ABSTRACT

At the opening of Myanmar’s first Urban Research and Development Institute (URDI) in January 2012, the Union Minister of Construction Khin Maung Myint expressed his hope that ‘URDI will assist the Government’s endeavours of building a new, modern and developed nation’ (UN-HABITAT 2012). While this fixation on modernisation and development is not new for Myanmar, it has taken on increased urgency since 2011 as its leaders officially pursued economic integration with ASEAN and adopted a number of international standards including the UN Millennium Development Goals as near-term targets (Htut 2013). In this drive to catch up with its neighbours and reconnect with the global economy, Myanmar’s cities are seen as the engines for economic development. However, in this rush to make Myanmar competitive, what is the urban and what constitutes development in this particular national context have yet to be discussed. Other cities in the global South and postcolonial countries have encountered similar challenges, leading scholars in urban planning, geography and other disciplines to question the uncritical application of the tenets of development and neoliberal globalisation on so-called developing nations. This chapter focuses on the making of the urban in Myanmar as a contingent and contested process that is increasingly subjected to international circuits of authoritative knowledge. In particular, this chapter asks: What is a city if it is not the production of space undertaken by its inhabitants? What are the roles and functions of cities in a reforming Myanmar? And, what is Myanmar urbanism in a rapidly globalising country?