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Global Tokyo

Heritage, Urban Redevelopment and the Transformation of Authenticity

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  • © 2020

Overview

  • Provides a comprehensive account of heritage-led urban regeneration processes in Tokyo

  • Differs from traditional approaches in the literature by incorporating a heritage studies lens to reveal the makings of the global mega-city which is Tokyo in the 21st century

  • Untangles the complexity of urban heritage conservation, urban redevelopment, and the transformation of urban places and their authenticity within the global context

  • Sheds new light on heritage-led urban regeneration and its decision making processes.

  • Identifies the key institutions and actors, collectively acting as place-makers determining the authenticity of urban places

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Table of contents (8 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

This book examines heritage-led regeneration and decision-making processes in Tokyo’s urban centres of Nihonbashi and Marunouchi. Detailing some of the city’s most prominent and recent redevelopment projects, Jiewon Song recognizes key institutions and actors; their collective actions as placemakers; and how they project the authenticity of urban places in planning processes. Song argues that heritage-led regeneration tends to monopolize authenticity by weakening the visibility of other cultural and historic qualities in urban places. Authenticity consequently turns into a singular entity leading to the homogenization of urban places. As cities increasingly seek authenticity in the urban age, nation-states initiate top-down processes to achieve such ends, interweaving nationalism and national narratives into placemaking practices. In this fashion, Song challenges existing scholarship on urban conservation, global cities and the notion of authenticity.


     

Reviews

“This is quite the extraordinary book when it comes to the making of urban places that are marked by a profound, often historic, authenticity. These were the places enabling the dense urbanities of vast cities, where disorder might be expected. Such dense urbanities contain extreme challenges and often fail, as we see in some large South American Cities and in major Asian cities. But every now and then we see major cities that contain orderings which function well no matter their vast size. And this is one of these cities!” (Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, New York)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Seoul, Singapore

    Jiewon Song

About the author

Jiewon Song is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests revolve around urban transformation at the nexus of authenticity, globalization, heritage and placemaking. Her research is inspired by extensive fieldwork in global urban conservation projects. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning, The University of Tokyo; an MS in Historic Preservation, Columbia University; and an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies, University College London.


    

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Global Tokyo

  • Book Subtitle: Heritage, Urban Redevelopment and the Transformation of Authenticity

  • Authors: Jiewon Song

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3495-9

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Singapore

  • eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3494-2Published: 10 July 2020

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-981-15-3497-3Published: 10 July 2021

  • eBook ISBN: 978-981-15-3495-9Published: 09 July 2020

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XXII, 349

  • Number of Illustrations: 47 b/w illustrations, 51 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Urban Studies/Sociology, Urban Geography / Urbanism (inc. megacities, cities, towns), Design, general, Human Geography

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