Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: An Introduction
- 2 Walking Tours and Community Heritage in Singapore: Civic Activism in the Making in Queenstown and Geylang
- 3 Resistance and Resilience: A Case Study of Rebuilding the Choi Yuen Village in Hong Kong
- 4 Urban Planning, Public Interest, and Spatial Justice: A Case Study of the Lo-Sheng Sanatorium Preservation Movement in Taipei
- 5 Placemaking as Social Learning: Taipei’s Open Green Programme as Pedagogical Civic Urbanism
- 6 Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Fund: A Step towards Citizen-driven Placemaking?
- 7 Re-emerging Civic Urbanism: The Evolving State–Civil Society Relations in Community Building in Seoul
- 8 A Shifting Paradigm of Urban Regeneration in Seoul?: A Case Study of Citizen Participation in Haebangchon Urban Regeneration Project
- 9 Building Communities through Neighbourhood-based: Participatory Planning in Singapore
- 10 Beyond the Sunday Spectacle: Foreign Domestic Workers and Emergent Civic Urbanisms in Hong Kong
- 11 Holding Space, Making Place: Nurturing Emergent Solidarities within New Food Systems in Singapore
- 12 Conclusion: Civic Urbanisms and Urban Governance in Asia and Beyond
- Index
- Publications/Global Asia
6 - Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Fund: A Step towardsCitizen-driven Placemaking?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 November 2022
- Frontmatter
- Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- 1 Emerging Civic Urbanisms in Asia: An Introduction
- 2 Walking Tours and Community Heritage in Singapore: Civic Activism in the Making in Queenstown and Geylang
- 3 Resistance and Resilience: A Case Study of Rebuilding the Choi Yuen Village in Hong Kong
- 4 Urban Planning, Public Interest, and Spatial Justice: A Case Study of the Lo-Sheng Sanatorium Preservation Movement in Taipei
- 5 Placemaking as Social Learning: Taipei’s Open Green Programme as Pedagogical Civic Urbanism
- 6 Hong Kong’s Urban Renewal Fund: A Step towards Citizen-driven Placemaking?
- 7 Re-emerging Civic Urbanism: The Evolving State–Civil Society Relations in Community Building in Seoul
- 8 A Shifting Paradigm of Urban Regeneration in Seoul?: A Case Study of Citizen Participation in Haebangchon Urban Regeneration Project
- 9 Building Communities through Neighbourhood-based: Participatory Planning in Singapore
- 10 Beyond the Sunday Spectacle: Foreign Domestic Workers and Emergent Civic Urbanisms in Hong Kong
- 11 Holding Space, Making Place: Nurturing Emergent Solidarities within New Food Systems in Singapore
- 12 Conclusion: Civic Urbanisms and Urban Governance in Asia and Beyond
- Index
- Publications/Global Asia
Summary
Abstract
This chapter investigates the relationshipbetween Hong Kong's Urban Renewal Fund (URF) andcitizen-driven placemaking (CDP). The URF waslaunched in 2011, in response to growing publicconcern about projects undertaken by Hong Kong'sUrban Renewal Authority (URA). After discussingthe evolving relationship of civil society toredevelopment and the background of the URF, thechapter presents three funded projects thatutilize CDP approaches. The chapter examines theinstitutional frameworks and actors, and theachievements and limitations of CDP in the contextof this state-sponsored programme. It alsoaddresses prevailing contradictions between thesmall-scale, citizen-driven projects supported bythe URF, and the large-scale redevelopmentprojects undertaken by the URA, as well as theirimplications for future civic urbanism in HongKong.
Keywords: Hong Kong, Citizen-DrivenPlacemaking, Community Building, Public Space
Introduction: Hong Kong's Economic-orientedUrban (Re)development in Crisis and CivilSociety's Response
Initially gaining renown as an entrepôt (1840s-1940s)and manufacturing hub (1950s-1970s), Hong Kong isknown today as a global financial centre, albeitwith an increasingly complicated sociopoliticalsituation. While this historically technocraticeconomic orientation has led to an impressive growthof Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and transformed thecity into a modern metropolis, it has also beenaccompanied by cycles of economic boom and bust, andthe demolition and redevelopment of its older urbanareas.
Following the Asian Financial Crisis and handover ofHong Kong to the People's Republic of China (PRC) in1997, the newly formed Hong Kong SpecialAdministrative Region (HKSAR) government undertook aseries of urban renewal actions in preparation forits 2047 integration with Mainland China. Theseperpetuate the land (re)development regime which isthe backbone of the city's economic prosperity(Tang, 2016; Tang, Lee, and Ng, 2011). Promoted asnecessary for continuing economic development, theseactions were developed with minimal publicengagement beyond that of designated professionalsand elites (Tang, Lee, and Ng, 2011), triggeringcitizen protests and the formation of organized‘concern groups’. Key examples include: plans forlarge-scale land reclamation in Victoria Harbour in1994; the demolition of the Star Ferry Pier andQueen's Pier in 2006; and projects initiated by thegovernment's official (re)development arm, the UrbanRenewal Authority (URA) for Lee Tung Street in 2004and the Blue House cluster in 2006 in the Wan Chaidistrict (Xia, 2010; Ku, 2012; Ng, 2008; Ng,2018).
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Emerging Civic Urbanisms in AsiaHong Kong, Seoul, Singapore, and Taipei beyondDevelopmental Urbanization, pp. 143 - 168Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2022