDC cannot make financial losses, the need to get approval from the government (and all relevant departments whose jurisdictions are involved, e.g. the transport department) in moving ahead with their plans, and the recourse to the land resumption order only as the last resort. The need for financial capital, this official noted, required the LDC to adopt a joint venture model of public-private partnership. There was also some leeway provided by the joint venture system. He understood the 9 Which was why the request was only made in mid-1994 after 84 per cent of property interests were acquired through negotiation (Adams and Hastings, 2001b: 249). 10 Interviewed on 29 April 2015.

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public view of the LDC being a land grabber,11 but he also said that the joint venture system allowed the LDC to set higher resettlement payments without having to answer to the auditors since this was not government money. The interview allowed this official to reflect on his days at the LDC. Fifteen years have passed since the LDC became the Urban Renewal Authority. The LDC senior official focused at length on the people: We used the deposit [from Great Eagle] to buy land from the government for resettlement housing. Those people who live in cages, the elderly women who climbed the stairs in the dark. First you must have a heart to help those people […]. This is more community than the food hawker stalls, you are giving the poor old men and women, that they will be able to live their last mile in glory […] the room may be small, they have their own toilet […] that was the whole concept […]. That is the whole concept of regenerating and moving people to better housing. That is the whole concept of urban renewal. Urban renewal is not only in terms of form or shape. [It is] a form of regenerating peoples’ livelihoods, regenerating people’s feelings of dignity, regenerating people.

The Urban Renewal Authority (URA) took over the Langham Place project in 2004 as successor to the LDC.12 By then, most of the back-breaking work for Langham Place had already been done by the LDC and the URA saw the project through to completion in 2004. The URA embraces the same social goals of redevelopment that a government agency should have but, as Grange and Pretorius (2016: 513) point out, the URA has greater financial resources than the LDC and greater powers, including initiating resumption.13 And it continues to work primarily with very large property developers (Ibid.: 514). 11 One of the equity issues involved in redevelopment is who can be involved in the redevelopment. The LDC did respond to pressure to allow for broader participation from smaller property owners to be involved in redevelopment. Li’s (2012: 524) study of the Hanoi Street site (or the K11 project) indicated that even when the LDC opened the process to existing owners, these owners were more likely to take the financial compensation and not incur the risks involved with participation. 12 Lui (2017: 483) noted that. compared to the LDC, the URA had a more proactive role in urban regeneration. This was because the URA had three advantages over the LDC: first, not having to operate commercially; second, not needing pay land premiums to the government; and third, having a start-up grant from the government (Ng, 2018: 495). 13 The LDC itself did not possess this power and had to ask the government to exercise the power of resumption on its behalf. This request can only be made after the LDC has demonstrated that it had exercised diligence in negotiating a fair settlement with affected parties (Adam and Hastings, 2001b: 248).

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Both K.K. and the LDC senior official had wondered in the interviews why the URA in Hong Kong continued to work with the developers. The senior LDC official pointed out that, “They should be a land assembly agent, and sell the land like the Urban Redevelopment Authority [Singapore]. Singapore’s URA is best. Not the best, but the best [model] to have” (interview, 29 April 2015). The Langham Place project was announced in 1989 and completed at the end of 2004 and opened for operation in 2005. At that time, it was the biggest (in terms of area), the longest (in terms of time) and arguably, it remains one of the costliest urban renewal projects in Kowloon. The Langham Place project illustrates that while it is easier to define the economic and physical elements that need regenerating, the social goal of who really benefits will be contested, especially when the government is perceived by the public as working with property developers. And the public-private partnership creates distortions that are being challenged by civil society groups, especially those most active in working at the community-neighbourhood level (Douay, 2010: 106). b

Do Government-Provided Amenities Matter?

Langham Place is a mega project that, at the time of its construction, defined the new face of Kowloon. The social significance of this development is in the story of the people and small businesses that were displaced by the urban regeneration effort. While the government worked through the LDC to impose GIC (Government, Institutional and Community) uses onto the site, the filling in of the GIC spaces were a result of both pressures from various vested interests and also government allocations for community uses and social services. The task of divining the benefits of these facilities is not a simple matter. The support from the Transport Department for the minibus companies resulted in the 24-hour terminus on Shanghai Street. A senior official of the Red Minibus Association, which operated from this terminus, indicated that while they are grateful for having a place in one of the prime spots in Mong Kok, they would be better-off at the street level (interview, 25 April 2015). This is a particular feature of minibus companies; a flat fee is charged and buses leave when the seats are filled. Without the visibility from the street, would-be passengers will not have the visual information of when a particular bus will leave. After the meeting, Lam Kit and I discussed several key points that surfaced during the interview and Lam Kit told me that I was only thinking about one end of the route, which is Langham Place.

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These buses ply the more established routes that end in older estates, like Tsuen Wan, which has an ageing population. Ten years ago, when Lam Kit was completing his thesis, there was a more regular demand as commuters headed to Mong Kok to work and back home. There are more retirees now in these older estates and while they continue to head to Mong Kok, it is on a less regular basis. Additionally, senior citizens now get a discount on public buses and not red minibuses. On a fixed income, the fare difference will matter. Thus, the story may be one of victory for the bus company but this terminus, which is the only purpose-built minibus station in Mong Kok, is serving a declining market share. The demand during the night shift is still good, especially after the Mass Transit Railway (MTR) closes but, even then, this company faces competition from public buses that have begun late-night routes. The provision of the bus terminus has done the city a service by reducing the terrible congestion that used to plague this area, but by bringing the buses into the terminus, one of the main features of the minibuses’ economic viability, their street visibility, has been compromised. Nevertheless, the bus routes from Langham Place continue to serve the city, but the pool of customers has been reduced by the ageing clientele living along these bus routes. Like the minibus company, the cooked-food sellers were also allocated their premises in the community annex and 14 dai-pai-dong14 operators moved up when the new cooked-food market was operational in 2005. Ten years later, only four of the original set were left. In our 27 April 2015 interview, one of the original operators15 mentioned that the early years were tough as they had few customers. They were mainly catering to a lunchtime crowd of office workers from Langham Place who used the sky bridge that connects the Langham Place tower complex to the community annex. He confirmed that shoppers do not come here. When asked if the cooked-food market gets business from walk-ins, he replied “people eat where they walk”, implying that the street-level eateries are the ones getting the pedestrian traffic. Saturdays are when the crowds descend on Mong Kok, but this place is very quiet because the offices are closed. Moreover, the management of Langham Place has not allowed these operators to put up street-level advertisements to entice pedestrians to take the escalator up to 14 Literally “big license stall” in Cantonese. The formal name is “cooked-food stalls”. These are found on streets and alleys. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dai_pai_dong (last accessed: 20 August 2018). 15 We interviewed the operator and his son while they were going about their work in the confined space of the stall, and mindful that we were intruding into their operations, we did not ask for their name and kept the interview short.

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the cooked-food market, citing blockage and congestion on the pedestrian pathways. I ventured a question about the improved conditions that came with the new premise, but the operator corrected me by saying that the more important goal is making a livelihood. At the street level, the operators served a more diverse clientele and offer late-night meals as well. Here, the operators get by serving the lunch crowd of office workers. The operators may bemoan the old days when business was better, ironically, and now, being a level up from the street means that these operators end up serving a pool of regulars. These are most likely to be the office workers and salespeople working in the nearby area who really need an affordable meal during the work week. This is important because these workers cannot afford the prices at the Langham Place outlet and seek out the cooked-food market for the affordable prices. Residents, many of them elderly, also come by, drawn by the air-conditioning and they stay on after lunch. There is an ecology at work here. The government works out a stall rental not just based on location, but also customer traffic. Being a level up from the street and forbidden to advertise has kept the customer base small. Therefore, the low rents translate to cheaper prices and the beneficiaries are the lower income workers and poorer residents working and living nearby. Yuen Po Street Bird Garden is the site designated for the bird-trade merchants relocated from Hong Lok Street. Occupying an area of about 3,000 square metres, the Garden cost $29 million (USD 3.51 million) to construct, and took about a year (March 1996 to March 1997) to complete.16 Of the three groups with vested interests, the minibus companies, the food sellers and the bird-trade merchants, the latter was arguably the most powerful group. Aside from the issue of the maintenance of economic livelihoods, which was shared by all three groups, these merchants had a strong set of occupational ties going back to their days at Hong Lok Street (Fok, 2004: 79). After the chairman of the Mong Kok District Board, helped them to organize, they became a formidable force in negotiations. As the Hong Lok Street venue was already a tourist attraction, the bird merchants also had the Hong Kong Tourist Association on their side. So, when there was a consideration to move the merchants to the top of the new market at Cham Chun Street, the Hong Kong Tourist Association criticized this site for the lack of the ‘old world’ charm of Hong Lok Street (South China Morning Post, 31 July 1991). In discussing the resettlement of the bird-trade merchants, the senior LDC official twice pointed out the possibility of rioting (interview, 29 April 2015). And the task of finding the site was not an easy task. Citing the minutes 16 Source: http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/en/parks/ypsbg/index.html (last accessed 5 August 2016).

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of the 22nd Mong Kok District Board meeting held on 25 August 1994, Fok (2004: 62) noted that a total of ten sites were considered. The LDC ended up building a beautiful Chinese garden to house the bird-trade merchants at the Yuen Po site, instead of a more functional, lower-cost alternative. The senior LDC official also mentioned Bird Street as an iconic and tourist attraction as a significant factor in the negotiation for an appropriate site. This factor must have been given greater weight, because public opinion was that the LDC was removing an icon at Hong Lok street, a view supported by the Hong Kong Tourist Association. It was a beautiful sunny day when I visited Mr Chan 17 at his stall at Yuen Po Street Bird Garden. At the time of his study, Fok (2005: 64) noted that there were 27 bird sellers, nine bird-feed product merchants, and 19 bird-cage merchants among the 70 stalls in the Yuen Po site. Mr Chan builds and restores bird cages. Now in his seventies, he was a teenager when he apprenticed under his uncle in the 1950s at Hong Lok Street. Mr Chan’s uncle was one of the first bird-trade merchants to set up shop at Hong Lok Street. Amidst the sound of birds, Mr Chan talked to us while working on the base of a bird cage. Having a licence for Hong Lok street, he was among the licence holders who received the first pick of the new site. He moved there in 2004. He started working at Hong Lok Street and spent 11 years at Yuen Po Garden. I asked Mr Chan about the difference between the old and new place. He replied that “at the old place, fresh air and the general physical sanitation of the place were lacking, but the old place was more convenient”. And so it is with resettlement sites. The former bird street has grown organically in Mong Kok and blended in with an old mixed-used, high density environment accounting for the old-world charm that the Hong Kong Tourism Board alluded to. Hong Lok street was convenient for regular customers and visitors to drop by and browse. The new place at Yuen Po Street is not exactly far removed from the city, but it is not as central. Being purpose built, the government, through the LDC, was able to create a better physical environment. The Yuen Po site is designed as a park with trees shading the seating areas, allowing visitors and regulars a comfortable place to appreciate the birds and browse the stall offerings of birds, souvenirs, and cages. The new bird garden is beautiful and hygienic but divorced from the immediate neighbourhood. The LDC gained the community annex at the side of the Cordis (formerly Langham Place) Hotel, located across Shanghai Street from the off ice tower and shopping centre. Within this annex, on the street level, is the 17 Pseudonym.

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minibus station and above this station is the Cooked-Food Market. The rest of the annex is designated for government, institutional, and community usage. For example, the former chairman of the Mong Kok District Council mentioned that the community hall is used for resident activities like performances, as well as rooms for the District office meetings (interview, 9 April 2015). The Hong Kong Playground Association (HKPA) and their activities provide us with another insight into community amenities. Established in 1933, the Hong Kong Playground Association has diversified from its original mission of providing outdoor leisure and recreation facilities for workingclass youths18 to include a variety of youth interventions and development services.19 A senior official of the HKPA Langham Place at the Community Annex pointed out that the HKPA has worked in Mong Kok since the 1950s and has established good ties with the residents (interview, 29 April 2015). Having put up a request for additional facilities, the HKPA was given this location by the government and were one of the first tenants to move into the premise in 2004 (see Figure 7.4). The HKPA has been helping working-class youths and it seemed to me that the newly developed Langham Place area was an odd location for the HKPA. I wanted to know if the HKPA now serves a different clientele. The HKPA Langham Place senior official replied: Two different worlds. Shopping youths are different from the youths we help. We are separated by Shanghai Street and we meet a different group of young people. Although there is a connecting sky bridge, you will have to be very familiar with the place to find us. (interview, 29 April 2015)

When the Managing Director of Great Eagle was interviewed in November 2004, weeks before the opening of Langham Place, he said: For the Langham project, we conducted three big marketing research surveys to understand what young people want […] we identified our target customers, people […] aged 20 to 45 who want to spend time in a happy environment […]. ‘I asked my young daughter what she likes, and she told me it is most important for young people to be happy at the mall, a place where they will stay for a long time’. (South China Morning Post, 30 November 2004) 18 Beames and Brown (2005: 71). 19 source: http://hq.hkpa.hk/aboutus.php (last accessed: 7 August 2016).

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Figure 7.4  Hong Kong Playground Association office overlooking Langham Place

Source: Author, 29 April 2015

From the HKPA Langham Place senior officer’s observations, it is clear that the group of young people that Dr Lo referred to are very different from those who visit the HKPA. One street separates the two worlds of these youth. And despite the new world of youths made possible by Langham Place, the HKPA’s presence in Langham Place makes it possible to help the youths still living in Mong Kok. Locating the HKPA’s youth centre in Mong Kok has, in fact, allowed the HKPA to reach youths beyond Mong Kok in three ways. Firstly, interviews with both the director as well as the social worker have highlighted the role Mong Kok has played in attracting young people from other parts of Kowloon. As the social worker elaborated, many of the youths the HKPA help live in the New Towns but study in Mong Kok area schools and come to Mong Kok to spend time with friends. Thus, the HKPA night drifter programme has social workers on duty from 10 pm to 6 am and going around Mong Kok to befriend young people and, if necessary, offer them a ride home. Secondly, the HKPA’s programmes include school holiday activities for children whose parents work in the Mong Kok area. Thus, the HKPA also serves the needs of the working parents by keeping their kids close by their workplaces during the school vacation period. This proximity allows such families to meet during the lunch hour and also spend time on the journey to and from work. And lastly, the HKPA also coordinates a volunteer programme for workers from the Cordis (formerly Langham Place) Hotel to help the less fortunate in Hong Kong. The significance of this programme is not only HKPA casting its

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social service net beyond Mong Kok, but also that it works with the major tenant in the Langham Place project to build this net. Thus, social service agencies like the HKPA play an important role in the building of local area ties of support, care, and partnerships. These social bonds strengthen the neighbourhood and the city.

4

Looking Ahead

When Langham Place was finally completed and opened to the public around Christmas 2004 and into 2005, Brett Butcher, Managing Director of Langham Place Hotel (presently Cordis Hotel), was quoted as saying “Mong Kok will get cleaned up a bit but it won’t lose its flavour” (South China Morning Post, 1 September 2004). His remark seemed almost prophetic 15 years later. I had raised and discussed the question of whether a mega project like Langham Place has really changed the area with several of my respondents. Perhaps the most insightful answer came from the HKPA Langham Place senior official. This officer has a long association with this area, having grown up in Mong Kok and now works there. She said that the three vices, drugs, gambling, and prostitution, may have died down in the immediate vicinity of Langham Place, but it merely moved a few streets away. Perhaps the more positive take on the three vices is that there was a dilution effect as these vice activities disperse. The HKPA Langham Place officer and I talked about the value in having the dilution (not the disappearance) of these activities because the neighbourhood now has a fighting chance to have some positive development when vice activities become more dispersed. Scholars commenting on the LDC and URA have generally been critical of the organizations adopting a pro developer stance and not doing enough for the community. In contrast to Thailand, where the state is weak and has continued to face some uncertainty, the Hong Kong government has the capacity and the ability to act. The GIC requirements imposed on the large K2 site on which Langham Place now stands are significant. They have yielded some positive benefits for the immediate neighbourhood of residents and office workers. And because Mong Kok continues to attract youths from all over Kowloon, the work of the HKPA has been a positive intervention not just for Mong Kok but for Kowloon.

