Chen, Y-L. and Shin, H.B. (eds.) (2019) Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia. Palgrave Macmillan
Publisher’s web site: https://www.palgrave.com/us/book/9781137517500#reviews
Book description
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.
Endorsements
“The fast-growing cities of Asia present problems of analysis that do not fit easily into the framework adopted by scholars examining cities in the West. While Asian cities are also undergoing neoliberalization, the strong hand of the state in shaping development within them causes institutional processes and distributive outcomes to differ from those in North America and Europe. Nowhere is this more significant than in the housing sector. In its examination and comparison of a range of Asian cities, this edited volume makes a significant contribution to our understanding of the interactions of the state and real-estate capital under conditions of rapid development, neoliberalization, and state sponsorship.” (Susan S. Fainstein, Senior Research Fellow, Harvard Graduate School of Design, USA, and author of The City Builders, The Just City)
“It is great to have this edited volume to critically address recent housing questions in Aisan cities. By showing how housing has become a key contested field in Asian cities, the contributions in this book nicely challenge the property hegemony of Asian societies, and enliven the debates on how to construct progressive alternatives for Asian urbanism. This engaging work definitely deserves a wide audience.” (Bae-Gyoon Park, Professor, Seoul National University, South Korea)
Book review: International Journal of Housing Policy