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Morning in the Megacity: Taiwan and the Globalization of the City Film

James Tweedie

in The Age of New Waves: Art Cinema and the Staging of Globalization

The “city film” has been a prominent genre in recent world cinema. This chapter examines that series as a global phenomenon and views Taiwan’s city films within both an international and a domestic ... More

The “city film” has been a prominent genre in recent world cinema. This chapter examines that series as a global phenomenon and views Taiwan’s city films within both an international and a domestic context. It begins by asking what the city film was in the first half of the twentieth century and how the pressures of globalization have transformed both urban space and its representation in cinema. It then considers the specific circumstances of Taiwan’s new wave, with particular emphasis on films located in Taipei. The chapter concludes with the work of Edward Yang, especially Taipei Story, a film that features scenes of interior design and meditations on modern urban architecture. Yang’s films accentuate acts of design, and they suggest that many of the traits habitually associated with cinema, especially its artificiality and staginess, its constant destruction and reinvention of reality, are also the defining qualities of the global megacity.Less

‘They Tell You Lies’: Is Paranoia Increasing?

Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman

in Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear

On the evening of 15 February 1996, the 147,000 tonne tanker Sea Empress ran aground on rocks at the entrance to Milford Haven harbour in south-west Wales. (The ship’s ... More

On the evening of 15 February 1996, the 147,000 tonne tanker Sea Empress ran aground on rocks at the entrance to Milford Haven harbour in south-west Wales. (The ship’s pilot, it later emerged, had been making his first ever solo attempt at the manoeuvre.) Over the next week, 72,000 tonnes of crude oil and 360 tonnes of heavy fuel oil seeped from the wreck into the sea, contaminating 200 kilometres of the Welsh coastline, much of it part of the exceptionally beautiful and ecologically diverse Pembrokeshire Coast National Park. More than 50,000 birds were killed or injured. The devastating effects of the Sea Empress disaster weren’t confined, however, to the flora and fauna of the National Park. In the wake of the oil spill, local people found themselves experiencing a range of health problems, including headaches, nausea, and skin irritation. And yet when we look closely at these accounts, something curious emerges. The first symptoms were reported as early as the first day of the incident. But at that stage very little oil had escaped from the wrecked tanker. Whatever was causing these first headaches and feelings of nausea, it wasn’t the Sea Empress. Indeed, people living on stretches of the coast that were entirely unaffected by the spill also complained of symptoms. How do we explain physical symptoms without an obvious physical cause? In the case of the Sea Empress disaster, it’s likely that they were the direct result of anxiety. It’s an established formula. Take one catastrophe, add extensive media coverage, and watch public anxiety grow. Think back, for example, to the anthrax scares that swept the US in September and October 2001. During these weeks, letters containing anthrax spores were sent to a number of senators and media organizations. Five people died and a further seventeen were also infected. (To date, the case is still unsolved.) With anxiety in the US already ratcheted to unprecedented levels by the September 11 attacks, hundreds of people soon began reporting that they too had been the victims of anthrax poisoning, with many complaining of symptoms. Less

A Downward Spiral?: Combating Paranoia

Daniel Freeman and Jason Freeman

in Paranoia: The 21st Century Fear

This cri de coeur appeared on the front page of the Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper, on 21 January 2008. The previous week had seen the conviction of the killers ... More

