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2017, Vol. 54(12) 2763–2779
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Cycling the city, re-imagining the Reprints and permissions:
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city: Envisioning urban sustainability DOI: 10.1177/0042098016652565
journals.sagepub.com/home/usj
transitions in Thailand
Frans Sengers
Universiteit Utrecht, Netherlands
Abstract
Urban sustainability transitions are journeys of transformative socio-technical change to set
course for an envisioned future city. These journeys start out in the minds of change agents as
vague conceptual images inspired by far-flung ideals, which are then further substantiated and
articulated as ‘urban imaginaries’ – shared understandings of what constitutes a desirable future
city. The conceptual contribution of this paper lies in demonstrating the power of the urban ima-
ginaries notion to studying the process of envisioning in the context of sustainability transitions.
By following a number of prolific Thai cycling campaigners through the streets of several cities in
Thailand – focusing on the urban imaginaries they articulate – this paper shows how urban sus-
tainability transitions are envisioned from the bike saddle, how these imaginaries are mobilised to
empower cycling and how a seemingly disparate set of urban development pathways converge
around technological artefacts and material infrastructure.
Keywords
cycling, imagniaries, sustainability, Thailand, transitions, transport, urbanisation and developing
countries
᪈㾱
ᐲਟᤱ㔝ᙗ䖜රᱟ⽮Պᢰᵟਈ䶙ѻˈⴞⲴᱟѪኅᵋѝⲴᵚᶕᐲ䇮ᇊᯩੁDŽ䘉Ӌਈ䶙ѻ
Ҿਈ䶙ّሬ㘵㝁ѝ⭡䘌བྷ⨶ᜣᡰਁⲴ⁑㋺ᾲᘥ䊑ˈ䘉Ӌ⨶ᜣ䲿ਾ䘋а↕ާփॆᒦ㺘䗮Ѫ
“ᐲᜣ䊑”ˈণሩҾӰѸᶴᡀањ⨶ᜣᵚᶕᐲⲴ⨶਼ޡ䀓DŽᵜ᮷൘ᾲᘥкⲴ䍑⥞ᱟኅ⽪Ҷ
ᐲᜣ䊑ⲴᾲᘥሩҾ⹄ウਟᤱ㔝䖜ර䈝ຳѝⲴኅᵋ䗷〻ѻѹDŽᵜ᮷൘⌠ഭཊњᐲⲴ㺇䚃к䲿
䇯Ҷ⌠ഭ僁㹼䘀ࣘⲴཊսཊӗරّሬ㘵ˈ䟽⛩⌘ޣԆԜᡰ㺘䗮Ⲵᐲ⨶ᜣˈኅ⧠Ҷ僁㹼㘵ྲօ
ኅᵋᐲਟᤱ㔝ᙗ䖜රࡽᲟˈ䘉Ӌᜣ䊑ྲօ㻛⭘Ҿ᧘ࣘ僁㹼䘀ࣘˈԕ৺ᶑⴻ䎧ᶕ࠶ᮓⲴᐲ
ਁኅ䐟ᖴྲօ≷㚊㠣ᢰᵟᐕ㢪૱઼⢙䍘ส䇮ᯭкDŽ
ޣ䭞䇽
僁㹼ǃᜣ䊑ǃਟᤱ㔝ᙗǃ⌠ഭǃ䖜රǃӔ䙊ǃᐲॆ઼ਁኅѝഭᇦ
Corresponding author:
Frans Sengers, Universiteit Utrecht, Geosciences, Heidelberglaan 2, Room 10.29, Utrecht 3584 CS, Netherlands.
