https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9350-1119
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ABSTRACT
While green urbanism has been discussed extensively in the urban studies literature, less attention has been paid to the micropolitics of its cross-border transplantation. Using the case of Forest City, a mainland Chinese developer-led mega-project in the Iskandar Malaysia, we analyze the different ways green urbanism has been deployed in speculative city-making. The state seeks to position Iskandar Malaysia as greener than its global competitors, while the developer consolidates its brand image and marketing aesthetics with selective “green and smart” techniques, yet at the cost of local residents’ habitat. In moving mountains to green the sea, the logic of speculative urbanization prevails and presides over sustainable and equitable green urbanism. Further attention to the complex local power nexus and the micropolitics of speculative green urbanism contextualizes different stakeholders’ rationales and practices, and contributes to critical reflections on the entanglement of green urbanism and speculative urbanization.
Acknowledgments
We thank all the interviewees who have kindly shared their views with us, and also our research assistants, Bor Tsong Teh, Sharifah Azlinah Syed Abdul Rahiman Al-Aydeross, and Amira Abdul Rahim in Malaysia; and Kang Li and Minyi Li in China, for their assistance. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at the RC21 Annual Conference 2019 in Delhi, India and 2020 LSE SEAC Southeast Asia Week. We thank the commentators and audience members for their helpful suggestions. The support of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre is also greatly appreciated. The usual disclaimer applies.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. Malaysia retains a federal system, with 13 negeri (or state) and three Wilayah Persekutuan (federal territories). We use the local expression “negeri” to distinguish it from the more general usage of the state as in nation state.
2. Nine of the negeri, including Johor, are headed by hereditary constitutional monarchs. The Sultan, the head of state and the head of the Islamic religion in his state, has discretionary powers in appointing the Menteri Besar (i.e. Chief Minister), the head of government in his state.
3. See the discussion of “Global China” in the introduction to this special issue.
4. Following the 2013 general elections where the ruling coalition lost the popular vote but gained parliamentary majority, Najib’s administration was particularly keen to secure new FDI sources (Gomez et al., Citation2020, p. 7).
5. Forest City is not the only mega-project in Iskandar Malaysia that has caused such irreversible impacts (see Barau, Citation2017), nor is it the only project with urban forms that clash with the surrounding peri-urban and rural areas (see Rizzo, Citation2020).
6. Launched by Singapore’s Building and Construction Authority in 2005.
7. Launched by Green Building Council of Australia in 2003.
8. The Group’s first international urban development project is Country Garden Danga Bay, also in Iskandar Malaysia.
9. Forest City signages and landscaping appear on both sides of the six-kilometer motorway from the highway exit interchange to the show unit.
10. The average house price in Johor in 2018Q2 was RM327,173 (source: Valuation and Property Services Department, Ministry of Finance), while the mean monthly household disposable income was RM5,966 in 2016 and RM6,923 in 2019 (Department of Statistics Malaysia [DOSM], Citation2020).
11. Indeed, Moser and Avery (Citation2021) note that plastic green foliage and plastic animals were used to create the illusion of “green” walls and lush tropical landscapes throughout the development.
12. Southeast coastal area of Johor, about 140 km from Forest City.