Entrepreneurialising urban informality Transforming governance of informal settlements in Taipei

• Published in: Urban studies (Edinburgh, Scotland) Vol. 55; no. 13; pp. 2886 - 2902
• Main Author: Chien, Ker-hsuan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London, England SAGE Publications Ltd 01.10.2018; SAGE Publications; Sage Publications Ltd
• Subjects: Cities; Demolition; Development programs; Development projects; Discourses; Economic conditions; Economic development; Economics; Employment; Entrepreneurship; Governance; Housing; Informal economy; Local government; Negotiation; Regulation; Social welfare; Southern Hemisphere; Squatters; Subaltern identities; Urban areas; Urban development; Urban regeneration; Urban studies; Variegation; Taipei Taiwan; Taiwan; urbanisation and developing countries; urban redevelopment; 南半球; 台湾; 城市化与发展中国家; Taiwan; 城市再开发; 城市非正规性; 企业家主义; Global South; entrepreneurialism; urban informality
• DOI: 10.1177/0042098017726739
• ISSN: 0042-0980

Informality is a common urban experience among cities in the Global South. Given the thin social welfare and weak regulations, the urban subaltern has therefore had to improvise housing and employment in order to survive. Urban informality is hence conceived as a negotiation process through which spatial value is produced. However, under the current wave of urban entrepreneurialisation, informality is often deemed to be inefficient and unproductive in the new economy that the local governments are trying to build. Many of the informal settlements have been subject to demolition in order to make room for new urban development projects. With the cases of waterfront regeneration projects in Taipei, this paper argues that entrepreneurialism and informality are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Rather, through their co-evolution, urban informality actually contributes to the variegation of urban entrepreneurialism. This paper demonstrates how the urban squatters have managed to re-engage informality and urban development by actively participating in the shaping of the entrepreneurial discourses, reinventing their informal settlements as a key feature that contributes to the city’s economic development. However, although this entwining of entrepreneurialism and informality has brought new opportunities to the informal settlements, it has at the same time presented new threats to their current way of life. By focusing on the entrepreneurialising of urban informality, this paper offers a grounded perspective on the ways in which the urban subaltern has reacted to the unfolding urban entrepreneurialism in Taiwan. 非正规性是南半球国家和地区的共同城市境遇。由于社会福利缺乏、监管薄弱，城市贱民 因此必须选择临时的住房和工作以求生存。因此，城市非正规性可视为一个调适过程，空 间价值由此产生。但是，在当前的城市企业化浪潮中，非正规性对于地方政府试图构建的 新经济而言，往往被认为是低效、不具生产力的。为了给新的城市开发项目腾出空间，许 多非正规的聚居地遭到拆迁。本文以台北市滨水再生项目为案例，提出企业家精神与非正 规性并不必然相互排斥。相反，通过两者的共同演进，城市非正规性实际上可有助于城市 企业化进程的多样化。本文展示了城市寮屋居住者如何重新将非正规性与城市开发相结合, 其主要特征是积极参与企业化话语的构建，改造其非正规聚居地，由此为城市的经济发展 作出贡献。但是，虽然企业家精神与非正规性的这种联结为非正规聚居带来了新的机遇， 它同时也对居住者当前的生活方式构成了威胁。本文聚焦城市非正规性的企业化，对台湾 的城市贱民如何回应城市企业家主义的演进提出了有依据的观点。