The increasing role of cyberspace in recent urban insurgencies calls for urban scholars to rethink notions of spatialities, public space and the public sphere. However, social movements in cyberspace cannot be the ends of insurgent actions. Hopes for reclaiming public space extend beyond demonstrations and mobilisations to include rebuilding a public city with long-term social impacts. Three themes that emerged in the midst of new media proliferation and Asia’s rapid urbanisation include (1) corporatisation of urban space, (2) social media and the city and (3) insurgencies and the public city. Along these three themes, this Special Issue proposes three main issues for a research agenda aimed at analysing urban insurgencies: (1) the relationship between the power of digital media in insurgent mobilisation and the physical spaces of the city, (2) the materialisation of resistance movements in cyberspace and on the ground in the form of an authentic public city and (3) recognition of modest forms of change as results of everyday insurgencies.
From ARI co-organised conference on “Asia’s Civil Spheres: New Media, Urban Public Space, Social Movements”, 29-30 September 2011.
