Table Of ContentAdvances in 21st Century Human Settlements
Cho Im Sik
Blaž Križnik
Community-
Based Urban
Development
Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore
and Seoul
Advances in 21st Century Human Settlements
Series editor
Bharat Dahiya, Bangkok, Thailand
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/13196
ž ž
Cho Im Sik Bla Kri nik
(cid:129)
Community-Based Urban
Development
Evolving Urban Paradigms in Singapore
and Seoul
123
ChoIm Sik BlažKrižnik
Department ofArchitecture, Graduate Schoolof Urban Studies
Schoolof DesignandEnvironment HanyangUniversity
National University ofSingapore Seoul
Singapore Korea,Republic of (SouthKorea)
and
Institute for Spatial Policies
Ljubljana
Slovenia
ISSN 2198-2546 ISSN 2198-2554 (electronic)
Advances in 21stCentury HumanSettlements
ISBN978-981-10-1985-2 ISBN978-981-10-1987-6 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-981-10-1987-6
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016950396
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Foreword
In their rise as centres of two of Asia’s “tiger economies”, Seoul and Singapore
have overcome numerous seemingly insurmountable obstacles over the past five
decades to reach the highest levels of economic performance in the world. In this
co-authoredbookonthehistoriesandcontemporarycircumstancesfacingthesetwo
cities, ChoIm SikandBlažKrižnikcompellingly presentthethesis thatSeoul and
Singapore have reached another crossroads. Instead of continuing to try to repeat
past responses to crises through state and corporate driven policy adjustments, the
authors cogently reason and present evidence for a paradigmatic shift toward
communityengagementinparticipatorygovernanceasthemostpromisingpathway
into what is expected to be a rapidly changing and turbulent global era.
As an academic and practitioner engaged in urban planning in Asia for many
years, Iwelcomethiscomparative study oftwoofthemost prominent cities inthe
world today. Both of the authors are scholars who live in these cities where they
carry out research, teach at universities and advise governments on urban policy.
Their rich knowledge of other cities in the region adds to their ability to bring
multifaceted perspectives and multiscalar methods of inquiry that give life to
Singapore and Seoul as theatres of social and political action and as key nodes in
networksofglobalflowsarticulatingtheworldsystem.Theirapproachofrevealing
theworldbyfocusingonurbancommunitiesconfirmsthetruismthatwhenviewed
from a global scale downward, research becomes trapped in its own assumptions
and is not readily capable of capturing or accounting for the twists, turns and
unexpectedcounter-intuitive outcomes inactualrealworldsettings.Incontrast,by
lookingupwardfrom communityandcityscalesofanalysis totheworld,Cho and
Križnik are able to reveal how the machinations of global linkages are filtered
throughlocalconstellationsofpowerthathavenopredeterminedoutcomeseitherin
terms of policy choices or improvements in the lives of people.
v
vi Foreword
Cho and Križnik carefully build the case that the twenty-first century is wit-
nessingtheinterplayofnewdynamicsforurbanpolicyandplanningthatmakethe
pursuit of past modes of governance increasingly counterproductive. Among the
most prominent changes at play today are those toward slow global economic
growth, demographic shifts toward both greater social and cultural diversity and
aging societies, and rising social awareness and contestations over issues of
inclusionandsocialjusticedirectedatboththestateandthecorporateeconomy.We
could add to this the highly destructive anthropogenic impacts on the global
environment that will certainly amplify growing vulnerabilities of cities to envi-
ronmental disasters. Together these trends tell us that the high growth industrial
models for human advancement that seemed to work through top-down functional
cityplanningandtrickle-downeconomicsinthepastarenolongertenable.Choand
KrižnikillustratethemanywaysinwhichthegovernmentsofSeoulandSingapore
areawareofthesedramaticchangesinpolicycontexts,andeachinitsownway is
attemptingtodevisemoreinclusivegovernancestructures.Towhatextentandhow
successfularetheseeffortsarequestionsinsightfullyassessedinthechaptersofthis
book.
As the authors explain, much of what has been occurring at city, national and
global scales of policymaking is the result of the political hybridization of
neoliberalismwithdevelopmentalismthatlocallyevolvedintoaneodevelopmental
state, namely, astate that remains powerfully invasive insociety buttakes therole
as corporate facilitator rather than as leader of the production of urban space. For
Cho and Križnik their call for a shift toward a “post-developmental city” is also a
call for a paradigmatic transition away from the neo-developmental city of
megaprojectsthateraseneighborhoodsandvernacularhistoriesintheirwake.Their
proposal is one for a fundamental re-orientation of the purposes of government
toward human-centered processes of material and non-material progress that rise
from the capacities and richness of cultural and civic life to not only generate a
robust urban economy, but to also create a more stable and meaningful pathway
into what canonly beexpected tobea turbulent global era ofrisks,vulnerabilities
and uncertainties.
