Intellectuals and the production of space in the urban renewal process in Hong Kong and Taipei

Abstract

Through two concrete urban renewal cases in Asia, this paper develops a schema of “social engineers-smugglers-experts-critical experts” to differentiate the roles of system-maintaining and system-transforming intellectuals in the production of space. While pro-establishment “social engineers” and “experts” use their “epistemic authority” to produce top-down renewal plans to promote exchange values, “critical experts” outside the government and “smugglers” within the bureaucracy play significant roles in “de-coding” the use values of people's lived spaces. The cases highlight the important roles of system-transforming intellectuals in re-problematizing urban renewal issues and experimenting with alternative policies and plans to restructure space that sustains community building.