In this symposium, we are interested in the following question: Is "gentrification" the best concept with which to describe what is going on in Asian cities, or do we need other—or additional—frames to understand the Asian context at the neighborhood level?
A two-day symposium on the relationship between rivers and cities. Organised by the Urban Knowledge Network Asia (UKNA), IIAS and Airlangga University, Surabaya, Indonesia.
Most cities in Asia are coastal delta cities or cities along major river systems or water bodies. Current policy discourses on water in cities—in Asia and worldwide—tend to treat water narrowly as a threat and as an element to engineer against and overcome (in the case of floods) or (in the case of scarcity) as a resource to be better managed and regulated. What is missing in this rather uni-dimensional and technocratic approach to water is an appreciation of the multiple engagements between human beings and water, in historical context.