INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON URBANISM 2009 (IFoU) AT DELFT OF UNIVERSITY TECHNOLOGY,THE NETHERLANDS

On 25-28 November 2009, I have a chance to present my PhD research at international conference in Delft University of Technology. I was so honoured to meet Prof Saskia Sassen (The Idea of Global City) from Columbia University, New York and Prof Manuel Castells (The Idea of Network Society) from Professor Emeritus, University of California, Berkeley. Both of them are the main the speakers for the conference. The both icons are among my core research references . So many people want to meet them. During the coffee break I met them and discuss my research framework. The discussion so fruitful with the ideas how to enhance my research. Sassen and Castells suggested to me to search the concept of City for People vs City of People, Complementary City vs Competitive City and Network Society in the City vs Network City for Society. Their supportative and encouragement really boost my motivation to enhance my research. Thanks to my supervisor Assco Prof Dr Hamzah Jusoh, Dr Jalaluddin and Assoc Prof Dr Hazita Azman, Deputy Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM for supporting my research and funding my attendance to the conference.

ASSIGNMENTS DATELINE

I have gave a chance to do a few assignments under module 09GYP005 which related to my research. The lenght of the assignments are 6 pages. The content and format presentation are related to the high impact journal format. It's must be analytical and synthesis about the literature reviews and focus the question.

Block 1 : An Introduction to Key Debates and Issues in Globalization by Dr Ed Brown

Assignment : The idea of globalization is too broad to be of much use in forming our understanding of the development challenges facing Southern countries in the 21 st century. To what extend do you agree with is assertion? Your answer should combine a general discussion of the utility of the ideas of globalization with a detailed case study of one particular country.

Dateline : Friday 13th November, 12 noon

Block 2 : Imperial Geopolitics in a Globalizing World by Prof Dr David Slater

Assignment : Discuss the key feastures of imperial politics in today's globalizing world

Dateline : Friday 27th November 2009, 12 noon

Block 3 : Regions and Cities in Globalization

Part A : In What Sense a Regional World? By Dr John Harrison

Assignment : Regions are the fundamental building blocks of an increasingly post-national and globally interconnected modern world. Discuss

Dateline : Friday 11th December 2009, 12 noon

Part B : Cities and Globalization by Prof Dr Peter Taylor

Assignment : Consider in which ways Janes Jacobs' ideas on moral syndromes might enhance the thesis advanced in Global City-Regions and Cities in a World Economy

Dateline : Friday 11th December 2009, 12 noon

Block 4 : Financial Globalization by Dr Jonathan Cloke

Assignment : Are economic crises inevitable?

Dateline : Friday 15th January 2010, 12 noon

Interview with Jane Jacobs

Interview with Jane Jacobs

Posted using ShareThis

THE END OF DISCOURSE SESSIONS WITH PROF DR PETER TAYLOR

Beginning from 14 October 2009 until 11 November 2009, I am so lucky enough to have a fruitful discourses with Prof Dr Peter Taylor (I namely him as THE GURU OF WORLD CITY NETWORK). The weekly session with him started from 11 am until 12 noon is so meaningful for my research. I really gain a new knowledge about urban economic, city competitiveness and urban-region. His horizon ideas, vision and wisdom about urban development in the past, current and the future really motivate me to keep finding deeper about my PhD research. Here are a few topics that we discussed during my session with him.

14 October 2009

• NEW WAYS OF THINKING ABOUT ABU DHABI AS EMERGING GLOBAL CITY

21 October 2009

• THE ECONOMY OF CITY : HOW NEW WORK BEGINS
• CITIES WITHIN SPACES OF FLOWS
• JANE JACOBS (1916-2006) AN APPRECIATION
• EXPLOSIVE CITY GROWTH IN THE MODERN WORLD SYSTEM

28 October 2009

• PRIMACY OF CITIES IN THE EXPANSION OF ECONOMIC LIFE
• PROBLEMATIZING CITY/STATE RELATION
• SPACE AND SUSTAINBILITY : THE PRODUCTION OF SOCIAL SPACES THROUGH CITY-WORK

11 November 2009

• EXTERNAL URBAN RELATIONAL PROCESS : INTRODUCING CENTRAL FLOW THEORY TO COMPLEMENT CENTRAL PLACE THEORY
• URBAN ECONOMICS IN THRALL TO CHRISTALLER : A MISGUIDED SEARCH FOR CITY HIERARCHIES IN EXTERNAL URBAN RELATIONS

The findings of the above discussion I will explore in my PhD research. For next week my discourses will be with Dr John Harrison. Our discussion will focus more on urban governance. The topic and detail of our discussion, I will inform later in my next blog.

