Civic urbanisms and challenges to local communities

Institute for Spatial Policies from Ljubljana has published a review of our book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization. The short review argues that emerging civic urbanisms in Asia offer answers to the challenges to local communities and bear relevance for the public, planners and decision-makers beyond Asia.

류블라냐 공간정책연구소에서 책 ‘아시아의 떠오르는 시민 중심 도시론 : 발전주의 도시화 너머의 홍콩, 서울, 싱가포르 그리고 타이페이’에 대해 다음과 같이 평론함. 아시아의 시민 중심 도시론이 지역 사회가 마주한 어려움에 대해 해답을 제시하고, 공공, 계획가와 아시아 너머의 결정권자들 간의 관계 조성에 기여함을 잘 보여주는 책.

The review Emerging civic urbanisms in Asia as an answer to the challenges of local communities has been originally published in Slovene. English translation is attached bellow.


In 2017, our institute published a publication Policies of space: Challenges to local communities between Ljubljana and Seoul, where we presented and compared best practices of community building and local initiatives that we had encountered through our work. We argued that despite significant differences between both cities, local communities in Ljubljana and Seoul are facing similar challenges due to limited democratisation of decision–making in neighbourhoods.

The authors of the recently published book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization discuss similar topics and come to similar conclusions.

The edited volume compares eighteen cases of community building and local initiatives from social movements for the preservation of the Lo-Sheng Sanatorium in Taipei or Choi Yuen Village in Hong Kong to urban walks in Singaporean neighbourhoods of Queenstown and Geylang, and urban regeneration in To Kwa Wan in Hong Kong or Seowon Maeul, Samdeok Maeul as well as Haebangchon in Seoul. It compares self-organised local communities in Seoul’s Songhak Maeul and Seongmisan Maeul, the urban gardens of Singapore’s Foodscape Collective, the activism of female migrant workers in Hong Kong and collaboration of residents and municipalities in placemaking in Changwen and Gufeng neighbourhoods in Taipei, and Limbang, Tampines and Woodgrove neighbourhoods in Singapore.

Although the cases represent different forms of community building and local initiatives, which are strongly embedded in specific local and national contexts, they are also characterised by successful civic participation and collaboration between local communities and municipal or national governments.

Such collaboration is not always a given one. In Songhak Maeul, for instance, the relationship between the local community and municipal government evolved from conflict towards partnership as a result of successful anti-eviction and housing rights struggles, activism for self-organised producer and consumer cooperatives, and local initiatives for stronger neighbourhood autonomy. In many other cases collaboration between local communities, civil society and public administration was to an important extent an outcome of successful social mobilisation in neighbourhoods.

Such collaboration between local communities and municipal or national governments is what distinguishes emerging civic urbanisms in Asia from existing state-led or market-driven approaches. This makes emerging civic urbanisms a new spatial and symbolic expression of democratic decision-making in neighbourhoods.

Many contributing authors were actively involved in community building and local initiatives that are discussed in the book. They emphasise the practical importance of community building and local initiatives for strengthening civic participation, collaboration between the public, experts and decision-makers, as well as coalition building between residents, local communities, civil society and public administration. Thus, the authors focus on emerging civic urbanisms not only for their theoretical relevance to better understand the social, spatial and political change in Asia but also for practical value as successful cases of building more democratic, sustainable and resilient neighbourhoods and cities.

In this sense, the relevance of emerging civic urbanisms goes beyond Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore or Taipei, since the cases bear relevance for the public, planners and decision-makers in Slovenia too. As best practices of community building and local initiatives, they offer possible answers to the challenges to local communities that were discussed in our publication Policies of space.

The book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization was edited by Im Sik Cho, Blaž Križnik and Jeffrey Ho and was published by the Amsterdam University Press in the Asian Cities series.

Neighbourhood community building and urban gardening in Haengchon Maeul (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2019)

Marginal communities

Blaž will talk about marginal communities on the international seminar Offshore-Outskirt, On the Other Conviviality. The seminar will take place on Tuesday, April 25th, 2023 at the Research Center for Regional Planning and Urban Design, Seoul National University of Science and Technology.