Email: F.Sengers@uu.nl
Sengers 2765
clubs that branched into cycling advocacy transitions (Hodson and Marvin, 2009,
(cycling along with other members during 2010; Späth and Rohracher, 2010, 2015). As
weekly trips and signing up for other advo- coherent images of desired future socio-
cacy meetings and events). This provided the technical system states, visions foster collec-
opportunity to observe cycling advocacy in tively endorsed ambitions and a sense of
action from the inside and to meet other shared direction amongst different kinds of
cycling campaigners.1 In order to learn about change agents, which should ultimately lead
their ideas and ideals I conducted 19 in-depth to convergence in terms of action. Visions
interviews with these cycling campaigners as should be seen as not merely descriptions of
well as 66 additional interviews with other distant future realities, but as ‘performative
‘mobility experts’ – such as transport engi- actants’ in the here-and-now that shape
neers, urban planners, policy makers, NGO infrastructural and technological trajectories
employees and taxi drivers – to put into (Van Lente, 2012). While the ‘Transition
broader perspective the campaigners’ cogni- Managament’ school of thought views the
tive frames and views about cycling. I also articulation of ‘transition visions’ as a delibera-
collected other relevant source material from tive and formally organised activity meant to
reports and archives, such as transport statis- create consensus on long-term orientation, the
tics and media coverage on cycling.2 ‘Strategic Niche Management’ school thought
The findings in this paper are presented in stresses the immediate implementation and
the form of a condensed narrative, crystallised specification of ‘expectations and visions’ in
in a few ethnographic moments. In the next real-world experimental projects (Loorbach,
few pages we will follow three prolific cycling 2007; Schot and Geels, 2008). According to
campaigners – Tum (a bicycle club president the latter, the articulation of expectations and
from Chiang Mai), May (an environmental visions substantiates the promises attached to
activist from Bangkok) and Yut (an civically ‘radical novelties’ – new green technologies or
engaged architect from Korat) – who mobilise otherwise novel socio-technical configurations
various urban imaginaries to sketch out the – and in doing so it brings change agents
contours of desirable urban futures. Three together and provides them with legitimacy
urban imaginaries articulated by the cam- and a sense of shared direction in pursuit of
paigners will take centre stage: ‘the sufficient new technological pathways.
city’ (the virtues of a romanticised version of My perspective on the role envisioning in
Thai village life in the past appropriated to transitions departs from these ideas in two
the present-day metropolis), ‘the living city’ major ways. First, contrary to the Transition
(the ecological principles of a pristine natural Management school of thought, productive
world extended to the seemingly artificial envisioning is not necessarily a deliberative-
urban world), and ‘the creative city’ (fierce and formally organised process to build con-
competition amongst globally connected cities sensus but it can also be a distributed process
to attract creative professionals as boosters of amongst change agents who articulate path-
economic growth, which animates technologi- ways to very different futures. Visions of the
cal projects of urban renewal). future are ubiquitous, individual and specific
and a shared understanding is not a prere-
Envisioning urban sustainability quisite for the (re)emergence of low-carbon
practices (Berkhout, 2006). Like discourse
transitions
coalitions of ‘bootleggers and Baptists’ –
The process of envisioning plays a key role who were united in their support for an offi-
in bringing about urban sustainability cial ban on selling liquor in the USA during
2766 Urban Studies 54(12)
the era of prohibition, but for obviously very imaginaries in the context of sustainability
different reasons – so too can advocates of transitions by highlighting three things.
alternative socio-technical configurations First, there is a definite spatial compo-
(such as cycling) strive for very different urban nent to urban imaginaries. Imaginaries are
futures while strategically mobilising each not only future-oriented but also spatially
other’s visions and arguments (Yandle, 2000). bounded and geographically specific – they
Second, contrary to the Strategic Niche are centred on specific geographical spaces
Management school of thought, visions centre or territories and geared toward understand-
not only on ‘new’ technologies or otherwise ing place-based dynamics (Ponte and Birch,
novel practices but also on ‘old’ technologies 2014). While the early literature on sustain-
and mundane practices (such as cycling). ability transitions conceived of envisioned
Interesting questions can be found in the ‘sha- futures in an a-spatial way as transforming
dows of innovation studies’ with regards to only the structures at the level of socio-
how dormant remains of past socio-technical technical regimes (i.e. the societal function
regimes come back to life and how innovation of mobility based on privately owned steel-
journeys start over again as foreshadowed by and-petroleum cars and the way the auto-
ways of the past (Shove, 2012: 363). mobility regime is engrained in user routines
Instead of these notions of visions and and the societal fabric at large), later geogra-
expectations, I want to use the term ‘urban phical contributions have added that this
imaginaries’ to engage with the process of also implies a transformation in spatial
envisioning transformations in urban set- structures (i.e. the urban form, the power
tings. Edward Soja broadly defined imagin- relationships between territorially defined
aries as ‘interpretive grids through which we entities such as nation-states and cities and
think about, experience, evaluate, and decide the ways people experience local places – see
to act in the places, spaces and communities Sengers and Raven, 2015). Empowering
in which we live’ (Soja, 2000: 324). Later urban sustainability transitions thus becomes
work on ‘social imaginaries’ specified that not only a matter of re-thinking societal
such ‘interpretative grids’ find expression in functions, but also a matter of ‘re-envision-
images and stories, which are geared to fos- ing places’ (Hodson and Marvin, 2009: 520).
