Session Name: Boring Frontiers? The Politics and Lived Experiences of Being Peripheral in the Urban Process
2 - Everyone can be a Developer: Experiments and Temporal Politics on China's Urban Fringe
Monday, July 29, 2024
09:00 – 10:45 (GMT+7)
Presentation Abstract China's urban periphery is often the site where large capital-intensive and state-led projects displace local residents and expropriate their land. However, what is often overlooked is the prolonged process of waiting, anticipation, and anxieties experienced by the people who inhabit these peripheral areas before the actualization of these large projects. In this temporal condition of waiting, many local villagers have transitioned from being agricultural producers to being small-scale real estate developers and managers. Others have invested in tourist and other small businesses. Additionally, many outsiders have entered these places to develop various projects for "social development.” This paper examines small-scale socio-economic experiments of various kinds and explores the lived experiences of individuals who strive to "make a better life" in the context of heightened uncertainties. The paper highlights the temporal politics among the individuals residing on the urban fringe and discusses why temporality can be repressive and generative at the same time.
.png)