09GYP005 GLOBALIZATION: KEY DEBATES AND ISSUES WITH DR JOHN HARRION - REGIONAL WORLD

Beginning 9 November 2009, Dr John Harrison will take over the globalization module on the topic REGIONAL WORLD. The objective of this section is to assess the role of regions in globalization. Against the backdrop of accounts heralding the transition to a ‘borderless’ world made up of transnational flows of knowledge and capital, a body of literature known as ‘the new regionalism’ appropriates how in globalization regions have become more, not less, important in a global era. This section will look at the distinction between ‘new regional spaces’ and ‘new spaces of regionalism’. This will be done through reading-centred seminars.

As well as specific readings for each session, there is one key reading for the block which is:

· Jones, M and MacLeod, G (2004) ‘Regional spaces, spaces of regionalism: territory, insurgent politics, and the English question’ Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 29, 433–452.

Session One: New regional spaces

This session will focus on the importance of regional economies in the global era. The readings to be discussed in the session are:

· Storper, M (1997) The Regional World – Territorial Development in a Global Economy. Guildford: New York [Chapter 1 – The resurgence of regional economies, 10 years later (pp. 3-25)]

· Jones, M and MacLeod, G (2007) ‘Territorial, scalar, networked, connected: ‘In what sense a ‘regional world’?’ Regional Studies, 41, 1177-91.

Session Two: New spaces of regionalism

This session will focus on the notion of ‘region building’ in the global era. The reading to be discussed in the session is:

· Paasi, A (2001) 'Europe as a social process and discourse - Considerations of place, boundaries and identity.' European Urban and Regional Studies, 8, 7-28.

Dr John Harrison has done put together some questions which should help us to focus on what we need to take away from the readings. Try to answer the questions as best we can (some are easier than others and he has tried to put page numbers so we can see where in the article the answer lies). We will be using these papers, and in particular the questions/answers to guide discussion/debate in the seminar next week, so it is important that have read them and attempted to answer the questions.

ASSIGNMENT PRESENTATION - 09GYP005 30 OCTOBER 2009

In Loughborough University, every student before submitting their assignment they have to do their presentation on the preliminary finding of their research. They only give 5 minutes presentation with simple slides presentation. Here are my slides presentation.

DEPARTMENT OF GEOGRAPHY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS GATHERING 21 OCTOBER 2009

3rd WEEK IN LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY - CLASS 09GYB210

After 4 weeks in Department of Geography, Loughborough University, I attended 4 classes under module Globalization, Citizens, and the State for class of 09GYB210 - Globalization by Dr John Harrison. The summary of 4 lectures stated below:

NEW STATES SPACES AND URBAN GOVERNANCE

While some scholars have focused on the creation of new modes of global governance, others have brought attention to transformations of governance within nation-states. This lecture examine the ‘re-scaling’ of political power in cities and city-regions in the Global North.

• How have urban policies changed in response to the imperatives of global capitalism?
• How have urban politics contributed to new forms of territoriality?
• In what ways does the re-scaling of states intersect with neo-liberal ideologies?

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP – THE WELFARE STATE

Transformations of governance have been accompanied by changing relationships between states and their citizens. Some argue that state devolution and the dominance of neo-liberal ideologies threatens the ability for marginalized groups to participate fully in society. Indeed, Western states seem more inclined to roll back social services and to curtail social rights, as seen with ‘workfare-ism’

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP – THE WORKFARE STATE

To explore the changing relationship between the state and its citizens under globalization

• Why do we now talk about a workfare state?
• What is workfare?
• Where is it?
• What has happened to the welfare state?
• We still have an NHS don’t we?
• What affect does this have on the relationship between the state and its citizens

THE TRANSFORMATION OF CITIZENSHIP – POST-NATIONALISM AND COSMOPOLITANISM

If for some, changing modes of governance signal the erosion of social rights, for others, it offers new possibilities for enhanced political and human rights. Some scholars, for instance, speak of the emergence of ‘post-national citizenship’, a concept that relates in particular to the expansion of the rights and privileges enjoyed by immigrants in the global North. Others have commented on the proliferation of dual citizenship arrangements and the ability for people to participate in politics across national borders. To what extent are notions of ‘human rights’ integrated into national systems? To what extent have notions of citizenship been de-linked from membership in a ‘nation’? To what extent are individuals able to access rights and to effect political change outside the framework of national citizenship? Can we fathom the emergence of ‘cosmopolitan citizenship’?

CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL MOVEMENTS

Following on from the previous lecture on post-national citizenship, we explore the ways in which ordinary people mobilize themselves politically in a globalized context. The period of state restructuring in the global North has witnessed a decline of labour unions and class-based social movements. But is has also seen the rise of new forms of social action and political consciousness. We begin with a discussion of the ‘new social movements’, a label given to the environmentalist, feminist and peace movements that gained momentum in the 1980s. We will then turn to other social movements that have emerged in recent decades, including the anti-capitalist and anti-globalization movements. We will examine how these various movements have mobilized both particular cultural identities and universal conceptions of human rights, and how that have harnessed information technologies to operate locally and globally. Finally, we will evaluate whether these movements represent a fracturing of broad-based political communities or an opportunity to build global alliances and networks to deal with global problems.