His contribution Marginal communities: enclosures-to-be, liminalities or pure possibilities? draws on the author’s ongoing comparative study of neighbourhood communities in urban Asia. Their particular historical, socio-cultural, urban, and political contexts make generalisation across the cases and their comparison difficult. However, the study outcome shows that successful neighbourhood community building often builds on the shared experience of marginality.

The author proposes to approach marginal communities as enclosures-to-be, liminalities, and as pure possibilities to better understand the importance of neighbourhood community building for community empowerment and transformative social change. Such an approach may reveal the relevance of marginal communities, located on the urban “outskirts”, for building inclusive, resilient, and convivial “offshore” maritime communities of humans and non-humans, the major focus of this seminar.

Hangang fishermen as an “offshore” community on the “outskirts” of Seoul (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2023)

Emerging Civic Urbanisms book launch

We are back to Singapore where it all started. Join us for the launch of our new book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei Beyond Developmental Urbanization. The book was edited by Im Sik Cho, Blaž Križnik, and Jeffrey Hou and published by Amsterdam University Press and International Institute for Asian Studies.

The book launch will take place as a hybrid event that can be attended online and at the National University of Singapore, Department of Architecture, SDE 1 school conference room on Saturday, December 17th, 2022 (15:00 to 17:00 hrs Singapore time).

Register here to join either in person or online.

Urban regeneration of Taipei’s Treasure Hill

Our lab has invited Dr. Igor Rogelja to deliver a lecture on urban regeneration of Treasure Hill in Taipei. The lecture is a part of Urban Regeneration and Social Sustainability, and Urban and Regional Sociology courses.

우리 연구실은 Igor Rogelja 박사를 초빙해 타이베이 Tressure Hill (寶藏巖)의 도시재생에 대한 강의를 듣고자 합니다. 이 강의는 도시재생과사회적지속가능성과 도시·지역사회학 수업의 일부로서 기획된 것입니다.

Igor is Lecturer in Global Politics at University College London. He was previously based at the Lau China Institute at King’s College London and completed his doctoral studies at SOAS, University of London, with a study on ‘creative city’ interventions in marginal urban spaces in China and Taiwan. He remains interested in the politics of space and is currently involved in several research projects examining the role of infrastructure and materials like coal and steel in global politics.

His lecture ‘Taipei’s ‘Treasure Hill’: from a marginal space to an outdoor museum’ will take place online on Friday, December 9th, 2022 (17:00-19:00). Following is the lecture’s summary:

‘Close to Taipei’s bustling university area, a small hill facing the Xindian River has been home to a small neighbourhood of illegally constructed houses that originally housed former military personnel that were evacuated to Taiwan after the Republic of China lost the civil war against the Communists. Existing on the margins of a developmental city, the small neighbourhood was meant to be demolished, but interventions by activists, the mobilisation of residents and input from experts transformed the once ‘illegal’ settlement into a hybrid social-creative project managed by the city’s cultural affairs bureau. 

The transition was however not as smooth as the city’s version of the history suggests. This talk will outline the struggles and negotiations that led to the creation of this outdoor museum. Specifically it will explore why and how more radical visions of cohabitation between artist-activists and elderly veterans were sidelined in favour of a more top-down design that has been (somewhat inaccurately) denounced as ‘gentrification’ by Taiwan’s critical audience. The experience of Treasure Hill, while in some ways unique to Taipei, nevertheless presents a compelling case study that points at the limits of ‘creative redevelopment’ of marginal urban spaces.’

Treasure Hill in Taipei (Photo: Igor Rogelja)

Talking about community design…

Forum season is about to begin. This year, it seems to be all about community design.

Blaž will talk about civic urbanisms, community design and sustainable neighbourhoods and cities on the Jeju Universal Design Forum on Monday, November 14th, 2022 and Urban Design Forum in Seoul on Friday, December 16th, 2022. He will also join the International Forum of the Institute for Urban Humanities at the University of Seoul as discussant on Wednesday, November 16th, 2022.

블라쉬는 2022년 11월 14일 월요일 제주국제유니버설디자인엑스포과 2022년 12월 16일 금요일 서울에서 열리는 더나은도시디자인포럼에서 시민적 어바니즘, 지역 사회 디자인 및 지속 가능한 이웃과 도시에 대해 이야기 할 것이다. 2022년 11월 16일 수요일 서울대학교에서 열리는 도시인문학포럼-국제포럼에 토론자로 참여한다. 