This cri de coeur appeared on the front page of the Sun, Britain’s top-selling newspaper, on 21 January 2008. The previous week had seen the conviction of the killers of 47-year-old Garry Newlove. Late on the night of 10 August 2007, Newlove had heard noises outside his home in Warrington, a Lancashire town previously best-remembered for being the unlikely target of two IRA bombs in 1993. He confronted a gang of drunken teenagers, who promptly punched and kicked him to death. The outraged lament on the Sun’s front page was in fact quoted from a letter to the paper from one Dr Stuart Newton, a former head teacher. And forming a melancholy border around his words were the faces of fifteen high-profile murder victims. The message was unmistakable, conveyed with the newspaper’s usual clarity: the country is going to the dogs; the streets are not safe for respectable folk to walk; our youth is out of control. ‘In parts of our country there is social breakdown. Society stops at the front door of our house and the streets have been lost and we’ve got to reclaim them’, agreed Conservative Party leader David Cameron. And the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, confessed that she felt uncomfortable walking in London after dark (her words, explained an official, ‘hadn’t come out as she had intended’ and, by way of proof, Ms Smith had recently gone so far as to purchase a kebab on the inner-city streets of Peckham). But where, you might wonder, is the news in all this? The reference to ‘feral youths’ is distinctively contemporary (rampaging teenagers being, as it were, one of the foul flavours of our day). But has there ever been a time when newspapers—and perhaps indeed the rest of us too—haven’t been decrying the ‘downward spiral of Britain’? The fact that one of the faces staring out from the Sun’s front page is that of Stephen Lawrence, stabbed to death in a racist attack in south London in April 1993—fifteen years ago—can be read as a discreet allusion to the timelessness of this nostalgia for a better, safer world. Less

Redefining Risk on a Global Scale

Louise K. Comfort

in The Dynamics of Risk: Changing Technologies and Collective Action in Seismic Events

This introductory chapter outlines seismic risk as a global policy problem. Seismic risk presents a great challenge in developed countries, not only for the nations in which they occur, but also for ... More

This introductory chapter outlines seismic risk as a global policy problem. Seismic risk presents a great challenge in developed countries, not only for the nations in which they occur, but also for disruption of the interconnected global trade, transportation, communications, and financial networks that sustain the world's growing populations. For example, the megacities of Tokyo, Istanbul, Jakarta, Mumbai, Mexico City, and Los Angeles are each exposed to significant seismic risk. Their respective metropolitan regions now encompass tens of millions of residents and serve as centers of government, commerce, communications, finance, and transportation in their respective nations. The interdependence of these operational networks in a globally connected world means that if any one of these megacities experiences a major earthquake, the losses would not only affect the immediate population, but also seriously disrupt vital transactions on a worldwide scale. The chapter then considers the concept of shared risk. While interdependence among global infrastructure and organizational systems creates cumulative risk for the global metasystem, this same interdependence creates opportunities for the redesign of interconnected operations to reduce expanding risk.Less

Connections and Disconnections

Larissa Hjorth, Sarah Pink, Kristen Sharp, and Linda Williams

in Screen Ecologies: Art, Media, and the Environment in the Asia-Pacific Region

In Chapter 3 we connect artistic explorations and representations of the environmental with stories of media innovation and climate change in the region. In order to do so, the chapter contextualizes ... More

In Chapter 3 we connect artistic explorations and representations of the environmental with stories of media innovation and climate change in the region. In order to do so, the chapter contextualizes global media debates in relation to some of the emergent environmentalism issues the region. Then we turn to examples of artists working through these issues, noting the undulating connections and disconnections between media, art, and the environment.Less

Media, Urban Aspirations, and Religious Mobilization Among Twelver Shi‘ites in Mumbai

Patrick Eisenlohr

in Handbook of Religion and the Asian City: Aspiration and Urbanization in the Twenty-First Century

This chapter examines how urban aspirations that drive migration to the megacity are intertwined with religious media practices. More specifically, it shows how Shi'ite traditions in Mumbai ... More

This chapter examines how urban aspirations that drive migration to the megacity are intertwined with religious media practices. More specifically, it shows how Shi'ite traditions in Mumbai articulate with urban aspirations that bring migrants to megacities in a globalized world. The chapter begins with an overview of religious activism in Indian megacities as it relates to recent reformulations of the nexus between religion and globalization. It then considers the aspirations of Twelver Shi'ites in Mumbai within the context of globalized urbanity. It also discusses the role of contemporary media technology in the link between urban socioeconomic aspirations and religious mobilizations. Finally, it analyzes the spread of major religious traditions that emphasize the theme of transcendence.Less

