Changing the geographies of sub/urban theory: Asian perspectives

Abstract

ABSTRACT This special issue examines the intersection of global suburbanization and Asian urbanism. The papers provide a perspective from the examination of peripheral areas in fast growing Asian metropolitan regions. From the standpoint of the peripheral space of Jakarta, Kusno challenges the prediction that the logic of capital accumulation would eventually lead to a complete urban area, leaving behind the rural. From the vantage point of Gurgaon at the edge of New Delhi, Gururani argues that many villages straddle the rural–urban divide and are embedded in property development. Describing urban villages, new towns and gated estates in peri-urban Guangzhou, Li et al. portray an assemblage of the local state, villagers, real estate developers and middle-class consumers. Investigating transit-oriented development in Shanghai, Shen and Wu reveal how the concept is borrowed by key state-owned developers to finance infrastructure development. Without proposing a concept of Asian suburbanism, the papers depict a complex urban world in Asia.