Globalisation and liveable cities: Experiences in place-making in Pacific Asia

Abstract

As cities in Pacific Asia become more tightly integrated into the global economy, issues of liveability need to be considered alongside economic vitality. While place-marketing projects may work to strengthen the economic capacities of the city, their scales and costs strain city budgets and create significant displacements of local residents and businesses. Efforts to create an attractive, themed product may bleach places of their diversity. These impacts require us to question the importance given to such ventures, and to insert the place-making efforts of local communities and agents in creating convivial and liveable urban environments into the global city research agenda. Such an approach argues for a shift in focus from examining the city in terms of its economic competitiveness to a better understanding of the local textures of the city by incorporating social and political processes