1st Edition
Governing Cities Asia's Urban Transformation
This book presents the latest research on three issues of crucial importance to Asian cities: governance, livability, and sustainability. Together, these issues canvass the salient trends defining Asian urbanization and are explored through an eclectic compendium of studies that represent the many voices of this diverse region. Examining the processes and implications of Asian urbanization, the book interweaves practical cases with theories and empirical rigor while lending insight and complexity into the towering challenges of urban governance. The book targets a broad audience including thinkers, practitioners, and students.
Introduction
Part 1: Transitions in Governance
1. Improving City Government Performance in the Era of Decentralization: The Experiences of Indonesia and the Philippines
Mulya Amri
2. The Smart City as Layered Policy Design: Singapore’s Smart Nation Initiative
Jun Jie Woo
3. The Politics of Advancing Governance Reform and Curbing Corruption in the Metropolitan City: The Case of Jakarta, 2012-2017
Vishnu Juwono and Elva Sagita Cindra
4. Ideology of Pragmatism: Singapore’s Domestic Policy
Charles Chao Rong Phua
5. Planning a New Capital in Central Asia: The Case of Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan
Michael R. Waschak
6. New Asian Statism: Towards an Understanding of Asia’s 21st Century Urban Transformation
Kris Hartley
Part 2: Delivering Public Value
7. Realization of Universal Health Coverage through Social Health Insurance Expansion: An Appraisal of Policy Capacity in China and Indonesia
Si Ying Tan and Wei Yang
8. Building the City from Abroad: Viet Kieu and the Rights to Saigon
Hung Vo and Donna Doan Anderson
9. Negotiating Block Size in Shanghai: Historical Superblock or New Urbanist Small Block?
Daixin Dai and George R. Frantz
10. Urban and Regional Differences in Healthcare Service Delivery in South Korea
Seunghyun Lee
11. Governance of Government Middle Schools in Urban China and India: Comparative Analysis of Supportive Accountability and Teacher Perceptions
Yifei Yan
Part 3: Towards Sustainable Futures
12. Muddling through the Garbage: Household Recycling in Newly Developed Asian Cities
Jingru Zhang and Kris Hartley
13. Environmental Governance in China: Three Cases of Central-Local Interactions
Lili Li
14. Failed Healthcare in India: Looking Behind the Urban-focused Narrative
Rumit Singh Kakar and Kris Hartley
15. The Technocratic Delusion: India’s Smart Cities Mission
Glen David Kuecker, Tristan Stamets and Farukh Sarkulov
Biography
Kris Hartley is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests include public policy and administration in Asia with a focus on environment and technology.
Glen David Kuecker is Professor of Latin American history and Director of City Lab at DePauw University. His recent work explores the role of cities in the perfect storm of 21st century systemic crises.
Michael R. Waschak is Assistant Professor in Public Policy at Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. He received his doctorate in public policy in 2009 from the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Prior to Joining Nazarbayev University Dr. Waschak worked for eight years at the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) in Rochester, New York (USA) and for the RIT Kosovo campus in Pristina, Kosovo.
Jun Jie Woo is Assistant Professor in the Department of Asian and Policy Studies at The Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests include policy design, education governance, technology and urban governance, and the political economy of development in Asia.
Charles Chao Rong Phua researched comparative problem-solving approaches of US, China, and Singapore for his PhD at the National University of Singapore and was Fulbright Fellow at Brookings Institution. Formerly the deputy director of a state think-tank on cities and head research trainer (defence), he now heads Solaris Strategies Singapore and chairs the Association for Public Affairs (Singapore) and is adjunct faculty for the Smart City programme at Singapore Management University.