Yangon Stories aims to frame the potentials of a living heritage approach to informal settlements to challenge existing dynamics of spatial violence in Yangon in order to mobilize more inclusive urban planning practices. This project brings a unique perspective to the intersections of heritage, violence and dignity by linking spatial violence trajectories with situated storytelling about heritage-making. We view forms of contestation and agency of informal dwellers facing evictions and resettlement as counter practices of living heritage.
In this project we aim to:
- Foster multi-disciplinary and collaborative research designed to transform understanding of the causes, impacts and legacies of spatial violence;
- Develop relevant collections of archival, oral, ethnographic and other sources, from policymakers, women’s groups, communities, and local leaders;
- Develop theoretical frameworks and methodological innovations to contribute substantive insights into heritage-making practices as forms of countering violence, informing broader understandings of community-led conflict prevention strategies.
Yangon Stories is a collaborative project between Development Planning Unit: Dr. Catalina Ortiz - PI; Dr. Giovanna Astolfo; Prof. Camillo Boano; Dr. Elizabeth Rhoads; and local researchers and partner organisations.
Funding: The project is funded by British Academy through its Heritage, Dignity and Violence programme
Main activities
Report launch – March 9 2021
Kickstart Workshop – February 3-7, 2020
DPU Fellowships 2020
Chauncie Bigler. Framing the Living Heritage Approach for the Periphery: Constructing Place, Space, and Community in Yangon, Myanmar
Naiara Yumiko Murakami Dutra da Costa. Building epistemic designs: decolonial cartography as a tool to subvert forced evictions infrastructure
DPU Fellowships 2021
Roisin McNamara, Spatial violence through modes of dispossession: A study of vulnerability and climate change adaptation in Yangon
DPU Fellowships 2022
Maki Saso, Contributions of squatter settlements amid expanding enclave urbanism in Hlaing Thayar, Yangon
Sawa Shiroma, Urban Transformation and Spatial Violence through Capital Accumulation in Yangon
Higa Akemi, Living Heritage as a narrative shift for liberation: Civic disobedience practices to oppose spatial violence in Yangon
Webinar - Stories of Spatial Violence in Asian Cities - Jun 10, 2022
Yangon Stories Website - https://www.yangonstories.com/
(Yangon Stories, 2022). Stories of Displacement from Yangon
Kolovou Kouri, M. (2022). Locating living heritage in Yangon’s informal housing practices. DPU Blog
Roberts, J.L. & E. Rhoads. (2021). Myanmar’s hidden-in-plain-sight social infrastructure: Nalehmu through multiple ruptures. Critical Asian Studies
Kolovou Kouri, M. & Sakuma, S. (2021). Community-led housing in Yangon: An assessment of the Mae Myit Thar project.
Kolovou Kouri, M., Sakuma, S., Oritz, C., Astolfo, G & Rhoads, E. (2021). Trajectories of spatial violence in Southeast Asian cities. DPU Working Paper Series (207), London. ISSN: 1474-3280
Rhoads, E., Sakuma, S., Ortiz, C. (2021). Violations of the Right to Adequate Housing after the Coup. Policy Paper.
Rhoads, E. (2020). Property, Citizenship, and Invisible Dispossession in Myanmar's Urban Frontier. Geopolitics.
Astolfo, G. & Boano, C. (2020). ‘Unintended Cities’ and Inoperative Violence. Housing Resistance in Yangon. Planning Theory & Practice.
Rhoads, E. (2020). ‘Informal (Justice) Brokers: Buying, Selling, and Disputing Property in Yangon'. in Kyed, H.M. (ed.), Everyday Justice in Myanmar: Informal Resolutions and State Evasion in a Time of Contested Transition. NIAS Studies in Asian Topics; No. 71. NIAS Press. pp.283-313.
Ortiz, C., & Lipietz, B. (eds.). (2020). Grounded Learning: people-centred approaches to housing in Yangon and Yogyakarta. London: University College London.
Resources
On Yangon urbanism, informal settlements, heritage, housing, spatial violence and history
Anonymous. (2021). An Initial Report on Forced Evictions of Squatters in Hlaing Tharyar during the Coup.
Asian Development Bank, ADB. (2019). Financing Affordable Housing in Yangon.
Boutry, M. (2017). Migrants Seeking out and Living with Floods: A Case Study of Mingalar Kwet Thet Settlement, Yangon, Myanmar. in: C. Middleton, R. Elmhirst & S. Chantavanich (eds.), Living with floods in a mobile Southeast Asia. A political ecology of vulnerability, migration and environmental change. pp. 42–62. New York: Routledge.
Campbell, S. (2019), Of Squatting amid Capitalism on Yangon’s Industrial Periphery. Anthropology Today 35, (6), pp. 7–10.