We chat with MPI director of cities, Richard Florida, about his team’s most recent report, The Rise of the Urban Creative Class in Southeast Asia, which looks at the massive wave of urbanization currently sweeping Southeast Asia and the ripple effects that transformation could have on the region’s middle and creative classes. Analyzing urbanization in Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, as well as their major cities, Richard was struck by relatively uneven levels of development happening in the region. But there’s also concern about its future. The economic development that led to the rise of the advanced nations in North America, Europe and parts of Asia was propelled by urbanization. However globalization has torn apart local linkages between the hinterlands and urban centres and now some nations in the region are threatened by the specter of urbanization without growth. As Richard explains, South East Asia is an intriguing case study of urbanization in our time.
What We're Reading recommendations:
Anthony Bourdain's Moveable Feast - http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/02/13/anthony-bourdains-moveable-feast
The Strange Journeys of Anthony Bourdain
http://www.wnyc.org/story/strange-journeys-anthony-bourdain/
Zadie Smith - Swing Time
https://www.amazon.ca/Swing-Time-Zadie-Smith/dp/0670069043
Claudia Rankine - Citizen: An American Lyric
https://www.amazon.ca/Citizen-American-Lyric-Claudia-Rankine/dp/1555976905
Music used in this episode:
"Steppin'" by Wake
"Something Elated" by Broke for Free
"Whispering Through" by Asura
