Metropolitics

Urban Theory and the Cold War: Reflections on the Political Economy of Urban Land and Real-Estate Development in Southeast Asia

Gavin Shatkin — 2025-11-07T06:05:00Z

The Cold War's repressive politics of land and law still underpin the region's contemporary struggles over land rights, urban space and democracy.
---- Series: Provincializing the “Real-Estate Turn” When the non-governmental organization Jakarta Legal Aid sought a legal avenue to confront the Indonesian state over its use of summary eviction as a tool of urban planning, it focused on a Cold War‑era law, Law 51/1960. Commonly used to justify evictions of settlements for urban infrastructure

- Essays / real estate, real-estate turn, Asia, Southeast Asia, authoritarian regime, Cold War, Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos, The Philippines

Provincializing the “Real‑Estate Turn”

Sai Balakrishnan & Llerena Guiu Searle — 2025-11-07T06:00:00Z

The papers in this collection “think against” the concept of real estate, starting with—and generating—grounded questions about particular places.
---- ▼ Jump to the list of articles in this series ▼ Standing in front of Trump Tower's gold and bronze facade in Lower Parel Mumbai (formerly Bombay), real estate may seem an inevitably global phenomenon. This sleek, American-style building—part of a gated complex with pools, gyms, gardens, and other upscale amenities—has come up in a district

- Series / Johannesburg, Pretoria, Chennai, Mumbai, United States, India, Southeast Asia, Asia, Africa, real-estate turn, real estate, South Africa

Settling on the Financial Periphery: Alternative Housing Practices in Hegang, China

Yimeng Yang — 2025-06-17T05:00:00Z

Can valuing a home for its use value constitute a form of resistance to housing financialization? Considering the case of housing in Hegang, China, Yimeng Yang argues that the grassroots rejection of the logic of financialization is a form of resistance.
Hegang, a city in Northeast China known for its coal industry, rose to prominence during China's socialist era. It has faced economic stagnation, a population exodus, and plummeting housing prices over the past decade. This decline followed

- Essays / China, Hegang, Asia, financialization, real estate, housing, housing markets

Planning in the Age of Political Populism: Kolkata's Tram Debate

Tathagata Chatterji — 2025-06-10T05:00:00Z

Using the case of Kolkata's tram system, Tathagata Chatterji shows how two distinct political strategies—populism and clientelism—operate in a symbiotic relationship to circumvent formal planning processes in India's third-largest city.
Political populism and clientelism are two distinct political strategies with significant conceptual overlaps. From a theoretical standpoint, political populism is associated with charismatic leaders who mobilise mass support through ideological and rhetorical

- Essays / India, Global South, Asia, Kolkata, mass transit, rapid transit, transport, transport policy, public transportation, tram, clientelism, populism, streetcar, light rail, tramway

Using Cross-Class Politics to Challenge Urban Housing Inequality in Islamabad, Pakistan

Hafsah Siddiqui — 2025-04-01T05:00:00Z

When redevelopment schemes target a city's poor for removal to provide opportunities for the privileged, how can poor residents assert a right to their home? With Islamabad as a case study, Hafsah Siddiqui shows how cross-class politics can be the basis for collaborative efforts for the poor to maintain a right to the city.
---- Series: Horizons in the Housing Struggle Islamabad is touted as Pakistan's loveliest city, with lush greenery and clean public spaces. The slogan “Islamabad the

- Essays / Global South, Asia, Pakistan, Islamabad, housing, right to housing, informal housing, urban services, social class, mobilization, urban inequality

Beneath the Surface of Chinese Cities: Abandoned Places and Contemporary Ruins

Judith Audin & translated by Oliver Waine — 2018-09-28T05:00:00Z

Urban ruins represent a marginal subject of research within the field of Chinese studies, and yet are a precious reminder of the country's rapid urban development. By approaching these abandoned spaces through urban exploration, Judith Audin makes an original contribution to the analysis of the Chinese city.
Demolition, a violent but banal process in the Chinese urban landscape of the last 40 years, has produced the most common form of contemporary ruins in China (Meyer 2008). These

- From the Field / China, demolition, ethnography, photography, medium-sized cities, ruin porn, Shanghai, urban exploration, abandoned places, ruins, Asia, Beijing