Views about the nature of public space and the challenges that it faces are, for the most part, formulated based on studies and observations from the perspective of developed, Western countries, especially the United States and Europe. The present thesis adopts a different vantage point. Public space is analyzed from the lens of Southeast Asian cities, in particular Indonesia. Tigor challenges the view that theories on public space which apply to the West also fit the context of “Eastern” cities (i.e., cities in Southeast Asia). In so doing, he joins those post-modern planning scholars who have advocated for urban analyses and planning approaches sensitive to local contexts.

In the East, a different economic level, culture, political regime, gender balance, and role of religion in society, as well as the colonial legacy, have combined to produce distinctive results, which significantly differ from Western models. Therefore, a different framework is needed to study public space in this context. However, Tigor also recognizes and explores converging trends in the nature of public space in both the West and the East, which are due to neoliberalization and privatization, coupled with globalization and a decline of the traditional public sphere in the West.

• Candidate: Tigor Panjaitan
• Date: Thursday 26 October, 2017
• Time: 1:30
• Location: Room 320, Steele Building
• Advisory Team: Dorina Pojani, Sebastien Darchen