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Lam, K. and K. C. Ho (2012, September). ‘Regenerating and Reclaiming Langham Place’. Paper presented at Urban Regeneration Workshop, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities, National University of Singapore. Lau, W. [劉偉強] (1995). ‘Recreation Planning and Provision of Urban Open Spaces for Elderly in Hong Kong: A Case Study in Mong Kok’, (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3125893. Leung, H. S. [梁恆新] (2000). ‘A Study of the Regulation of Public Light Buses in Hong Kong’, (Unpublished Master’s thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3195270. Li, L. H. (2012). ‘Urban Renewal Partnerships: Is there Really Room for Participation from Individual Owners? A Case Study of Hong Kong’, Journal of Housing and the Built Environment, 27(4): 517-526. Li, S. [李世忠] (2013). ‘Factors Influencing Elderly’s Residential Satisfaction Under the Forced Relocation of Urban Redevelopment’, (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http:// dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b5118535. Lui, T. L. (2017). ‘Beneath the Appearance of Gentrification: Probing Local Complexities’, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, 41(3), 478-486. Ng, M. K. (2002). ‘Property‐Led Urban Renewal in Hong Kong: Any Place for the Community?’, Sustainable Development, 10(3), 140-146. Ng, M. K. (2018). ‘Sustainable Community Building in the Face of State-Led Gentrification: The Story of the Blue House cluster in Hong Kong’, Town Planning Review, 89(5), 495-512. Raco, M. and E. Street (2012). ‘Resilience Planning, Economic Change and the Politics of Post-Recession Development in London and Hong Kong’, Urban Studies, 49(5): 1065-1087. Tsui, C. [徐志剛] (2004). ‘Community Complex in Mong Kok’, (Unpublished Master’s Thesis). University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR. Retrieved from http://dx.doi.org/10.5353/th_b3198730. Xue, C. Q., K.K. Manuel and R. H. Chung (2001). ‘Public Space in the Old Derelict City Area: A Case Study of Mong Kok, Hong Kong’, Urban Design International, 6(1): 15-31. Yau, Y. (2011). ‘Does Comprehensive Redevelopment Change the Housing Price Gradient? A Case Study in Mong Kok, Hong Kong’, Urbani izziv, 22(2): 98-106. Yeh, A. G.O (2011). ‘High Density Living in Hong Kong’, in: Cities health and WellBeing, LSE Cities (pp.31-32). Source: http://downloads0.cloud.lsecities.net/ downloads/2011/11/2011_chw_hong-kong-newspaper.pdf (last accessed: 28 July 2016). Yuen, B. (2009). ‘Hong Kong, China’, in: R. Hutchinson (ed.), Encyclopedia of Urban Studies (pp. 370-371), Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

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News articles ‘In a Flap over Bird Street’ (1991, July 31). South China Morning Post. ‘Urban Renewal Chief Claims Private Sector Cash Helped at Time of Low Resources’ (1995, September 27). South China Morning Post. ‘LDC Raises Tenant Compensation Package’ (1996, April 28). South China Morning Post. ‘Way Clear for Great Eagle Project’ (1997, January 4). South China Morning Post. ‘Urban Renewal a Tall Order for LDC’ (1997, March 23). South China Morning Post. ‘Delays Block Renewals’ (1999, June 9). South China Morning Post. ‘Langham Place a Catalyst for Mong Kok Rejuvenation: Hotel, Mall and Office Complex Could Drive the Revitalization of the Area Just as Times Square Transformed Causeway Bay’ (2004, April 7). South China Morning Post. ‘Changing the Face of Brash Mong Kok: The Vibrant District is Getting a Makeover, Thanks to an Imposing 5-Star Hotel, Shopping Centre and Office Tower’ (2004, September 1). South China Morning Post. ‘Heart Starter: Medicine and Business Do Mix, Says Great Eagle’s Lo Ka-shui, a Cardiologist-Cum-Developer. His Langham Place is giving Mong Kok a Healthy New Beat’ (2004, November 30). South China Morning Post.

8

Tampines Central: GovernmentResident Partnerships at Work Abstract The case of Tampines Central (Singapore) illustrates the role the government plays in community building by drawing residents into co-creation attempts to develop new neighbourhood amenities. Like the case of Langham Place (Hong Kong, see chapter 7), Tampines illustrates the involvement of different government agencies in the upgrading of the neighbourhood. The project resulted in the creation of an additional play area to augment those already in the estate, new community-inspired art, a plant trellis along a popular pedestrian/bicycle path, and new seats for pedestrians to rest and chat with their neighbours. Two neighbourhood resident clubs were involved in the process and their participation resulted in a café/library and moveable furniture and storage areas so that these can be moved out for community events. The Tampines case also illustrates a top-down government initiative and raises the question of the robust grass-roots initiatives we see in Sungmisan (Seoul, see chapter 4) and Tangbu (Taiwan, see chapter 6). However, government initiatives should not be discounted because, as urban/spatial policies, these initiatives have a life of their own and are capable of being improved, transformed, and implemented in other Singapore neighbourhoods. Keywords: Singapore, public housing neighbourhoods, spatial policies, neighbourhood amenities, community partnerships, resident committees

1

The Significance of Tampines Central

The Tampines case in Singapore is best appreciated by representing it as a set of contrasts with the four other cases in this study. Firstly, Mahakan presents a situation where villagers, supported by various NGOs, fought for the right to stay in Mahakan and, in the process, created a number of community building measures. Such a situation pits the government against

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch08

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the neighbourhood. Significantly, the Mahakan case also reflects the contest between the government and the residents over what the Mahakan site can become. In contrast, the Tampines case is a situation of partnership between the government and the residents to co-create additional features and amenities that will add to the attractiveness and facilities in the neighbourhood. This is not to say that there is no disagreement. Indeed, tensions between stakeholders are a feature of all collective projects. The process of coming to an agreement on the way forward is contentious in all five cases. Secondly, the cases of the sugar warehouses in Tangbu and the resettlement issues surrounding the development of Langham Place demonstrate a mobilization and a petitioning of the government. Although the government was involved in both cases, it is important to recognize that the solution was mediated and managed by a number of government agencies, as we will see in the Tampines case. This is important from a coordination and sustainability viewpoint. The need for different government departments to work together is vital. And where the project duration is long, it is important to manage the handing over from one agency to another. The related question is the issue of an agency sustaining the project once the handover is completed. Lastly, Tampines represents the opposite of the case of Sungmisan, South Korea. The amenities noted in Sungmisan (chapter 4) were initiated entirely by the local community and reflect quite clearly local objectives, while the effort to build amenities in Tampines reflects a government-led initiative, undertaken with national objectives in mind. The nature of government involvement in Singapore’s residential environment is characterized by a number of significant features. Firstly, Singapore has a well-developed state bureaucracy that was effective in solving the housing shortage of the 1950s and 1960s. Gamer (1972: 13-16, 35) noted that Singapore had achieved both the administrative capacity to plan (having inherited a well-developed and experienced administration from the British) and the political capacity to act (the People’s Action Party secured their mandate through elections). On their administrative capacity, Yeh (1975: 328) pointed out, for example, that the provider of public housing, the Housing and Development Board (HDB), as a statutory board has a “large measure of autonomy in terms of policy, administration and finance”. A key pillar of political legitimacy for the government has been tied to its ability to provide housing as a basic necessity for its people. In the case of Singapore, a key component for the successful redevelopment of the city core was the effort to resettle the residents and small traders who had been displaced. The development of public housing estates and light industrial estates kept pace with resettlement (Choe, 1975: 104-106). This meant affected families and

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small businesses were given priority and allocated new premises. The result was the transformation of the city-state with its significantly overcrowded slums and squatter settlements in the 1950s, into a high-rise, high-density residential environment. Public housing residents made up 73 per cent of the total housing stock in Singapore.1 The HDB has built 23 new towns and three estates, housing over 80 per cent of the resident population, with about 90 per cent owning their flats.2 The state housing objective of home ownership is meant “to instil residents with a feeling of citizenship stakeholding and shared wealth”, (Appold and Yuen, 2007: 573). Secondly, as a result of the majority of the population living in public housing, national goals are tied to housing policies. A key example is how the spatial public housing policy of social mixing helps facilitate the national objective of integration. Of the five field site cities covered in this book, the integration pressures are highest in Singapore. As a global city, Singapore attracts foreign workers at the skilled and unskilled levels to supplement its small labour force (Ong, 2007). Moreover, Singapore’s population policy incorporates a carefully calibrated attempt at attracting new citizens to supplement the low natural population growth without triggering anxieties and resentment among the locals. The significant presence of non-local-born residents in Singapore provides the impetus for national integration measures of which community building at the neighbourhood level represents an essential policy pillar (Ho and Chua, 2018). The housing allocation of new flats as well as the ethnic integration policy guiding the resale of flats ensure ethnic mixing and the prevention of ethnic enclaves in housing estates. The policy of household income mixing also goes alongside ethnic mixing. Since 1974, the government has embarked on building flats for middle-income households (Liu, 1975: 129). Liu (Ibid.: 138) stated that “within the housing estates, wherever possible, the different types of flats in their respective building blocks are mingled with one another in an integrated neighbourhood, thereby minimizing the tendency towards ghetto formation”. Thirdly, the neighbourhood unit is an important feature of town planning. The Minister of National Development noted in 1969 that Singapore adopted the neighbourhood principle in the planning of its public housing estates but this was modified to fit local conditions (Teh, 1969: 175). Thai-Ker Liu (1975: 152) was the chief architect of the Housing and Development 1 http://www.straitstimes.com/politics/parliament-hdb-flats-made-up-73-of-singaporestotal-housing-stock-in-2016 (last accessed: 19 April 2017). 2 http://www.hdb.gov.sg/cs/infoweb/about-us/our-role/public-housing--a-singapore-icon (last accessed: 19 April 2017).

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Board during the expansionary phase of public housing. It was during this phase that a number of major new towns in Singapore were built. He stated that “a new town is structured on the basis of the neighbourhood principle”. Liu (1975: 153-154) highlighted the following provision principles: a neighbourhood planning unit of about 4,000 to 6,000 households; a “school […] as a social focal point”; shops; a small market; and a community centre. Liu (Ibid.: 152) saw the neighbourhood’s residential size as supportive of the set of amenities within walking distance and stated that this type of “neighbourhood conceived from the viewpoint of convenience […] can also potentially become a neighbourhood of community”. By 1978, the neighbourhood scale was seen as too large to promote a local community and it was therefore subdivided into six to seven precincts (Yuen, 2009b). The use of the precinct in neighbourhood planning was shaped by sociological research, which suggested that place familiarity for residents operates at a smaller scale (Tan and Kwok, 1986). It is at this level of planning that the government intervenes to foster social life and a neighbourhood community. As a spatial policy, this is an objective that has received even greater attention as Singapore becomes more diverse as a global city and a destination for migrants of different nationalities who want to call Singapore home, as the government seeks to augment the workforce through immigration (Ho, 2016). And it is at the local level, where 82 per cent of residents live in public housing, that the cultural differences from different ethnic groups and the potential frictions created by these differences can be mitigated. The fieldwork for this chapter is derived from a Housing and Development Board (HDB)-funded project titled ‘Study on Application of Design: Recommendations to Foster Community Bonding’.3 As the word ‘design’ in the project title implies, the objective was to see whether design interventions can make a difference in bonding at the neighbourhood level. The project was led by Im Sik Cho from the Department of Architecture. Im Sik and her colleague Tan Beng Kiang led studios where architecture students worked to translate residents’ views into physical realities. My role as a research consultant was to manage a survey of six HDB estates along with focus group discussions in order to allow the HDB to establish a data-backed baseline, giving it the confidence to proceed with an initiative to use amenities to create community bonding. Do amenities actually encourage residents to come out of their flats, use them, and, in the course of using these neighbourhood amenities, encounter fellow users, thereby creating the conditions for 3

Project reference R-111-000-126-490 for phase 1 and reference R-111-000-141-490 for phase 2.

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more neighbourly interaction? This was the focus of the first phase (2012 to 2014) of the project. What was more interesting was the second phase of this project (20142016). It focused on working with residents of Tampines central as a testbed for the creation of new amenities in their neighbourhood. This phase of research studied how neighbourly relations in a contemporary setting can be re-stitched onto an existing local social fabric, which has been thinned (as explained in chapter 1) because external ties of kinship and friendship operate to keep local relations to a minimum.

2

Government Initiatives at Community Bonding

Phase 1 of the project established two important points. Firstly, that the highly urbanized environment of school and the workplace pull Singaporeans out of their neighbourhoods. Moreover, Singapore’s small geographic size also meant that the extended family is within easy reach and the kinship network effectively serves the needs of the Singaporean family. Relegated as a residual relationship, neighbourhood ties tends to be minimal, mainly kept to greetings and casual conversations in everyday life. Secondly, from the survey analysis of where residents usually meet their neighbours, a consistent picture of the sociable areas of the neighbourhood emerged. Thus, given the goal of strengthening neighbourhood relations as a way forward in building a more cohesive society and in ensuring stronger local participation in community projects, the first step in a spatial policy is to find ways to motivate residents to go out of their homes and into the neighbourhood to linger for a longer time and more regularly. This then increases the likelihood of building ties with other neighbours. Examining the amenities that are common neighbour encounter points showed the way forward for intervention. While several facilities (lift landings) and commercial venues like retail shops, supermarkets, and wet (fresh food) markets were natural sites for encounters, these were already provided as part of service planning. Attention was accordingly focused on other amenities like playgrounds and parks, the void decks,4 pedestrian linkways as site opportunities to add new elements to enhance their attractiveness for residents to use more regularly and for longer periods of time. 4 Appropriately named, void decks are the ground floors of residential blocks. Besides housing lift lobbies, mailboxes and bicycle racks, new uses of void decks have included kindergartens, facilities for the elderly and residential committee spaces.

