Urban

This chapter focuses on the making of the urban in Myanmar as a contingent and contested process that is increasingly subjected to international circuits of authoritative knowledge. In much of the literature about the effects of neoliberal globalisation, scholars call attention to the disenfranchisement of urban residents and the privatisation of public institutions. In the case of contemporary Myanmar, neither urban nor rural residents have ever been enfranchised and the definition and function of the public sector remains unclear. The history of Myanmar shows that cities and towns have exercised little autonomy. The work of planning for and managing cities is still highly centralised and constrained by the lack of local revenue and expertise. Incremental if inconsistent market reform from the 1990s onward has already spurred informal and unplanned urbanisation, leading Myanmar's elite to fear that globalisation will produce chaotic, faceless cities that are no longer Myanmar in character.