ter a shared understanding of the social envi- As such, the notion of urban imaginaries
ronment and provide a sense of legitimacy to puts places (real and imagined cities) firmly
certain practices (Taylor, 2002). Another at the centre of analysis. Most of the cycling
valuable addition is provided by the recent campaigners that I encountered during my
work on ‘socio-technical imaginaries’, which fieldwork emphasised their identity as urban
adds that imaginaries are future-oriented and citizens firmly rooted in their respective
reflected in the propagation of specific tech- home towns and they invariably stressed that
nological projects (Jasanoff and Kim, 2009). establishing cycling as an everyday mobility
An urban imaginary, then, can be conceptua- practice would improve the conditions in
lised as a form of social/socio-technical ima- these places.
ginary articulated to bring about certain Second, urban imaginaries have technolo-
desirable future city.3 Building on further gical and material manifestations. A choice
insights from the fields of Science and for certain technologies and infrastructures
Technology Studies (STS), Social Movement over others is implied in the future world
Theory (SMT), and the Geography of dreamed up by the proponents of an imagin-
Sustainability Transitions (GoST), I want to ary. The opposite is also true: technologies
further unpack to notion of the urban and infrastructures are aligned and imbued
Sengers 2767
with a particular set of imaginaries. Instead Transitions toward sustainability are paved
of being merely ideas that might rise to pro- by imagination and the crucial first step
minence in the mental worlds of social toward breaking with the structures of
actors, imaginaries can be said to be incumbent socio-technical systems lies in
‘inscribed’ onto the material world of tech- mobilising the creative capacity of change
nological artefacts. Scholars from the field agents to imagine an alternative future.
of Science and Technology Studies have Therefore, I want to highlight this type of
long since argued that ‘the technical’ and ‘cognitive work’ by individuals, who are
‘the social’ are deeply intertwined and that articulating and co-opting alternative ideals in
technological trajectories and future social order to tell persuasive stories of how their
order ‘co-produce’ one another (Jasanoff, city ought to be reshaped. In social movement
2004; Latour, 1990). Sheila Jasanoff’s recent research, such advocates are called ‘movement
work on ‘socio-technical imaginaries’ – intellectuals’. Social movements emerge on
which she defines as ‘imagined forms of the basis of intellectual activity and through
social life and social order reflected in tech- the agency and activism of movement intellec-
nological projects’ – suggests that imagin- tuals whose role ‘is that of providing a larger
aries are highly political as well (Jasanoff framework of meaning in which individual
and Kim, 2009: 120). She argues that ima- and collective actions can be understood’
ginaries not only describe attainable futures, (Eyerman and Jamison, 1991: 115). Social
but they prescribe what kind of futures ought movements and their intellectuals are impor-
to be attained. Imagination, then, features as tant actors in supporting (or frustrating) cer-
a type of cultural resource for change agents tain technological innovation journeys and
to project onto a technology ‘visions of what socio-technical transition pathways (Elzen
is good, desirable and worth attaining for a et al., 2011). They are actively involved in the
political community’ (Jasanoff and Kim, reshaping of the ‘cognitive territory’ or ‘con-
2009: 122–123). An urban imaginary thus ceptual space’ that surrounds social issues
fulfills a dual function: on the one hand, it and technological artefacts (Eyerman and
features as the aim/outcome itself (a certain Jamison, 1991). Movement intellectuals can
desirable urban future) and on the other be considered especially effective creators and
hand it helps in providing the tools/means mobilisers of imaginaries, thus paving the
(legitimising certain technological projects) way for these ideas to become embedded in
in order to achieve this (Kuchler, 2014). The the minds of others as the next step to convert
urban imaginaries that surround the practice what is imagined into actuality (Harvard STS
of cycling should be seen in terms of this Research Platform, 2015). The cycling cam-
dual function, prescribing how a desirable paigners whose voices echo throughout the
future city ought to be ordered with the help next sections of this paper are movement
of a mundane technology such as the bicycle. intellectuals who are in the business of reshap-
Third, urban imaginaries imply agency. ing the cognitive space – as well as the physi-
The sustainability transitions literature high- cal space on the streets – where the struggle
lights the emergence of alternative ‘struc- for sustainable urban futures is being waged
tures’ (alternative socio-technical systems (Aldred, 2013).
