Suchergebnisse

From World City to the World in One Cityexamines changing geographies of Liverpool through and across the lives of Malay seamen who arrived in the city during its final years as a major imperial port. Draws upon life histories and memories of people who met at the Malay Club in Liverpool until its closure in 2007, to examine changing urban sites and landscapes as well as the city's historically shifting constitutive connectionsIn considering the historical presence of Malay seamen in Liverpool, draws attention to a group which has previously received only passing mention in historical and geographical studies of both that city, and of multi-ethnic Britain more widelyDemonstrates that Liverpool-based Malay men sustained social connections with Southeast Asia long before scholars began to use terms such as 'globalization' or 'transnationalism'Based on a diverse range of empirical data, including interviews with members of the Malay Club in Liverpool and interviews in Southeast Asia, as well as archival and secondary sourcesAccessibly-written for non-academic audiences interested in the history and urban social geography of Liverpool Tim Bunnellis Associate Professor in the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore. He is the author of Malaysia, Modernity and the Multimedia Super Corridor: A Critical Geography of Intelligent Landscapes (2004) and co-editor of Cleavage, Connection and Conflict in Rural, Urban and Contemporary Asia(2013).

AbstractIn 1991, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, announced Vision 2020 to make the country 'fully developed' by that year. Launched during a period of rapid economic growth, Vision 2020 legitimized Mahathir's developmental penchant for spectacular urban megaprojects and ambitious technological experimentation. While hopes of reaching Vision 2020's crude GDP targets were dashed even before the end of the 1990s (largely as a result of the Asian financial crisis), and Mahathir stepped down from office in 2003, the year 2020 retained significance as a horizon of expectation for a generation of Malaysians. In this Interventions essay I look back at three decades of Vision 2020 from the temporal vantage point of 2020. The lead‐up to that year saw political, popular and artistic retrospection on Vision 2020, spurred in part by nonagenarian Mahathir's return to power. Contextually, 'Where is the future?' articulates unrealized technological and developmental expectations from peak Vision 2020. Conceptually, the essay offers a critical geography of political futures past—demonstrating the constitutive spatiality of future expectations and the diverse ways in which elite developmental visions are engaged in life geographies, spaces of experience and representational practices.

AbstractThe lives of seafarers may provide examples of transnational connections prior to the globally interconnected era in which 'transnationalism' has risen to prominence. In this article, I examine the long‐distance connections of seafarers from Southeast Asia who settled in Liverpool, UK. Drawing on oral history/life story interviews with Malay pakcik‐pakcik (elders) in Liverpool, I examine the ways in which connections with Southeast Asia have changed over the course of their lives. Much of this concerns political geography, which is often overlooked in the literature on transnationalism. During the period of Liverpool's pre‐eminence as a seaport, irrespective of the depth or intensity of maritime linkages with Southeast Asia, connections did not involve the crossing of 'national' borders. Ironically, transnational connections are being forged in the post‐maritime stages of the lives of pakcik‐pakcik in Liverpool. I also show how Malay 'transnationalization' has resulted from expanded technological possibilities for long‐distance travel and communications. Post‐maritime transnationalization takes place in a 'community' clubhouse in Toxteth where the lives, emotional attachments and memories of pakcik‐pakcik are intertwined with those of people with diverse connections to contemporary Malaysia and Singapore.

Bunnell reviews BEYOND METROPOLIS: The Planning and Governance of Asia's Mega-Urban Regions by Aprodicio A. Laquian.