CLASS 09GYP005 : GLOBALIZATION : DEBATES AND ISSUES

Last Tuesday and Friday, I attended second lecture but this time with Dr Ed Brown. The lecture module called GLOBALIZATION : DEBATES AND ISSUES. The subject is ntroducing students to debates surrounding the concept of globalization and to show how this concept has been invoked in a variety of geographical scholarship on the nature of space, place and territory.Outline the contributions of geographers to the understanding of globalization in the context of wider debates about processes of globalization across the social sciences. The module will be divided into a number of blocks, each block will considera particular theme, or set of themes, concerning key debates and issues in globalization. Specific themes may include:

(a) An introduction to key issues in globalzation;

(b) The importance of identity and difference in the construction and representation of geographical knowledges in relation to globalization;

(c) The place of politics and the political in the analysis of globalization;

(d) Geography and globalization;

(e) Imperialism, globalization and North-South relations.

Students will be able to show knowledge and understanding of:

(i) the contested definitions of globalization as process and epoch;

(ii) how the relational geographies of nation, region and locality are transforming under the auspices of globalization;

(iii) the changing importance of key concepts of space, place, and territory in a global era;

(iv) how connectivity and cuts, flows and fixities, speed and scale, borders and breaks, nodes and networks are producing new spatial orders at a global level;

(v) the challenges involved in undertaking geographical research and data collection to study contemporary globalization;

(vi) the distinctive contribution that geography can make to policy debates under conditions of contemporary globalization.

CHAPTER REVIEW ON THE ECONOMY OF CITIES BY JANE JACOBS

On second meeting with Prof Dr Peter Taylor dated 5 October 2009, 10am , he said " Well, Azmi before we go further, I want you to read a book by Jane Jacobs - The Economy of Cities (1969). I want you to read only Chapter 2 - How New Work Begins. You can find this book in the library.Then we will meet again next week" Oh my god I hate to do book / chapter review.

Then I went to Pilkington Library, Loughborough University to look for that book. I look at this small book. I think have this book that I bought in Singapore February 2007. I read only chapter 1- Cities First - Rural Development later... then I ignored this book for 2 years. Now I have to read again. This book was published 2 years after I was born. Its takes 4 days for me to understand Janes Jacobs's idea. And it is not easy. I read twice chapter 2 then I understand her vision and wisdom on city by Janes Jacobs.

I discussed with one of PhD student at Department Geography, Loughborough University. She said "Jane Jacobs's books are Prof Dr Peter Taylor and Dr Kathy Pain main references. Even though Janes Jacobs's books are classic books, many authors on global city such as Peter Hall etc always refer her books. If you work with them you should read Jane Jacobs's books." Kindly read my review below.

The Economy of Cities is about the importance of cities as the source of innovative economic change, a point that she believes economists have not understood, going back at least to Adam Smith, whom she chides for having misdirected subsequent thinking by glibly adopting the view that successful urban commerce must be founded on a successful agricultural economy. There are five major processes at work in a growing city economy:

(1) Anascent city finds a market in older cities for its initial export work and builds up a collection of numerous local businesses to supply producers’ goods and services to the initial export work;

(2) Some local suppliers of producers’ goods and services start exporting their own work. New local businesses begin to supply various goods and services for this new export work, and some of them eventually begin to export their own work. In the process, the city imports a growing volume and diversity of goods and services;

(3) Many of these imports are replaced by locally produced goods and services through “import replacement”, which is not the same process as the “import substitution” policies adopted by the leaders of various developing economies in the 1960s and 1970s. For one thing, import replacement must take place in logical stages, beginning with the parts or inputs most in demand, and must be self sustaining. For example, Japanese imports of bicycles from the West gave an incentive to local entrepreneurs and mechanics to open repair workshops, to begin manufacturing the most sought after bicycle parts, and eventually to assemble and later export bicycles entirely made of local components. For economic and practical reasons, successful import replacing can only be a city process. Import replacement creates a powerful multiplier effect and, as result, cities built their diverse economic foundations in “boom” phases. After an import-replacement boom, a local economy contains rooms for goods and services that were formerly neither imported nor locally produced, including unprecedented goods and services;

(4) The city’s greatly enlarged and diversified local economy becomes a potential source of numerous and diversified exports. The city’s exporting organizations arise by a) adding the export work to other people’s local work; b) adding the export work to different local work of their own; c) exporting their own local work. The city earns more imports by generating new exports, but many of the new exports merely compensate for declining lost work through obsolescence of older exports, transplants of some organizations into the rural world and replacement of exports by goods now produced in former customer cities; and,

(5) The city continues to generate new exports and earn imports, replaces imports with local production, and so on.

2nd WEEK IN LOUGHBOROUGH UNIVERSITY