Neoliberalization of urban planning and spatial inequalities in Asian megacities: Focus on Tokyo, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Mumbai

Abstract

Asian megacities have been experiencing profound transformation and growing spatial inequality, particularly under globalization and neoliberal shifts in Asian countries. This paper aims to explore the transformation of urban planning systems under the influence of neoliberalization of urban policies and the resultant spatial inequality through empirical case studies in selected Asian megacities: Tokyo, Bangkok, Jakarta, and Mumbai. We claim that the very nature of the urbanization process in Asian megacities lies in the urban areas hitherto regarded as “informal” in urban planning schemata. The four cases empirically showed that the process of urbanization in Asian megacities is characterized by the coexistence of self-shaped urban areas (SUAs) and planned urban areas (PUAs). Finally, we concluded that a neoliberal shift in urban planning regulatory frameworks has progressed since the 1990s when the market-oriented neoliberal doctrine began to spread worldwide, that the process of urbanization in Asian megacities is characterized by significant spatial inequality between SUAs and PUAs, and that the actual processes of urbanization and spatial morphology vary significantly from city to city.