Globalization and New Intra-Urban Dynamics in Asian Cities

This book presents a set of essays on the globalization and intra-urban dynamics of the Asian cities conducted by Taiwanese and French researchers. It covers four main themes: “culture-led regeneration projects,” “dynamics of second-tier cities,” “urban redevelopment and land issues,” and “new urban spaces of regulation, associational life, and civic action.”

It involved comparing research subject priorities in this field as well as the approaches chosen to deal with them within a geographical zone extended from Northeast to southern Asia. Rather than a comparison between Western and Asian visions of the same urban objects, the project aimed to highlight differences and/or similarities in the approaches of scientific communities, inevitably influenced by national issues.

With great articulation and discourse between urban reality and theories, it also observes distinctive approaches of urban research teams respectively in France and Taiwan.

Aveline-Dubach, Natacha, PhD and Habilitation in Geography, is a research director at le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), affiliated to the laboratory Géographie-Cités and the graduate school of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne. She spent eleven years in Asia, where she was visiting scholar in various universities (Tokyo, Kyoto, Waseda, Keio, Hong Kong universities). Her research focuses on land and property issues—including funeral land—in Asian cities.

Bastide, Loïs is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Geneva. His main interest is in the sociology of space and encompasses transnational studies, urban studies, migration sociology, and the sociology of work. His researches have focused on labor migration in Southeast Asia for several years, with fieldworks spread between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore. He currently works on global health issues as well as the sociology of natural disasters in Indonesia, Japan, the United States, and Switzerland.

Buhnik, Sophie is an alumnus of the Ecole Normale Supérieure (Paris), and a PhD candidate in Geography at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, where she is affiliated to the laboratory Géographie-Cités. Her research focuses on problems of access to urban resources related to urban shrinkage processes in the Osaka Metropolitan Area. She has been awarded a scholarship from the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science in 2012, and conducted her research at the Ritsumeikan University in Kyoto from April 2012 to April 2013.

Chen, Dung-Sheng（陳東升） is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at National Taiwan University. His research interests are sociology of organizations, economic sociology, and urban sociology. Currently he is engaging in a research on alternative economic institutions and social innovation.

Chen, Hsiao-Wei（陳曉偉） obtains his PhD from Geography Department at National Taiwan University. His research interests are in urban studies, especially the urban public space and public life, and popular music studies. The focus on street music is his attempt to link the two diverse research fields.

Chien, Shiuh-Shen（簡旭伸） is an Associate Professor in development geography at National Taiwan University, has published widely on development geography, geography of globalization, transnational studies, and political economy of urban and regional development. Dr. Chien’s empirical focuses involve the Global South in general and post-socialist China in particular.

Dupont, Véronique, PhD in Economic Demography, is a research director at the Institute of Research for Development (IRD) and associated member of the Centre for Indian and South Asian Studies (Paris). She was the Director of the Centre de Sciences Humaines of New Delhi from 2003 to 2007. Her main research themes have been the interrelations between the transformations of metropolitan territories, population mobility and urban policies, including slum policies and the processes of socio-spatial exclusion, with a focus on Indian mega-cities.

Fanchette, Sylvie, PhD in Geography, is a researcher at IRD. Her research interests are mainly in the process of urbanization in highly populated rural areas of some deltas (Nile, Niger, and Red River). Her recent research and publications in Vietnam have focused on craft villages around Hanoi and the process of peri-urbanization in the context of the metropolization of the political capital city.

Fau, Nathalie, PhD in Geography, is an Associate Professor at University Paris 7 and temporarily affiliated to the Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC) in Bangkok. Since the end of the 1990’s, her work has focused on two major lines of research. The first studies new centralities and urban regions that have developed as a result of globalization; the second focuses on cross-border and transnational regions in Southeast Asia.

Franck, Manuelle, PhD and Habilitation in Geography, is a President of the National Institute of Oriental Languages and Cultures (INALCOParis) and a Professor at the Department of Southeast Asian studies. Her research interests are mainly on the fields of urban and regional studies. Her recent research programs especially focus on the impact of global dynamics on second-tier cities and on the impact of transnational integration on urban hierarchies.

Hong, Dong-Li（洪冬力） is a post-graduate student at the Institution of Building and Planning of National Taiwan University, has been working on research topics of urban transformation and cross-border governance. His current research focuses on the changing urban life that has been mediated by public communication infrastructure.

