Creolized Utopias: Squatter Colonies and the Post-Colonial City in Malaysia

Abstract

In an early formulation put forward by Robert Redfield and Milton Singer, a distinction was made between that engendered orthogenetic and cultural transformations. Orthogenetic cities are associated with earlier forms of urbanism which were primarily ceremonial and literate centres that progressively refined little into more sophisticated great In contrast, heterogenetic cities are akin to present-day administrative and business cities, which are prone to transform old cultures and traditions. Drawing from the notion of creolization advanced by Ulf Hannerz, this paper argues for a modified position between these two axes. I suggest that whilst various town planning traditions and urban aesthetics inherited from the colonial past continue to be hegemonic in Malaysia, the changed economic and social conditions, nevertheless, allow for a degree of cultural hybridization vis-a-vis cultural homogenization. Indeed, the keen contest over development and culture is particularly well indexed in the cultural site of the post-colonial city. Shanty towns, spontaneous dwellings, and squatter colonies are established topics in the literature on Third World and urbanization. Until recently, these discussions were customarily framed within two contending theoretical schools. Proponents of the modernization thesis view the emergence of as an improvement over ancient indigenous cities. Thus, the dramatic demographic growth and urban problems characteristic of many Third World are evaluated as a kind of pseudo-urbanization arising from an imperfect replication of the tertiarization of the industrial First World. In contrast, adherents of the dependency school depict Third World urbanization as integrally linked to the transnational expansion and logic of modern capitalism. The ills of urban poverty and the lack of decent,

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