THE NEIGHBOURHOOD IN CRITICAL URBAN THEORY: NAVIGATING PLANETARY/ASSEMBLAGE DIVIDES

This thesis makes a theoretical contribution to critical urban theory by bringing two literatures, planetary urbanisation and assemblage urbanism, into productive conversation. This thesis’ point of departure is that the two theories are complementary rather than necessarily opposed, despite how their respective literatures have developed. Thus, this thesis puts forth the neighbourhood as a potential nexus—a ‘trading zone’ (Barnes and Sheppard, 2010)—where the two theories can ‘meet. The central idea, is that a neighbourhood lens foregrounds constitutive aspects of the urban pertinent to both theories, enabling generative cross-fertilisations across epistemological divides. To that end, a multi-method approach combining semi-structured interviews with a mobile GIS is employed with residents of neighbourhoods in Singapore. Juxtaposing primary data with official state archives and sources, this thesis demonstrates how the neighbourhood could facilitate cross-fertilisations across ontological, methodological, and epistemological divides in critical urban theory, grounded in the spatialities of urban lived experiences.

Author dc:creator

• JULIUS CHIANG KAI CHENG

• neighbourhood, planetary urbanization, assemblage urbanism, critical urban theory, urban studies