Southeast Asia has been known for its rapid urbanisation. Nevertheless, such urbanisation has been uneven across the region, having a differentiated impact on places and people. Rapid urbanisation has meant surging demand for natural resources, thus calling for the rise of extractive industries that rewrite the landscape of nature. The expansion of the urban built environment called for the conversion of rural land into urban construction land and the reclamation of swamps, lakes and seas, the impact of which is particularly felt vividly in urban peripheries and coastal areas. One of the emergent critical urban questions that call for urgent attention in Southeast Asia is how cities are planned and governed in climate emergencies and if the current pace of urbanisation can be sustained without endangering the lives of urban inhabitants. Against this backdrop, the panellists bring diverse perspectives to consider the urban futures of Southeast Asia, especially concerning the urban-nature nexus in light of the mounting pressure of climate change-induced urban challenges. This event was recorded and can be watched here.
Speaker and Chair Biographies:
Dr Helena Varkkey is an Associate Professor of Environmental Politics at the Department of International and Strategic Studies, Universiti Malaya. Her areas of expertise include transboundary haze governance in Southeast Asia and global palm oil politics. Her monograph on “The Haze Problem in Southeast Asia: Palm Oil and Politics” was published by Routledge in 2016.
Melinda Martinus is Lead Researcher at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies – Yusof Ishak Institute (ISEAS), Singapore. Melinda's research interests revolve around regional integration, sustainable development, smart city initiatives, digitalisation, institutional framework and policy for advancing climate ambitions in ASEAN countries. Melinda is Production Editor of ISEAS’ biannual flagship magazine, ASEANFocus. She is Co-editor of the institute’s annual survey reports, the State of Southeast Asia and the Southeast Asia Climate Outlook, which serve as barometers to gauge geostrategic affairs, development, and sustainability issues in the region. Before joining ISEAS, she was a program manager at Kota Kita Foundation, Indonesia and a researcher at the Center for Metropolitan Studies at Tarumanagara University Jakarta, where she led research projects on urban resilience, housing and slum upgrading, and urban governance in Indonesian cities. Melinda completed her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in urban planning from Tarumanagara University, Jakarta and Columbia University, New York.
Laura Cipriani is an assistant professor in Landscape Architecture at TU Delft. She has taught for a decade at IUAV, Politecnico di Milano, National University Singapore, Venice International University, and the University of Padua. She holds Bachelor and Master degrees in Architecture (Hons) from IUAV (2001), a Master in Design Studies (Hons) in landscape and urban studies from Harvard Design School (2004), and a Ph.D. in Urbanism from IUAV (2008). From 2009 to 2012 she was awarded the EU Marie Curie research grant (assistant professor level), and since 2014 she has had the Italian Associate Professorship title. In 2008 Laura founded Superlandscape, a landscape, and urban firm.
Clinton Moore currently works at UN-Habitat’s Bangkok Multicountry Programme Office, where he most recently supported the Accelerating the Implementation of the ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Strategy (ASUS) project and development of the ASEAN Sustainable Urbanisation Report. Clinton has also worked with UN-Habitat’s Philippines Country Office. Clinton has extensive city government experience in policy, planning, research, and Councillor Liaison roles, mostly with the City of Melbourne. He is currently a Visiting Fellow within the Melbourne Centre for Cities at the University of Melbourne and was amongst the inaugural group of SDSN Youth Local Pathways SDGs Fellows in 2017. He wrote his Master of International Development thesis about the thinking and structural governance of urban resilience. Clinton is particularly interested in issues of urban governance and service delivery, urban data and analysis, urban resilience, and urban development and strategy in secondary cities across Southeast Asia.
Prof. Hyun Bang Shin (@urbancommune) is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and directs the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of speculative urbanisation, gentrification and displacement, urban spectacles, and urbanism with particular attention to Asian cities. His books include Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience (Routledge, 2021), and The Political Economy of Mega Projects in Asia: Globalization and Urban Transformation (Routledge, forthcoming). He is Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and is also a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.