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“Build it and they will come”? A critical examination of utopian planning practices and their socio-spatial impacts in Malaysia's “intelligent city”

“Build it and they will come”? A critical examination of utopian planning practices and their... Cyberjaya was heralded in the mid-1990s as the Multimedia Super Corridor's (MSC) flagship “intelligent city” and designed to prepare Malaysia and its citizens for a giant leap forward into an imagined new “information age.” The urban mega-project constituted a state led response to the much hyped “siliconization of Asia” and was planned to fast-track national development through investment in information and communications technologies (ICTs). The creation of an “intelligent city” replete with science parks, technology districts, green campuses for high-tech companies and a manicured environment for their employees was envisaged to attract investment from multinational companies (MNCs), enabling the country to leapfrog up the development chain and become a global “knowledge economy” hub. Ten years on from the excessive high-tech utopianism and urban boosterism that accompanied the city's launch, the paper promotes qualitative methodologies to addresses the uneven socio-spatial consequences of Cyberjaya's utopian project. The paper argues explores how the “intelligent city” manifested itself as a sensorially impoverished, disconnected business park clone with limited innovative capacity and benefits for wider economic and social development. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Geographer Taylor & Francis

“Build it and they will come”? A critical examination of utopian planning practices and their socio-spatial impacts in Malaysia's “intelligent city”

Brooker, Daniel
Asian Geographer , Volume 29 (1): 18 – Jun 1, 2012
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18 pages

“Build it and they will come”? A critical examination of utopian planning practices and their socio-spatial impacts in Malaysia's “intelligent city”

Abstract

Cyberjaya was heralded in the mid-1990s as the Multimedia Super Corridor's (MSC) flagship “intelligent city” and designed to prepare Malaysia and its citizens for a giant leap forward into an imagined new “information age.” The urban mega-project constituted a state led response to the much hyped “siliconization of Asia” and was planned to fast-track national development through investment in information and communications technologies (ICTs). The...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
Copyright Hong Kong Geographical Association
ISSN
2158-1762
eISSN
1022-5706
DOI
10.1080/10225706.2012.659192
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Cyberjaya was heralded in the mid-1990s as the Multimedia Super Corridor's (MSC) flagship “intelligent city” and designed to prepare Malaysia and its citizens for a giant leap forward into an imagined new “information age.” The urban mega-project constituted a state led response to the much hyped “siliconization of Asia” and was planned to fast-track national development through investment in information and communications technologies (ICTs). The creation of an “intelligent city” replete with science parks, technology districts, green campuses for high-tech companies and a manicured environment for their employees was envisaged to attract investment from multinational companies (MNCs), enabling the country to leapfrog up the development chain and become a global “knowledge economy” hub. Ten years on from the excessive high-tech utopianism and urban boosterism that accompanied the city's launch, the paper promotes qualitative methodologies to addresses the uneven socio-spatial consequences of Cyberjaya's utopian project. The paper argues explores how the “intelligent city” manifested itself as a sensorially impoverished, disconnected business park clone with limited innovative capacity and benefits for wider economic and social development.

Journal

Asian Geographer – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jun 1, 2012

Keywords: Utopia; intelligent city; splintered urbanism; Cyberjaya; Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC); Malaysia

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