geared toward dislodging incumbent
regimes), but also the role of ‘agency’ (indi-
Cycling the Thai city
vidual or collective action in setting up
experiments with alternative technologies It is six o’clock on a Sunday morning and
and in envisioning sustainable futures). Chiang Mai city is quietly waking up. My
2768 Urban Studies 54(12)
neighbour, Mr Kung, is already up and for new rule sets (e.g. bending the traffic
about and he greets me with a smile as I step laws to allow bicycles to ride contra-flow on
outside. After sharing some breakfast on his one-way streets) and dedicated bicycle-
porch, I ask Kung if I can borrow his bicycle friendly infrastructure (e.g. bicycle lanes and
today. He nods and after briefly searching bike-sharing systems).
his shed, Kung returns with an old two- Upon arrival at Tha Phae Gate square,
wheeler. By the look of it, the bicycle has the former main entrance into the walled
not been used for some time. ‘There’s no air city, I spot a group of cyclists perched atop
in the tyres’ says Kung as he hands me a their bike saddles. As members of a local
pump. The state of Kung’s bike nicely cap- bicycle club that has branched into cycling
tures the state of the practice of cycling in advocacy, they gather here every Sunday
Thailand’s cities: taken to road once more morning before venturing out together in
after years of neglect and decline. Although their brightly coloured lycra outfits. ‘Long
the non-motorised two-wheelers had largely live the King’ is printed on a blue-and-yellow
disappeared from the streetscape in the last jersey; ‘stop global warming’ (leik lok ron)
three decades, they were not ‘gone’ to the can be read on a steering-wheel-mounted
point of no return. Like Kung’s bicycle, they basket; and a metal bike frame is creatively
were parked in dusty corners, waiting for decorated with bamboo strips so that it
somebody to mobilise their idle capacity. looks like a wooden bicycle. The bicycle club
With minor efforts, such as pumping the president, a kind middle-aged man called
tyres, they could enter the cityscape once Tum, rides up to the front of the group and
more and reclaim part of the lost road space. picks up a megaphone. The ancient city wall
And this is what has happened over the last looms behind him as he gazes across the
few years: old bicycles as well as new ones crowd. After a brief speech, he mounts the
have been unleashed upon the roads, and megaphone on a bicycle and signals that it is
many cities in Thailand are witnessing the time to go. Instead of his voice, the club’s
precarious re-emergence of cycling.4 song now echoes through the megaphone
After pumping the tyres of Kung’s bike, I speaker: ‘get on the bike saddle and ride,
hop on the saddle and say my goodbyes. ride, ride! With harmony, brothers and sis-
There are no bicycle lanes and, to get to the ters, all for the campaign!’. The cyclists ring
other side of the main road, I lift the bike their bells and roll out of the old gate and
over the high concrete slabs that separate into the city. Before leaving the square, one
the one-way traffic lanes, dodging the honk- of the cyclists removes his helmet to wipe the
ing cars that zoom by. Chiang Mai and sweat off his brow. Tied around his head is a
other Thai cities present a challenging habi- red bandana with the words ‘two wheels
tat for the bicycle to flourish. Decades of looking at the city’ (song lor phor muang).
‘unrestrained motorisation’ (i.e. automobile- The claim on the bandana implies that the
oriented development combined with inef- bicycle is more than a vehicle to move
fective land-use planning and control) and around town, more than a mere means of
newfound comfort in the motorbike and the urban transport. Cycling can be viewed as
motorcar were accompanied by changes in socially produced motion that extends
travel patterns and urban form as the beyond ‘the brute fact’ of physical movement
mixed-use streets and a tightly women urban and includes the experiences and representa-
fabric gave way to congested inner-city high- tions tied with up riding a bike (Cresswell,
ways and urban sprawl. To reclaim the 2006). For those involved in cycling advo-
streets, cyclists are fighting an uphill battle cacy, the bike represents a way forward –
Sengers 2769
not merely from A to B but in the direction that stresses the need for an economic system
of an imagined urban future (Furness, 2010). based on a ‘firm foundation of self-reliance’
By explicitly linking cycling to a way of see- (Hewison, 2000). It presents a romanticised
ing the city, the bicycle on the bandana picture of village life in the past as the key to
becomes a lens through which to look at Thailand’s future. Or – in line with the re-
urban development with new eyes. It emergence of cycling – as the King himself
becomes a tool for re-imagining the city. put it: ‘We have to go back to do things
which are not complicated and which do not
use elaborate expensive equipment. We need
Re-imagining the Thai city
to move backwards in order to move for-
The sufficient city wards’ (King Bhumibol’s 1997 birthday
After heading out of Tha Phae Gate and rid- speech, as quoted in Pasuk, 2005: 161).
