ISBN4-9903158-0-4 URP RESEARCH PAPER NO.1,2006 CRITICAL AND RADICAL GEOGRAPHIES OF THE SOCIAL, THE SPATIAL AND THE POLITICAL Edited by Toshio MIZUUCHI Department of Geography Urban Research Plaza Osaka City University, Japan CRITICAL AND RADICAL GEOGRAPHIES OF THE SOCIAL, THE SPATIAL AND THE POLITICAL co-sponsored by Department of Geography, Urban Research Plaza, OCU CONTENTS Preface . MIZUUCHI, Toshio 2 Bridging the Critical Perspectives for Alternative Practices in 21st Century Geographies . HSIA, Chu-Joe 3 The People’s Geography Project; Popularizing Radical Geography . MITCHELL, Don 10 The Demise of a Critical Institution of Economic Geography in Japan . MIZUOKA, Fujio 22 The Geopolitical Context of “Redefined” Security: Japan and the U.S. Military Presence in the Post-Cold War Era . YAMAZAKI, Takashi 35 An Essay on Geopolitical Writings in the Magazine Kaizo during the Asia-Pacific War in Japan . TAKAGI, Akihiko 51 Self and Others in the Social Construction of Nature: Critical Inquiry into the Afforestation Campaign in Modern Japan . NAKASHIMA, Koji 59 Representations and Practices around “Kyodo” (home place, homeland, Heimat) . OSHIRO, Naoki 74 The Development of the Posyandu: Historical and Institutional Aspects . SAITO, Ayami 80 Context and Contingency: Los Angeles, New York City, and Other Global Nodes . ETHINGTON, Philip 98 Postwar Transformation of Space and Urban Politics in the Inner-ring of Osaka . MIZUUCHI, Toshio 107 Migrant Workers’ Housing in Illegal Construction in Guangzhou: A Prelude to Social Justice and the Chinese City . TANG, Wing-Shing 132 How to Understand Housing of the Urban Poor in Hong Kong from the Perspective of Colonial Governmentality? . TANG, Wing-Shing 136 Festival, Identity and Urban Community in Modern Japan: 'Yamakasa' Festival in Hakata, Fukuoka City, 1880-1940. ONJO, Akio 139 Local Tradition and the Construction of Community and Identity in Postwar Japan: The Case of the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri. ELLEFSON, Dylan 153 1 ■ Preface The English-language report collections in the list below, underwritten by scientific research funds, have subtitles that include the words ‘Japanese contribution and geographical thought.’ Thus the publication of these reports has a long history, and their existence has become known overseas mainly among people in the field of geographical thought. However, among critical geographers in Europe and America they are, regrettably, not well known and have not been read widely. The Japanese-language journal Kūkan shaki chiri shisō (Space, Society, and Geographical Thought), of which I am also the editor, has been widely read and well-received, mainly among critical geographers, as a journal that ambitiously sets out critical problems. Compared to it, the English-language reports have not yet been widely read or welcomed by foreign researchers. Title Editor/University Year Geographical Languages in Different Times and Places I. Suizu/Kyoto U. 1980 Languages, Paradigms and Schools in Geography K. Takeuchi/Hitotsubashi U. 1984 Cosmology, Epistemology and the History of Geographical H. Nozawa/Kyushu U. 1986 Thought Indigenous and Foreign Influences in the Development of H. Nozawa/Kyushu U. 1989 Japanese Geographical Thought Social Theory and Geographical Thought H. Nozawa/Kyushu U. 1996 Nation, Region and the Politics of Geography in East Asia T. Mizuuchi/Osaka City U. 1999 Representing Local Places and Raising Voices from Below T. Mizuuchi/Osaka City U. 2003 Having served until now as editor of this series, I have been appointed to Osaka City University’s Urban Research Plaza (http://www.ur-plaza.osaka-cu.ac.jp/index_e.html) and will move there starting in April, 2006, and will be in a position to plan and disseminate a broader range of urban research. This also makes it possible, with the Plaza’s funding assistance, to publish critical studies by geographers. This collection marks the publication of the first volume in a series of URP Research Papers. The present collection of report contributions was first compiled based on papers presented at the 2000 Taegu, South Korea meeting of the International Critical Geography Group (ICGG). I want to express my warm appreciation to Fujio Mizuoka of Hitotsubashi University for the compilation of these papers. Other contributions arose from papers presented at various meetings of the ICGG’s East Asian Regional Conference in Alternative Geography (EARCAG). Additionally, we received papers from members of the Los Angeles - Osaka Project (http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/history/historylab/LA_Osaka/) which the present editor has organized. I hope that in using these papers assembled from some of the world’s critical geographers as a detonator, this book will be a major step forward in gaining international recognition of critical geography emanating from Asia. The publication of this book was made possible by the financial support of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science and the Urban Research Plaza of Osaka City University. The book is also available for online viewing as an e-book at the following URL: http://www.ur-plaza.osaka-cu.ac.jp/publication/e-book1. Finally, I am most grateful to Ms. Yuko Itatsu in the University of Southern California, and to my old friend Mr. Sidney Atkins for their correction of each English paper. Toshio Mizuuchi Bridging the Critical Perspectives for Alternative Practices in 21st Century Geographies1 HSIA, Chu-Joe Professor, Graduate Institute of Building and Planning, National Taiwan University. [email protected]; [email protected] Keywords: geography, planning and design education, theory and practice, Taiwan One of the proposed topics of the 2nd ICGC is: “Why is geography so conservative?” In order to stimulate a theoretical dialogue, I propose that we rethink this issue historically through Asian experiences. This paper focuses on bridging the gap between theory and practice within the critical paradigms of social theories of space. First of all, I want to show that, historically, conservative paradigms have been dominant in Taiwan’s academies and research institutions, and they prevail in most disciplines, not just in geography. The developmental state has been constituted as a historical vehicle for the hegemonic elites’ project of rebuilding the nation state. Such academic poverty is part of the social costs of political repression in the processes of growth and modernization. Up to the 1980s, along with social changes, critical paradigms of social theories were introduced onto campuses as new modes of thinking reflecting western ideas after the social movements of the 1960s. Both the political economy of space and cultural studies of spatial representation have greatly influenced the younger generations in recent decades. Furthermore, critical perspectives cannot simply be transplants of the western thoughts as they were before; they have to be interactive processes with local social changes. Articulation of questions regarding the local and how to engage in theoretical and global dialogue are crucial. Critical perspectives have to face the unchanged structural problems of the nation state as well as the developmental state of the Taiwan model. This paper proposes an articulation of all of the critical issues of class, gender, ethnicity, and environment with spatial theory and practice. Beyond the trap of formal institutional divisions among geography, sociology, political science, urban studies, planning and architecture, the real challenge in fact lies in interactive autonomy. That is, we have to be aware of the autonomy of theory, as well as the importance of the articulation between theory and practice, between spatial theory and planning-design practice, between state, social movements, and radical intellectuals, and between global and local. “The problem of the proper conceptualization of space is resolved through human practice with respect to it. In other words, there are no philosophical answers to philosophical questions that arise over the nature of space – the answers lie in human practice.” (David Harvey, 1973:13) Inspired by one of the proposed topics of 2nd ICGC, “Why is geography so conservative?” I think this is not only a proposition for geography as classical ‘earth-writing,’ but also a real question for geography in Asia. Certainly there are some specificities in the field of geography. The same question also applies to sociology, as well as architecture and city planning, in Taiwan. It is worth some attention to tease out the 3 conservative paradigm theoretically and historically. This history extends back to the beginning of the 20th century in Europe. The modernity project was launched amidst bourgeois confidence and conflicts on the eve of the First World War. East Asia was the most recently discovered land for imperialist penetration. For most of the newborn Asian countries, the 20th century was a process of economic development for survival, as well as a part of the larger modernizing project. When history turns a new page to the 21st century, the question of “who am I?” should be replaced by the questions of “what did we do?” in the process of modernization, industrialization, urbanization, and westernization, and the question of “what are we doing?” with regards to globalization. Thus, bringing into the reflection of the discursive struggles between conservative and critical paradigms, and the case of Taiwan and the historical experience of the Asian Pacific, this paper aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice for the critical paradigm of social theories of space. First of all, in terms of regional differentiation, there is no such a thing as an economically integrated Asian region within globalization. However, with regards to the experience of modernity, the Asian Pacific does share the common experience of a state-led economic development process.2 For the purpose of dialogue, the Asian experience has to go beyond taking for granted a neutral geographical boundary but must include a theoretical examination. After a close look at the empirical data of the late 1990s, after a rapid growth through export based economic development, the hypothesis of the Asian Pacific as an integrated region in the global economy has been questioned.