Everyday geographies\xa0in the changing city: subjective photo-routes in Mandalay, Myanmar

Matteo Puttilli

doi:10.1007/s10708-020-10263-8

Abstract

This work upholds the importance of questioning young people to find out their point of view on urban transformation and grasp their perception and representation of the changes. Hence, the paper presents the methodology and results of an autophotography activity, and more specifically photo-routing organized in March 2018 with a group of young undergraduates at Mandalay University, Myanmar. In the sphere of this activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their relationship with the urban space and to use a camera to capture significant places and situations in their everyday experience of the city, with the goal of exploring their personal point of view on the changes occurring in it, both from a tangible and intangible perspective, in addition to how they are reflected in the everyday practice of the city. The idea at the basis of the research-intervention is that the focus on everyday life through qualitative and visual investigation techniques enables the emergence of some of the—both conscious and not—more-than-representational ways in which people—a group of young adults in this specific case—perceive and live the processual nature of the city. Results show that the photo-route tool proved to be particularly effective in stimulating a critical gaze on the city and the changes underway, to acquire awareness of the constantly in-becoming nature of the places and reflect in an introspective manner on their own life course in relation to the city. Thus, the paper provides a contribution “from below” to the reflections on urban transformations going on in Southeast Asian cities and, more precisely, in Myanmar.

Highlights

In a recent introduction to a special issue of the Children Geographies journal focusing on the future of young people in Asia, Susanne Naafs and Tracey Skelton (2018) reflect on the changes underway in what can be considered ‘‘the most dynamic region on the planet’’
In the sphere of this activity, the participants were asked to reflect on their relationship with the urban space and to use a camera to capture significant places and situations in their everyday experience of the city, with the final goal of exploring their personal point of view on the changes occurring in it, both from a tangible and intangible perspective, in addition to how they are reflected in the everyday practice of the city
This paper gives the results of a research-intervention performed in Mandalay, Myanmar, in the field of visual studies, and more precisely auto-photography, involving the creation and realization of photoroutes through the city

Summary

Introduction

In a recent introduction to a special issue of the Children Geographies journal focusing on the future of young people in Asia, Susanne Naafs and Tracey Skelton (2018) reflect on the changes underway in what can be considered ‘‘the most dynamic region on the planet’’. In the context of Myanmar’s development strategy and of the Urban Development Plan for Mandalay, the city is identified, along with Yangon, as one of the two poles in the ‘‘two-polar growth model’’ at the centre of the vision forthe nation’s economic evolution in the 20 years (ADB 2014; Union of Myanmar 2016a, b) This development model foresees a process of further industrialization and huge investments in national and international road, air and rail transport systems, as well as in the development of the existing river port, in view of making Mandalay a centre for the development of the northern part of the country as well as a new, complex and growing trade hub in the heartland of South-East Asia (LaGeS 2016; Kim 2018). The images and above all the comments give reflections and cues on the highly in-becoming nature of student life which is constantly on the move (both in space, and time) and enable the participants to tell their story by storying the city: on one hand, by sharing the profound changes that the encounter with Mandalay has generated in their lives, especially for those who come from other, less densely inhabited areas of the country; on the other hand, by revealing their geographies and everyday strategies to make the city ‘‘their own’’ and share spaces and places with their peers and other people of their age

Conclusions

Findings

Compliance with ethical standards