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Figure 8.1  Tampines Central field site in Singapore

The HDB decided on Tampines Central as the testbed site for the experiment to introduce new amenities into an existing HDB precinct. As shown in Figure 8.1, the testbed site consists of residential blocks 830 to 863, housing an estimated 5,000 households. Included in this cluster is Tampines Central Park and a well-used pedestrian and bicycle linkway (denoted by the arrow in Figure 8.1), which brings residents to the market and shops at the opposite end of the park. The Housing Development Board could have built a set of amenities without consulting the residents. It would have been far less time-consuming. But instead, they agreed to work with residents to co-create the set of new amenities in order to get the ideas and preferences from those who know their neighbourhood well, who are most likely to use these amenities. The process of deciding on the amenities was done through consultation with the residents of Tampines Central. The team, led by Dr Im Sik

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Figure 8.2  Neighbourhood focus group discussion at work

Source: NUS research team

Cho from the School of Design and Environment, managed four pop-up booths at different locations and at different times and days of week. Their objective was to recruit residents interested in participating in a focus group discussion held on 27 September 2014 at Junyang School. The three resident committees in the precinct also put up notices for the meeting. Each group of residents had a map of their precinct and 52 photos of their neighbourhood, and the project team asked them to select photos of where they meet their neighbours (see Figure 8.2). This exercise with residents allowed Dr Cho and her team to better understand the neighbourhood, the residents’ daily activities, common gathering nodes, as well as the quality and adequacy of the current amenities there. In a second exercise, residents were given magazines from which they could choose images to approximate what they would like to see introduced into their neighbourhood. This second exercise allowed Dr Cho and her team to gather feedback from residents in terms of ideas that developed from the two design typologies (Cho, 2015: 127-128). By October 2014, Dr Cho’s team was ready to work with the residents to fine-tune the initial ideas developed from the September group sessions. By this time, the five intervention sites had already been developed by both residents and the project working committee. Smaller groups of residents

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discussed problems with the site and the types of amenities that could be introduced to mitigate these problems. Dr Cho had a team of research assistants and architecture students to help residents with the choice of hardware and design of their ideas and choices (Ibid.: 132-146; Cho and Kriznik, 2017: 132-137). The consultation process also included two resident committees (RC), the Tampines Parkview RC, and the Tampines Palmwalk RC. Resident committees were developed by the People’s Association in 1978 with the aim of fostering ties between neighbours (People’s Association, 2010: 114). It is important to understand the service range of RCs. If RCs are developed to foster neighbourly ties, then it stands to reason that the service range or catchment area should be within f ive resident blocks or about 800 households. Interestingly, this corresponds to the micro-geographical scale termed the “home area” by Kearns and Parkinson (2001). Kearns and Parkinson (Ibid.: 2104) def ined the home area to be within f ive to ten minutes walk from one’s home and point out that the home area is significant for its association to the “relaxation and recreation of the self”. Kearns and Parkinson (Ibid.: 2104) go on to elaborate that by defining the home area to be within close proximity to the home, then the regularity with which encounters between neighbours are likely to occur means that neighbourly ties are most likely to be formed. The regularity with which neighbours use their home area and the interactions that can occur among neighbours, in turn, imply that a sense of attachment and belonging can be formed in home areas. Lastly, Kearns and Parkinson (2001) point to the home area as a place where values (e.g. values that relate to a way of life) are likely to be expressed and shared among the residents living within the area.

3

Analysing the Consequences of Intervention in Tampines Central

Given that the linkway channels a lot of pedestrian and bicycle traffic, it made sense, after the consultation with the residents and fine tuning, to have interventions in five sites close to the linkway. As indicated in Figure 8.1, the residents’ suggestions for these five sites included: (a) a storage area for portable furniture, ceiling fans, lighting, and notice boards in the void deck of block 857 so that the Tampines Parkview Residents Committee could host activities in the void deck area; (b) a plant trellis on the walkway between blocks 855 and 856 to beautify it; (c) a mini hardcourt with seats near block

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840 to complement the covered playground and covered basketball court; (d) a café and library for the Tampines Palmwalk Residents Committee; and (e) seating in the covered area on the ground floor of block 830 close to the linkway so that pedestrians can rest on their way to and from the market and bus stop or wait out the rain. The term ‘mosquito buildings’ was mentioned in chapter 6 to refer to underutilized buildings. Similarly, a key danger of amenity provision is that these end up being ‘white elephants’, by being underutilized and expensive to maintain after being built. Prasser (2007: 51) highlighted several key reasons for such outcomes, including having poorly defined goals and being supply- rather than demand-driven. Wishing to avoid such outcomes, the research accordingly set about to design measures of amenity usage after these were built. As these amenities are located in public areas, permission was sought5 to use closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras as a research method to understand use patterns. The Tampines town council also granted us approval to install CCTVs at five sites along and near the linkway. I created an orientation document for the student assistants who will be observing and recording elements in the CCTV footage. This manual described the Tampines Central field site, which included camera locations, their angles, and the activities that may be captured by the CCTV cameras. Ian (from the HDB) suggested weekday mornings from 7 am to 9 am as it is a good time to see activity along the linkway. And so, a Friday morning (18 December 2015) was chosen. The year-end school vacation was still on. What follows comes from my observations. My walk started with Site 1 at Block 857. Nothing was happening here at about 8.20 am. This was expected. All the design interventions had been completed: the boards, the fans, and the storage units (see below). The notice of renovation pasted on the door at the far end stated that the period of renovation was from 11 November to 12 December 2015, so I was here about a week after the renovations had been completed. Moving from Block 857 into the park (Tampines Central Park, see Figure 8.3), I started seeing signs of life. Residents were up and about in their exercise gear and using the facilities in the park. Two ladies walking their dogs had just finished a conversation. Moving from the park and onto the walkway in the direction of the market, I first encountered the bicycle art sculpture mounted in front of block 855. This is the CCTV2 site with the camera pointing towards the 5 National University of Singapore Institutional Review Board approval NUS2330, NUS-IRB reference code A-14-154, approval of protocol amendment 3, dated 17 April 2015.

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Figure 8.3  Site 1: Storage area for the void deck for Parkview RC at Block 857

Source: Author

Figure 8.4  Site 2: Trellis along the linkway The picture on the left was taken during my walk on 18 Dec 2015, and the picture on the right was taken during the Hello Neighbour celebratory event on 30 January 2016, during which residents helped in the planting with materials provided by the National Parks Board.

Source: Author

trellis. The trellis straddling the bicycle path along the walkway had been completed. On the ground, there were provisions for plants, which would grow and form a canopy on top of the trellis (see Figure 8.4). It was about 8.40 am by the time I got to the covered activity area. A group of 20 residents were doing their morning exercises on the covered basketball court. The mini hardcourt, with an umbrella-like top and seating

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Figure 8.5 Site 3: Mini hardcourt (foreground) as the latest addition to the outdoor play area

Source: Author

with the words PLAY, had been built (see Figure 8.5). Beyond the hardcourt was the covered children’s playground, two open air courts, and the covered basketball court. The mini hardcourt, which is Site 3, was the latest addition to this play area. By 8.50 am, I arrived at Site 4 (see Figure 8.6), which is diagonally across from the Play Area (see Figure 8.1 map). A group of ladies were seated closer to the café and Lucy,6 the leader of the group, greeted me and invited us (my wife was with me) for coffee and snacks. The sign said: ‘Open 7.30 to 11.30 am’. As the lady made us coffee, she told us she lives in the next block. I remarked that it was nice of her to volunteer, to which she replied she receives a nominal wage from the Community Development Council for working there. She told me that the food on the counter comprised donations from regular users of the café. As we had our coffee, we sat with Lucy who chatted with us. It turned out that she had been living here since 1984, having moved from her dad’s place in Bedok, and being one of the first people to move into the neighbourhood. Those early days, she recalled, she had to sleep with mosquito netting because the area was still undeveloped. When I told her I knew the Palmwalk Residents’ Committee [RC] Chairperson, Lucy said she was in the Palmwalk RC too. She also said she was on good terms with her immediate neighbours, 6 Pseudonym.

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Figure 8.6 Site 4: Café in the background at the Palmwalk resident committee social area at Block 839

Photo taken by author during the Hello Neighbour Celebratory Event on 26 January 2016

one Malay, one Indian, and one Chinese, and they celebrate their respective festivals together. Lucy said she had recently had knee replacement surgery. She was saying how painful her knee was and this was aggravated because of the walking around the neighbourhood. Lucy has to do house visits as part of her RC duties. She also said that when she was hospitalized, her phone rang incessantly from well-wishers. Just as we were about to leave, a neighbour came by to ask about her knee and she proceeded to give an account. It is people like Lucy whose presence and activities help build neighbourhood social networks. Retired and in her sixties, she has the time and, in her own words, she is “happy happy” at her neighbourhood with her friends whom she has introduced to the café. She said she was very pleased with the amenities in the neighbourhood and also the upgrading, which has increased the value of her house. Lucy also said she does not intend to move from this neighbourhood. After leaving Lucy and her friends, we passed Site 5, a set of three cement chairs adjacent to the end of the linkway (see Figure 8.7). The top of the photo shows the busy pedestrian and cyclist crossing at Tampines Avenue 3 where the market, supermarket, and shops are located after the crossing. The chairs, being in a sheltered area and within close proximity of the linkway, makes Site 5 an ideal place for residents, especially the elderly, to rest before or after crossing the road. On our 20 December 2015 walk, we waited for the lights to turn and we crossed Tampines Avenue 3 and headed for breakfast at one of the coffee shops in the vicinity.

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Figure 8.7 Site 5: Three cement chairs where pedestrians can rest before or after crossing the street

Posed photo taken by author’s daughter Sophia Ho

By the time we finished our breakfast and were retracing our steps along the linkway, one of Lucy’s elderly friends we had met at the café was cycling past us and she greeted us. Upon learning that we had had breakfast at the market, she replied she was hurrying home to cook for her grandchildren. She remarked with some pride that although she was getting older, she could manage without a helper. As we walked by the Site 4 community café corner, three members of the exercise group could be seen there. As I was walking back from breakfast at the market towards the mini hardcourt, I saw a couple there, a man talking a picture of a seated woman. The elderly lady had just completed her purchases. Walking along the linkway, I passed several women with trolleys, making their way to the market. This description presents a visual, activity, and interaction account of the intervention sites and provides a basis for the observational analysis from the CCTV cameras that follows in Table 8.1. Site 1 and Site 5 are interventions that bookmark the two ends of the linkway, with Sites 2,7 3, and 4 along the linkway.8 7 We did not analyse Site 2 because the plantings for the trellis only occurred during the Hello Neighbour Celebratory Event on 30 January 2016, a month after the CCTV cameras were dismantled at the end of December 2015 (see Figure 8.4). 8 By scaling 20 minutes to 1 hour and by scaling 9 observational hours to an 18-hour day (from 6 am to 12 midnight) of use. The study made the assumption that from 1 am to 5 am, there will be minimal users of the seats.

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Our study shows how the different amenities – the creation of a flexible social space (Site 1), a mini hardcourt (Site 3), a new café (Site 4), and a more modest attempt at placing seats at a convenient place close to the market where shoppers can rest before walking home (Site 5) – have different social effects in building and reinforcing social relations at the neighbourhood level. Table 8.1  Visual analytics summary Site 1 (participants in cooking class at Parkview RC, Blk 857) In relation One end of to Linkway linkway (see map, Figure 8.1)

Sample coverage for observational analysis

One scheduled event, a cooking class in the morning (9.20 am to 12.40 pm) on 29 November 2015

Average time spent at site per person Number of users in a typical day

103.4 minutes

Site 3 (mini hardcourt at the play area)

Middle of linkway, the play area comprising of covered playground and covered basketball court Five consecutive days (24 hour period) of observation 23-27 Dec 2015

7.1 minutes

Average 86.4 Depends on the persons for a event. When 24-hour period there are no events, this sheltered open ground floor of Blk 857 draws users who escape heat and rain, a small number (2-3) of regulars daily.

Site 4 (café at Palmwalk RC, Blk 839 )

Site 5 (seats in void deck Blk 830)

Middle of linkway Other end of linkway, closest to market.

Observations during the café opening hours from 8 am to about 11.40 am, on a Tuesday, Friday and Sunday

21.6 minutes

Observes persons who takes a seat in the first 20 mins for each hour, for a 9-hour observation period (8 am to 11 am, 5 pm to 8 pm and 8 pm to 11 pm). Average over 6 days of observation 7.8 minutes

54.67 users for a 106.2 users on a 3.5-hour morning typical 18-hour typical day8

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Site 1 (participants in cooking class at Parkview RC, Blk 857) Time of day

Depends on event

Site 3 (mini hardcourt at the play area)

All times of the day as the hardcourt is lit throughout the night Nature of Draws in special Natural flow from play areas. Small interaction purpose group groups with but generates parallel activities. interest among Smaller children passers-by. interact. Eleven of the 27 In the night, the passers-by who stopped to watch court is lit and is a convenient place talked with the to rest and relax. organizers

Site 4 (café at Palmwalk RC, Blk 839 )

Site 5 (seats in void deck Blk 830)

From 8 to 11.30 am weekdays

All times of the day

The café functioned somewhat like a morning club with regular groups of elderly men and women, exercise group who dropped in after their morning exercise at the play area across the café as well as morning workers to drop in for a hot beverage before going to work

31 persons were identified interacting over nine interaction episodes

Significantly, individual sites are capable of drawing different types of people. For site 1, the void deck at Block 857 has been turned into an event space with portable furniture being assembled. Such furniture can be taken out and stored within 20 to 30 minutes. The moveable furniture was an idea Parkview resident committee (RC) chairman already had in mind. This chairman preferred to hold RC activities in the void deck because it is more visible and there is overflow space (interview 31 July 2014). The cooking demonstration was attended by a special purpose group comprised of parents and their children. This is a group more difficult to reach for community events because the parents are busy working and the children have their studies and their hobby activities outside the neighbourhood. Thus, participation in such special events allow neighbours to get to know each other. Parents can do something with their children at the same time. What is also important is the special nature of the void deck. As a vacant ground floor space, it is porous. Many pedestrians walk through void decks as a short cut to get to their destinations. One side benefit of such special events held at the Block 857 void deck is that it allows passers-by to stop and

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watch and connect with the residents’ committee organizers. The analysis of CCTV footage showed 27 passers-by during the three-hour event, 11 of whom talked to the organizers. Site 3 is the mini hardcourt that forms a triangle with its two larger cousins, the covered playground and the covered basketball court (in the background of Figure 8.5). Besides being smaller, it is also open air and lit at night. You may think that since this is a play area, children should dominate the mini hardcourt. They only do so during the “play times” before dinner (4-5 pm) and after dinner (8-10 pm). At other times, adults and youths occupy the hardcourt. Here, they sit and chat and also use their mobile phones. This place is also used later in the evening and throughout the night by adults who enjoy the cool of the tropical night, with some resting after walking their dogs. The analysis of CCTV footage did not reveal much interaction among the users, most of the children do parallel play, and youths and adults are co-users. Given the proximity of the two other play areas (see Figure 8.5), the cameras captured children entering and exiting the hardcourt within a short time, presumably going to the other play areas. Their minders (parents and domestic helpers) are out of the camera frame and, once in a while, the camera captures them being pulled by the child into the play area or the child responding to a call from the minder. Site 4 clearly acts as a social hub for a group of regulars who are mainly more elderly residents. But it is more than this. When Lucy welcomed me, she thought I was a new resident. Like Oldenburg’s (1989) third place, the Palmwalk café functions as an unpretentious third place, welcoming of new residents. The café is a hangout for people with more time to spare, which accounts for the average of 21 minutes patrons spent there during the three hours when the café is in operation. Being open to all, it also accommodates younger residents who are working and part of the elusive group often not in the neighbourhood. The CCTV cameras also caught individuals who were coming to the café to grab a quick cup of coffee while scanning the newspapers before rushing off to work. Perhaps over time, this setup may attract younger people to use this amenity. Of the set of amenities introduced in and beside the Tampines Central Linkway, the chairs at Site 5 represent the most modest of interventions: three concrete circular chairs located in a triangular fashion in a cosy space with the painting of a bicyclist amongst the leaves of the Tampines tree9 on 9 This mural is part of a co-creation art event on 8 May 2015, during which residents painted the leaves of the Tampines tree from an outline conceived by Red Herring, a local arts company.

