Community-Based Urban Development: Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul PDF
Preview Community-Based Urban Development: Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul
Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements Cho Im Sik Blaž Križnik Community- Based Urban Development Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements Series editor Bharat Dahiya, Bangkok, Thailand More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196 ž ž Cho Im Sik Bla Kri nik (cid:129) Community-Based Urban Development Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore and Seoul 123 ChoIm Sik BlažKrižnik Department ofArchitecture, Graduate Schoolof Urban Studies Schoolof DesignandEnvironment HanyangUniversity National University ofSingapore Seoul Singapore Korea,Republic of (SouthKorea) and Institute for Spatial Policies Ljubljana Slovenia ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic) Advances in 21stCentury HumanSettlements ISBN978-981-10-1985-2 ISBN978-981-10-1987-6 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1987-6 LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016950396 ©SpringerNatureSingaporePteLtd.2017 Thisworkissubjecttocopyright.AllrightsarereservedbythePublisher,whetherthewholeorpart of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission orinformationstorageandretrieval,electronicadaptation,computersoftware,orbysimilarordissimilar methodologynowknownorhereafterdeveloped. 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Theregisteredcompanyaddressis:152BeachRoad,#22-06/08GatewayEast,Singapore189721,Singapore Foreword In their rise as centres of two of Asia’s “tiger economies”, Seoul and Singapore have overcome numerous seemingly insurmountable obstacles over the past five decades to reach the highest levels of economic performance in the world. In this co-authoredbookonthehistoriesandcontemporarycircumstancesfacingthesetwo cities, ChoIm SikandBlažKrižnikcompellingly presentthethesis thatSeoul and Singapore have reached another crossroads. Instead of continuing to try to repeat past responses to crises through state and corporate driven policy adjustments, the authors cogently reason and present evidence for a paradigmatic shift toward communityengagementinparticipatorygovernanceasthemostpromisingpathway into what is expected to be a rapidly changing and turbulent global era. As an academic and practitioner engaged in urban planning in Asia for many years, Iwelcomethiscomparative study oftwoofthemost prominent cities inthe world today. Both of the authors are scholars who live in these cities where they carry out research, teach at universities and advise governments on urban policy. Their rich knowledge of other cities in the region adds to their ability to bring multifaceted perspectives and multiscalar methods of inquiry that give life to Singapore and Seoul as theatres of social and political action and as key nodes in networksofglobalflowsarticulatingtheworldsystem.Theirapproachofrevealing theworldbyfocusingonurbancommunitiesconfirmsthetruismthatwhenviewed from a global scale downward, research becomes trapped in its own assumptions and is not readily capable of capturing or accounting for the twists, turns and unexpectedcounter-intuitive outcomes inactualrealworldsettings.Incontrast,by lookingupwardfrom communityandcityscalesofanalysis totheworld,Cho and Križnik are able to reveal how the machinations of global linkages are filtered throughlocalconstellationsofpowerthathavenopredeterminedoutcomeseitherin terms of policy choices or improvements in the lives of people. v vi Foreword Cho and Križnik carefully build the case that the twenty-first century is wit- nessingtheinterplayofnewdynamicsforurbanpolicyandplanningthatmakethe pursuit of past modes of governance increasingly counterproductive. Among the most prominent changes at play today are those toward slow global economic growth, demographic shifts toward both greater social and cultural diversity and aging societies, and rising social awareness and contestations over issues of inclusionandsocialjusticedirectedatboththestateandthecorporateeconomy.We could add to this the highly destructive anthropogenic impacts on the global environment that will certainly amplify growing vulnerabilities of cities to envi- ronmental disasters. Together these trends tell us that the high growth industrial models for human advancement that seemed to work through top-down functional cityplanningandtrickle-downeconomicsinthepastarenolongertenable.Choand KrižnikillustratethemanywaysinwhichthegovernmentsofSeoulandSingapore areawareofthesedramaticchangesinpolicycontexts,andeachinitsownway is attemptingtodevisemoreinclusivegovernancestructures.Towhatextentandhow successfularetheseeffortsarequestionsinsightfullyassessedinthechaptersofthis book. As the authors explain, much of what has been occurring at city, national and global scales of policymaking is the result of the political hybridization of neoliberalismwithdevelopmentalismthatlocallyevolvedintoaneodevelopmental state, namely, astate that remains powerfully invasive insociety buttakes therole as corporate facilitator rather than as leader of the production of urban space. For Cho and Križnik their call for a shift toward a “post-developmental city” is also a call for a paradigmatic transition away from the neo-developmental city of megaprojectsthateraseneighborhoodsandvernacularhistoriesintheirwake.Their proposal is one for a fundamental re-orientation of the purposes of government toward human-centered processes of material and non-material progress that rise from the capacities and richness of cultural and civic life to not only generate a robust urban economy, but to also create a more stable and meaningful pathway into what canonly beexpected tobea turbulent global era ofrisks,vulnerabilities and uncertainties. Among the contributions of this book is its investigations into the contrasting contexts and strategies adopted in the Seoul metropolis and the city-state of Singapore that vary in practice and outcomes not only at the city scale but also among