Events

Jointly organized by the Asian Urbanisms Cluster of Asia Research Institute, and Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore.

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Cho Im Sik, Department of Architecture, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

Located in the city west, Dadowcheng and Wenhua have been generally defined as declining areas in Taipei in the past three decades, in contrast with the prosperous spots such as the East Area and Hsing-Yi Planning District. But in recent years, regeneration of the city west through partnership between city government and local groups, gradually changed the city landscape. In Dadowcheng, the city government developed innovative mechanisms to overcome the difficulties in critical time. While in Wenhua, various types of activism involving heritage conservation, community economy, and shared spaces was initiated by young innovators. My talk on Dadowcheng and Wenhua will illustrate the different models of urban regeneration in these two places, their strength and challenges.

For Further Reading

– Huang, Liling (2005) Urban policies and spatial development: the emergence of participatory planning in Taipei, in Kwok, Reginald Yin-Wang (ed.) Pp. 78-98. Globalizing Taipei. London: Routledge.
– Huang, Liling (2014) The Uneasy Partnership and Contested Meanings of Urban Form: Examining the Policies of Urban Regeneration in Bangka, Taipei. In Globalization and New Intra-Urban Dynamics in Asian Cities. Natacha Aveline-Dubachh, Sue-ching Jou, and Hsin-huang Michael Hsiao, eds. Pp. 65-99. Taipei: National Taiwan University Press.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Huang Liling is an Associate Professor of Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. Her research interests focus on urban regeneration, housing policy, and globalization theories for cities. Her major publications include “Promoting Private Interest by Public Hands? The Gentrification of Public Lands by Housing Policy in Taipei City,” in Global Gentrifications: Uneven Development and Displacement, edited by Loretta Lees, Hyun Ban Shin and Ernesto Lopez-Morales, 2015, ‘From Cultural Building, Economic Revitalization to Local Partnership? The Changing Nature of Community Mobilization in Taiwan’ (International Planning Studies, 2011).

Huang Liling is also the former director of Organization of Urban Reformers (OURs), an NGO founded in the early 1990s in the wave of urban social movement in Taiwan. It focuses on monitoring and promoting the urban policies of environmental conservation, cultural preservation and community participations in Taiwan. Since 2010, OURs has been working with other social welfare groups in Taiwan as well as its Japanese and Korean partner organizations in East Asia Inclusive City Network for actions of safeguarding housing right for the disadvantageous groups. The movement has successfully pushed the government to inaugurate public housing at the local and central government level.

REGISTRATION

Admission is free. We would greatly appreciate if you click on the “Register” button above to RSVP.

ACTIVATE! EMERGENT FORMS OF CIVIC PRACTICES IN CONTEMPORARY ASIAN CITIES SEMINAR SERIES

In recent years, the multifaceted forms of civic practices—ranging from participatory urbanism, to artistic interventions, and to street protests launched by activists—have become more prominent in Asian cities, attracting scholarly attention across different disciplines. The transformations in civil society have raised the following questions: What are the emerging challenges and contingencies the varied interest groups are facing? What kind of conflicts can arise during and after instances of civil activism, and how can these tensions be ameliorated? How can social engagement, practice and research be bridged together by, and for, different individuals and agencies? When does social engagement become perceived as civil activism?

This seminar series, jointly organized by Asian Urbanisms cluster (ARI) and the Department of Architecture, critically presents and examines the novel forms of civic practices that have manifested in the Asian urban context through a transdisciplinary framework. Bringing together academics, practitioners, students, and the general public interested in urban spatial strategies in relation to negotiate the formation and role of civil societies, the seminars seek to initiate discourse on the following themes: First, to explore how the varied stakeholders involved in civil society groups, including academics and educators, activists, artists, NGOs, NPOs, informal interest groups and community associations, political parties, and governmental organizations currently de/reconstruct the contextual and physical understanding of shared urban space in Asia. It is of interest to review the main goals of the novel civic practices, and the extent in which these aspirations are realised. Secondly, these seminars seek to articulate how stakeholders engage in the process of collaborative knowledge production through these practices. More importantly, the aim of the series is to conceptualise civic practices as a product of the distinctive trajectories of socio-economic development, spatial/cultural policies, and the structures of political governance in the Asian region. To reiterate, these seminars provide an overview on the distinctive challenges and opportunities that contemporary Asian cities pose for civil societies, and the kind of local and global characteristics that are emerging in these locales.

Organizers

Asia Research Institute | Minna Valjakka & Sonia Lam
Department of Architecture | Cho Im Sik & Lee Kah Wee