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The Sociable Amenity, the Community and the City
Kong Chong HO (Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore)
Email: sochokc@nus.edu.sg
My interest in this paper is to conceptually situate the idea of a sociable amenity between the community which is primarily responsible for its production and segments of the city population which may be drawn into its orbit as regulators, resource providers, supporters, critics and visitors. This represents a way of locating the dynamics of local collective action within the larger context of urban politics, policy and metropolitan governance. Suggesting the notion of a sociable amenity is to move the attention away from natural amenities, from economic analysis of amenities, from a calculation of its value, and from amenity driven analysis of migration.
The production of the sociable amenity at the neighbourhood level represent a certain unity of purpose, espouse a common set of ideals and values, and because they require a certain goodwill and volunteerism among the local community for its continued functioning, the existence of such amenities link residents together in a number of formal and informal networks. Yet, we are also mindful that such sociable amenities are also the outcome of collaborative and sometimes conflict ridden relations involving the local government and also NGOs and other publics.
Drawing from my fieldwork in Tangpu (Taipei) Langham Place (Hong Kong) and Tampines Central (Singapore), I show how such sociable amenities are produced by a set of local actors and more significantly, how this composition of users, supporters, regulators, critics and visitors change in composition and purpose over time.
In this sense, the presence of sociable amenities shape in important ways, the everyday lives of the community and sustain diverse networks that contribute to the liveability of cities.