Global Tokyo / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

-Saskia Sassen, Columbia University, New York

This book examines heritage-led regeneration and decision-making processes in Tokyo's urban centres of Nihonbashi and Marunouchi. Detailing some of the city's most prominent and recent redevelopment projects, Jiewon Song recognizes key institutions and actors; their collective actions as placemakers; and how they project the authenticity of urban places in planning processes. Song argues that heritage-led regeneration tends to monopolize authenticity by weakening the visibility of other cultural and historic qualities in urban places. Authenticity consequently turns into a singular entity leading to the homogenization of urban places. As cities increasingly seek authenticity in the urban age, nation-states initiate top-down processes to achieve such ends, interweaving nationalism and national narratives into placemaking practices. In this fashion, Song challenges existing scholarship on urban conservation, global cities and the notion of authenticity.

Jiewon Song is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research interests revolve around urban transformation at the nexus of authenticity, globalization, heritage and placemaking. Her research is inspired by extensive fieldwork in global urban conservation projects. She holds a PhD in Urban Planning, The University of Tokyo; an MS in Historic Preservation, Columbia University; and an MA in Cultural Heritage Studies, University College London.