Lots of talking to do… 😛

Emerging civic urbanisms in Asia

The book Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyond Developmental Urbanization has been finally published after more than four years of hard work. The book discusses eighteen cases of grassroots activism and resistance, collaboration and placemaking, neighbourhood community building, and self-organization and commoning in Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei:

‘In parts of Asia, citizens are increasingly involved in shaping their neighbourhoods and cities, representing a significant departure from earlier state-led or market-driven urban development. These emerging civic urbanisms are a result of an evolving relationship between the state and civil society. […] Exploring how citizen participation and state–civil society partnerships contribute to more resilient and participatory neighbourhoods and cities, the authors use the concept of civic urbanisms not only as a conceptual framework to understand the ongoing social and urban change but as an aspirational model of urban governance for cities in Asia and beyond.’

This collaboration has brought together twenty-two contributors from Asia, Europe and the United States with many of them having a direct first-hand experience with civic urbanism. Blaž was involved as one of the book editors, organised the Cities after Development workshop and coauthored three book chapters.

The book is a part of the IIAS Asian Cities series and was published by the Amsterdam University Press.

아시아의 떠오르는 시민 중심 도시론

4년이 넘는 노력과 열정이 담긴 책 ‘아시아의 떠오르는 시민 중심 도시론: 발전주의 도시화 너머의 홍콩, 서울, 싱가포르 그리고 타이페이‘가 드디어 출간되었습니다. 이 책에서는 홍콩, 서울, 싱가포르, 타이페이에서 수집한 18개의 사례들을 풀뿌리 운동과 저항, 협력과 장소 만들기, 마을공동체 만들기, 자기 조직화와 공유 자산화 등의 주제로 나누어 자세히 살펴보았습니다:

아시아 곳곳에서는 도시 만들기 과정에 시민 참여의 기회가 점점 확대되고 있다. 이는 오늘날 도시 만들기 방식이 예전의 국가/시장주도 도시개발과는 다른 방향으로 진화해가고 있다는 반증이기도 하다. 아시아에서 등장하고 있는 시민 중심 도시론은 국가와 시민사회의 관계의 변화에서 얻어진 부산물이다…이 책에서는 이러한 시민 참여와 국가-시민사회의 새로운 협력관계가 마을 그리고 도시의 회복력과 포용력에 어떠한 기여를 하는지 살펴보면서, 저자는 시민 중심 도시론 개념을 아시아 도시에서 현재 진행 중인 다양한 변화를 이해하는데 필요한 개념 틀로 활용하는 동시에 아시아 밖 도시에서는 미래지향적 도시 거버넌스 모델을 상상하는데 도움 줄 수 있는 개념 틀로 제안하고자 한다.’

이 책은 아시아 외에도 유럽 및 미국 등지에서 아시아의 시민 중심 도시론 관련 연구/사업 경험이 있는 22명의 연구자와 실무자들이 모여 협력하면서 출판의 여정이 시작되었습니다. 블라쉬는 공동 편집자로 책 출판을 위한 워크숍 ‘개발 이후의 도시들(Cities after Development)’을 개최하였으며, 총 3개 챕터의 공동저자로 참여하였습니다. 그리고 이 책은 네덜란드 국제 아시아학 연구원(IIAS)의 Asian Cities북시리즈물의 일환으로 기획되었으며 출판은 암스테르담대학교 출판부(AUP)가 맡아 진행했습니다.

옥인 오픈 사이트: civic urbanism as resistance (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2010)

Community will not be designed

Blaž will participate in the opening discussion of the Community will not be Designed exhibition, on Friday, October 14th, 2022. The exhibition is curated by Alban Mannisi and will take place in the MIUM Project Space in Seoul, from October 10th to November 5th, 2022.

Blaž는 2022년 10월 14일 금요일에 열리는 Community will not be Designed 전시회의 오프닝 토론에 참여할 것입니다. 전시회는 Alban Mannisi가 큐레이션하고 2022년 10월 10일부터 11월 5일까지 서울의 MIUM 프로젝트 공간에서 열립니다.

