Tim Bunnell and Daniel P. S. Goh, Urban Asias : Essays on Futurity Past and Present

four essays by scholars and activists who were affiliated with or interacted around the project "Urban Aspirations in Asia" led by Bunnell at the National University of Singapore.Bunnell states in his introductory essay, and thereby setting the tone for the volume, that "in both academic and popular imaginations, the future is not where it used to be" (9).For one thing, he argues, it is no longer imagined as situated somewhere in a Western metropolis but rather increasingly somewhere in Asia.For another, the future may not only lie in the future, as it were.The collection of individual essays is framed by a preface by the editors, an introduction by Bunnell, and a conclusion by Goh.The essays are grouped into seven thematic sections, entitled "Futures Past," "Pastness for the Future," "Infrastructures of Future-Making," "Relocating Futurity," "Whose Futurity?,""Doing Urban Futures," and "Asia in New Geographies of Theory."In his introduction, Bunnell introduces some of the key themes that run through the volume, such as engagements with Arjun Appadurai's idea of the "capacity to aspire," as well as the debate over the (arguably misplaced) dichotomy between urban and rural.He concludes his introductory essay by giving an overview of the thematic integration of the individual chapters to come.The two first sections engage the urban mostly in imaginary realms.The section entitled "Futures Past" brings together essays by Andr Sorensen (on Tokyo), Christina Schwenkel (on Vinh, Vietnam), and Pen Sereypagna (on Phnom Penh).These essays center on examples of historical imaginings of urban futurity (historical plans), visions, and utopian projects in these cities and discuss their significance for the present.The second section, entitled "Pastness for the Future," assembles discussions of the different ways in which the past is invoked by city-dwellers in an endeavor of imagining alternative futures.Examples range from nostalgic memories of the past in Books