ing their weekly round through Chiang Mai According to Jim Glassman the notion
city, the cycling club sets course for the Huai Sufficiency Economy effectively challenges
Lan reservoir. This reservoir is one of the ‘a long-standing geographical imaginary’ in
many Royal Projects littered across the which cities are viewed – as the trailblazers
mountains that surround the northern Thai of economic development and modernity –
valley city of Chiang Mai. Building on the pave the way to the future for lagging rural
prestige of the Thai king, these high-profile areas. Instead, it produces ‘a counter geogra-
projects are geared to support local tradi- phical imaginary’ in which cities are danger-
tional livelihoods and they enable the con- ous sites of social and moral decay whereas
struction certain kinds of technological small villages are hailed as pristine sites of
infrastructure. traditional community, social simplicity and
When we stop for a morning snack, I sit moral strength. In this way, ‘rural Thailand
down beside Tum – the cycling club presi- was pictured, at least in its ideal form, as a
dent. Tum tells me that there is more to a repository of positive social values being lost
cycling campaign than infrastructural tech- in the scramble towards urban modernity’
nicalities but that underlying ideals are an (Glassman, 2010: 1302). Especially compel-
important starting point. Part of the ideals ling in this respect is the way in which an
that Tum stands for are revealed when a kid illustrated book about the King and his suf-
on a brightly coloured fixed-gear bike rolls ficiency ideal depicts the Thai city (presum-
by. ‘These youngsters’ he says ‘they cycle ably Bangkok) as a place of ‘greed and
more kilometres in their daily life than we extravagance’ (see Figure 1).
do; they achieve our Sufficiency Economy Yet, despite all this preoccupation with
ideals without trying to do so’. virtues of village life, the Sufficiency
The Sufficiency Economy (settakit pho Economy can also be mobilised as a philoso-
piang) evoked by Tum alludes to a way of phical guide to promote a particular kind of
life propagated by the Thai king. Mobilising urban future. An interview I conducted with
the Sufficiency Economy in the context of an official at the Traffic and Transportation
cycling thus creates the association between department in Bangkok, who regularly
the bike to the auspicious persona of the cycled to work, nicely illustrates this point.
monarch. As Tum explains: ‘the King recom- This transport officer expressed a clear con-
mends people to live in the sufficiency way cern with the modern development pathway
and cycling in everyday life is a good way to upon which Bangkok – the alleged city of
respond to our King’. The Sufficiency greed and extravagance – had embarked and
Economy is essentially a ‘localist’ philosophy went to some length to explain the King’s
2770 Urban Studies 54(12)
should also be able to tap into the common lush green expanse, which has been dubbed
resource in order to thrive within the city. ‘the lungs of Bangkok’. Satellite images and
‘We live where the wild things are’ May aerial photos reveal a green oasis seemingly
reminds us ‘the ultimate sustainable develop- untouched by modern development around
ment indicator is biodiversity and that it. This is also what it was in the old city
includes other life forms’. plan: a large green dot on the map that was
To present the ideal of ‘the living city’ – a off limits for the construction of high-rise
bustling ecosystem habitat for humans and condominium buildings and housing estates.
other species – to the public and to attract a Seemingly unnoticed (or deliberately kept
wider following, May and other environ- silent) the old plan expired and some mem-
mentalists have enrolled citizens throughout bers of Bang Krachao’s local community
Bangkok in a participatory exercise of air started to sell their lands to well-paying
quality mapping. The exercise mobilised the developers. Upon hearing about this, envir-
people of Bangkok to count the number of onmentalists and engaged citizens spurred
species of ‘lichen’ – micro-organisms highly into action to stop the new plan from facili-
sensitive to air pollution – on the trees in the tating the ‘devouring of the city’s lungs’ (see
city. Keeping in mind that techno-scientific the campaign picture in Figure 2).
