Human Agency in the Asian City
Instead of yearning for absolute freedom as in the Western city, human agency as an idea seems to be generally understood as conditional in the Asian city. This chapter discusses the obscuring of indigenous urban traditions in Asia, the role of human agency in relation to the meanings of property ownership, conceptions of human labor, and the aesthetic experience of contingency, in an attempt to explore alternative ideas and practices of the place of human life in the environment. Human agency in Asian cities contains elements of intellectual and urban insights that have potential for future cities. However, these potentials and insights must be excavated and reformulated in order to gain theoretical and political efficacy in our fast-changing world today.