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
5 - Mahakan: Neighbourhood Heritage Curation Attempts
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
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 fight has lost ground as the government has demolished the houses.
Keywords: Bangkok, urban heritage, urban redevelopment, intangible heritage, civic and cultural district, community development
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. The Mahakan neighbourhood represents the opposite, a neighbourhood whose residents have a weaker 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 field site. On the morning of 11 March 2003, I interviewed a planner 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.
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- Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia , pp. 107 - 132Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019