Placemaking in an almost post-authoritarian Myanmar: Questioning “best practice” in Yangon’s back drainage spaces

Abstract

This article critiques the promotion of placemaking as “best practice” in global South cities by analyzing the short-lived beautification of back drainage spaces into back-alley gardens in Yangon, Myanmar. The rise and fall of the Alley Garden Project (AGP) show how decontextualized and depoliticized “participation” can entrench power hierarchies and enable the state to disregard its responsibilities. In global peripheries where state-society relations are not founded on a history of liberal democratic governance, global North models of urban development, even supposed grassroots methods such as placemaking, become “out-of-place” urban ideas that perpetuate the coloniality of globalized urban knowledge and design. Yangon’s AGP serves as a cautionary tale of responsibilization, not under conditions of state and capital withdrawal as seen in neoliberal urbanism, but under increasing state engagement as a new government tried to overcome decades of authoritarian rule. As shown in this article, international placemakers as non-state actors can exert disproportionate influence on urban design and policy in global South cities and this globalized practice requires critical attention.