BANGKOK | On Transformation and Urbanism
to create the space for those people who have previously been excluded from secure housing to take over the lead in the process of their own secure housing provision. Much has been written on the case elsewhere in a wealth of details, (Boano & Kelling, 2013, Boano & Talocci, 2014) and in other part of the book; this next section highlights the key points: Putting the poor at the centre. The upgrading and community
mobilisation process does not follow the rigid procedures of the National Housing Authority, but rather puts forward a way of producing space and knowledge that starts from the people themselves. It encourages community saving groups and collective endeavours and it allows the urban poor groups and other grassroots organisations to become fundamental actors in the production of the whole city. Contrary to conventional strategies that simply deliver physical assets– where housing is treated as a technical rather than a political issue –, the Baan Mankong programme instead generates a social-political change, where collective power is enacted among the historically marginalised people so that they become legitimate development subjects (Boano & Kelling, 2013). The logic of physical change: from object to subject. The
Baan Mankong programme conceives and practices physical change as a vehicle for social change. It has a two-fold function, involving the material improvement of the urban poor as well as fostering confidence in marginalised groups by enhancing and encouraging their use of skills and capacities, individually and collectively. Such visible actions illustrate that alternative possibilities and transformative potentials are possible, encouraging those in similar situations to follow in order to expand the resilience of the whole system. This is an iterative process in which, over time, material improvements reinforce the terms of engagement with different actors and vice versa,
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