neighborhoods and communities within each city. While each city shares many of the same general problematics of translating global impulses into socially desirable outcomes, their successes and limitations in the past arose from policies and institutional structures that were substantially different from each other in critical ways, and were certainly much greater than suggested by the literature on the “developmental state” that has tended to treat the East Asia miracle economies asahomogeneousflockofgeeseflyinginformationdifferentiatedonlybylevelsof per capita GDP. Foreword vii ThedifferencesbetweenSeoulandSingaporethatChoandKrižnikidentifyand explicateingreatdetailareinstructiveincautioningagainstabstractingamodelfor all cities from a single experience. Korea’s avoidance of reliance on foreign investment and Singapore’s exceptionally high level of dependence on global corporate capital for its economic growth is one example. And while both used advancesinmaterialwelfareasajustificationfortightcontrolovercivilsociety,the contrastbetweentheearlierovertuseofpoliceforcetodisciplinelabourandsociety as a whole in Korea and Singapore’s use of public housing and welfare to accomplish the same ends vividly shows a wide array of possibilities in meeting perceived imperatives for globally competitive economies. Equally striking is the leap accomplished in Korea into democratic governance and participation in city planning in Seoul in recent years. Singapore, as the authors explain, has taken a more circumspect movement in this direction. While looking inside each city, I invite readers to give full attention to the authors premises and arguments for a new urban paradigm that is founded on strengthening communal life and shared identities through participatory policy- makingandplanning.Incallingforatransformativeapproachtogovernance,their claim is that in the twenty-first century inclusion, distributive justice, and thriving cultural and social life provide the greatest hope for steering urbanization with shared prosperity and stability. This position resonates with findings from related research that I and others have been conducting on the rise of progressive cities in Asia. Improbable just a few decades ago when levels of urbanization in Asia were low and political power was highly concentrated in the hands of developmental states, the shift in paradigm toward participatory governance through community engagement that Cho and Križnik detail is now occurring in varying degrees in citiesinmanycountries.Verylittleresearchhasyetbeendoneontheprospectsfor political realignments for more progressive cities in Asia, which makes Cho and Križnik research among the few of its kind. In critically reflecting on the past and present in Singapore and Seoul as an evolving process always in the making rather than moving toward a final state of completion, the provocations of this book bring readers into conversation with the authors about alternative futures. The principal one put forth is a future realized through the formation of an inclusive cosmopolitan civic culture that prizes diversity and stands in stark contrast to the fragmented and socially unequal, dividedglobopolisappearinginAsiainrecentdecades.Inappropriatelycautioning that shifting to such a paradigm faces many challenges, the authors sound the warning that the accelerating societal transformation toward ever greater social diversity cannot be ignored or made invisible through policies and actions that marginalize increasing shares of populations living and working in cities. From 2015 to 2050, an estimated one billion people will be added to cities in Asia,accountingformorethantwo-thirdsofthepopulationofthisworldregionby mid-century. As major protagonists in planetary urbanization, cities in Asia are at the forefront of confronting the need to direct public policy in more socially ful- filling and environmentally responsible directions. This well-crafted, carefully researched and engaging book by Cho Im Sik and Blaž Križnik is an essential viii Foreword reading for scholars and policymakers who wish to know how the search for resilience through the expression of collective human agency in urban governance can find their way forward in contrasting contexts. Its recognition for the need to provide for greater public participation in an increasingly socially diverse world couldnothavecomeatamoreimportantmomentinAsia—andworld—history. Mike Douglass Professor and Leader of Asian Urbanisms Asia Research Institute and Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy National University of Singapore and Emeritus Professor and former Chair Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Former Director of the Globalization Research Center University of Hawaii Preface This book compares different approaches to urban development in Singapore and Seoul over the past decades, by focusing on community participation in the transformation of neighbourhoods and its impact on the built environment and communal life. Singapore and Seoul are known for their rapid economic growth and urbanisation under a strong control of developmental state in the past. However, these cities are at a critical crossroads of societal transformation, where participatoryandcommunity-basedurbandevelopmentisgainingimportance.This new approach can be seen as a result of a changing relationship between the state and the civil society, where an emerging partnership between both aims to over- comethelimitationsofearlierurbandevelopment.Thebookdrawsattentiontothe possibilities and challenges that these cities face while moving towards a more inclusive and socially sustainable post-developmental urbanisation. By applying a comparative perspective to understand the evolving urban paradigms in Singapore and Seoul, this unique and timely book offers insights for scholars, professionals and students interested in contemporary Asian urbanisation and its future trajectories. Singapore Cho Im Sik Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South Korea) Blaž Križnik 2016 ix
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