Hsiao, Hsin-Huang Michael（蕭新煌） is a Distinguished Research Fellow and Director of Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica and Professor of Sociology, National Taiwan University. His specialization of research includes civil society, middle classes, new democracy, environmental sociology, and Hakka studies. He also served as a National Policy Advisor to President of Taiwan during 1996-2006. His recent publications include Taiwan’s social movements march again, Non-profit Sector: Organization and Practice, Changing Faces of Hakka in Southeast Asia, Public Opinion in Taiwan and Hong Kong, among others.

Hsiao, Yatan（蕭亞譚） is a CEO of Pegasus Tea House. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of Institute of Sociology, Academia Sinica, Taiwan (2009/07/01-2011/06/30). His research interests focus on third sector studies, urban middle classes, NGO and NPO governance, and community empowerment with a comparative sociological perspective.

Huang, Liling（黃麗玲） is an Associate Professor and a Director of the Graduate Institute of Building and Planning at National Taiwan University. Her research interests focus on community building, urban policies and globalization theories. Her recent publications include: “Community building in Taiwan: A perspective of social changes and institutional innovations” (2011), “The housing policies and problems in Taipei: Case studies of Taipei city” (2011), ‘Foreign workers and spaces for community life: Taipei’s little Philippines” (2009), “Against the monster of privatisation: Qing-Tien Community’s actions for urban livability in Taipei” (2008).

Jou, Sue-Ching（周素卿）, PhD, is a Professor of Geography at National Taiwan University. Her research interests are mainly in the fields of urban studies, including political economy of urban development, urban and regional governance, and geographies of sustainable city governance. Her recent research and publications focus on corporate landscapes and mega-projects of the global cities in East Asian countries.

Lin, Tzu-Chin（林子欽）, PhD, is a Professor in Land Economics at National Chengchi University. He has a long-standing interest in how land market operates and what policies or institutions are best suited for the society. He is currently exploring the impacts of fragmented ownership in land on land prices and subsequent land redevelopment in Taiwan.

Roulleau-Berger, Laurence, PhD and Habilitation in Sociology, is a Research Director at CNRS, affiliated to the laboratory Triangle (ENS Lyon). She was a Visiting Professor in 2006 at Institute of Sociology, CASS, and in 2011 in Beijing University. Her research focuses on urban segregation and intermediate spaces, work and employment, new migrations and multipolar economies in Europe and in China. Recently, she became involved in an epistemological reflexion on the dewesternization of sociology.

Wu, Yei-Long（吳義隆） obtained his PhD in Urban Planning at National Chengkung University. He is an experienced urban-related practitioner in Taiwan and has worked in several bureaus of the Kaohsiung City Government for decades. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Open University of Kaohsiung.

Overview

1 Introduction: About the Book
◊ Natacha Aveline-Dubach, Sue-Ching Jou, and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao

2 Understanding Globalization in Urban Asia: Moving from Single to Plural Dimensions and Scales
◊ Natacha Aveline-Dubach

Part I Cultural-led Regeneration Projects
3 The Uneasy Partnership and Contested Meanings of C10Urban Form: Examining the Policies of Urban regeneration in Bangka, Taipei
◊ Liling Huang

4 The Embryology of Spontaneous Cultural Clusters in Taipei: The Creative Class, Consumption, and Urban Fabric in the Making
◊ Sue-Ching Jou and Dung-Sheng Chen

Part II Dynamics of Second-tier Cities
5 Central-local Land Dynamics in Harbourfront Transformation: Case Study of Kaohsiung, Taiwan
◊ Shiuh-Shen Chien, Dong-Li Hong, and Yei-Long Wu

6 Intra-urban Dynamics in Southeast Asian Cities: The Case of Penang and Surabaya
◊ Manuelle Franck and Nathalie Fau

7 The Uneven Impacts of Demographic Decline in a Japanese Metropolis: A Three-scale Approach to Urban Shrinkage Patterns in the Osaka Metropolitan Area
◊ Sophie Buhnik

Part III Urban Redevelopment and Land Issues
8 Land Development and Urban Growth in a Booming Property Market: The Taipei Experience
◊ Tzu-Chin Lin

