I have posted earlier (see here) about a new forthcoming book from @Palgrave_, Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia, and it is my pleasure to confirm that the book proof has been finalised and it’s ready for the final production. The book’s cover image is also finalised and is attached here as follows. The image shows an aerial view of Taipei City – the selection of Taipei City was a conscious decision, as the image depicts a mix of diverse urban forms as well as the juxtaposition of both nature and the second nature (the built environment) in an urban space that presents a palimpsest of layers of social relations and histories of contestations. All these speak to the main themes of the book.

https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137517500

What is the book about?

Considering Asian cities ranging from Taipei, Hong Kong and Bangkok to Hanoi, Nanjing and Seoul, this collection discusses the socio-political processes of how neoliberalization entwines with local political economies and legacies of ‘developmental’ or ‘socialist’ statism to produce urban contestations centered on housing. The book takes housing as a key entry point, given its prime position in the making of social and economic policies as well as the political legitimacy of Asian states. It examines urban policies related to housing in Asian economies in order to explore their continuing alterations and mutations, as they come into conflict and coalesce with neoliberal policies. In discussing the experience of each city, it takes into consideration the variegated relations between the state, the market and the society, and explores how the global pressure of neoliberalization has manifested in each country and has influenced the shaping of national housing questions.

Table of Contents

  • Chapter 1. Centering Housing Questions in Asian Cities (Yi-Ling Chen and Hyun Bang Shin)
  • Chapter 2. ‘Re-occupying the State’: Social Housing Movement and the Transformation of Housing Policies in Taiwan (Yi-Ling Chen)
  • Chapter 3. Displacement by Neoliberalism: Addressing the Housing Crisis of Hong Kong in the Restructuring of Pearl River Delta Region (Shu-Mei Huang)
  • Chapter 4. When Neoliberalization Meets Clientelism: Housing Policies for Low- and Middle-Income Housing in Bangkok (Thammarat Marohabutr)
  • Chapter 5. Neoliberal Urbanism Meets Socialist Modernism: Vietnam’s Post-Reform Housing Policies and the New Urban Zones of Hanoi (Hoai Anh Tran and Ngai-Ming Yip)
  • Chapter 6. Beyond Property Rights and Displacement: China’s Neoliberal Transformation and Housing Inequalities (Zhao Zhang)
  • Chapter 7. Development and Inequality in Urban China: The Privatization of Homeownership and the Transformation of Everyday Practice (Sarah Tynen)
  • Chapter 8. Weaving the Common in the Financialized City: A Case of Urban Cohousing Experience in South Korea (Didi K. Han)
  • Chapter 9. Contesting Property Hegemony in Asian Cities (Hyun Bang Shin)