1st Edition

Transcultural Cities Border-Crossing and Placemaking

Edited By Jeffrey Hou Copyright 2013
    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    336 Pages
    by Routledge

    Transcultural Cities uses a framework of transcultural placemaking, cross-disciplinary inquiry and transnational focus to examine a collection of case studies around the world, presented by a multidisciplinary group of scholars and activists in architecture, urban planning, urban studies, art, environmental psychology, geography, political science, and social work. The book addresses the intercultural exchanges as well as the cultural trans-formation that takes place in urban spaces. In doing so, it views cultures not in isolation from each other in today’s diverse urban environments, but as mutually influenced, constituted and transformed.

    In cities and regions around the globe, migrations of people have continued to shape the makeup and making of neighborhoods, districts, and communities. For instance, in North America, new immigrants have revitalized many of the decaying urban landscapes, creating renewed cultural ambiance and economic networks that transcend borders. In Richmond, BC Canada, an Asian night market has become a major cultural event that draws visitors throughout the region and across the US and Canadian border. Across the Pacific, foreign domestic workers in Hong Kong transform the deserted office district in Central on weekends into a carnivalesque site. While contributing to the multicultural vibes in cities, migration and movements have also resulted in tensions, competition, and clashes of cultures between different ethnic communities, old-timers, newcomers, employees and employers, individuals and institutions.

    In Transcultural Cities Jeffrey Hou and a cross-disciplinary team of authors argue for a more critical and open approach that sees today’s cities, urban places, and placemaking as vehicles for cross-cultural understanding.

     

    Preface Jeffrey Hou Part One. Placemaking at the Margins 1 Transcultural Placemaking: Intertwined Spaces of Sacred and Secular on Devon Avenue, Chicago Arijit Sen 2 Brazilian Restaurants and the Transcultural Making of Place in Tokyo, Japan Vera Zambonelli 3 West African Immigrants’ Hybrid Spaces and Identities in Rainier Valley, Seattle Rachel Miller 4 The Sin Oh Dan Street Lion Dance Competition: a Temporary Space for Cross-cultural Understanding Jayde Lin Roberts Part Two. Placemaking in the Space of Flows 5 The Korean Diaspora in Philippine Cities: Amalgamation or Invasion?  José Edgardo Gomez, Jr. 6 The Transcultural Production of Space: Making “Little Shanghai” in Sydney Duangfang Lu & Hongguang He 7 Listening to Transcultural Voices, Watching out for Trans-Asian Places: Kampung Kanthan in Transition  Shenglin Elijah Chang & Yenchew Foo  8 Everyday Places that Connect Disparate Homelands: Remembering through the City Clare Rishbeth Part Three. Bridging Spaces of Difference 9 “We are the Fruit Bowl”: Place, Cultural Identity and Social Ties among Immigrant Residents in Public Housing Lynne C. Manzo 10 Spaces of Negotiation and Engagement in Multi-ethnic Ethnoscapes: The “Cambodia Town Neighborhood” in Central Long Beach, California  Felicity Hwee-Hwa Chan 11 From a Neighborhood of Strangers to a Political Community of Fate: The Village of Market Creek Plaza Michael Rios 12Dumb White Kids and Asian Nerds? Race and Ethnic Relations in Silicon Valley Suburban Schools Willow Lung Amam Part Four. Building Communities across Cultures 13 The Road Less Travelled: Transcultural Community Building  Caitlin Cahill 14 Creating Political and Social Spaces for Transcultural Community Integration Trinh Mai & Kimberly Schmit 15 Transcultural Participation: Designing with Immigrant Communities in Seattle’s International District Jeffrey Hou 16 Urban Agriculture as “Agricultural” Producer Adam Prince Part Five. Struggles for Transcultural Cities 17 What’s Parks Got to Do with It? Latino Children, Physical Activity, and the Parks System in Lancaster, Pennsylvania  Mallika Bose & Kirk Dimond 18 Placemaking In Between Urban Redevelopment: Little Indonesia in Taipei Hung-Ying Chen 19 Regulation and Reception of Public Space in Hong Kong Kin Wai Michael Siu 20 Peripheralization and Other Roman Stories Lorenzo Rinelli Notes on Contributors

    Biography

    Jeffrey Hou is Associate Professor and Chair of Landscape Architecture at the University of Washington.

    "Covering a diversity of cities all over the world, this collection of case studies is invaluable for its breadth of geographical scope. In providing a myriad of examples, the lessons gleaned from the case studies are many and wide-ranging… This book is an excellent contribution to the field of diversity planning and a valuable resource for researchers and practitioners involved in global, immigration and urban issues." – Serene K Tan, People, Place and Policy, University of Toronto, Canada