VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

Inequality is a concept evident in today’s universal agenda for urban development. In the growth of cities, especially in the context of developing regions such as Southeast Asia, urban primacy is a common phenomenon where primate cities like Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Manila are over-concentrated with resources in comparison to others. This study hopes to bring into proportion regional inequality issues back to the human scale; proposing a bottom-up focus on how the people in the urban fabric are true creators of civic creativity. The study explores 11 active citizen journeys; the cultivation of ‘civic creativity’ through creative platforms co-created by citizens in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Examples of so-called ‘creative platforms’ created by active citizens within the study include a literati hub project which incubates programs on democracy values for the youth, a series of meet-up events for tech enthusiasts in the city, to public space campaigns that made it to the local policy arena, to name a few. The theory of the ‘Citizen-led creative city’ is proposed, addressing whether a true creative city can be defined by active citizens. Moreover, a focus on how hard and soft infrastructures juxtapose towards the formation of a ‘creative milieu’ that lies at the heart of what makes Chiang Mai a creative city made by the people. The author wishes to shed light on context-based studies for secondary cities in Southeast Asia such as Chiang Mai, Penang, Bandung, Cebu – creative cities in-the-making, opening doors to new arenas of policy-making and place-making for the future.