Krystallia Kamvasinou

Abstract Cities across East Asia once experienced rapid economic growth and urban development under a strong interventionist state. The recent economic slowdown and political changes have pressured them to find alternatives to the previous state-led or market-driven urban development. New forms of participatory governance have been devised to mobilise citizen participation in decision-making. Citizen participation, however, is not simply about direct interactions between the state and citizens. It is also guided and facilitated by intermediary organisations that are state- or self-funded bodies working between the state and citizens. Seoul in South Korea is a case in point. Over the past decade, Seoul Metropolitan Government has institutionalised intermediary organisations to expand citizen participation in diverse areas of urban life. In urban development, a more inclusive approach has been put forward through new partnerships between government, intermediary organisations, and citizens. In this article, a case study of such partnership is critically examined. Urban regeneration in the Changsin-Sungin Area shows two meaningful changes in the governance of the intermediary organisation. The first change occurred when the intermediary organisation recruited residents as staff members and helped them to create a new local cooperative. The second change happened when the local cooperative took over the role of the intermediary organisation. Analysis of these changes revealed that intermediaries have a contradictory role in urban regeneration. On the one hand, the intermediary intervention has expanded citizen participation and improved consistently the engagement of the community of practice. On the other hand, intermediary intervention has served to instrumentalise citizen participation and constrain the growth of an autonomous community of practice while helping the state to retain control over urban regeneration. In this sense, the intermediary-led participation contains seeds of yet-to-be realised potential, albeit with the current flaws, for more inclusive and sustainable urban regeneration, which this study recognises as an integral part of emerging post-developmental urbanisation in South Korea.

A mobile educational garden on the Kings Cross development site (Skip Garden). A 5-year temporary project on a development site (Canning Town Caravanserai). A 999-year lease for slow, community-led development through temporary interventions on the banks of the River Lea (Cody Dock). A public space, community garden and art project on a disused heritage site (Abbey Gardens). An urban farm and social enterprise in various sites in Hounslow (Cultivate London). How is ephemerality defined in each case? How is the condition of ephemerality conducive to place-making? Through empirical research and literature review, this paper aims to theorise the perception and experience of place as conditioned by ephemerality

This paper draws on a Leverhulme-funded research project entitled ‘Interim spaces and creative use’ (2012-2014). The project investigated five present-day temporary projects sited on vacant land in London. Conscious of the long history of creative temporary occupations, the project pushes against the ephemeral nature of interim projects of the past, strategically documenting the five case studies through interviews, film, site surveys and photographs. The specific purpose of this paper is to contextualise this recent fieldwork against the wider historical background of the creative temporary uses of vacant urban space, therefore negotiating between definitions of ‘vacant’ and ‘empty’. Vacant spaces have been historically associated with dereliction or abandonment, ‘lost space’ (Trancik 1986), ‘urban voids’ and ‘cracks in the city’ (Loukaitou-Sideris 1996). Against the perception of vacancy as waste and emptiness, a more positive reading has been promoted through the notion of the ‘t...

Historic city centres are characterised by the tension between the local, represented by authentic spaces of everyday life, and the global, responding to the needs of tourism industry and capital flows. Under the neoliberal paradigm, state-led urban regeneration projects often benefit developers and private investors with little regard to the socio-economic dynamics of existing communities. Recently, this approach has been challenged by alternative practices of placemaking that represent a transition from top-down imposition of urban change to the co-production of space. Such practices are characterised by a more temporary, flexible and tactical approach to the design of space. They represent a collective desire that involves several actors, from local residents and business owners, to civil society organisations and design professionals in the role no longer of the exclusive author but as facilitators and mediators of change. Observing the development of such practice in the wester...

This documentary is the outcome of the research project 'Interim Spaces and Creative Use' which was funded by the Leverhulme Trust with £45,000 over a period of two and a half years (1/10/12-31/3/15). The research project investigated whether vacant land can be beneficial for local communities if officially brought into interim uses. Through interviews with project initiators, volunteers and users, the documentary analysed aspects of interim creative use in five representative sites in London: Skip Garden at Kings Cross, Cody Dock, Canning Town Caravanserai, Abbey Gardens and Cultivate London Brentford Lock.