The exhibition aims to reach beyond established political ecology by mapping community practices around the world that are environmentally conscious and grounded in local cultural and political traditions.

Appraising Gil Scott-Heron’s inspiring poem and song The Revolution will not be Televised, community practices exhibited at the Project Space MIUM suggest that community, aiming to address threatening environmental crises, will not be designed.’

Instead, selected cases of community design from Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Thailand show how environmental and social resilience can be achieved through active community engagement and interaction between humans and non-humans.

An academic symposium on environmental pedagogy will accompany the exhibition.

Community design in 대전 소제동 비타민 파크 (Photo: Baek Han Yeol, 2022)

Community design in Singapore

Our lab has invited Larry Yeung to deliver a lecture on community design in Singapore as a part of the BK21 HY-GRIP Super Seminar.

우리 연구실은 Larry Young 초빙해 공동체와 도시 커먼즈에 대한 강의를 듣고자 합니다. 이 강의는 BK21 HY-GRIP Super Seminar의 일환으로 커뮤니티 디자인에 대한 강의를 위해 Larry Yeung님을 초빙하였습니다. ‘사람을 위한 것이아닌 사람과 함께하는 디자인: 싱가포르의 커뮤니티 디자인’ 강의가 2022년 8월 3일 16시에 온라인으로 진행될 예정입니다.

Larry is a designer and community organiser from Singapore. He is currently the Executive Director of Participate in Design (P!D), a non-profit design organisation that helps neighbourhoods and public institutions design community-owned spaces and solutions. He has also been recognised as a World Cities Summit Young Leader in 2021, honouring him as one of the change-makers shaping the global urban agenda, as well as a recipient of the BCA-CPG Industrial scholarship and the URA Urban Design prize in 2014. Long ago, Larry has also spent a semester at the Hanyang University as an exchange student of architecture.

His lecture ‘Designing with people and not just for people: community design in Singapore‘ will take place online on Wednesday, August 3, 2022 at 16:00.

Neighbourhood Pop Up Ideas Market at Tampines North, Singapore (Courtesy of P!D)

Community gardening fieldwork

Community gardening fieldwork is in full swing. The fieldwork is a part of Community Development Seminar and Theory of Urban and Local Culture courses and took place for the first time after the pandemic.

Last Saturday, we visited 이음텃밭 in Songdo, Incheon (yes, Songdo is ‘the famous’ Korean smart city). 이음텃밭 was established in 2021 and has already became a successful case of community development through urban gardening. 전국도시농업시민협의회 is managing the garden. Thanks to their president and community members we have learned a lot about urban agriculture and community gardening, and spent a very hot but pleasant day in Songdo. 🥵

Earlier in April, we also visited 무지개텃밭 in Seongdong-gu, Seoul, which is a giant allotment garden, managed by the Seongdong-gu District Office. Unlike 이음텃밭, 무지개텃밭 seems to be less successful in terms of community development. It was great, though, to meet many enthusiastic gardeners there…

우리 대학원생들과의 현장실사가 2년간의 팬데믹 휴식기를 마치고 본격화되고 있다. 전국도시농업시민협의회와 성동구청, 감사합니다.

인천 송도 이음텃밭 (Photo; Blaž Križnik, 2022)
서울 성동구 무지개텃밭 (Photo: Blaž Križnik, 2022)

Community, commoning and urban commons

Our lab has invited Dr. Didi Kyoung-ae Han to deliver a lecture on community and urban commons. The lecture is a part of Theory of Urban and Local Culture, and Community Development Seminar courses.

우리 연구실은 한경애 박사를 초빙해 공동체와 도시 커먼즈에 대한 강의를 듣고자 합니다. 이 강의는 도시지역문화론과 커뮤니티개발세미나 수업의 일부로서 기획된 것입니다

Didi holds a PhD in Human Geography and Urban Studies from the London School of Economics and Political Science, and is currently a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Asian Urban Society at the Seoul National University. She is also a member of several civil society organisations in Korea and Japan, and lecturer at the Kyung Hee University in Seoul.

Her lecture ‘Community, Commoning and Urban Commons: Theories and Practices‘ will take place on Monday, May 30, 2022, at the Graduate School of Urban Studies.