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one side and a notice board on the other. As mentioned earlier, the utility of this modest amenity lies in this close visual proximity to the end/start of the linkway and its sheltered location. This makes it a convenient spot to rest up before moving on, especially if you are laden with purchases from the market on the other side of Tampines Avenue 3. As a result, the seats are heavily used with an estimated 106 users from 6 am to 12 midnight, and an average occupation time of 7.8 minutes. From the 20 minute per hour episodes over nine hours (8 am to 11 am, 5 pm to 8 pm, and 8 pm to 11 pm), the analysis noted 87 seating episodes over six days (Tuesdays, Fridays, and Sundays). And nine out of the 87 involved interactions primarily when the seater spots a passer-by along the linkway and waves the person over (eight interaction episodes) and one involving using the seats as a meeting point. The eight interaction episodes involving a seated neighbour and a neighbour pedestrian is a significant one for this study. One of the goals of this study has been to investigate the possibility of amenities to increase lingering in the public spaces of the neighbourhood and allow for chance encounters and interactions among neighbours. Here, there is some evidence to show how humble low-cost (in construction and care of amenities) amenities, when placed in strategic areas (visual proximity to busy linkway, sheltered, possibly airy because of the through-flow of air through the funnel design of the space) allows for encounters to take place. The results of the analysis indicate that about eight per cent of all seating episodes progress to interaction, as the person is stationary long enough for a familiar face to appear. From our analysis, summarized in Table 8.1, Site 3 (the mini hardcourt in the Play Area) and Site 5 (the seats next to the busy linkway) represent passive amenities and show the importance of understanding the microspaces of the neighbourhood, the different neighbours who traverse these spaces at different times of the day and the resulting rhythms of everyday social life of the neighbourhood. In contrast, Site 1 (the event space at the void deck) and Site 4 (the café at the void deck) are backed by a Residents Committee volunteer base and with resources provided by the government. These Residents Committees, in different ways, have some capacity to use these amenities to foster neighbourly interactions. The Parkview Site An artist from the commissioned agency Red Herring said “when we met with the residents to share their ideas, the residents asked how they can express what Tampines means to them, so we started thinking and came up with the idea of the leaves from the Tampines tree. They can draw the leaves’ outline on the wall, paint it with whatever colours they want and write a message there, whatever they feel about Tampines”, (interview, 8 May 2015).

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1 intervention allows for events to be hosted at the site. The flexibility of events tends to allow for different types of neighbours to be hosted at these events. For example, the cooking event brought together a hard-to-reach residential segment, i.e. young families (parents and child) and also generated interest from passers-by. The Palmwalk Site 4 intervention, in contrast, creates a regular hub for residents to stop and chat over a cup of morning beverage and snacks. The café being open to all means that regulars as well as newcomers are welcome. On 8 May 2015, I was at the play area watching the residents paint on a large canvas at the neighbourhood co-creation art event. Mr Choo,10 a resident, was there with his grandson, who was busy painting away with guidance from Built from Skratch, a company sponsored by the HDB and National Arts Council to translate residents wishes for more art activities for their neighbourhood. Mr Choo was one of the few persons who offered his opinion in both the focus group event and the design workshop. When I asked him what his thoughts were on this community engagement project, Mr Choo replied that “the drawing on the wall [referring to the mural at Block 830 and 831] is lively and conveys energy […] seniors have an activity, for instance, the coffee area [referring to the café at Block 839] gives seniors an outlet and activity […] and the young and old can come together” (interview, 8 May 2015).

4

Looking Ahead

The Tampines Central community engagement project is the f irst one initiated by the Housing and Development Board. The support from other government-related agencies was also evident in the project. For example, the National Parks Board helped with the trellis and the National Arts Council helped with the community arts project. As a government-initiated project that is supported by other government agencies, Tampines stands at the opposite end of the spectrum from Sungmisan, which is an entirely grass-roots-initiated project. More importantly, the Tampines co-creation project and the Tangbu community planner stands out as the examples of a neighbourhood policy among the five cities. Several points may be noted about the nature of urban policies. Interventions in the form of a neighbourhood policy are premised on several inter-related elements: 10 Pseudonym.

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a An assumption that the neighbourhood has a problem (weak community relations, an absence of neighbourly cooperation and views on neighbourhood improvement in the case of Tampines, absence of local knowledge and expertise to embark on neighbourhood improvements in the case of Tangbu); b The identification of local problems becomes a justification for the legitimacy of state intervention (Sullivan and Taylor, 2007 quoting Whitehead, 2003: 280); c Furbey’s (1999: 430) observation that urban regeneration conveys with it “quasi-religious expressions of hope, enthusiasm” can be extended to all forms of urban policy and intervention. Policies and interventions have embedded in them a positive emotive element that is engineered to win the hearts of not only the residents of the affected neighbourhood, but more importantly the city at large; and d Urban policies carry with them the ability to be replicated across all similar instances. This becomes the basis of a vision that neighbourhood interventions can spread across the city. The ability to replicate is also the basis of hope and enthusiasm because the city can become better if the policy is copied or implemented in other neighbourhoods. Thus, as De Koning (2015: 1220) suggests, policy can be seen as a “meaning-making exercise that spells out particular visions of the good city”. De Koning’s (Ibid.: 1214, 1216) analysis of Diamantbuurt (a neighbourhood in Amsterdam, the Netherlands) shows an undervaluing of the residents’ ability to organize for the good of the neighbourhood and the favouring of middle-class solutions over local ones. However, the examples provided from the work of community planners in the Taipei case, the role of the Seoul Community Support Center (SCSC), and the example of Tampines, all show that a partnership between the city government and local residents over issues of neighbourhood development is possible. e The literature on policy mobility (see chapter 1 for a discussion on the ideas of McFarlane, 2011; McCann, 2011; McCann and Ward, 2012) implies that policies have the ability to survive through the learning tendencies of organizations. The policy may not be the same, they may mutate and transform across time and space (McCann and Ward, 2012: 46; Temenos and McCann, 2013: 347). The transformation process may be thought of as adaptation to host situations (including response and resistance from those affected) and the resources, limitations and changing priorities of agencies involved. In good instances, learning occurs, adaptations work, improvements follow, and urban quality of life improves.

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In the case of Singapore, the efficient government provision of neighbourhood services may bring about the unintended effect of creating inertia from the residents. Lacking are the self-initiated efforts that we have seen in Tangbu and Sungmisan, where residents mobilize to deal with the problems at hand. And with self-initiated neighbourly relations largely confined to chance encounters at lift lobbies, residents’ committees must work hard to foster a sense of local community and reduce the inherent costs involved in interaction. The Palmwalk residents’ committee chairperson reckons that a lot of the work of the resident committees is taken up with managing residents’ complaints and this is not just about services but also with regard to neighbours: Neighbours don’t interact a lot. But they are scared to offend one another because when you complain about my area here or whatever it is, some get offended you see, so they inform the manager of the residents’ committee who will get the agency to come and check. The agency will not only check on your block, but will be checking around the area, you see. So, it’s not actually complaining about you […] and you don’t get offended. So, they just come down here and tell the manager and the manager will send the respective agency. It’s always like that. (interview, 5 August 2014)

In an environment of weak local relationships, the residents’ committee has a role to play not only in the difficult task of sustaining neighbouring, but also in mediating potential conflicts. On the positive side, government agencies find it easy to work with other government agencies to find solutions that match their own organizational agendas. For example, I talked to an officer Ang from the National Arts Council who attended the community arts project on the 8 May 2015. She remarked: Working with the HDB is good because they already have their own programmes and platforms […] with the HDB, we hope to see more efforts at using the arts to reach out to people.

And this situation is similar to the National Parks Board helping out with the planting of the trellis, because this organization works to support gardening at the neighbourhood level. The result is a fairly efficient stitching together of inter-government agency support for the neighbourhood.

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This is the likely scenario for Singaporean neighbourhoods moving forward, a weaving of inter-government agency support at the neighbourhood level that keeps local initiatives resourced and sustained. With such a policy-driven practice in place in public housing estates, it may be difficult to see other self-initiated efforts. This is not because the individuals are not there. People like Mr Choo represent the ten per cent who, in the survey, see their local efforts as making their precinct a better place. However, Mr Choo is more likely to be incorporated into existing networks managed by appointed representatives like Madam Cheong of the Palmwalk Residents’ Committee. Comparing the Tangbu (Taipei) and Tampines (Singapore) cases, both sites have government-appointed representatives on the ground like the Tangbu district chairman and the Tampines Central Palmwalk and Parkview resident committee chairpersons. The Tangbu (Taipei) case is characterized by stronger civic groups that exert an independent pull to support residents at the neighbourhood level. The Tampines Central (Singapore) case, in contrast, has a much more coordinated effort, which starts at the top. The contrast is signif icant at two levels. Firstly, as the Tangbu case illustrates, there are a set of separate initiatives that stem from such involvements of external agencies, as well as locally initiated groups such as the Tangbu Cultural Society. The Tampines Central (Singapore) case shows the government providing a more uniform set of local area policies introduced at the neighbourhood level. Secondly, the government-supported initiatives in Singapore mean that these tend to be well-resourced and sustained as part of a collaboration between government agencies and local residents. In contrast, the Taipei case tends to require more support from the ground in order to keep initiatives going.

References Appold, S. and B. Yuen (2007). ‘Families in Flats, Revisited’, Urban Studies, 44(3): 569-589. Cho, I. S. (2015). ‘Study on the Application of Design: Recommendations to Foster Community Bonding’ (Unpublished research report). Centre for Sustainable Asian Cities, School of Design and Environment, National University of Singapore, Singapore. Cho, I. S. and B. Križnick (2017). Community-Based Urban Development: Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul. Singapore: Springer.

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Choe, A. F. C. (1975). ‘Urban Renewal’, in: S. H. K. Yeh (ed.), Public Housing in Singapore: A Multidisciplinary Study (pp. 97-116), Singapore: Housing and Development Board. De Koning, A. (2015). ‘“This Neighbourhood Deserves an Espresso Bar too”: Neoliberalism, Racialization, and Urban Policy’, Antipode, 47(5), 1203-1223. Gamer, R. E. (1972). The Politics of Urban Development in Singapore. New York: Cornell University Press. Ho, K. C. (2016). ‘Singapore: City State in ASEAN and APT’, in: L. T. Lee and Z. Othman (eds), Regional Community Building in East Asia: Countries in Focus (pp. 159-179), London: Routledge. Ho, K. C. and V. Chua (2018). ‘The Neighbourhood Roots of Social Cohesion: Notes on an Exceptional Case of Singapore’, Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space, 36(2): 290-312. Kearns, A. and M. Parkinson (2001). ‘The Significance of Neighbourhood’, Urban studies, 38(12): 2103-2110. Liu, T.K. (1975). ‘Design for Better Living Conditions’, in: S. H. K. Yeh (ed.), Public Housing in Singapore: A Multi-Disciplinary Study (pp. 117-184), Singapore: Singapore University Press. Ong, A. (2007). ‘Please Stay: Pied-à-Terre Subjects in the Megacity’, Citizenship Studies, 11(1): 83-93. McCann, E. (2011). ‘Urban Policy Mobilities and Global Circuits of Knowledge: Toward a Research Agenda’, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 101(1): 107-130. McCann, E. and K. Ward (2012). ‘Assembling Urbanism: Following Policies and “Studying Through” the Sites and Situations of Policymaking’, Environment and Planning A, 44(1): 42-51. McFarlane, C. (2011). ‘The City as a Machine for Learning’, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 36(3): 360-376. Prasser, S. (2007). ‘Overcoming the White Elephant Syndrome in Big and Iconic Projects in Public and Private Sectors’, in: John Wanna (ed.), Improving Implementation: Organizational Change and Project Management (pp. 47-67), Canberra: ANU Press. Sullivan, H. and M. Taylor (2007). ‘Theories of “Neighbourhood” in Urban Policy’, in: I. Smith, E. Lepine, and M. Taylor (eds), Disadvantaged by Where You Live? Neighbourhood Governance in Contemporary Urban Policy (pp. 21-42), Bristol: Policy Press. Tan, T. T .W. and K. Kwok (1986). ‘An Update of Neighbourhood Planning and Design with Reference to Singapore Public Housing’, Planews, 2(1): 23-31. Teh, C. W. (1969). ‘Public Housing’, in: J. B. Ooi and H. D. Chiang (eds), Modern Singapore (pp. 171-180), Singapore: University of Singapore Press.

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Temenos, C. and E. McCann (2013). ‘Geographies of Policy Mobilities’, Geography Compass, 7(5), 344-357. Whitehead, M. (2003). ‘Love Thy Neighbourhood: Rethinking the Politics of Scale and Walsall’s Struggle for Neighbourhood Democracy’, Environment and Planning A, 35(2), 277-300. Yeh, S.H.K. (1975). ‘Summary and Discussion’, in: S. H. K. Yeh (ed.), Public Housing in Singapore: A Multi-Disciplinary Study (pp. 325-361), Singapore: Singapore University Press. Yuen, B. (2009). ‘Reinventing high-Rise Housing in Singapore’, Cityscape, 11(1): 3-18.

9

Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building Abstract This final chapter takes a more retrospective look at the five cases in relation to several key issues in urban studies. The social life of neighbourhoods should not be ignored, because it has the capacity to bring about local action. These actions create social amenities that have the potential to strengthen local relations. The resultant projects also have implications and lessons for the city. Neighbourhoods for the City shows, through the five cases, the ways in which local actions have far-reaching consequences beyond the neighbourhood. These cases also show the importance of collaborative relations not just with NGOs, but also with city governments as a partner. The economic, cultural, and especially political context of the city and of the country is crucial for understanding the process of local action. The growing significance of city politics in the political life of a country necessitates a focus on city building as the point of convergence between local interests, national priorities, and global dynamics. Keywords: Asian cities, neighbourhood social life, urban governance, neighbourhood activism, urban politics, city building

“In the city, even neighbours may be strangers.” − Albion Small and George Vincent (1894: 159)

1

The Social Life of the Neighbourhood

This observation by Small and Vincent (1894) over a century ago reflects the early interest held by sociologists in the nature of social life in the city. In this last chapter, I want to reflect on ways of thinking about this timeless and timely problem.

