Transforming Asian cities : intellectual impasse, asianizing space, and emerging translocalities / edited by Nihal Perera and Wing-Shing Tang

Contents : Introduction : in search of Asian urbanism : limited visibility and intellectual impasse--
1. Seoul : a Korean capital / Sharon Hong --
2. Rajadamnoen Avenue : Thailand's transformative path towards modern polity / Koompong Noobanjong --
3. Public art, urban renewal, and the construction of a national history : the Revive Manila program and the new Manileno campaign / Tessa Guazon --
4. An unexpected urban renewal practice : the emergence of a multi-cultural historic plaza in Taipei / Huey-Jiun Wang --
5. Critical vernacularism : a view of architecture from the places of production / Nihal Perera --
6. Housing rights and citizenship of rural migrants in urban China : the case of Yuanhenong, Shanghai / Zhao Yeqin --
7. Ordinary lives in extraordinary Cyberabad / Diganta Das --
8. Street vending in Indonesian cities : their characteristics and activities in Yogyakarta / Deden Rukmana and Djarot Purbadi --
9. Perceptions of tenure security in a squatter settlement in Lahore, Pakistan / Fatima Wajahat --
10. The struggle for living space : ethnicity, housing, and the politics of urban renewal in Japan's squatter areas / Takuya Motooka, Toshio Mizuuchi --
11. Contests over community : a community organization in Hong Kong / Leung, Hon-Chu --
12. Traversing the city : some gendered questions of access in Mumbai / Shilpa Phadke --
13. Indianizing the neighborhood unit : the Jawaharnagar plan / Sanjeev Vidyarti --
14. Planning and self-organizing : the case of small towns in Sri Lanka / Jagath Munasinghe --
15. Niche authority in urbanized villages : bottom-up codetermination in megacity China / Sonia Schoon.
Conclusion : Asianizing Asian cities : spatial stories, local voices, and emerging translocalities / Nihal Perera.

Switching the vantage point to Asian cities and citizens, Transforming Asian Cities draws attention to how Asians produce their contemporary urban practices, identities, and spaces as part of resisting, responding to, and avoiding larger global and national processes. Instead of viewing Asian cities in opposition to the Western city and using it as the norm, this book instead opts to provincialize mainstream and traditional knowledge. It argues that the vast terrain of ordinary actors and spaces which are currently left out should be reflected in academic debates and policy decisions, and the local thinking processes that constitute these spaces need to be acknowledged, enabled, and critiqued. The individual chapters illustrate that "global" spaces are more (trans)local, traditional environments are more modern, and Asian spaces are better defined than acknowledged. The aim is to develop room for understandings of Asian cities from Asian standpoints, especially acknowledging how Asians observe, interpret, understand, and create space in their cities.