Dr Napong Tao Rugkhapan, Dr Tan Wenn Er, and Dr Priza Marendraputra
Funding period: 1 November 2025 – 1 January 2027
Type of funding:
Seminar Series
Partner organisations: Chulalongkorn University, Faculty of Architecture, Department of Urban & Regional Planning (Thailand) and Indonesian International Islamic University, Faculty of Social Sciences (Indonesia)
Events: virtual webinar (November 2025), and events in Depok (Indonesia, June 2026) and Bangkok (Thailand, December 2026)
Organisers: Dr Napong Tao Rugkhapan (Faculty of Architecture, Chulalongkorn University), Dr Tan Wenn Er (Department of Geography, National University of Singapore), and Dr Priza Marendraputra (Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore)
Contact: Dr Napong Tao Rugkhapan
Abstract:
The practice of urban policy learning in Southeast Asia has become increasingly common amid inter-city competition, geopolitical shifts, social polarisation, and climate-related challenges. Cities in the region are keen to “learn from abroad,” looking towards ostensibly successful exemplars from elsewhere. Unlike many parts of the Global North, however, urban development in Southeast Asia is closely tied to national agendas and elite visions. Foreign ideas are introduced not just to address technical challenges but also to reinforce or shape national images and political narratives. Yet, policy learning in the region is not new. Historically, Southeast Asia’s port cities were deeply embedded in colonial trade networks, and their elites often aligned with foreign powers, adopting foreign values. Today, this legacy is palpable in the cultural mimicry and aesthetic preferences shaping development projects. The interplay between national interests and local development creates a complex vortex of policy mobility, where cities become arenas for experimentation, redevelopment, and the contested reimagining of global concepts.
We situate our Seminar Series within the broader literature on policy mobilities (McCann, 2011), urban modelling, worlding, and inter-referencing (Roy & Ong, 2011; Bunnell, 2015), as well as Asian urbanisms (Shin, 2021; Hogan et al., 2012). Further, we build on burgeoning work theorising from alternative geographical sites, focusing specifically on Southeast Asia as a site of learning and knowledge production.
Contemporary policy mobility efforts, however, are marked by tensions. Understanding how these tensions manifest in practice requires examining how different Southeast Asian cities adapt foreign frameworks to local socio-political conditions. Through comparative case studies, the Seminar Series invites participants to assess how cities balance global best practices with domestic pressures, cultural factors, and institutional constraints. Critically, policy transfer outcomes hinge largely on a delicate process of negotiation— one that ultimately shapes how “learning from abroad” is realised and resisted in the region.
Tension as an analytic underpins our proposed Seminars Series in three ways: theoretical, methodological, and practical. At a theoretical level, we explore theoretical tensions inherent in “theorising from elsewhere” by treating Southeast Asia as a knowledge producer rather than just a case study. Key questions emerge: How can we engage Global North references while keeping them under erasure? Can we move past the Global North as the default point of departure? Moreover, we seek to expand methodological advances. Finally, we consider the practical tensions of policy learning—its messy implementation, inflected by national politics and local ground sentiment.