Futuring ‘Blue Urbanisms’: pluralizing the littoral in urban Southeast Asia
Siriwardane-de Zoysa, Rapti / Johannes HerbeckExterne Publikationen (2020)
International Sociological Association E-symposium
Contemporary coastal cities have long been theorised through a distinctly terrestrial lens, in which the sea seemingly exists as a shadowy backdrop against every-day life in the city. Thinking with / from the sea in- vites us to trace the many ways that coastal waters work in co-shaping and remaking diverse urbanities, and ways of being urban(e). Drawing on recent planning approaches structured loosely around the concept of ‘Blue Urbanism’, our project considers how discourses around this notion offer a reference point for city planners, investors, and policymakers to connect previous risk-driven discourses of disaster preparedness to futuring practices. Such practices often embrace optimistic imaginaries that enliven visual, spatial, and cultural connections between cities and oceans, and further call upon strengthening integrated management approaches. Drawing on past work across three metropolises in Southeast Asia - Jakarta, Metro Manila, and Singapore - we plan to unpack some of the more vision-driven, utopic and dystopic assumptions around ‘blue urbanism(s)’ that are being witnessed across diverse high-density urban seacoasts, particularly in times of relative sea level change, salinisation, and land subsidence.