knowledge and imagined forms of social A collective bike ride through this pristine
order are ‘co-produced’ (Jasanoff, 2004), oasis was organised as a way to back up the
this illustrates how an ‘ecotopian’ interpreta- demand to undo the new plans. This high-
tion of ‘the good city’ is reflected in the way lights another relationship between spokes-
knowledge about the city is produced. persons for the bicycle and environment: the
May’s articulation of the ‘the living city’ is bicycle is not only articulated as the pre-
not conjured up out of thin air, but it has its ferred mode of transport for the imagined
predecessors. Scholars of the city have long ‘living city’ but it is also a vehicle that is lit-
since stressed the parallels between the natu- erally mobilised in the fight to achieve it. An
ral world and the modern metropolis – from environmental activist, who helped to orga-
Ebeneezer Howard’s garden cities to Robert nise the Bang Krachao bike ride, explained
Park’s urban ecology. Even as early as the this in the following way:
18th century, the medical discovery of the
blood circulation system convinced city plan- The strategy has to be something that people
can ‘get’ easily. It’s not the green area, it’s not
ners that blockages of various sorts of mobili-
the sidewalk, but it’s the bike. Because it’s
ties were bad for the health of the urban body fashion nowadays for people to bike . and
(Sennett, 1994). It would seem that the urban the media love bike tours. In making the green
body is alive with the flow of traffic and peo- area issue appealing, we use biking instead of
ple through its road veins and street arteries the green area directly.
while green areas, while parks and green areas
function as its oxygen-producing lungs. The After the bike ride, cyclists, environmental-
metaphor of the lungs is especially compelling ists, local residents, journalists and politi-
from the environmentalist perspective; it sug- cians gathered under the rooftop canapé at a
gests that the encroaching of dead concrete forest clearing in Bang Krachao. A former
and cold steel on urban greenery is tanta- prime-minster and a spokesperson for the
mount to self-mutilation. Bangkok Bicycle Campaign both gave a
This discursive weapon was employed by speech about the need to retain this space
May and her friends when ‘developers and as-is for sake of all of Bangkok as an essen-
speculators’ converged on Bang Krachao – a tial green area with good cycling paths; a
2772 Urban Studies 54(12)
Figure 2. Devouring the lungs of the city. Campaign picture to save Bang-Krachao: ‘new city plan geared to
devour the lungs .Bang-Krachao. past-and-future’. While the colourful part on the left represents the
green city of the past, the grey part on the right is presented as a dystopian future.
Source: Big Trees Project (2014). Available at: http://bk.asia-city.com/city-living/news/save-bang-kachao-bangkok (I got this
directly from a campaigner at the time who put it on Facebook – he claimed to have made this).
tranquil oasis for wildlife and for city dwell- in (Figure 2), others are mobilising the royal
ers who want to get away from the city’s image of ‘the sufficient city’ to prevent being
hectic buzz. Finally, the microphone was engulfed by the city of greed and extrava-
given to a local resident. She humbly pre- gance (Figure 1). And while the campaign
sented herself as ‘just a villager’ (chao baan) slogan of the environmentalists is directed
and she voiced a different set of concerns outward (citizens, politicians and media
and reasons for conserving Bang Krachao: throughout the whole city need to be mobi-
lised to stop the lungs of the urban body
I have seen a lot of people who sold their lands: from getting devoured), the proposed cam-
at the end they are poor and they do not suc- paign slogan by the villager is directed
ceed in life. It’s like the ghosts of their ancestors inward (strengthening the moral fibre of
cursed them because they sold their lands for local youngsters, who should be convinced
money . Let’s launch a campaign not to sell
not sell the lands of their parents and grand-
the lands of our parents and grandparents [and]
teach the children not to be overambitious or parents and act in accordance with the will
high-flown or fraudulent. Please save the land, of their ancestors and the King’s Sufficiency
grow trees, tend gardens and work for a living Economy principles). Taken together, they
in accordance with the Sufficiency Economy. seem to be saying that both the majestic for-
Then we can live on this piece of land happily est and the traditional lifestyle of the local
and then it will be sustainable. community are rooted in soil of Bang
Krachao and that both should be conserved.
