Towards a moral ecology of the city

A new form of place-based identity and social action in Penang, Malaysia

Datos Bibliográficos

ID5819554
AutoresPeter Zabielskis (Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, University of Macau, Avenida Padre Tomas Pereira, Taipa, Macau SAR, China, autor de correspondencia)
Año2008
Volumen30
Número3
Páginas267-291
Fecha de publicación2008-09-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaInternational Development Planning Review (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1474-6743 • E-ISSN: 1478-3401
EditorialLiverpool University Press (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3828/idpr.30.3.5
OpenAlexW2117497446
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas6

This article discusses a new form of identity and social action that is articulated by its proponents as specifically local and place-based, urban, regional and multi-ethnic, but also potentially global in relevance. Rapid development has fostered a growing awareness in Penang, Malaysia, that intensified urbanisation has created many problems - both material and social - that are truly shared across groups, and that addressing them requires an inclusive, holistic attention to urban space itself. In this view, everyone and everything in a particular place should properly be seen as linked: a moral ecology of the city. The analysis uses ethnographic data to show how members of a new social action group in Penang organised themselves around this principle and how they found in the 'power of place' a new tool with the potential to enhance civic consciousness, increase popular political participation, overcome an unresolved colonial legacy of ethnic divisiveness, and improve the quality of everyone's life in the city

Anthropological Studies and Insights · Asian Studies and History · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies