Exploring Urbanization, Informality, Culture, and Heritage in Developing Cities

Defining informality in the context of cities in developing worlds

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define informality in the context of cities in developing worlds
2. Explain the impact of urbanization on heritage and spatial rootedness, particularly in relation to the production and consumption of urban spaces
3. Identify implications of urbanization on arts and culture
4. Discuss how urban social movements emerge and their possibilities to flourish

Have you seen ‘muddy paths’ that come to be because too many people use unpaved areas as shortcuts?

Take a picture of one ‘muddy path’ in Singapore, and take another picture of the muddy path’s surroundings to provide the context. Place a pin on Google Map to identify the location. Write a short explanation (less than 100 words) about where the location is and the two points between which this ‘muddy path’ provides a shortcut. Post your two photos and short explanations on Canvas before class meets for the fourth face-to-face seminar

Open the website of The Green Corridor in Singapore (www.thegreencorridor.org) to learn about the initiative.
• What is the Green Corridor in Singapore?
• When did the Green Corridor start?
• Why was the Green Corridor proposed to the Singapore Government?
• Who are the active actors involved in the Green Corridor idea, proposal, and initiative?
• How does the Green Corridor sustains its initiative?
• What can we learn from the Green Corridor in terms of possibilities for alternative development in Singapore?

What did Gavin Shatkin (2004) mean by ‘selective memory of urban planners and policy-makers’ in Metro Manila’s new policy agenda?
a. Urban planners and policy-makers do not have good grasps of the city’s history.
b. Disregard of potential market failure in using the primacy of market measures in community improvement, among others.
c. The treatment of informal settlements as neglected and forgotten under Ferdinand Marcos’ presidential regime.
d. The urban planners in Metro Manila conveniently forgot about the role of the private sector in housing provision.

2. What was the problematic driving force of Kampung Glam’s official concepts of heritage preservation, according to Tajudeen (2007)?
a. The conversion of the Istana into a Malay Heritage Centre.
b. The competition between Kampung Glam and the Malay Village at Geylang Serai.
c. The government’s involvement in the process of heritage preservation.
d. Artificiality that is derived from state obsession with economic return.

3. Why did Claire Leow find her home and heart in Bukit Brown Cemetery?
a. She felt lost after eight years being away because so many places have changed, but Bukit Brown Cemetery connected her to Singapore’s history and to what it means to be home.
b. Ms. Leow is a successful career woman, but she was so busy that she never had time to go around Singapore very much, and to her surprise many places have gone and changed without her knowing. She found that Bukit Brown


Cemetery, a place that is reach in history, teaches her much about the places that have gone, and defines Singapore as her home.
c. She feels strongly that Singapore’s development is going the wrong way, hence the demolition of graves at Bukit Brown Cemetery to make the highway and new residential area should not happen.
d. She is a nature lover and found Bukit Brown Cemetery as a place she can connect with as her home and heart. The reason is because there are many species of plants, trees and birds that are not found in other parts of Singapore have made Bukit Brown Cemetery their home as well.

4. What was one of the examples that Ana Falú used in her lecture to illustrate the different life experiences for men and women in the same city?
a. The economically active population in Brazil are predominantly white men.
b. Money is the most important measure of losses by not having a gender approach in planning transportation in Mexico City.
c. Violence and discrimination of women in public spaces result in increasing security of women in private spaces.
d. All of the above.

5. What is the important step to be taken in the case of improving women’s futures in Bengaluru, according to Bowers (2018)?
a. Change of leadership in Bengaluru to transform the state into a progressive government.
b. Devalue manual skills and focus on service skillsets.
c. Open more infrastructure projects in Karnataka to provide more employment opportunities for women.
d. Collaborate and unite workers to strengthen women’s capacity to aspire.