The campaign to conserve this green area Although there is a degree of complemen-
thus features an interaction between two dis- tarily between the ‘conservationist’ ethos
tinct urban imaginaries. While some are preached by the actors who give voice to
mobilising the green image of ‘the living city’ either of these two urban imaginaries, this
to prevent the grey, lifeless city from closing might be best characterised as an
Sengers 2773
opportunistic coalition consisting of local capitalism, cities should aspire to attract ‘the
residents, traditionalists and environmental- creative class’ (a highly mobile group of
ists. While not all local villagers ascribe to creative professionals, technology workers,
the green image and associated environmen- artists and bohemians) in order to attain a
talist values, hardly any of the interviewed higher level of economic development
environmental campaigners ascribes to the (Florida, 2002). In order to reshape itself in
royal principles of the Sufficiency Economy. accordance with the lifestyle desires of the
One environmental activist – a self-identified creative class, a creative city should engage
‘Napoleon’ in the discursive battle for Bang in efforts of ‘placemaking’ and urban
Krachao – explained in a Machiavellian way renewal (some would say gentrification) as a
that ideas such as Sufficiency Economy can way to outcompete other aspiring cities. The
be used instrumentally for other purposes: ‘I logic of economic competition within a glob-
use it all the time . nobody in this country ally connected world is at the heart of these
wants to be up against the King’s project’. ideas. Take, for instance, the Chiang
In a similar vein, it might be the case some Mai Creative City initiative – the most com-
of the local residents also adopt a pragmatic prehensive creative city effort in Thailand –
approach to dealing with sources of power with the ambition to ‘build a new economic
and expertise when they deliberately posi- system based on knowledge and creativity
tion themselves as ‘just simple villagers’ who [as] the key to create our opportunity
adhere to the Sufficiency Economy princi- and advantage in the international
ples. This might be a way to imbue their arena’ (Thailand Creative & Design Center
cause with royal power and as a way to get (TCDC), 2012). Accordingly, the physical
the bicycle-riding environmentalists to use layout of the urban environment ought to be
their knowledge of the law to dispute the reshaped with this goal in mind (see the crea-
new land-use plan in court. tive city map, Figure 3).
Back to Yut and ‘his’ city of Korat.
Much like Chiang Mai, Korat is a rapidly
The creative city growing medium-sized town. It is situated
The night sky lights up with bright pink on the road between Bangkok and the
lights bouncing off the Ya Mo statue in the remote northeastern part of the country
city centre of Korat. A few dozen hip young- (Isan) as passage point for the many urban-
sters are lounging around on their fixies and rural migrants who shuttle up and down
BMX bikes, waiting for tonight’s collective between quiet villages and the hectic mega-
bike ride to begin. A civically engaged city. While the ‘mundane city’ of Korat is
architect-cum-cycling campaigner called Yut traversed by a multitude of domestic labour
arrives on the scene. He is seated on a retro- mobilities, the ‘creative city’ of Chiang Mai
styled racing bike – complete with a flower has been able to tap profitably into the
basket mounted to the steering wheel and a transnational flows of capital and tourists.
vintage leather bag slung across the luggage What would it take for the city of Korat to
carrier on the back. Yut tells me that steal Chiang Mai’s thunder and become a
these Friday night bike rides are part of similar node within such a global network of
his overarching aim to turn Korat into a circulation? Questions of this sort were
‘creative city’. posed one hot summer evening, when Yut
The notion of the creative city is inspired and a motley crew of other engaged citizens
by the work of urbanist Richard Florida. As and creative professionals – academics, city
cauldrons of innovation and creative planners, musicians, B-Boy dancers (i.e. the
2774 Urban Studies 54(12)
Figure 3. Turning Chiang Mai into a creative city. An envisioned map of the old city centre of Chiang Mai
based on various kinds of creative businesses, institutions for higher education and sites for tourists. The
makers of this map present an image of how the city should be ordered in accordance with their creative
city ideal.
Source: TCDC (2012). Screenshot from Chiang Mai Creative City promotion video (see references).
cotton mon hom shirt with the text ‘Nan: the transport mode as well as the lack of policy
old city lives’ – made a sharp distinction ambition to increase cycling rates. Second,
between traditional older villagers (chao the number of articles on cycling in Thai
baan) and modern-day youngsters (wailun). newspapers and popular magazines has
increased very rapidly in the last three or four
In his view, the former draw on local custom
years, which reflects the recent surge in popu-
and live in accordance with the King’s local-
larity of cycling (the interviewed cycling cam-
ist ideal of Sufficiency Economy, while the paigners and other ‘mobility experts’ also see
latter are inspired by popular culture drawn this as the period that cycling has become
from the wider outside world. Yut – the more popular).