Ho, K.C., Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia. Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press 2020 doi: 10.5117/9789462983885_ch09

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Lefebvre (1968/1971: 24) described the quotidian as humble, taken for granted, routine and pointed to the “aesthetics of familiar settings”. If the familiar can also be the intimate, this creates a possible link to Bachelard’s (1958/1969: 8) topo-analysis as the study of the sites of our intimate lives. Can Bachelard’s concern with the intimacy of the home, the emotions, desire, and imagination that are embodied in the routines of the home be extended beyond it into the immediate neighbourhood? Like the house, the neighbourhood is permeated with a sense of the routine and familiar and is taken for granted. Bachelard (Ibid.: 4) states “the humblest dwelling has beauty”. This is a beauty that is defined at once by a sense of the familiar and the intimate, as it is with a sense of achievement. Beauty is also tied to the memories of the resident. And so it is with the neighbourhood, where the humblest elements take on a special significance for its residents, because these features – the park, a particular bench, that tree with shade, or plants that flower with the season, the playground, the lamp-post at the street corner – they all take on a special significance because of the regularity of visits. And like the home, all the elements of the neighbourhood have the potential link of emotional and memorable events to the residents, where children first learn to cycle, youths experience their first romantic stroll in the park, and parents enjoy their children during regular playground outings. These are the very features that go into the making of symbols. Like the house, the intimacy of the neighbourhood allows those who participate in it to invest a stronger meaning into its humble elements. The immediate area of the neighbourhood, which Kearns and Parkinson (2001: 2013) term the “home area”, allows its residents “the relaxation and recreation of the self; making connections with others; fostering attachment and belonging”. The neighbourhood, like the home, also serves a reproduction function in the Marxian sense. The neighbourhood acts as a measure of stability for workers’ lives, not just because of the networks of social support as Storper and Walker (1983) suggest, but also because the neighbourhood has an intimate and convivial environment. These are the very elements that are vested with meaning in their ability to connect with the residents’ personal lives and experiences (Hull, Lam, and Vigo, 1994; Ho, 2006). It is because of this familiarity and intimacy that grief visits when losing a loved one or leaving a home. This very same set of sentiments exists for the neighbourhood. A key reason, Bachelard (1958/1969: 8) reminds us, is that the house (and the neighbourhood) is the container of the memories of its residents. There is, however, a difference involving the shift from the home to the neighbourhood. The essential psychological and phenomenological

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perspectives anchoring topo-analysis of the home give way to a more sociological analysis of the neighbourhood. It is not that desires, imagination, and dreams disappear in shifting the analysis from the home to the neighbourhood. It is because such forms of emotions and desires have to be mediated as the scale changes from the private space of the home to the public space of the neighbourhood. Neighbours share these desires, imagination, and dreams. Elements in the neighbourhood become icons when these act as a symbol for neighbourhood residents. These elements represent a common experience: the clock tower as a meeting point; the playground where the children and their mothers will gather in the afternoons; the spot where the ice cream vendor will appear. Silverman (1992: 98) notes that “the public aspects of neighbouring are fundamental; they exist before any person even acknowledges the existence of the next-door neighbour”. What is the sociological basis behind this neighbouring? Perhaps the most basic element in the context of the neighbourhood is the shared awareness of the proximity of neighbours in one’s everyday life. This shared awareness remains undiluted even in the contemporary city where external relations pull us out of the neighbourhood. The shared awareness of the proximity of neighbours requires everyone to maintain at least the minimal neighbouring model of exchanging greetings, simply because proximity creates regular everyday encounters. For many neighbours, a minimal model exists also because neighbours are expected to respect the privacy of their neighbours (Mann, 1954; Henning and Lieberg, 1996; Laurier, Whyte, and Buckners, 2002). It is this public aspect that is independent of any resident and is understood and, therefore, shared by all. Kearns and Parkinson’s (2001: 2103) concept of the home area of the neighbourhood – def ined as a f ive to ten-minute walk from home – captures the essential elements of the neighbourhood: relaxation for the soul, recreation for the self, a convivial connection with others physically close by and an attachment and identity. The home area of the neighbourhood aptly lies just beyond Bachelard’s intimate space of the home. The desires, imagination, and dreams of the neighbourhood are features that are shared in different degrees with others. The elements of the neighbourhood are both shaped by regularity and sustained by a common set of practices. This, then, becomes the basis of a community of residents willing to act together to defend their shared space. As Ng (2018: 498) points out, “the defence of memorable lived space as a ‘commons’ with historical and use values cannot be made without a territorially based community to direct local development”.

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Yet, neighbourhood shared spaces also create the potential for contestations when differing ideas prevail. It is clear that at the neighbourhood level, cooperation and conflict are the key forces at work. Pint (2013: 114) faults Bachelard for only focusing on his analysis on images that attract. But it is the power of beauty that pulls its admirers in, despite place-based conflicts. It is the desire to make their neighbourhood more attractive that brings residents out of their apartments in Tampines Central and become involved in co-creation attempts. Likewise, while initially the residents of Tangbu were against the building of a healthcare facility, the desire to have a museum set in a nice neighbourhood park was what convinced the residents to expend their energies to push ahead with the project.

2

Neighbourhood and Urban Governance

This book has shown that in the city, Bachelard’s dreamers often find it difficult to dream in peace. As the Tangbu case has shown, their reverie is broken by new claims and intrusions from a plan to build a nursing home in their neighbourhood. Sungmisan’s early efforts at neighbourhood activism started with the residents’ defence of their hill against local government efforts to construct a water storage facility on the hill. At the collective level, neighbourhood collective potentials may lie dormant, placid until challenged. This is the neighbourhood at rest. It is the external force that often acts as a trigger, stirring the peace of the neighbourhood. The predispositions of neighbourhood residents are shaped and revealed by this external force, which demands a response and often results in the mobilization to action. Neighbourhood activism is not a capacity that is determined entirely within the neighbourhood. The resources – whether financial, skills-based, political support, the sharing of ideas and practices – are more often than not derived from the larger urban and national environment. This book has identified and discussed two kinds of influences and transfers. McFarlane’s (2011) City as a Learning Machine, along with the contributions of the policy mobilities literature (McCann, 2011; McCann and Ward, 2012) refer to the abilities of local groups learning from the experiences and strategies undertaken by other groups. Mahakan villagers’ suggestion of a social or community land lease by which villagers become caretakers of the historic Mahakan site in exchange for the right to stay on in the neighbourhood is one such example. Here is a strategy that clearly came from outside the neighbourhood, from Silapakorn University where such ideas floated from forums on land rights and housing access. Mahakan

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also provided examples of how local residents are being trained by the Community Development Institute. Likewise, Sungmisan’s community building features – the alternative school, the idea of a community currency, the food co-op which features fair trade – represent examples of how ideas and practices travel within the country and internationally (in the case of fair trade) and is adopted at specific sites. Leitner, Sheppard, and Sziarto (2008) introduced the phrase “spatialities of contentious politics” as a concerted attempt to describe the mechanisms by which political practices become connected between the national and the local levels. It is, in Cox’s (1998) terms, a scale division of politics. The objective is to develop an understanding of how agency is distributed at the different levels (Leitner, Sheppard, and Sziarto, 2008: 158). To the extent that there is effective political change, the introduction of the scale division of politics and the distribution of agency into the analysis will require a more systematic nested understanding at two levels. Firstly, it will require an analysis of how the different levels influence each other. Secondly, indicators of influence in terms of new structures, new policies, and practices, have to be identified and studied at the different levels. These new elements in governance structures may be additional, substitutional, and oppositional (Arampatzi, 2017: 733). The neighbourhood becomes an essential element in this analysis. It is the smallest scale at which the division of politics occur. The distribution of agency and governance works itself upwards and downwards as the next two sub-sections demonstrate. a

External (National and Metropolitan) Effects on the Neighbourhood

Castells (1983: 223) noted that successful national political movements create new spaces for local political action. What evidence is there for the cities of Asia? Has there been a distribution of new forms of agency at the lower levels? The democratizing national politics in Taiwan has resulted in several significant changes at the metropolitan level, key amongst them is the system of elected city mayors. And within this new mayoral system, the introduction of the community planner programme connected the dreams of local area residents with Taipei’s urban development department, which funds such programmes (Huang, 2005: 86-87). Significantly, this new programme has, in turn, created agency at the neighbourhoods and local areas of the city. The creation of the Tangbu Cultural Park is a reflection of the power of local sources of neighbourhood activism. The new programme allowed the residents of Tangbu to successfully mobilize and work with the

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city government and the community planner to bring into existence the community museum and the neighbourhood park. Singapore’s state involvement has also evolved, although quite differently from the Taiwan case. While Taiwan’s politics have diversified, Singapore’s political system has largely remained intact since its independence in 1965. Singapore’s post-independence state role in the management of its economy has been documented in the East Asian developmental state literature (see Chiu, Ho, and Lui, 1997). The shift towards greater civic participation started in the 1990s, with government-initiated efforts at mobilizing more inclusive societal participation (Cho and Križnik, 2017: 46-49). Unlike political developments in Taiwan, the Singapore political developments in the 1990s have less to do with the development of strong political opposition but with the move towards communitarian democracy (Chua, 1995). Within this ideological framework, the development of communitarianism should proceed with the right for citizens and civil society groups to be heard and to participate in key issues affecting society (Chua, 1995: 196-197). And it is this approach to urban governance that has resulted in new neighbourhood programmes. Specifically, this programme worked to foster engagement and participation among residents of Tampines Central in order to co-create new amenities in the neighbourhood. b

Neighbourhood Activism Effects on the City and Beyond

Harvey (1985:200) stated that “those who built a sense of community across space found themselves with a distinct advantage over those who mobilised the principle of community in place” (quoted in Cox, 1998: 2). This is true in understanding the effectiveness of contentious politics but understanding the local sources of power and mobilization are equally important (Creasap, 2016). Fernández, Martí, and Farchi (2017, 205) point out that “people engaged in humanitarian help, mobilised for change, do not do so following an abstract principle but in a face-to-face context with particular, real victims of injustice” and argued “for closer attention to particularity, closeness, and experienced forms of togetherness”. The mundane mutualities of indifference define the superficial encounters among diverse strangers in the city (Wirth, 1938; Horgan, 2017). This superficiality can be overcome by the more intimate spaces of city neighbourhoods. The familiarity, intimacy, and conviviality of urban neighbourhoods make them a potential source of urban activism initially to help their neighbourhood (Ibid.). The effects of such localized activism are linked with other local groups, creating experience and sharing resources ultimately in the service of the city.

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The Sungmisan case best represents the importance of neighbourhood effects on the city of Seoul. The democratizing politics has led to the election of a new mayor with a deep civil society background and this has resulted in Mayor Park Won-soon creating the Seoul Community Support Center (SCSC). The creation of SCSC led to the appointment of Mr Yoo, who has been a key Sungmisan neighbourhood leader. Thus, the Sungmisan neighbourhood model, its set of successful programmes, and the experiences of its local leaders, have become the basis of a city-wide programme with the formation of SCSC. As Blanco and León (2017: 2185) suggest, the potential of such solidarities and concerted action at the neighbourhood level brings about potential individual, community, and organization effects. At the individual level, as it can most clearly be seen in the Mahakan, Tangbu, and Sungmisan cases, there has been an augmentation in participation skills as residents learn a variety of skills: organizing, negotiation, planning, and volunteering. At the community level, the collective action has brought about the desired results in Langham Place, Tangbu, Sungmisan, and Tampines. And at the organizational level, there is evidence from Mahakan and Sungmisan that the neighbourhood organizers have been linked to wider city-wide social action networks. Swyngedouw and Moulaert (2010: 219-220) point to the meeting of needs, the empowerment of social groups and changing governance as three positive impacts neighbourhood collective action can do for the city and society. In the meeting of needs, Swyngedouw and Moulaert (2010: 219) see local delivery systems as alternatives to state and market, much like Fallov’s (2010) neighbourhood as a third-way model. This is certainly true for the Sungmisan case, but the success of meeting local needs can allow for progressive city governments to adopt this model for other neighbourhoods. Swyngedouw and Moulaert’s (2010) second point, the empowerment of social groups, particularly with poor and marginalized groups, is illustrative of the Langham Place resettlement as well as the provision of new amenities for social workers to help troubled youths. It could have been the case for Mahakan if the villagers were not evicted. Lastly, for the Asian city, Swyngedouw and Moulaert’s (2010) third point about new governance structures can be seen in the interaction at two ends. It requires a changing political environment at the city level (in the case of Seoul and Taipei), which leads to responsive governments. And it requires a corresponding set of initiatives from active neighbourhoods. It is the processes that have been documented in this book that underscore the potential of the urban neighbourhood. And in this sense, the

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urban neighbourhood must be reconceptualized and recovered within studies of the city. Urban studies have passed two phases of perceiving the neighbourhood as lost (to other external relationships) and found (in thinking a continuation of close local ties in the urban village). Recovering the neighbourhood in urban studies begins by seeing the space of the neighbourhood (both space and the everyday in the Lefebrvian sense, acknowledging Merryfield’s important attempt to connect space and place). Following Bachelard (1958/1969), the neighbourhood is also the source of dreams for it is both familiar and intimate and therefore becomes the source for the formation of important attitudes and beliefs. And most significantly, because the neighbourhood is intimate and familiar, it is also the first source of collective action. Such action represents the working out of rights and responsibility, respect for diversity, and a learning ground for active citizenship (Lee and Newby, 1983: 55; Mayo, 2000; Kübler and Heinelt, 2005: 12).

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The Neighbourhood Social Amenity as the Fruit of Neighbourhood Activism: Its Formation, Attraction, and Regulation

Relph’s (2000: 34) injunction that “places have to be made largely through the involvement and commitment of people who live and work in them; places have to be made from inside out” underscores the value of this bottom-up process. Such forms of local participation create a city that is diverse in its local participation, fertile in generating social capital at the neighbourhood level, and capable of generating an active urban-based civil society. The affirmation of place identity and the encouragement of social relations leads to vibrant neighbourhoods that allow a range of issues to be solved within the neighbourhood. The result of collective participation in the form of neighbourhood projects has been discussed in the earlier chapters. Such neighbourhood projects can be described as social amenities, because the benefits from such assets accrue to all neighbourhood residents who are users. The existence of such projects continues to sustain placemaking efforts. There are thus two properties of social amenities. Firstly, the use value of this asset is in its ability to act as a focal point for local relations as neighbours encounter each other as amenity users. Secondly, the social amenity can also be community icons as these symbolize the efforts of the neighbourhood as a community to obtain such an asset. As such, it serves as an ever-present reminder of what the neighbourhood activism has achieved.

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Table 9.1  Participation and its effects The value of Sungmisan Mahakan participation

Tangbu

Langham Place

Tampines Central

A community museum

A community museum

Neighbourhood amenities

Strong Nature of placesustained participation making

Place defending

As museum volunteer and amenity users

The community annex and the bird garden Amenity users

External sup- Supported by Mayor port for the and NGOs Neighbourhood

NGOs in an antagonistic relationship with city government

Supported by city government and NGOs

The nature of social amenities

Village businesses

Weak external links after the fight and victory

Amenity users and mobilised via neighbourhood resident committees Governmentrelated neighbourhood resident committees are linked nationally

Does the neighbourhood come to “rest” after the amenity is built? Table 9.1 summarizes the f ive cases with regard to the sustaining of active involvement within the neighbourhood. The Langham Place study best describes the community-at-rest situation. After the community annex was built, all the original protestors were fully settled and continued with their daily lives. Tampines Central residents share a similar situation, with the exception that residents’ committees, which were appointed and funded by the government, continue to mobilize residents for activities and projects. At the other end of the spectrum is Sungmisan, where the village businesses play an ongoing role in keeping the community participating in and sustaining a local economy and identity. Following Mayo (2000: 23) and Fallov (2010: 799), Sungmisan has acquired both capacities for and capacities from active citizenship. Many of the residents who are involved in these businesses learn from their active citizenship and work to establish ties with other organizations in the city. Mahakan residents have to continue to be active because they are defending their neighbourhood from eviction by the government. The Mahakan case is especially significant because the conflict requires sustained civil society and public opinion support as well. And while there has been some support, the absence of strong support is partly the reason why some Mahakan houses were demolished in 2016. The Tangbu case represents a neighbourhood largely at rest after achieving its goal to have a museum park. A smaller group of members of the local

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residents organization, the Tangbu Cultural Society, are still active in their work as volunteers at the Community Museum and also in networking with other like-minded NGOs in other parts of the city. The social amenity should also be seen as a quasi-public good and this raises three points in thinking about how this amenity relates to the government and the city at large: ownership; state regulatory power; and public access (see Table 9.2). At one end of the spectrum, the private ownership of village businesses in Sungmisan means that local government involvement and regulation within the neighbourhood is weak. The community kitchen is a private business asset and the food co-op and the alternative school are community assets and not public goods. The city government is limited to providing support to the community through community improvement grants like the one given to the Little Tree café to upgrade its premises. The location of Mahakan in the Rattanakosin Cultural District is conceptually interesting. While there is a mix of private, institutional (e.g. temples) and government ownership of different properties in the district, state regulatory power is strong given that Rattanakosin is seen as a cultural district of national significance. And it is within this strong regulatory environment that Mahakan settlers are being evicted. The three other sites: Tangbu, Langham Place, and Tampines Central, now contain amenities that are owned by and therefore regulated by various state agencies. In the early stages of the project, residents were active in the creation process (e.g., Tangbu residents donating items to the museum), in the protest and bargaining process (e.g., Langham’s small businesses pushing for a space in the Community Annex), and in contributing ideas of what amenities should be added (Tampines Central residents and residents’ committee leaders). After these projects were completed, the residents have been limited and restricted to being users of the amenity, a right also extended to the rest of the city’s residents and other visitors. In summary, five points can be made about the nature and outcome of social amenities/neighbourhood assets in these sites: a Collective heritage projects such as the ones seen in Tangbu, Taipei and Mahakan, Bangkok, result in amenities which are of value to the lives of neighbourhood residents and the socio-economic history of the city. b Neighbourhood participation both in Tangbu (the example of museum volunteers) and Tampines (the example of a volunteer-managed café) provides examples of how residents can continue to participate in social amenities. The participation is most elaborated in the village businesses managed and used by the residents of Sungmisan.

