Webinar: Gentrification in Thailand
Date and Time: Jan 25, 2023 | 12:00-1:15pm GMT
Register via Zoom webinar [new window]
SEAC hosts Dr Napong Tao Rugkhapan (Chulalongkorn University) who will reflect on the phenomenon of gentrification in Bangkok, Thailand. Drawing upon recent developments in comparative urban theory, postcolonial theory, and comparative gentrification studies, the seminar wrestles with the productive absence of the term ‘gentrification’ in Thai(land). The linguistic vacuum has allowed local actors to differently define the English term to suit their agendas. The local renditions range from literal translations to awkward mouthfuls to hopeful urban reimaginations. The multivocality goes to affirm not only the complexity of gentrification, but also the broader politics of competing local claims to land. This event will take place online via Zoom.
Speaker and Chair Biographies:
Napong Tao Rugkhapan is Assistant Professor of Urban Planning at the Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. A geographer of urban planning, Rugkhapan is interested in the broad geographic impact of planning interventions. His current research explores the politics of urban transformation of old-town Bangkok, whereby planning instruments are mobilized towards the twofold goal of heritage preservation and tourism promotion. His second line of research explores the architecture of diasporic Chinese heritage in Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City, Penang, and Singapore.
Prof. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and directs the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of speculative urbanisation, gentrification and displacement, urban spectacles, and urbanism with particular attention to Asian cities. His books include Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience (Routledge, 2021), and The Political Economy of Mega Projects in Asia: Globalization and Urban Transformation (Routledge, forthcoming). He is Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and is also a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.