Browsing by Author "Yeung, Pui Man"

Since the late twentieth century, culture has entered the domain of urban development. This thesis studies a case study of the West Kowloon Cultural District (WKCD) in Hong Kong, which is the most controversial urban project since the handover. This project has been planned for over 15 years and undergone several years of negotiations on its meaning of culture, district design, development approach and mode of participation. Specifically, the purpose of this study is: firstly, I study the planning process of the WKCD from 1998 to 2013; secondly, I analyse the major stakeholders’ roles and interests; thirdly, I discuss the negotiations on the symbolic, material, and political dimensions of culture in the case of the WKCD; fourthly, I compare the practices in the WKCD with the general practices in land policy, urban planning policy and cultural policy, and find out the unusual practices in the WKCD; fifthly, I discuss my findings and analyse the relationship between culture and urban development in culture-led urban development in the post-colonial context in Hong Kong. The theoretical framework is built on Sharon Zukin’s concept of culture (1995). Zukin suggests that, culture has three dimensions: symbolic meaning, material consequence, and political values. In order to understand the dynamics and negotiations of a culture-led urban development, I identify the key issues in planning process and relevant policy areas based on the three dimensions. The data was collected from primary sources including the documents from the Legislative Council, the government, private developers, the WKCDA and the newspapers. Documentary research and thematic analysis are adopted. Three themes are identified on the basis of the theoretical framework and the collected data. They are: (1) symbolic dimension: meaning of culture; (2) material dimension: production of space; (3) political dimension: power of vision. Key findings are presented as follows. The WKCD project was originally planned in a public-private partnership with a single package approach. The original district plan was featured by an iconic Canopy-shaped architecture. However, due to the different level of opportunity for participation and the improper public consultation, the project received widespread opposition and suspended in early 2006. Later the government re-started the project in a statutory-body development approach, and established the West Kowloon Cultural District Authority (WKCDA) to implement the planning. It allowed more channels for public participation and finally the construction started in 2013. For the stakeholders’ interests, different stakeholders (the government, developers, the arts and culture sector, and the Legislative Council) all have specific interests. There were no clear-cut interests uniting the stakeholders. Some members formed alliance across sectors to defend their interests. Regarding the symbolic dimension of culture, different stakeholders negotiated the interpretation of culture to influence the planning. The negotiation on the material consequences are analysed through discussing the production of space: the district plan has changed from 'iconic plan' to 'a place for everyone', and the development approach has changed from public-private partnership approach to statutory-body development approach. The political dimension refers to power of vision; the government and developers legitimated their political and economic claims through controlling the way of participation. Through analysing the unusual practices in land policy, urban planning policy and cultural policy, I find two important issues to understand the relationship between culture and urban development in culture-led urban development in this case. Firstly, the provision of land subsidy aimed at privatisation of cultural facilities; secondly, planning of space and framing of culture are inextricably intertwined in culture-led urban development. It is unavoidable to frame the culture to shape the space, or through shaping the space, in culture-led urban development.