Contemporary Concessions: Planning Empire in Myanmar

Concessions were a major planning technology of imperial expansion in the 1800s. Dominant powers – typically, but not exclusively, Western – used their military and economic superiority to force East Asian countries to... [ view full abstract ]

Concessions were a major planning technology of imperial expansion in the 1800s. Dominant powers – typically, but not exclusively, Western – used their military and economic superiority to force East Asian countries to grant them administrative control over territories. These concessions, like Hong Kong, served as nodes for articulating trade between the imperial powers and the territories surrounding the concessions. This paper argues that the technology of concessions is being revived under the contemporary global capitalist Empire. Adopting Hardt and Negri's (2000) notion that nationally based imperialism has been succeeded by decentralized global empire, the paper argues that planners are facilitating the exploitation of newly developing countries through a coevolving assemblage of foreign and domestic capitalist interests under the guise of foreign aid. In particular, the paper examines the partitioning of Yangon, the economic capital of Myanmar, into contemporary concessions by Japanese, Korean, and Chinese interests. In each case, efforts are being made to establish urban planning and development control over discrete territories in and around Yangon proper. Territorial control is being negotiated with domestic interests through infrastructure and urban planning services provided through foreign aid. Each concession consists of three components: 1. an industrial park oriented toward firms from the aid donating country and managed by a Burmese and foreign board; 2. an adjacent residential and commercial new town complex to be built and managed by foreign firms; and 3. supporting infrastructure built by foreign firms from each East Asian country. Research is being conducted through an examination of official documents, through interviews with stakeholders in Myanmar and the three East Asian powers, and through site visits. The paper concludes that the East Asian countries are today employing the same technology of concessions that was used to pry them open in the 1800s and are doing so for