architect from Korat – makes a similar dis- 3. Urban imaginaries are brought into focus
tinction, but firmly pins his hope on the when actors articulate stories about ‘the good
these young cycling enthusiasts. ‘One day city’. Here I draw inspiration from the early
these young people might grow up to stages of my fieldwork in Thailand when I
become big powerful people (phu yai)’ says asked one bicycle-riding activist why he got
involved in a Facebook campaign to promote
Yut, ‘I don’t think we can make any change
cycling in Bangkok. After pondering for brief
in the next ten years; this generation is moment he replied: ‘I just want to live in a
already stuck in the old way of thinking . good city’. This brilliantly simple answer puts
But the next generation may have the power the city and its socio-spatial arrangement
to mobilise a cycling society. When they firmly at the centre of analysis and it captures
grow up, they will be the true change the essence of stories, tactics and strategies
agents’. employed by all cycling campaigners I had
come to know by that time (that is, they all
emphasised their identity as urban citizens
Funding firmly rooted in their respective home towns
Funding was provided by the Netherlands and they invariably stressed that if establish-
Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO- ing cycling as an everyday mobility practice
WOTRO), grant no. W 01.65.330.00. would improve the conditions in these places).
From that moment on, the city itself – as
opposed to the practice of cycling – became
Notes my primary object of enquiry.
1. Besides reasons of access to data, I joined 4. Despite the fact that bicycles are conspicu-
these cycling clubs because I also sympathise ously absent in current transport statistics,
with their cause of empowering the bicycle as there is plenty of evidence suggesting that
a environmentally sustainable and socially cycling is rapidly gaining in popularity. In
inclusive means of urban transport. While terms of ‘hard’ numbers, the Thai bicycle
this was clear to the interviewed campaigners market has witnessed record growth rates
from the outset, I also made it clear that – (from 2 billion Baht in 2009 to 6 billion Baht
personal convictions aside – I am mainly in 2014), the amount of cyclists participating
interested in cycling because of its rising in Bangkok’s annual car-free days has grown
popularity in Thailand as a topic that exponentially every year (from 150 in 2005 to
deserves empirical and academic scrutiny. 20,000 in 2013) and the number of cycling
2. Besides the content of this source material articles and editorials in widely read newspa-
from websites, reports and archives, these pers and popular magazines has increased
data reveal two interesting things on the sur- dramatically (from 1 in 2005 to 33 in 2013 in
face. First, the transport statistics from Thai the Bangkok Post newspaper as well as dedi-
cities reveal that bicycles are not counted cated special issues on cycling by popular
today in the modal share numbers, which magazines such as A Day and Sarakadee).
reflects the insignificance of the bicycle as a My in-depth interviews with diverse
2778 Urban Studies 54(12)
stakeholders from across the urban transport Eyerman R and Jamison A (1991) Social Move-
arena suggest that cycling is a marginal but ments: A Cognitive Approach. Cambridge:
rapidly growing mobility option. A high-level Polity.
transport expert from a big consultancy firm Florida RL (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class:
in Bangkok summarised it as follows: ‘in And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure,
recent years more and more people have come Community and Everyday Life. New York:
to accept that the bicycle will become an Basic Books.
important mode of transport’, while an Furness Z (2010) One Less Car: Bicycling and the
engaged environmental activist argued that Politics of Automobility. Philadelphia. PA:
‘in the last three years cycling became an Temple University Press.
agenda with the public really quickly and pol- Glassman J (2010) The provinces elect govern-
iticians have picked it up too . it’s now more ments, Bangkok overthrows them: Urbanity,
established and it’s expanding’. class and post-democracy in Thailand. Urban
5. Most interviewed urban planners, transport Studies 47(6): 1301–1323.
experts and cycling campaigners portray their Harvard STS Research Platform (2015) Program
town as ‘a city in the world’ that needs to tap on Science, Technology and Society, Research
into global and regional networks of knowl- Platform Socio-technical Imaginaries. Harvard
edge circulation and economic exchange, Kennedy School, Harvard University. Avail-
while the ‘sufficient city’ is steeped in localism able at: http://sts.hks.harvard.edu/research/
as a place where ‘external economic connec- platforms/imaginaries/ (accessed 01 December
tions are, at best, peripheral and at worst 2015).
highly disruptive’ (Walker, 2010: 257). Hewison K (2000) Resisting globalization: A
study of localism in Thailand. The Pacific
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