Global trends and our urban future

Robin Hambleton

in Leading the inclusive city: Place-based innovation for a bounded planet

This chapter highlights the remarkable urbanisation of the planet, the growth of multicultural cities and the rise of place-less power. It provides data on world population growth, discusses trends ... More

This chapter highlights the remarkable urbanisation of the planet, the growth of multicultural cities and the rise of place-less power. It provides data on world population growth, discusses trends relating to global urbanisation, and presents maps showing where urban expansion can be expected to occur in the coming period. Different aspects of urbanisation are covered including: the growth in the number of megacities; the existence of shrinking cities; the reasons why very large numbers of people are moving to cities; a discussion of who are the urban migrants; and consideration of the nature of dynamic diversity in the modern city. The discussion highlights the fact that cities are bound to become much more multicultural in the years ahead. The chapter notes that the extraordinary movement of people to cities is still not well understood and offers insights on why so many people are moving to cities.Less

The World, My City: Home Grounds and Global Cities

in Mobility at Large: Globalization, Textuality and Innovative Travel Writing

This chapter examines how the most recent wave of globalization has been inscribed in innovative travel writing about major metropolitan cities. It analyzes Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair's ... More

This chapter examines how the most recent wave of globalization has been inscribed in innovative travel writing about major metropolitan cities. It analyzes Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair's Rodinsky's Room and Sam Miller's Delhi: Adventures in a Megacity and explains that both travel texts attempt to textualize the multivalent perspectives of megacities. This chapter contends that innovative travel texts about the global cities of London and Delhi can offer unique perspectives on the complexities of place in a hypermobile and rapidly changing world.Less

Populations

Vaclav Smil

in Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made

Demographic transition has been completed everywhere except for large parts of Africa. Steady decline of traditionally high fertilities and mortalities brought temporarily high rates of population ... More

Demographic transition has been completed everywhere except for large parts of Africa. Steady decline of traditionally high fertilities and mortalities brought temporarily high rates of population growth (globally peaking during the 1960s), as the worldwide count rose from about 1 billion in 1800 to more than 7.8 billion by 2020. The new prevailing pattern of population dynamics is characterized by very low infant mortalities, fertilities well below the replacement level, increasing longevities, and aging, even decline, of many populations. Generations of high growth rates and productivity gains in agriculture and abundance of fossil fuels led to an unprecedented pace of urbanization. More than half of humanity now lives in cities, including a rising number of megacities, each with more than 10 million people.Less

Insights into the Cities of India, Cultural Exchanges, and Identities

Pilar Maria Guerrieri

in Negotiating Cultures: Delhi's Architecture and Planning from 1912 to 1962

This chapter suggests and in many ways provides a method and a point of view with which also other cities could be analysed. It shows the possibility of analysing similar problems in other colonized ... More

This chapter suggests and in many ways provides a method and a point of view with which also other cities could be analysed. It shows the possibility of analysing similar problems in other colonized countries and of how important it is to keep the focal point on cultural exchanges when seeing how traditions developed and where the identity of a place can be found. This method of analysing cities through cultural exchanges can, not only be applied in other parts of the world, but also touches a very important issue present nowadays, which is the process of globalization, which in turn raises the questions: How much are local cultures able to resist? Why does one country resist more than the other? How are different traditions created? To what degree are foreign imported models valid? And how important is it to find them directly in loco?Less

Diversity and Groups

Mona Sue Weissmark

in The Science of Diversity

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the way evolving models of human organization—from hunter-gatherer to megacities—have an impact on human psychology, human relations, and the ... More

