civil society for itself and in the public sphere: comparative Research on Globalization, Cities and Civic Space in Pacific Asia

How the rise of civil society intersects with globalization can be seen in the spaces of cities. Here called “civic spaces” – inclusive social spaces with a high degree of autonomy from the state and corporate economy – the focus is on identifying and tracing the on-going uses and transformations of these spaces in Pacific Asia cities. Taking the view that civil society is as much ‘for itself’ as it is potentially engaged in the public sphere of politics, the concept of civic space is defined in contrast to exclusive civil society spaces and state or corporate economy colonization of public spaces. A general timeline of globalization processes is presented to show that not only do local contexts matter greatly but also that the world system is dynamically changing through time. Particularly since the mid-1980s, the confluence of the globalization of the factory and assembly system, finance capital, franchise consumerism, and international worker migration in Pacific Asia has been part of the radical growth and social as well as physical restructuring of cities. At the same time, globally-linked economic growth and access to information beyond that provided by state-controlled media have promoted the rise of civil society calling for popular inclusion in the decisions about rights to the city. These converging forces are intensifying contestations from within civil society over urban governance.

Six general contemporary trends and related issues with regard to civic spaces are identified from on-going research in urbanization and civic space: (1) the acceleration and polarization of urbanization; (2) the shift from national civil society-state contestations to civil society-global economy and cultural confrontations; (3) increasing multicultural make up of metropolitan regions and the impending crisis of citizenship; (4) growing inequality and social fragmentation; and (5) the city, civil society and the search for new forms of governance.