Whither progressive urban futures? Critical reflections on the politics of temporality in Asia

Abstract

Compressed development experiences, especially in Asia, have translated into expectations for ‘fast cities’ where time and space are compressed to materialise ‘real’ Asia experiences. However, what does ‘fast urbanism’ mean for those who see Asian cites as reference points? Moreover, what does ‘fast urbanism’ mean for those who have living memories of such fast-paced development, and how might this be different for their future generations? This intervention addresses these two questions by reflecting on the politics of temporality, calling for critical attention to the ideological imposition of ‘fast’ development in Asia and beyond. We argue that the ‘Asian speed’ of development was enabled in specific historical and geographical conjunctures, which entailed the appropriation of individual and collective aspirations through the invention of a certain kind of futurity and, in so doing, consolidated local politico-economic structures that displace both the present and the future.

Keywords:

• fast urbanism
• condensed development
• embodied temporality
• urban futures
• urban politics
• Asia

Acknowledgements

Hyun Bang Shin thanks the participants and audience at the following events where some of the arguments in this article were presented: Brown Bag seminar, Khazanah Research Institute, Kuala Lumpur (December 2019); International Journal of Urban and Regional Research Public Lecture, London (November 2019); International Workshop, Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (August 2019).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 In this paper, ‘Asia’ is largely referring to East and Southeast Asia, bearing in mind that such regional boundary making is relative and to some extent artificial, and that ‘Asia’ may come with diverse definitions (see Sidaway et al. 2016).

2 Indeed, China’s massive stimuli package that included huge amounts of state-mobilised investment in expanding nation-wide high speed rail network was in part an extension of GDP-ism to overcome the damage inflicted by the global financial crisis of 2008/09 and to ensure numbered growth targets were to be achieved.

3 Here broadly defined as to include South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong and mainland China (and to some extent, some of the Southeast Asian economies that used to be referred to as 'tiger cub economies’).

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Tackling the UK’s International Challenges 2018 grant [reference: IC3\100155] provided by the British Academy. Hyun Bang Shin also acknowledges the financial support from the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government [NRF- 2017S1A3A2066514].

Notes on contributors

Hyun Bang Shin

Hyun Bang Shin is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies in the Department of Geography and Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science and Director of the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. Email: [email protected]

Yimin Zhao

Yimin Zhao is Assistant Professor in Urban Planning and Management at the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China. Email: [email protected]

Sin Yee Koh

Sin Yee Koh is Senior Lecturer in Global Studies in the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Monash University Malaysia. Email: [email protected]