Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia

by Yi-Ling Chen (Editor), Hyun Bang Shin (Editor)

Overview

Considering Asian cities ranging from Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok to Hanoi, Nanjing and Seoul, this collection discusses the socio-political processes of how neoliberalization entwines with local political economies and legacies of ‘developmental’ or ‘socialist’ statism to produce urban contestations centered on housing. The book takes housing as a key entry point, given its prime position in the making of social and economic policies as well as the political legitimacy of Asian states. It examines urban policies related to housing in Asian economies in order to explore their continuing alterations and mutations, as they come into conflict and coalesce with neoliberal policies. In discussing the experience of each city, it takes into consideration the variegated relations between the state, the market and the society, and explores how the global pressure of neoliberalization has manifested in each country and has influenced the shaping of national housing questions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781137517500
Publisher:	Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date:	04/24/2019
Series:	The Contemporary City
Edition description:	1st ed. 2019
Pages:	216
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Yi-Ling Chen is Associate Professor in International Studies and Geography at the University of Wyoming, USA. Her research examines the interaction of urban planning and social change, focusing on urban social movements, particularly those concerning housing access. Her published works are on housing, gender, urban movements, identity politics and regional development in Taiwan. She recently expanded her research to compare East Asian cities, Amsterdam, and Denver in their implementations of social housing.

Hyun Bang Shin is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies and the Director of Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. Between 2017 and 2019, he is also Eminent Scholar at Kyung Hee University, South Korea. His research focuses on the critical analysis of the political economic dynamics of speculative urbanization, the politics of displacement, gentrification, mega-events, and the right to the city, with particular attention to Asian cities.

Table of Contents

1 Centering Housing Questions in Asian Cities

2 ‘Re-occupying the State’: Social Housing Movement and the Transformation of Housing Policies in Taiwan

3 Displacement by Neoliberalism: Addressing the Housing Crisis of Hong Kong in the Restructuring of Pearl River Delta Region

4 When Neoliberalization Meets Clientelism: Housing Policies for Low- and Middle-Income Housing in Bangkok

5 Neoliberal Urbanism Meets Socialist Modernism: Vietnam’s Post-Reform Housing Policies and the New Urban Zones of Hanoi

6 Beyond Property Rights and Displacement: China’s Neoliberal Transformation and Housing Inequalities

7 Development and Inequality in Urban China: The Privatization of Homeownership and the Transformation of Everyday Practice

8 Weaving the Common in the Financialized City: A Case of Urban Cohousing Experience in South Korea
9 Contesting Property Hegemony in Asian Cities

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“The fast-growing cities of Asia present problems of analysis that do not fit easily into the framework adopted by scholars examining cities in the West. While Asian cities are also undergoing neoliberalization, the strong hand of the state in shaping development within them causes institutional processes and distributive outcomes to differ from those in North America and Europe. Nowhere is this more significant than in the housing sector. In its examination and comparison of a range of Asian cities, this edited volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the interactions of the state and real-estate capital under conditions of rapid development, neoliberalization, and state sponsorship.” (Susan S. Fainstein, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard graduate School of Design, USA, and author of The City Builders, The Just City)

“It is great to have this edited volume to critically address recent housing questions in Aisan cities. By showing how housing has become a key contested field in Asian cities, the contributions in this book nicely challenge the property hegemony of Asian societies, and enliven the debates on how to construct progressive alternatives for Asian urbanism. This engaging work definitely deserves a wide audience.” (Bae-Gyoon Park, Professor, Seoul National University, South Korea)

Editorial Reviews

This book is an important milestone in the establishment of new urban and housing theories from Asia. Therefore, I proudly recommend this book for the must-read list of urban housing scholars.” (Tomoko Kubo, International Journal of Housing Policy, October 11, 2019)

From the Publisher