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Table 9.2  The social amenity and the city Public space Sungmisan characteristics

Mahakan

Tangbu

Langham Place

Tampines Central

Rattanakosin Cultural District a national asset. Mahakan’s history can provide a wider view of history within this district Mix of public, private, institutional and proposed community land ownership Power through zoning

Sugar Museum a city and national asset

Community Annex a public good

Amenities a public good although some belong to resident committees

Public

Public

Public

Power through ownership and control by different city agencies As visitors

Power through ownership and control by different city agencies As customers

Power through ownership and control by different agencies As visitors

Notion of a public or collective good

Village businesses (school, co-op, thrift shop, kitchen) are community assets

Ownership

Private

State regulatory power

Weak

Public access

As customers As visitors

c The active neighbourhoods, such as the ones in Sungmisan, Seoul, act as nodes for collaborative networks of support not just in the neighbourhood level but have been co-opted at the city level by a progressive city mayor. d The diversity of neighbourhood-initiated projects at Langham Place, supported by the city government of Hong Kong, allows for an enriched understanding of liveability by meeting a variety of residential needs within the midst of a mega-project. For Tampines Central, Singapore, the test case of grass-roots participation combined with government support can be adopted in many other public housing estates in Singapore. e All five cases show that neighbourhoods where residents come together and participate collectively become learning grounds for democratic citizenship (Kübler and Heinelt, 2005: 12).

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Though largely perceived as public or community resources, the bridging function of these social amenities should not be ignored. The practices engendered by such facilities can be considered as part of a larger (though underdeveloped) infrastructure of amenities whose value is social rather than economic. Similar in intent and consequence, the social amenity sits alongside “third places” (Oldenburg, 1989), “open-minded spaces” (Walzer, 1995), and “civic spaces” (Douglass, Ho, and Ooi, 2002) whose use allows for inter-mingling and civility. As social amenities operate to provide a set of regular free or low-cost services to a large diverse clientele, the integrative potential of such amenities becomes even larger, allowing for regular interaction and creating an important bridge between its donors and the recipients. In this sense, the presence of social amenities shape everyday lives in important ways. Their role in drawing in diverse users may in turn dampen the divisive tendencies of the city. Young’s (1995[1990]: 261) warning that strong communities that are based on some degree of homogeneity have the tendency of promoting exclusivity must be noted. This said, active neighbourhoods become communities with some sharing of ideals and practices. These neighbourhoods also produce leaders who also participate in networks which link other civic organizations. The Bangkok, Seoul, and Taipei cases yielded examples of neighbourhood leaders who go on to help other communities with similar problems and projects. And Sungmisan is the key example where the progressive Mayor of Seoul has created a programme in which the leaders of Sungmisan can teach other localities to develop similar village strengthening projects. In summarizing this section on social amenities and neighbourhood assets, it is important to reconsider the question of ownership and regulation. The sugar museum at Tangbu, the community annex (including a cooked-food court and minibus depot) at Langham Place, and the various amenities (café, playground, etc.) in Tampines have been financed and managed by various government agencies. As mentioned earlier, the rights of the residents have been restricted as amenity users and this usage right has been extended to the rest of the city residents and other visitors. It is the extension of this usage right that links the neighbourhood to the city because this allows the public to enjoy the amenities of the neighbourhood. Not all amenities are attractive to outsiders. Neighbourhood amenities like the food court and bus depot at Langham place will be used by non-resident visitors because of the nature of such amenities and because of the central location of Langham Place in Mong Kok. The Sugar Museum suffers from low visitorship because of it is located a little further away than two other popular visitor sites (Longshan Temple and Bopiliao) in Taipei.

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At the same time, the restriction of neighbourhood residents to their role as amenity users will dampen their participatory range. Most residents will be satisfied with this, having achieved their goal and moving back to their everyday roles as Bachelard’s dreamers and ordinary residents. However, a minority of activists in the Tangbu Cultural Society have expressed the desire to do more, but have their roles being limited to being museum volunteers. While amenities perform their roles as icons and sociable areas to strengthen local sociability, the limited involvement of active residents in the management of such amenities work to restrict participatory potentials at the neighbourhood level. While Tangbu participants gain useful skills through neighbourhood activism (Blanco and León, 2017), the energy and skills has suffered a loss in direction after the project was completed. Again, Sungmisan can be highlighted as a prime example of local controlled assets – the thrift shop, the supermarket co-operative, the alternative school, the café – which are owned and managed to varying degrees by residents. The Sungmisan chapter has shown how important these assets are in continuing to maintain neighbourhood solidarity and participation. However, because these are businesses, they are susceptible to the uncertainties of the market. In this neighbourhood, the key trigger to rising rents was the opening of Hongik School in 2012. The presence of this popular school, with a capacity of 1000 students, has led to higher rental prices and competition along the businesses located at Seongmisan-ro, the main shopping street of this neighbourhood. The Little Tree café has closed in spite of getting a community grant to upgrade its premises. The community kitchen has moved away from this main street to a location closer to the Sungmisan alternative school because of higher rents. Thus, all f ive cases presented in this study show varying degrees of threats to neighbourhood autonomy and the prospect of sustainability and resilience. Mahakan (Bangkok) has seen the work of the residents in organizing their neighbourhood threatened by the government initiated partial demolition of the neighbourhood houses. Moulaert (2010: 7-8) has argued that a bottom-up, voluntary approach to mobilization and bargaining with the state is incomplete without considering relations of power. The Mahakan case has tragically shown that residents’ organization even with the NGO support is insufficient to effectively bargain with the state. Poor, marginalized neighbourhoods and squatter colonies have been excluded from the large urban society and have their rights to housing questioned. Their precarious status continued to be weakened by state efforts at urban redevelopment and the failure to consider community-based alternatives.

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The next three cases, Langham Place (Hong Kong), Tangbu (Taipei), and Tampines Central (Singapore) have gained their amenities but their propensity for neighbourhood activism has been blunted by government management of these amenities, relegating the residents’ role to largely that of amenity users. Sungmisan, with its village business model, has managed to keep the activism alive, but may face threats of increasing rents as the neighbourhood gentrifies. The resilient neighbourhood literature has dealt with diverse topics such as disasters, public health, and urban food production. Disasters require the residents of the local area to work together towards recovery (Tapsuwan, Mathot, Walker, and Barnett, 2018). Health issues require the residents to draw on existing social capital to manage threats to health and well-being (Allmark, Bhanbhro, and Chrisp, 2014: 5-6). Food production requires an ethic of compassion and resource sharing (Dubas, 2011: 17). These examples draw on an essential element, which is the capacity of the neighbourhood to act, a central focus of this book. Moreover, the capacity of neighbourhoods to act is also linked to city capacities. As Luederitz, Lang, and Von Wehrden (2013: 41) point out, “attaining the sustainable city also necessitates that its components parts foster sustainability, which brings the neighbourhood level into focus”. If resilient and active neighbourhoods bring benefits to the city, the focus of urban policy must be to develop mechanisms that nurture and strengthen the capacities of local residents to act. Municipal governments and local area residents must ask the question whether resident participation is an important goal for their city. This issue should be considered in terms of the goals which are being promoted at the neighbourhood level, as well as the ability of neighbourhood residents to plan. Bradley, Burnett, and Sparling (2017: 71) noted that planned action at the local level is characterized by a more intimate knowledge and is distinguished by a desire to promote environmental quality, place identity and social well-being. These are clearly issues that are important to neighbourhood residents. As the cases presented in this book have shown, when city governments enable neighbourhoods, the liveability of the city is enhanced. This, in turn, strikes a balance between the economic goals of the city, which are already prioritized by city administrators, and the social and environmental benefits achieved in such programmes to empower neighbourhoods. If the objectives of neighbourhood activism are important, neighbourhoods of different residential profiles can work towards the achievement of neighbourhood goals. The richer neighbourhood in Sungmisan has an inherent capacity for collective action because of the skill sets, the experience of its residents as well as the work-related connections developed with city

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government departments. What about working-class, poorer, and minority neighbourhoods? Parker (2017: 87) points out that if residents of a city demonstrate that they are “willing and able to not only to engage with planning but also to lead planning activities for their own area”, then the city’s planning philosophy must change. The key is in developing mechanisms that would enable residents to take charge. Two cases discussed in this book point the way forward. The community planner system1 developed in Taiwan allows neighbourhood residents to bid for neighbourhood projects and work with a planner to realize the project. The development of the Seoul Community Service Center (SCSC) by Mayor Park Won-soon also represents a concerted attempt at enabling residents to determine their neighbourhood’s futures. Introducing the issue of sub-municipal governance, Hlepas, Kersting, Kulmann, Swianiewicz, and Teles (2018: 5-6) point to inherent problems for municipal governments managing very large cities and how a system of sub-municipal units (rather like the SCSC in Seoul) can enable a system of more effective connections between the city government and its residents. And as discussed in the book’s introduction and in the five cases, a system can be created that enables local areas and neighbourhoods to come up with a more diverse set of local solutions, which add to the liveability of the city. Hlepas, Kersting, Kulmann, Swianiewicz, and Teles (2018: 6) list a number of benefits of having in place a more decentralized system of sub-municipal governance: an increased social trust and norms that promote neighbourhood activism; an effective feedback mechanism to city mayors; improvement of local democracy (see also Lyons and Lowery, 1989; Kübler and Heinelt, 2005 on participation); and a more efficient and effective use of resources (see Evans, 1996; Bowles and Gintis, 2002 on complementarity of motives between state and residents, as well as a more effective supervision of projects at the neighbourhood level). Operating at the sub-municipal level suggests clear benefits, but Hlepas, Kersting, Kulmann, Swianiewicz, and Teles (2018: 9) are careful and cite Purcell’s (2006) local trap thesis. This is an important counterbalance to a position of blindly privileging the local scale on account of the benefits cited above. Indeed, Purcell (2006: 1936-1937) points out that the local/sub-municipal is not inherently more important than the other scales. It is timely to consider the principle (user value versus exchange value [Purcell, 2006: 1936] and the balancing between the goal of efficiency/ cost of delivering services at a larger scale of organization versus the goal of citizenship participation at the neighbourhood or a sub-municipal scale. 1 McGuinness and Ludwig (2017) discusses a similar experiment in the introduction of a project officer as a planning facilitator in Upper Eden and North Shields in England.

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Metropolitanization of Politics

A focus on what city governments can do for its neighbourhoods will require an understanding of the work of metropolitan governments responding to different demands. It requires attention to be paid to “the city as a political object” (d’A lbergo and Lefevre, 2018: 151, quoting Cole and Payre, 2016: 4). This focus requires an attention to agency and actors’ strategies and imperatives (Ibid.). Earlier seminal work, such as Peterson’s City Limits (1981) and Clarke and Gailes’s The Work of Cities (1998), focused primarily on metropolitan economic development. Indeed, as Peterson (1981) suggests, the motivations of job creation, enriching city coffers, and improving municipal services are key motivations for a city government pursuing economic agendas. It is the changing political conditions which broaden city government agendas. In the devolution literature, the key focus is the appropriate level “where politics belong” (Rees and Lord, 2013). This can be thought of in terms of where the new spaces for governance restructuring are likely to be found (Boudreau, Hamel, Jouve, and Keil, 2007; Calzada, 2017), and where coordinated action can do the most good (Gupta, Verrest, and Jaffe, 2015; Ryder, 2015). Sellers and Walks (2013:10) argued that the “metropolitanization of politics” requires national political parties to take urban constituents into account. At the same time, faced with declining budget allocations from federal governments and charged with greater responsibilities in raising revenues, city governments must balance the contradictory goals of neoliberal development with social objectives of improving the life spaces of the city. And it is at the level of cities where governments can work with the people to promote the use of constructive problem-solving arrangements, thereby allowing residents who have fostered strong community attachment opportunities for participation and support [Lyons and Lowery, 1989; Kübler and Heinelt (2005) thereby enabling its citizens to practise governmental belonging (Hage, 1996)]. The post-development trajectories of several Pacific Asian states have moved towards the decentralization of power to the metropolitan level. The five case studies in this book refocus attention on the local state and power at the city level. The scale of the city allows for a more intimate scale of analysis between politicians and their constituents. This enables a closer study of local politicians, such as the city mayor, various government agencies, civic groups, and the people. Included in the analysis are the dynamics of mobilization from groups seeking change as well as the strategies of management from metropolitan agencies working with such groups while doing the work of the city.

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It is important to follow Allen and Cochrane’s (2010:1076) lead to think about “an assemblage of distributed authority in which power is continually negotiated and renegotiated”. The assemblage is the focus of our query and its exact shape is determined in part by agencies of the local state, which exercise domain expertise, resourcing of projects as well as regulatory power. However, the negotiation of power will require a more nuanced understanding of the domains and activities of civil groups. Arampatzi (2017, 733) points out that the gains in political development result in new elements in governance structures that may be additional, substitutional, and oppositional. Read (2012: 4) observes that government organizations at the neighbourhood level does not necessarily imply a centralized system of control and that government sponsored neighbourhood associations serve as an important node for the interaction of government and local interests. In this context, the city level, rather than the national level, allows for a range of engagement on many issues of concern to city residents (Lyons and Lowery, 1989). The Sungmisan case makes two important contributions to politics and the city. Firstly, that at the scale of the neighbourhood, it is possible to have in place a set of neighbourhood amenities (in this case, the school, the resale shop, the community kitchen) to create an active group of residents whose individual interests can be met within a collective. This social energy (Hirschman, 1984) at the local level is important for mobilizing action. Secondly, the Sungmisan case illustrates how within a new democratic framework of city politics, a progressive mayor can be elected who can work collaboratively with neighbourhoods to develop local projects for the benefit of the residents of the city. The four other cases provide a variety of management strategies. At one end, we have seen in the case of Mahakan, Bangkok, how contentious and drawn-out these negotiations have been, in spite of the support for this neighbourhood by various civic groups. On the other hand, the democratic environment in Taiwan has resulted in a more responsive city government, which has helped Tangbu residents get their museum and a park. With the Langham Place project, we see a similar result, although with more bargaining from local groups. Here, through a developer-government partnership, a number of amenities have been built. Tampines Central showed how the Singapore government housing agency, the Housing Development Board, engaged residents to create a set of amenities which facilitated greater interaction among neighbours, hopefully leading to a stitching together of local ties in everyday life.