This chapter provides a comprehensive overview of the way evolving models of human organization—from hunter-gatherer to megacities—have an impact on human psychology, human relations, and the development of alienation. The idyllic paradigm, according to some researchers, was the low-population-density hunter-gatherer societies based on mutual exchange and shared resources. The principal organizing mechanism in these societies was kinship, which offered a defined behavioral guide. Eventually, the discovery and development of agriculture led to the Agricultural Revolution, and village-based sedentary societies supplanted the small hunter-gatherer units. Human interaction became more complex and impersonal in the higher-density towns and villages, and the sharing society evolved into one based on private property, trade, and the development of elite social classes. The next critical turning point following the Agricultural Revolution was the Urban Revolution. Several classical and contemporary theorists developed the concept of “social alienation” to describe the impact of the rushed pace of city life and the ephemeral nature of relationships on mental attitudes and social relations. Indeed, the rise of globalization, megacities, and migration in the late twentieth and early twenty-first century revived interest in the alienation theories of the 1950s and 1960s. The chapter then describes the American developmental psychologist Erik Erikson’s eight stages of psychosocial identity development.Less

Michael Glawogger

Scott MacDonald

in Avant-Doc: Intersections of Documentary and Avant-Garde Cinema

An Austrian documentary filmmaker who was trained at the San Francisco Art Institute as well as at the Vienna Film Academy, Michael Glawogger is fascinated with labor, particularly with the men and ... More

An Austrian documentary filmmaker who was trained at the San Francisco Art Institute as well as at the Vienna Film Academy, Michael Glawogger is fascinated with labor, particularly with the men and women who do the world’s most dangerous and dirty jobs. His Globalization Trilogy (Megacities, Workingman’s Death, and Whore’s Glory) offers candid, often breathtaking panoramas of laboring in both urban and rural areas—coal mining in the Ukraine, sulfur mining in Indonesia, butchering in Nigeria, ship-breaking in Pakistan, prostitution in Indonesia, Bangladesh, and Mexico. The films recall Pieter Bruegel’s The Triumph of Death and Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights; they are vivid, often terrifying, but exhilarating and beautiful as well. Glawogger is that rare filmmaker whose commercial melodramas are “vacations” from his years-long processes of recording the labors of workers around the world.Less

Urban System and Urban Development in the People’s Republic of China

Zhao Chen and Ming Lu

in Cities of Dragons and Elephants: Urbanization and Urban Development in China and India

There is a trend of population concentration towards large coastal cities in The People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, there is a distortion of city size towards small cities in the PRC. That is ... More

There is a trend of population concentration towards large coastal cities in The People’s Republic of China (PRC). However, there is a distortion of city size towards small cities in the PRC. That is to say, urban population in China should further concentrate in large cities rather than be more equally spread out. Cross-country analysis also indicates that the population size of the primary city in the PRC is smaller than its predicted value. The discussion in this chapter suggests that the Chinese government should adjust the policies on future urbanization with fewer restrictions on the further growth of megacities.Less

Infrastructure and Services

K.C. Sivaramakrishnan

in Governance of Megacities: Fractured Thinking, Fragmented Setup

Poor infrastructure has been a constant refrain in any discussion on urban conditions in the country. However, when it comes to the upper end of the infrastructure spectrum, like expressways and ... More

Poor infrastructure has been a constant refrain in any discussion on urban conditions in the country. However, when it comes to the upper end of the infrastructure spectrum, like expressways and airports, there is indeed evidence of some progress on the ground. Water, sewerage, waste management, transportation, and other key issues are discussed in this chapter. The chapter discusses the role of the metropolitan planning and governing bodies in the infrastructure and services management for both India and other countries of the world.Less

Megacity Governance: The International Experience

K.C. Sivaramakrishnan

in Governance of Megacities: Fractured Thinking, Fragmented Setup

Experiences of some of the international cities like Greater London, Tokyo, Seoul, Dhaka, Karachi, Toronto, Brazil, Bangkok, and others are shared in this chapter. The economic and spatial ... More

Experiences of some of the international cities like Greater London, Tokyo, Seoul, Dhaka, Karachi, Toronto, Brazil, Bangkok, and others are shared in this chapter. The economic and spatial characteristics of these metropolitan cities and their governance are highlighted. The chapter discusses how the issue of identity has been resolved by these cities—partly by law and partly by the course of development.Less