Globalization, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia

The Social Production of Civic Spaces

Globalization, the City and Civil Society in Pacific Asia presents a detailed examination of the underlying issues of urban life in the Far East.

Leading authorities on globalization and politics in the region cover key themes of continuity and change:

• relationships between civil society and the production of urban spaces. Chapters focus on various types of ‘civic spaces’ that provide spaces for life that are autonomous from state and capital
• ten case studies explore a wide variety of contexts ranging from spaces where lower classes congregated in ancient Chinese cities to cyberspaces of the contemporary internet
• the history and role of civil society in social and political philosophies of societies in the Pacific Asia region
• tendencies and issues related to specific types of civic spaces in a given city. Several studies find that great stress has been placed on long-standing community and civic spaces
• common themes, patterns and issues as well as singularities of each particular context. In this way it can contribute to the broader (mostly Western) literature on society and space
• the future of cities in Pacific Asia from the perspective of civic space. Can civic spaces be routinely created rather than appropriated through civil society-state-economy struggles?

Most research on globalization and civil society has focused on the West, this unique book brings together a tight analysis and a series of ten case studies on Pacific Asian countries. It also theorizes and empirically explores the relationships between civil society and the production of urban spaces.