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The Different Faces of the City

A central problem in urban studies has been that what Amin and Graham (1997: 416) term as understanding the “wholeness within the contemporary urban”. Robinson (2002: 532) urges researchers to think about the contrast between the restrictiveness imposed by the concepts that are deployed and the diversities in the cities that researchers seek to study. There are two dominant images of the city in urban studies. One dominant example from urban studies is the world city or global city concept advanced by Friedmann (1986) and Sassen (1991). This approach attempted to capture the international organization of production and a new type of city which now fills the economic niche which is needed for the international production networks to operate effectively. Historical economic legacies of agglomeration tendencies built around finance, trade, and commerce combine with strong communications and transportation networks and a managerial class in creating the global city. Robinson’s (2002: 536) introduction of the “ordinary city” concept arises from her concern that the global city concept has “consigned to structural irrelevance” a large range of city types. Her contribution is the recovery of a fuller range of global economic activities that other ordinary cities, especially those of the Global South, undertake but that does not fall within the restrictive dimensions of the global city concept. Douglass’s (2005) ‘Local City, Capital City or World City?’ is an invitation to think about the different dimensions of the city instead of an all-inclusive city typology. A world city dimension recognizes that cities have varied links with the rest of the world. Some of these links are transnational practices “from below” (Smith, 2001: 12). This book has taken a more conventional approach from the global cities literature because the focus has been on capital cities (Bangkok, Seoul, and Taipei) and city-states (Singapore and Hong Kong as a special administrative region). In these cities, the exposure to the global economy results in significant impacts from international capital, labour and tourism flows. Such flows, in turn, create increased tendencies towards division. Increased income disparities accompany the shift to services (Sassen, 1991; Hamlett, 2000; Chiu and Lui, 2004). Migration to cities have not just added diversity but with it, increased challenges to managing such diversity. State policies towards skilled migrants have resulted in further stratification (Holston and Appadurai, 1996: 199; Ong, 2007). There is, therefore, every likelihood Marcuse’s (1999: 271) observation that “cities today seem fragmented, partitioned – at the extreme, almost drawn and quartered, painfully

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pulled apart”, is becoming a reality with different levels of divisiveness. This ever-present danger of stratification and its potential of quartering and polarization creates an increased urgency to examine mechanisms of integration. The cases in the book show ways in which the global-economy-driven forces that create the divisiveness of cities can be moderated by the social networks developed by active neighbourhoods, and non-governmental organizations in collaboration with city governments. These networks not only realize the aspirations and projects driven at the neighbourhood level. Successful neighbourhood activism allows social objectives to be grafted onto the local areas of the city, thereby balancing urban economic development with social objectives of heritage making (Taipei), community building (Sungmisan), social amenities (cooked-food court and social service facilities in Langham Place, café, and the playground in Tampines Central). This local activism in the city also enables contact and partnership between different residents, small businesses, civil society actors, and government agencies. These networks work to build the city by broadening the focus away from narrow economic issues to cover a range of issues that work on support, well-being and liveability. Looking at the interplay between the local and the global, Douglass (2005) sees the civil society operating at the scale of the local city to provide a counterbalance against the rapacious effects of economic globalization. And within the local city, the neighbourhood has played a critical role. Neighbourhood activism has pulled the city towards meeting the needs and aspirations of its residents on a range of different issues such as inclusiveness, a respect for rights, and a strong concern for liveability, while economic globalization results in a set of different effects, especially in a more elaborate landscape of consumption. Douglass’s (2005) focus on the global-local dimensions of the city has left the national-local dimensions underdeveloped. The analysis of this particular interaction requires us to pay attention to the particular type of city (capital city, first/second tier cities, rich/poor cities and cities of the global south) and its ties to the nation/country. Capital cities have a special role to play in the economic and political life of a country. National governments look to their largest cities and capital cities as economic champions and promote them through expenditures and policies as strategies to strengthen the country in the global economy (Boudreau, Hamel, Jouve, and Keil, 2007: 35). For example, the development of Xinyi district in Taipei as an international economic centre may have been a project championed by the Taipei city government, but the National

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Government’s Ministry of Economic Affairs played a significant role in the planning and implementation of this project (Jou, 2005: 127). The case of Xinyi district development also shows the interplay between city and national governments. The built environment of the capital city reflects the concentration of political power alongside the symbols of the nation. As the seat of the national government, capital cities rely on “an ensemble of practices and symbols to represent the power of the nation both at home and abroad” (Therborn and Ho, 2009:54). The symbolic representation of power in the built environment of the capital city is seen in the efforts to transform Rattanakosin into Thailand’s premier civic and cultural district. The Mahakan protest was a result of resisting local government attempts to clear the neighbourhood to make way for a park. International/global elements entered into the dynamics because of the international tourism potential of the heritage district. The Grand Palace and Wat Pho have achieved the reputation as one of the most visited attractions in Asia. The Rattanakosin committee is quite clear in its statement that the District is first and foremost a place for Thais and represents the cultural power of the Thai nation. However, the visual attraction of the heritage elements in Rattanakosin has meant that tourists and tourist buses added to the congestion of the old quarter. Of the five cases, Hong Kong and Singapore can be considered as a special category of city-states. As a special administrative zone of China, the Hong Kong government has significant control over the economic life of the city. The Langham Place project clearly shows that urban regeneration efforts are being conceived through the assembling of small plots of land to create a mega hotel, office, and shopping development project. This is a place marketing effort aimed at making Hong Kong more competitive internationally. What is left by way of a concession is the community annex comprising a minibus terminal, a cooked-food court, and space for outreach efforts such as the youth programmes undertaken by the Hong Kong Playground Association. Singapore’s concerns at the local level have been to elaborate on the national objective of social cohesion and the building of social capital. Efforts by the government at the local scale to work with Tampines Central residents to co-create their neighbourhood and to increase neighbourliness is a result of increased national efforts at integration and the building of identity and belonging. These efforts come as the result of a growing diversity, a consequence of Singapore becoming a global city. Lastly, both the Tangbu and Sungmisan cases show the interplay between the local and the national. The democratization movements at the national

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level have opened up local spaces for political participation and collective action, as Castells (1983: 223) observed for Spain in the 1960s. Significantly, as Taipei and Seoul are both capital cities of their respective countries, the mayors of these cities have an expanded role and could use their mayoral position as a stepping stone to move on to the level of national politics. Robinson’s (2002: 536) observation that the concepts we invent to analyse cities may prevent the inclusion and analysis of other city types remains important and will continue to challenge researchers in urban studies. In this study, the city types chosen for analysis are major cities in Pacific Asia, all facing significant benefits and impacts in terms of their connections to the global economy. They are also national centres (less so for Hong Kong) tasked with articulating the cultural power of their countries. And at the local dimension, these cities are charged with improving the livelihoods of their citizens. Robinson’s (2002) ordinary cities will face different global, national, and local challenges and inter-relations between these three dimensions. As Robinson (2002) pointed out, they maintain economic bases that connect to the global economy in ways that are different from global cities. Smith’s (2001) transnational urbanism will apply as many of the global connects are made from below. Shatkin (2007: 5) includes labour movements, tourism, and real estate developments in the analysis of the diverse ways in which other cities are connected to the global economy. These different links, taken together, mark a city’s position in the world economy (Surborg, 2011: 326). It may lead us to an overly structuralist determination of a city’s future, but in the short term, this may be appropriate. In the long lives of cities, growth and decline are the part of the drama of the fate of cities as these are tied to the political and economic power of their countries and their immediate regions. City futures are also impacted by the city’s market position and the resultant politics. Cities with a strong market position are able to choose among economic options and also able to balance economic goals with progressive social policies (Savitch and Kantor, 2002). Large metropolitan centres with strong economic positions and large voter bases wield stronger influence over federal government’s decisions toward these cities (Boudreau, Hamel, Jouve, and Keil, 2007: 44). Cities with poorer market positions may have fiscal support from regional and national governments, especially along political party lines (Savitch and Kantor, 2002:501, 503). That said, Gupta, Verrest and Jaffe (2015:37) also note that strong inter-governmental systems increase the dependence of weak market position cities on the dictates of regional and national governments.

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Suborg’s (2011: 326) call to mark a city’s position in the global economy must be extended to a similar marking at the level of the region and of the city’s position in the country. As Bachelard’s dreamers, we, as city residents, are secure in the intimacy and familiarity of our homes and neighbourhoods and of the relationships we have forged in our everyday lives. The anchors (city position in the global economy, in the country, and in local urban society) that locate our cities seem abstract and distant. These anchors matter because the home and neighbourhood where we are most at peace are often intruded on by external forces. And at those moments of intrusion, we react and forge collective alliances because we act to preserve what is dear to us. This collective response marks localities as defensive community formations (Smith, 2001: 102-106). Neighbourhoods for the City is an invitation to focus on the smallest social unit of the city from three vantage points. These vantage points occur within the context where the neighbourhood is affected by both the economics defined by the city’s market position and a political context where the neighbourhood is active within an assemblage of distributed authority. Firstly, at the local/city level, the metropolitanization of politics will require a reconsideration of the neighbourhood as a local space for collective action. Defensive and reactive as these actions may be, the outcomes of neighbourhood activism contribute to the well-being of the city (neighbourhood assets as outcomes of collective action are social amenities that add to the city’s liveability and social capital) and the country (the neighbourhood as the local base for the working out of rights and responsibility of citizens, respect for diversity, and a learning ground for active citizenship). Secondly, we must think of the nature of city relations – between government, local residents and businesses and NGOs – as a negotiated order that reflects the agencies at play and that, at the same time, points to the distribution and sharing of resources. And thirdly, the growing significance of city politics in the political life of a country necessitates a focus on city building as the point of convergence between local interests, national priorities and global dynamics.

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Index Organizations Places Subject Subject groups Action Citizen 17 Civil Society 70 Collective 17, 22, 27, 29-30, 46-47, 49, 58, 70, 83, 209-210, 216, 223-224 Coordinated 218 Government 127 Neighbourhood see Neighbourhood Mobilization 219 Planned 216 Political 43, 47, 83, 207 Residents 70, 75 State 49 Activism Local 208, 221 Neighbourhood 16-17, 70, 76, 102, 206-207, 209, 215-217, 221 Urban 208 Agglomeration 36-37, 47, 220 Amenities Co-create 208 Community 16, 160, 172, 182-183 Cultural 134, 143; see also tourism Leisure 38 Local 20, 24, 182; see also neighbourhood Neighbourhood 16, 27, 70, 73-75, 103, 107, 158-159, 180, 182, 184-187, 190, 211, 214, 219 Modest 195 Passive 195 Public 21, 29, 214 Shared 120 Social 28, 47, 157, 203, 210-215, 224 Tourism 116 Australian Broadcasting Corporation 155n Bangkok Metropolitan Authority (BMA) 5758, 77, 108, 113-114, 118-120, 123-124, 128-129 Boundaries 23, 39, 66, 75, 110 Café 27-28, 83, 85, 96-98, 102-103,187, 189-196, 212, 214-215, 221 Centre on Housing Rights and Eviction (COHRE) 118, 123-124 Chalerm Thai Cinema 117 China Times 136, 142, 147 Citizen/Citizenship/Citizenry 16-17, 29, 42, 44, 63-64, 70, 99, 110, 134, 151, 157, 169, 181, 208, 210-211, 213, 217-218, 223-224

City Administrators 216 Building 29, 108, 158 Capacity 70, 216 Capital 109, 112, 149, 220, 222 Center 39, 74 City-State 70, 78, 181, 220, 222 Competition 39 Development 36 Economy see Economy Futures 223 Global/World 36, 181-182, 220, 222 Good 197 Government see Government, City Icons 24 Inner 38-39, 41, 48, 57, 109, 156, 158, 165 Interests 15, 17 Heritage see Heritage Liveable 18-19, 30 Local 220-221 Management 46 Migrants 16, 40, 48, 182, 220 Ordinary 220 Planning 217 Policies 99-100 Politics see Politics, City Ranking 17, 49 Repository of Heritage 40 Royal 113, 124 Sustainable 216 Civil Bureaucracy 109 Groups 219 Law 129 Servants 125, 164 Service 164 Society 43, 46, 70, 148, 168, 208-211, 221 Close Circuit Television (CCTV) 187, 191, 194 Committee for Conservation and Development of Krung Rattanakosin and Old Towns 110 Community Action, of 135, 142 Annex 17, 74-76, 156, 159, 161-162, 166, 169, 171, 211-214 Curation 74-75, 124, 144-145 Currency 85, 207 Governance 206-209, 217-219

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Groups 20, 27-28, 41, 43-44, 47, 58, 67, 86, 92, 127-129, 138-139, 163, 168, 185, 199, 206, 208-209, 218-219 Icons 24, 205, 210 Kitchen 73, 81, 94, 99, 101, 103, 212-213, 215, 219 Leaders 40, 43-44, 62, 99, 120, 122-124, 136, 150-189, 209, 212, 214 Local 73, 180, 182 Mobilization 27-28, 110, 133, 137, 142-143, 145, 148, 157, 180, 206, 208, 215, 218 Planner see Planner Projects 17-18, 20, 23-24, 28-29, 36, 38-39, 42, 48, 75, 82, 88, 91, 97, 100-101, 125, 133-135, 147-148, 158, 165, 168, 180, 183, 203, 210-214, 217, 219, 221 Spaces 21, 23, 29-30, 39, 32-43, 48, 110, 113, 120, 125, 157, 163, 168, 195, 206-208, 214, 218, 223 Study 58 Community Organizations Development Institute (CODI) 119, 122 Cooked-food Court/Hawkers/Market/ Stalls/Sellers 76, 156-157, 159-162, 166, 169-170, 172 Co-operative Behaviour 26 Relations 18 Cordis Hotel 156, 158, 162, 166, 171, 174 Crown Property Bureau (CPB) 125 Cultural Amenities 38, 134, 142 Beliefs 24 Capital 38 Center 112, 127 Conservation 125 District 49, 76, 109, 112, 125, 127, 212-213, 222 Economy see Economy, Cultural Heritage 110, 112-113, 116, 123, 125, 149; see also Heritage Identity 123, 142 Policies 42 Power 222-223 Preservation 82, 127 Regeneration 82 Resource 42 Rights 77, 109, 119, 128 Rituals 47 Symbols 40 Traditions 127 Cultural Affairs Bureau (CAB) 138-139, 145, 149 Decentralization 16, 35, 43-45, 217-218 Democracy 35, 43-44, 73, 208, 217 Democratic Citizenship 44, 215 Development 16, 43, 48 Framework 219

Movements see Movements Politics 209 Reforms 73 Democratization 42-43 48-49, 73, 135, 148, 207 Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) 149 Department of Urban Development (DUD) 142, 144, 148 Doesalim Resale Shop 96; see also Thrift Shop Doorae/Dure Co-op 92; see also Supermarket, Co-operative East Asia 15-16, 22, 27, 36-38, 41, 43-44, 46-48, 67-68, 208 Economic Development 15, 35, 38, 44, 48-49, 218, 221 Economy Advanced 44 City 18, 32, 82 Cultural 41 Global 36, 48, 67, 220-221, 223-224 Local 211 National 48, 208 New 38-39 Sharing 42 Social 74, 98, 103 Urban 38, 163-164 World 223 Ethnography Analytic 46, 57, 62-64, 69; see also Method Festival 22, 41, 47, 145, 190 Fine Arts Department (FAD) 77, 114, 125, 128 Fort Sumen Park 57-58, 108-109, 113-115, 118-119, 127-128 Gentrification 16, 30, 39, 41, 48, 104, 108, 216 Globalization 30, 63, 66, 221 Governance 23, 44, 85 Municipal 217-219 Neighbourhood 18, 209 Urban 206-208 Government City 81-82, 84, 100, 107-108, 127, 134-135, 144, 146-149, 203, 208-209, 211-213, 216-219, 221 National 70, 221-223 Regional 36, 47 Government, institutional and community (GIC) provisions 104, 166, 168, 172 Grand Palace 112, 115, 222 Great Eagle 156, 160, 167, 172 Heritage Amenities 42 Attractions 110 Buildings 41, 125, 135, 150-151 Built 47 Community curation 74-75

