2019 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Service Hubs in East Asian City-regions: From Self-development to Self-preservation?
| Project/Area Number |
19K13444
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| Research Institution | Kyushu University |
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Principal Investigator |
コルナトウスキ ヒェラルド 九州大学, 比較社会文化研究院, 講師 (00614835)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2019-04-01 – 2022-03-31
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| Keywords | service hub / urban inequality / homelessness / migrant labor / precarity / inner-city neighborhoods |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
The objective of this research is to examine how East Asian service hub neighborhoods are tackling issues related to social polarization, and how they adapt and preserve themselves in an anti-welfare (residual welfare) context that is characterized by fierce redevelopment projects and increasing political contestation. It focuses on the actual networking practices by voluntary organizations, practical use of local housing resources, definitions of precarious populations and theoretical implications for inclusive forms of East Asian urbanization. Different degrees in funding streams, service objectives & mission, government cooperation/non-cooperation and organizational arrangements all affected how voluntary organizations operate in their local contexts, and how their clients (sheltered, street sleeping and housed) evaluate their services. This is illuminated through a comparative approach on Singapore (migrant workers) and Hong Kong (the homeless).
I have published an article and a booklet on the theoretical implications of service hubs in the East Asian context in regard to established - but increasingly context-indifferent - concepts such as "gentrification" and "neoliberalism". Some preliminary findings on Singapore and Hong Kong have been published in a book chapter and I have presented both on the empirical findings and theoretical implications in international conferences such as the International Conference of Critical Geography (ICCG) and EARCAG-GPE.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
This fiscal year focused on the Hong Kong case, in which I was able to gather front-line data through extensive surveys. The schedule was affected only in a minor way because of the anti-extradition protests during the summer.
I was able to publish articles and a booklet on the conceptual part of this research, mainly by focusing on the framing of service hubs in the East Asian context, but also on its implication for other concepts such as "gentrification". The empirical data on Hong Kong, however, is still being processed but preliminary results are planned to be presented in international conferences in the near future (depending on when the global pandemic subdues).
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
This year I will conduct surveys on voluntary services for migrant workers in Singapore, with a explicit focus on the inner-city service hubs of Little India and Geylang. This will possibly be complemented with a survey on homeless services as a conspicuous number of voluntary organizations have recently been initiating several services over a number of neighborhoods in Singapore. Whether these new initiatives are developing into a hub-like pattern is to be examined and constitutes the main focus of this complementary survey. Finally, and following the current coronavirus debacle, the resilience and resourcefulness displayed by - and most importantly between - voluntary organizations, but also precarious living conditions such as overcrowding during the crisis merits a thorough examination.
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