Decontextualisation: Some issues in the Southeast Asian urban and regional spatial constructs

• Main Author: Boon-Thong, L.
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Published: IOP PUBLISHING LTD 2020
• Subjects: TD Environmental technology. Sanitary engineering; TH Building construction
• Online Access: http://eprints.um.edu.my/36994/

The problem of urban system in Southeast Asian countries (with the exception of Singapore, which is a city-state) is top-heavy. In the latter case, if the larger urban region of Jabotabek is considered, Jakarta has a population of some 30 million population, making it the largest urban conurbation in Southeast Asia! What led to these macrocephalic tendencies in Southeast Asia? This keynote paper briefly reviews the overall trend of Southeast Asian urbanisation and urban growth; and asseverates that the reactions/counter-reactions to these processes have decontextualised a quintessential and important maxim - ``it is the people (whether social, cultural, or physical) that matters in cities''. There are three recognisable urbanisation processes and urban growth patterns in the last five to seven decades in Southeast Asia: 1) Superinduced Metropolitan Development, 2) Extended Metropolitan Region, and 3) Urban Convolution. Some disturbing features in the current strategies. Social disparity, Fragmented solution to QOL problems, Growing lead-lag disparity and Decontextualisation at the local level. Several pertinent questions ought to be asked. Will greenfield urban space development, like smart cities and new capital cities, lose their underlying charm of informality, like the para-transits (trishaws, tut-tuts) or the popular Southeast Asian al-fresco eateries (the street food vendors and hawkers)?