The Management Of Secondary Cities In Southeast Asia

Urbanization occurs in tandem with development. Countries in Southeast Asia need to build the capacity of their cities and towns to promote economic growth and development, to make urban development more sustainable, to mitigate and adapt to climate change, and to ensure that all groups in society share in the development. This book is a result of a series of regional discussions by experts and practitioners involved in the urban development and planning of their countries. It highlights urbanization issues that have implications for regional cooperation, and provides practical recommendations for policymakers. It is a first step towards assisting governments in the region to take advantage of existing collaborative partnership to address the urban transformation that Southeast Asia is experiencing today. This book is a landmark study on increasingly urbanized condition of Southeast Asia. It is important because it presents a powerful argument for the role of regional action in develop-ping policy and practical responses to the challenges of urbanization. Thus it offers important lessons for other parts of the world. This study, written by expert authors from within the region, outlines the challenges of urban sustainability, liveability and economic growth that Southeast Asia faces in the 21st century. Thus it provides a valuable roadmap for all concerned with the future of urbanization in Southeast Asia.

The extended metropolitan regions of Southeast Asia are the dynamic cores of their national economies and societies and the frontiers of accelerating globalization. This title explores ways of moving beyond outmoded paradigms of the Third World City or a Southeast Asian city 'type'.

A distinguishing feature of recent urbanization in the ASEAN countries of Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia is the outward extension of their mega-cities (Bangkok, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, and Kuala Lumpur) beyond the metropolitan borders, resulting in the establishment of new towns, industrial estates, and housing projects in previously rural areas. This process has both positive and negative effects. On one side, household incomes and employment opportunities are increasing, but on the other, the growth often causes serious problems in terms of environmental deterioration, conflicting land uses, and inadequate housing and service provisions. Mega Urban Regions of Southeast Asia is the first comprehensive work on the subject of ASEAN mega-urban regions. The contributors review T.G. McGee's original idea of desakota zones, and offer arguments both for and against this concept, making a significant contribution to our understanding of the true face of ASEAN cities. The book brings together authors from around the world and will be of interest to a wide audience, including demographers, urban planners, geographers, sociologists, economists, civil servants and development consultants.

First Published in 2003. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Urbanization as a process is rife with inequality, in Southeast Asia as anywhere else, but resistance and contestation persist on the ground. In this element, the author sets out to achieve three goals: 1) to examine the political nature of urban development; 2) to scrutinize the implications of power inequality in urban development discussions; and 3) to highlight topical and methodological contributions to urban studies from Southeast Asia. The key to a robust understanding is groundedness: knowledge about the everyday realities of urban life that are hard to see on the surface but dominate how the city functions, with particular attention to human agency and the political life of marginalized groups. Ignoring politics in research on urbanization essentially perpetuates the power inequities in urban development; this element thus focuses not just on Southeast Asian cities and urbanization per se, but also on critical perspectives on patterns and processes in their development.

The author presents some of the wider debates on housing and development while focusing on the major Southeast Asian capital cities: Jakarta, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Metro Manila. All of these have expanded enormously in terms of population and size, all have enormous problems ranging from provision of clean water and sustainable housing for the poor to dealing with the constant inflow of urban migrants. Despite this, most city governments remain worryingly ineffectual or uncommited to solving urgent problems of their expanding cities.