Counter-global cases for place: Contesting displacement in globalising Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Area

TY - JOUR

T1 - Counter-global cases for place:

T2 - Contesting displacement in globalising Kuala Lumpur Metropolitan Area

AU - Bunnell, Tim

AU - Nah, Alice M.

PY - 2004/11/1

Y1 - 2004/11/1

N2 - The globalisation of greater Kuala Lumpur over the past two decades is manifested in extensive landscape transformation. This paper considers two groups affected by this 'global' landscaping: urban settlers without registered land title (conventionally termed setinggan or 'squatters'); and West Malaysia's minority indigenous Orang Asli. These groups have frequently been displaced as demand for land has risen and as emergent moral and aesthetic evaluations about suitably 'global' land use have rendered them 'out of place'. Yet the paper considers ways in which their land rights have been asserted within and beyond the courts by articulating and demonstrating in-place identities. Significantly, such socio-legal 'cases for place' have been forged through geographically extensive networks of resources and repertoires. Rather than 'local' resistance to global transformation, therefore, the cases here exemplify emergent 'counter-global' spatialities of power.

AB - The globalisation of greater Kuala Lumpur over the past two decades is manifested in extensive landscape transformation. This paper considers two groups affected by this 'global' landscaping: urban settlers without registered land title (conventionally termed setinggan or 'squatters'); and West Malaysia's minority indigenous Orang Asli. These groups have frequently been displaced as demand for land has risen and as emergent moral and aesthetic evaluations about suitably 'global' land use have rendered them 'out of place'. Yet the paper considers ways in which their land rights have been asserted within and beyond the courts by articulating and demonstrating in-place identities. Significantly, such socio-legal 'cases for place' have been forged through geographically extensive networks of resources and repertoires. Rather than 'local' resistance to global transformation, therefore, the cases here exemplify emergent 'counter-global' spatialities of power.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=8644292491&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1080/00420980412331297627

DO - 10.1080/00420980412331297627

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:8644292491

SN - 0042-0980

VL - 41

SP - 2447

EP - 2467

JO - Urban Studies

JF - Urban Studies

IS - 12

ER -