Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
9 - Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Neighbourhoods for the City
- 2 The Political Economy of Cities in Pacific Asia
- 3 The Logic of Comparisons in Multi-Sited Research Designs
- 4 Sungmisan: The Power of Village Social Enterprises
- 5 Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
- 6 Tangbu: Saving the Old Sugar Warehouses
- 7 Langham Place: Mega Project-Led Inner-City Regeneration
- 8 Tampines Central: Government-Resident Partnerships at Work
- 9 Neighbourhood Action, Metropolitan Politics, and City Building
- Index
- Publications / Asian Cities
Summary
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)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.
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.
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- Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia , pp. 203 - 230Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019