9 New Patterns of Property Investment in “Post-bubble” Tokyo: The Shift from Land to Real Estate as a Financial Asset
◊ Natacha Aveline-Dubach

10 Liberalization of Real Estate Markets and Decentralization: What Is at Stake for Peri-urban Hà Nôi within the Context of Metropolization?
◊ Sylvie Fanchette

11 Slums in India Metropolises Confronted with Large-Scale Urban Projects and Real Estate Development: Recent Trends in Delhi
◊ Véronique Dupont

Part IV New Urban Spaces of Regulation, Associational Life, and Civic Action
12 Plural Inequalities, Vulnerabilities and Urban Careers in Chinese Cities
◊ Laurence Roulleau-Berger

13 Globalizing Kuala Lumpur: Indonesian Migrant Workers, Urban Borderscapes and the Production of Metropolitan Spaces
◊ Loïs Bastide

14 Everyday Musical Spaces: Street Music in Taipei
◊ Hsiao-Wei Chen

15 A Tale of Two Urban Middle Class Organizations in Taipei: Self-Service vs. Public Advocacy
◊ Yatan Hsiao and Hsin-Huang Michael Hsiao

Introduction: About the Book

This book is the fruit of a Franco-Taiwanese collaboration funded by Academia Sinica, le Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the National Science Council (NSC, or Ministry of Science and Technology), and National Taiwan University (NTU). It came about on the initiative of a team of geographers, sociologists, urban planners, anthropologists, and economists from Academia Sinica, National Chengchi University, National Taiwan University, together with members of laboratories jointly run by universities and two big French research centers, CNRS and l'Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD).

The aim of the collaboration was to cross-reference Taiwanese and French ideas on the intra-urban dynamics that have been set in motion by globalization in Asian cities. It involved comparing research subject priorities in this field as well as the approaches chosen to deal with them within a geographical zone expanding from Northeast to Southern Asia. Rather than a comparison between Western and Asian visions of the same urban objects, the project aimed to highlight differences and/or similarities in the approaches of scientific communities that are inevitably influenced by national issues.

It emerged that the differences between researches in the two countries largely determined the conditions of the survey, with Taiwanese researchers focusing on their own country and conversely, with fairly wide-ranging research in Asia on the part of the French. France has, in effect, several research centers in Asia, administered by various research bodies: the CNRS and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs manage six of them (Tokyo, Pondicherry, Delhi, Bangkok, Hong Kong, and Taipei) and the IRD has four (Jakarta, Vientiane, Bangkok, and Hanoi), not counting the French School of the Far East (EFEO), which has sixteen but whose researchers do not usually work on contemporary subjects.3 These centers have been welcoming researchers from various institutions for several years now. All types of research profiles are represented. In the CNRS-MAEE centers, the Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) dominates with researchers coming from big research bodies and universities, whilst in the IRD centers, the majority are IRD researchers from various environment-related scientific fields (HSS, biology, epidemiology, hydrology, climatology, etc). It is a system that enables French researchers to extend their knowledge of the field and the language of the country to which they have been posted for periods of two to four years.

The network includes a small French research structure in Taiwan, set up within the Academia Sinica, the Taiwanese branch of the Hong Kong-based CEFC (French Center for Studies on Contemporary China). Within these, a discipline that has come to be known as “Taiwanology” is being developed and is seeking to carve out a place for itself alongside the more powerful Sinology. Besides research in the humanities (mainly anthropology, linguistics, and literature), this discipline covers a vast field of social sciences. CEFC researchers as well as other Western observers interested in Taiwan have explored the mechanisms of the Taiwanese economic “miracle”; that is to say the characteristics of the industrial fabric (Amsden, 1991; Hoesel, 1999; Guiheux, 2002; Levy & Kuo, 1991; Aspalter, 2001, among others), the role of the state (Gold, 1986) and the intensification of trade with China (Sutter, 2002; Chevalerias, 1998). The concurrent evolution of the political system towards democracy has also attracted the attention of Western political scientists and anthropologists who have analyzed the transformations of the electoral and constitutional system (Rigger, 1999; Schneider, 2000, among others), the formation of cultural and political identity (Corcuff, 2002; Allio, 2001) as well as diplomatic relationships on both sides of the Strait (Cabestan, 2005; Mangin, 2000; Jacobs, 2009; Bellows, 1999).