Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia

In parts of Asia, citizens are becoming increasingly involved in shaping their neighborhoods and cities, which represents a significant departure from earlier state-led or market-driven urban development. These emerging civic urbanisms are a result of an evolving relationship between the state and civil society. This book project includes original contributions from scholars with first-hand experience in civic urbanism. They provide critical insights into how the changing state–civil society relationship affects the recent surge of civic urbanism in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei. Eighteen cases of grassroots activism and resistance, collaboration and placemaking, neighborhood community building, and self-organization and commoning in these cities are presented to explore how citizen participation and partnerships between the state and civil society contribute to more resilient and participatory neighborhoods and cities in Asia. The authors argue that the concept of civic urbanisms provides not only a conceptual framework to understand the ongoing social and urban change but also an aspirational model of urban governance for cities in Asia and beyond.

Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, Taipei Beyond Developmental Urbanization. Amsterdam University Press: Asian Cities Series (2022). Workshop (2018) supported by the Republic of Korea Ministry of Education, the National Research Foundation of Korea, Seoul National University Asia Center (SNUAC), Asia Research Institute and Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore; publication supported by International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) and the Johnston/Hasting Publication Endowment Fund, UW College of Built Environments. Co-editors/ Im Sik Cho, Blaž Križnik, and Jeffrey Hou.