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Cultural 110, 112-113, 123, 125 Cultural economy 41 Cultural uses 42 Definition 127 Development 42 District 108, 116, 127, 129, 134, 222 Economic resource 41-42 Elements 28, 41, 123, 127, 222 History 135 Houses 128, 135 Intangible 47 Law 147 Local 40, 118-119, 126, 134 Making 221 National 123 Nationalism 40 Neighbourhood 109, 124 Placemaking 41-42 Plan 108, 124-125 Projects 29, 212 Repository 40 Site 134, 137, 149-150 Tangible 126 Tourism 111 Trail 145 Urban 41, 48 Working class 124 Home Area 23-24, 186, 204 Cities as 40 Comfort 30 Feelings of 25 Heritage 135 Homeless 165 Intimacy 204-205 Migrants 182 Neighbourhood and 16, 183, 204-205 Ownership 181 Routines of 204 Sleeping area as 160 Visits 25 Walking 192 Hong Kong 13, 37-38, 44, 46, 48-49, 64, 70-75, 77, 155-159, 163-166, 168, 170-174, 179, 213, 216, 220, 222-223 Hong Kong Playground Association (HKPA) 158, 172, 222 Hong Kong Tourism Authority 171 Housing choice 26 density 160 informal 66, 68, 109 low cost 66 policy 180-182 prices 103, 163 rehousing 165, 167 rights 119, 122 shortage 180 stock 39, 159, 181

Housing and Development Board (HDB) 72, 180, 182, 196 Icons 24, 205, 210 Identity Activists 19 Building 37 Built Environment and 40 Collective 27 Common 23 Consumption and 37 Cultural 123, 142 Issue of 16 Local 82 National 117 Place 76, 210, 216 Regional 47 Reproduction of 28 Shared 27 Symbols and 40 Industrialization 30, 44 Informal Associations 28 Institutions 22, 43-44, 62, 67, 104, 133, 135, 166, 168, 172, 212-213 International Center 221 Competition 222 Connections 21, 37 Flows 220 Production 220 Tourism 49, 112, 222; see also Tourism Korean Ministry of Education 88, 90 Kuomintang (KMT) 149 Land Development Corporation (LDC) 155, 159, 163 Landscape 18, 22, 24, 221 Langham Place 29, 49, 72, 74-76, 104, 155-156, 160, 162-164, 166-174, 180, 209, 211-214, 216, 219, 221-222 Leadership 43-44, 150 Learning machine 20, 28, 206 Legitimacy 19, 46-47, 180 Library 85, 87, 120, 187 Little Tree Café 98, 102-103, 212, 214-215 Liveability 16-17, 29, 47, 57, 213, 216-217, 221, 224 Mahakan 28-29, 49, 58, 71, 73-78, 107-109, 113, 118-124, 126-129, 133-135, 155, 179-180, 206, 209, 211-213, 215, 219, 222 Market (as a concept) Centered 29, 41, 129 Driven 29, 46, 150 Influences 85 Interpretation 104 Options 101 Position 223-224

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Primary role of 164 Provision 46 Market (as a place) Bird 162, 166 Flower 126 Focal Point 151 Food 75, 156-157, 162, 169-170, 172 Heritage 150 Local Amenity 24 Planned Amenity 182-183 Site of Encounters 183 Street 160 Tampines 184, 187, 190-192, 195 Tha Tien 126 Mayor 18-19, 43-44, 99-100, 107, 135, 143, 148-149, 207, 209, 211, 213-214, 217-219, 223 Mega Project 36, 39, 76, 155-156, 158, 168, 174 Method (Research) Analytic Ethnography 46, 57, 62-64, 69 Case Selection 60-68, 70, 72-73 Case Study 16, 28-29, 39, 43, 49, 58 Comparative Case Approach 64-66, 81 Conceptualization 59, 61, 124 Grounded Approach 60-62 Informants 77-78 Literature Guiding 69-70 Local Research Advisors 71-72 Multi-sited method 59, 64, 71, 77 Single versus Multiple Sites 59, 76-77 Sites and Larger Context 72-76, 216, 218, 221 Middle Class 38, 40-41, 99 Migrant 16, 40, 48, 182, 220 Ming Hwa Yuan 138-140, 146 Minibus 75-76, 156, 158-159, 161-162, 166, 168-170, 172, 214, 222 Mobilization 15, 27-28, 110, 137, 142-143, 145, 148, 157, 180, 206, 208, 215, 218; see also Community Mobilization Mong Kok Community Annex 159, 161-162, 166, 169, 171-172, 211-214, 222; see also community annex Movements 21, 27 Community 151, 157 Democratic 36, 43-46, 48-49, 83, 222 Grassroot 70 Labour 223 Political 207 Social 15, 20, 43, 85 Successful 21 Urban 20-21 Museum 27, 29, 73-75, 78, 112-113, 119, 124, 126-128, 133, 135, 137-139, 144-146, 149-151, 206, 208, 211-215, 219 National Arts Council (Singapore) 196, 198 National Parks Board (Singapore) 188, 196, 198 Neighbourhood

Action, 21, 27, 49, 70, 134, 142, 148, 203 Active 19, 26, 70, 81-82, 99, 103, 107, 127, 133, 209, 213-214, 216, 221 Amenities 16, 70, 75, 179, 182, 211, 214, 219 Aspirations 18 Associations 28, 219 Bland 142, 145 Boundaries 23, 39, 66, 75, 110 Collective Action 27, 29-30, 46-47, 49, 58, 70, 83, 209-210, 216, 223-224 Community 72, 98 Home Area of the 23-24, 186, 204-205 Inner City 38-39, 41, 48-49, 57, 109, 155-156, 158, 165 Integrated 181 Interests 15, 20-21 Low Density 155 Micro spaces of the 195 Mobilization 137, 142, 148 Organizers 18-20, 28, 193-194 Participation 15-16, 18, 23, 28-29, 42-45, 49, 59n, 65, 70, 82, 100n, 101, 123, 127, 148-149, 167, 179, 183, 193, 208-213, 215-218, 223 Planning Unit 182 Project 13, 17-18, 20, 74-75, 77, 88, 148 Public spaces of the 195 Relations 15-16, 18, 25, 183 Routines 21-26, 204 Services 198 Social Life of the 17, 21, 195, 203 Neighbouring 24-25, 198, 205 Neighbourliness 25, 222 Not in my neighbourhood (NIMBY) 26, 93 Organizations Civic 28, 214 Effects 209 Faith-based 19 Government 198, 219 Neighbourhood 27-28, 72, 73, 119 Non-Governmental (NGO) 17, 19, 82, 85, 100, 108, 211 Residents 212, 214 Secular 19 Slum 67 Pacific Asia 35 Park Amenity 24, 27, 73 Community 142 Cultural 17 Dali Street 143 Fort Sumen see Fort Sumen Government efforts at building 183 Green spaces 110 Meaning to residents 204 Museum 211, 219 Neighbourhood 20, 208 Plan 137

235

Index

Preservation 142 Public 119, 129 Santichaiprakarn 108 Science 39 Tampines Central Park 184, 187 Tangbu Cultural Park see Tangbu Cultural Park Tourist 126 Use of 114, 139 Yuen Po Street Park see Yuen Po Street Garden Pedestrian Linkway 183-184, 186-187, 190-192, 194-195 People’s Action Party (Singapore) 180 Placemaking 21-23, 28, 82, 210 Place-marketing 23, 39, 41-42, 48-49, 222; see also Market Planner BMA 57, 108 Community 72, 134-135, 141, 144-145, 148, 150-151, 196-197, 207-208, 217 LDC 164 Planning 18, 108-109, 113, 143, 148, 164, 181-183, 209, 217, 222 Co-creation 208 Policies Community-based 150 Community Bonding 78 Creative City 134 Cultural 42 Ethnic Integration 181 Housing 181 Local Area 199 Meaning-making 197 Migrant 220 Mobility 20, 197, 206 National 43 Neighbourhood 181, 186, 196 Policymaking Research 101 Population 181 Progressive 44, 223 Regeneration 41 Social 223 Spatial 182-183 Urban 20, 47, 99-100, 196-197, 216, 221 Welfare 101 Political Action 47 Capacity 180 Change 16, 27, 207 Comparative 64 Development 37, 40, 48-49, 110, 208, 219; see also Democratization Forces 22, 49 History 135 Leadership 43, 150 Legitimacy 180 Life 17, 221, 224 Movements see Movements

Participation 223 Parties 17, 40, 43, 218, 223 Power 40, 222-223 Projects 40 Skills 43-44 Support 206 System 40, 48, 208 Politicians 107, 125, 149, 218 Politics City 17, 40, 219, 224 Contentious 207 Local 43 Metropolitan 43, 49, 218, 224 National 30, 43, 70, 148, 223 Post 44-45 Urban 40 Presidential Committee on Government Innovation and Decentralization 45 Privacy 24-26, 205 Religious Buildings/Churches/Temples 22, 24, 109, 112, 115-117, 134, 145-146, 150-151, 212, 214 Religious Complexes 40 Resident Committees 185-186, 198, 211, 213 School Alternative 28, 73, 81, 83, 85-87, 90, 99, 101, 103, 207, 212, 215 As a co-operative 90-91 Neighbourhood 24, 90-91, 140 Self Directed 90 Initiated 198-199 Mobilization 143 Neighbourhood 23 Organizing 74 Recreation of the 23, 186, 204-205 Seoul 19, 28, 37, 48-49, 70-74, 77, 82-84, 99-100, 103, 197, 209, 213-214, 217, 220, 223 Seoul Community Support Center (SCSC) 100, 197, 209, 217 Services Business/Financial/Producer 36-39, 47, 220 Community-based 134, 158 Co-op 101; see also School co-operative, Supermarket co-operative Food 94 Government 18, 101, 217-218 Neighbourhood 103, 107, 198 Public 74 Social 76, 168, 172, 214 Youth 159 Singapore 28, 35, 37, 44, 46, 48-49, 58, 70, 72-75, 77-78, 92, 168, 179-184, 198-199, 208, 213, 216, 219-220, 222 Sociability 24, 27-28, 30, 73, 215 Social

236 

Neighbourhoods for the Cit y in Pacific Asia

Amenities 17, 28, 47, 82, 157, 160, 210, 212-214, 224 Capital 23, 26, 38, 210, 216 Cohesion 92, 222 Economy 74, 98, 103 Energy 27, 219 Enterprises 29, 82-83 Goals 46, 163-164, 166-168 Life 17, 21, 23, 28, 30, 47, 64, 92, 182, 195, 203 Liveability see Liveability Movements see Movements, Social Needs 95, 101, 129 Networks 190, 209, 221 Services 76, 221 Sustainability 16, 23, 99 Worker 173, 209 Southeast Asia 36, 58, 64, 66-67, 112, 127 South Korea 35-36, 44-45, 48, 72-73, 78, 81, 85, 88-90, 92-93, 95, 101, 180 Space(s) Civic 110, 214 Commercial 74, 95, 97, 160, 163 Community 102, 120, 163 Contested 126 Dead 128 Green 110, 113 Intimate 23, 205, 208 Interests 30 Life 29-30, 39, 48, 205, 217 Of Modernity 63-64 Of Political Action 43, 70, 76, 207, 223-224; see also politics Of the Neighbourhood 21, 120, 195, 205, 210 Open 126, 137, 157 Open Minded 214 Public 110, 195, 205, 213 Sacred 125 Shared 26, 205-206 Urban 42, 148 Visible 38 Stakeholder 26, 42, 58, 77, 118, 124, 147, 180 Sumen see Fort Sumen Sungmisan 18-19, 28-29, 49, 72-78, 81-103, 107, 133, 155, 180, 196, 198, 206-207, 209, 211-216, 219, 221-222 Supermarket Co-operative 28, 73, 85, 92, 215 Symbol

Capital City 222 Issue Framing 27 Nationhood 40, 222 Neighbourhood 204-205, 210; see also Neighbourhood Place 24 Religious 40 Value 39 Taisugar 136-138, 142, 144-145, 147, 149 Taiwan 35-37, 43-45, 48-49, 64, 72-73, 78, 135, 137-138, 143-144, 149, 179, 207, 208, 217, 219 Tampines 28-29, 72, 74-75, 179-180, 183-184, 186-187, 190, 194-197, 199, 206, 208-209, 211-214, 216, 219, 221-222 Tangbu Cultural Park 72-74, 135, 141, 145-147, 149-151, 207, 219 Tangbu Cultural Society 136-137, 140-141, 143-144, 147, 149-150, 199 Tangbu Sugar Museum 78, 137-139, 144-146, 149-151; see also Museum Telecommunications 18 Testbed 183 Third way alternative (Fallov) 29, 209 Thrift Shop 28, 73, 213, 215; see also Doesalim Resale Shop Tourism 38-40, 49, 77, 108, 111-112, 116, 125-126, 143 Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) 77, 112, 115, 118, 125 Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA, Singapore) 168 Urban Renewal Authority (URA, Hong Kong) 167-168 Urban Poor 19, 40, 42, 67, 76, 99, 101, 108, 120, 122, 127, 129, 163, 165, 167, 170, 209, 215, 217 Urban Regeneration 41-42, 157-158, 163, 167n, 168, 197, 222 Void Deck 183, 186, 188, 192-193, 195 Wat Pho Temple 115-116, 222 Weak Ties 25, 27 Working Class 39, 74 Yuen Po Street Bird Garden 158, 162, 170-171, 211

Publications / Asian Cities

Norman Vasu, Yeap Su Yin and Chan Wen Ling (eds): Immigration in Singapore 2014, ISBN 978 90 8964 665 1

Gregory Bracken (ed.): Asian Cities. Colonial to Global 2015, ISBN 978 90 8964 931 7

Lena Scheen: Shanghai Literary Imaginings. A City in Transformation 2015, ISBN 978 90 8964 587 6

Anila Naeem: Urban Traditions and Historic Environments in Sindh. A Fading Legacy of Shikarpoor, Historic City 2017, ISBN 978 94 6298 159 1

Siddhartha Sen: Colonizing, Decolonizing, and Globalizing Kolkata. From a Colonial to a Post-Marxist City 2017, ISBN 978 94 6298 111 9

Adele Esposito: Urban Development in the Margins of a World Heritage Site. In the Shadows of Angkor 2018, ISBN 978 94 6298 368 7

Yves Cabannes, Mike Douglass and Rita Padawangi (eds): Cities in Asia by and for the People 2018, ISBN 978 94 6298 522 3

Minna Valjakka and Meiqin Wang (eds): Visual Arts, Representations and Interventions in Contemporary China. Urbanized Interface 2018, ISBN 978 94 6298 223 9

Gregory Bracken (ed.): Ancient and Modern Practices of Citizenship in Asia and the West. Care of the Self 2019, ISBN 978 94 6298 694 7

Henco Bekkering, Adèle Esposito and Charles Goldblum (eds): Ideas of the City in Asian Settings 2019, ISBN 978 94 6298 561 2

Gregory Bracken, Paul Rabé, R. Parthasarathy, Neha Sami and Bing Zhang (eds): Future Challenges of Cities in Asia 2020, ISBN 978 94 6372 881 2