Among the contributions of this book is its investigations into the contrasting
contexts and strategies adopted in the Seoul metropolis and the city-state of
Singapore that vary in practice and outcomes not only at the city scale but also
among neighborhoods and communities within each city. While each city shares
many of the same general problematics of translating global impulses into socially
desirable outcomes, their successes and limitations in the past arose from policies
and institutional structures that were substantially different from each other in
critical ways, and were certainly much greater than suggested by the literature on
the “developmental state” that has tended to treat the East Asia miracle economies
asahomogeneousflockofgeeseflyinginformationdifferentiatedonlybylevelsof
per capita GDP.
Foreword vii
ThedifferencesbetweenSeoulandSingaporethatChoandKrižnikidentifyand
explicateingreatdetailareinstructiveincautioningagainstabstractingamodelfor
all cities from a single experience. Korea’s avoidance of reliance on foreign
investment and Singapore’s exceptionally high level of dependence on global
corporate capital for its economic growth is one example. And while both used
advancesinmaterialwelfareasajustificationfortightcontrolovercivilsociety,the
contrastbetweentheearlierovertuseofpoliceforcetodisciplinelabourandsociety
as a whole in Korea and Singapore’s use of public housing and welfare to
accomplish the same ends vividly shows a wide array of possibilities in meeting
perceived imperatives for globally competitive economies. Equally striking is the
leap accomplished in Korea into democratic governance and participation in city
planning in Seoul in recent years. Singapore, as the authors explain, has taken a
more circumspect movement in this direction.
While looking inside each city, I invite readers to give full attention to the
authors premises and arguments for a new urban paradigm that is founded on
strengthening communal life and shared identities through participatory policy-
makingandplanning.Incallingforatransformativeapproachtogovernance,their
claim is that in the twenty-first century inclusion, distributive justice, and thriving
cultural and social life provide the greatest hope for steering urbanization with
shared prosperity and stability. This position resonates with findings from related
research that I and others have been conducting on the rise of progressive cities in
Asia. Improbable just a few decades ago when levels of urbanization in Asia were
low and political power was highly concentrated in the hands of developmental
states, the shift in paradigm toward participatory governance through community
engagement that Cho and Križnik detail is now occurring in varying degrees in
citiesinmanycountries.Verylittleresearchhasyetbeendoneontheprospectsfor
political realignments for more progressive cities in Asia, which makes Cho and
Križnik research among the few of its kind.
In critically reflecting on the past and present in Singapore and Seoul as an
evolving process always in the making rather than moving toward a final state of
completion, the provocations of this book bring readers into conversation with the
authors about alternative futures. The principal one put forth is a future realized
through the formation of an inclusive cosmopolitan civic culture that prizes
diversity and stands in stark contrast to the fragmented and socially unequal,
dividedglobopolisappearinginAsiainrecentdecades.Inappropriatelycautioning
that shifting to such a paradigm faces many challenges, the authors sound the
warning that the accelerating societal transformation toward ever greater social
diversity cannot be ignored or made invisible through policies and actions that
marginalize increasing shares of populations living and working in cities.
From 2015 to 2050, an estimated one billion people will be added to cities in
Asia,accountingformorethantwo-thirdsofthepopulationofthisworldregionby
mid-century. As major protagonists in planetary urbanization, cities in Asia are at
the forefront of confronting the need to direct public policy in more socially ful-
filling and environmentally responsible directions. This well-crafted, carefully
researched and engaging book by Cho Im Sik and Blaž Križnik is an essential
viii Foreword
reading for scholars and policymakers who wish to know how the search for
resilience through the expression of collective human agency in urban governance
can find their way forward in contrasting contexts. Its recognition for the need to
provide for greater public participation in an increasingly socially diverse world
couldnothavecomeatamoreimportantmomentinAsia—andworld—history.
Mike Douglass
Professor and Leader of Asian Urbanisms
Asia Research Institute and
Professor, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy
National University of Singapore and
Emeritus Professor and former Chair
Department of Urban and Regional Planning and
Former Director of the Globalization Research Center
University of Hawaii
Preface
This book compares different approaches to urban development in Singapore and
Seoul over the past decades, by focusing on community participation in the
transformation of neighbourhoods and its impact on the built environment and
communal life. Singapore and Seoul are known for their rapid economic growth
and urbanisation under a strong control of developmental state in the past.
However, these cities are at a critical crossroads of societal transformation, where
participatoryandcommunity-basedurbandevelopmentisgainingimportance.This
new approach can be seen as a result of a changing relationship between the state
and the civil society, where an emerging partnership between both aims to over-
comethelimitationsofearlierurbandevelopment.Thebookdrawsattentiontothe
possibilities and challenges that these cities face while moving towards a more
inclusive and socially sustainable post-developmental urbanisation. By applying a
comparative perspective to understand the evolving urban paradigms in Singapore
and Seoul, this unique and timely book offers insights for scholars, professionals
and students interested in contemporary Asian urbanisation and its future
trajectories.
Singapore Cho Im Sik
Seoul, Korea, Republic of (South Korea) Blaž Križnik
2016
ix
