Post-developmental urbanism

The feasibility of a peace, commoning, and sustainability-oriented East Asian urbanism in the era of post-developmentalism.

Photograph of the South Korea city train travelling through Seoul.

This project involves a generous, multi-investigator grant from the National Research Foundation of Korea and an international team of researchers with an agenda to examine 'the feasibility of a peace, commoning, and sustainability-oriented East Asian urbanism in the era of post-developmentalism' over four years (2017-2021).

To do so, the research team is exploring four aspects of post-developmentalist urbanism in East Asia:

  1. inclusive, commoning cities;
  2. de-growth, resilient cities;
  3. sustainable cities for transition; and
  4. post-cold war cities of peace.

The award has also funded the establishment of the Seoul National University Center for Asian Cities (CAC), in Seoul, South Korea, out of which the research is organised.

The CAC plans to propose alternative post-developmentalist East Asian urban paradigm through:

  1. focusing on the urban-centred multiscalar relationship;
  2. emphasizing commoning practices that challenge exclusive territorial ownership models that drive speculative urbanization, and;
  3. examining de-growth urbanization measures that overcome growth-oriented productivism.

Project collaborators

Jamie Doucette is a Co-Investigator on this project. To see the full list of collaborators visit the SNU CAC website.

Notable outputs

  • Doucette J and Park BG (eds). 2019 Developmentalist Cities? Interrogating Urban Developmentalism in East Asia. Leiden: Brill
  • Doucette J and Park BG 2018 “Urban Developmentalism in East Asia: Geopolitical Economies, Spaces of Exception, and Networks of Expertise.” Critical Sociology  44 (3) 395-403.