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The City and the Bottom Line: Urban Megaprojects and the Privatization of Planning in Southeast Asia

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  • Gavin Shatkin

    (Urban Planning Program, University of Michigan, 2000 Bonisteel Boulevard, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA)

Abstract

Prevailing perspectives on the impacts of globalization on urban form in large, globalizing cities in Asia hold that these cities are experiencing an inexorable process of ‘Westernization’ or ‘Americanization’. Yet this focus on convergence distracts us from the task of analyzing urban change and its causes, leading to analytical muddiness and awkward planning and policy implications. The author presents an alternative framework that focuses on actor-centered analysis, and the importance of understanding historical context. This framework is employed in a case study of recent trends in urban development in Metro Manila, based on interviews, government, private sector, and nonprofit sector documents, and newspapers. It is concluded that, in Metro Manila, a defining characteristic of contemporary urban development is the unprecedented privatization of urban and regional planning. Large developers have conceived of urban development plans on a metrowide scale, and begun to implement these with the assistance of government. This phenomenon has its roots in the historical development of social groups in the Philippines and their shifting interests with the globalization of the Philippine economy. The author concludes that the privatization of planning raises distinct issues for urban planning theory and practice.

Suggested Citation

  • Gavin Shatkin, 2008. "The City and the Bottom Line: Urban Megaprojects and the Privatization of Planning in Southeast Asia," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 40(2), pages 383-401, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:40:y:2008:i:2:p:383-401
    DOI: 10.1068/a38439
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

    1. Claire W. Herbert & Martin J. Murray, 2015. "Building from Scratch: New Cities, Privatized Urbanism and the Spatial Restructuring of Johannesburg after Apartheid," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(3), pages 471-494, May.
    2. Jinhee Park, 2019. "Neoliberalism Meets “Gangnam Style”: Vernacular Private Sector and Large Urban Developments in Seoul," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 62-72.
    3. Il Lee & Soe Won Hwang, 2018. "Urban Entertainment Center (UEC) as a Redevelopment Strategy for Large-Scale Post-Industrial Sites in Seoul: Between Public Policy and Privatization of Planning," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-17, October.
    4. Eran Weinberg & Nir Cohen & Orit Rotem-Mindali, 2019. "LUD as an Instrument for (Sub)Metropolitanization: The 1000-District in Rishon-Lezion, Israel as a Case Study," Urban Planning, Cogitatio Press, vol. 4(4), pages 18-30.
    5. Lukas, Michael & López-Morales, Ernesto, 2018. "Real estate production, geographies of mobility and spatial contestation: A two-case study in Santiago de Chile," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 92-101.
    6. Katherine E. Laycock & Carrie L. Mitchell, 2019. "Social capital and incremental transformative change: responding to climate change experts in Metro Manila," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 152(1), pages 47-66, January.
    7. Koki Seki, 2015. "Capitalizing on Desire: Reconfiguring ‘the Social’ and the Government of Poverty in the Philippines," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 46(6), pages 1253-1276, November.
    8. Gabriel Fauveaud, 2016. "Residential Enclosure, Power and Relationality: Rethinking Sociopolitical Relations in Southeast Asian Cities," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(4), pages 849-865, July.
    9. Sara Meerow, 2017. "Double exposure, infrastructure planning, and urban climate resilience in coastal megacities: A case study of Manila," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(11), pages 2649-2672, November.

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