Ghosts of the New City

Andrew Alan Johnson

Andrew Alan Johnson

Ghosts of the New City

Spirits, Urbanity, and the Ruins of Progress in Chiang Mai

In: Southeast Asia: Politics, Meaning, and Memory, 64

Edited by: David P. Chandler and Rita Smith Kipp

University of Hawaii Press | 2014

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780824847821

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About this book

Chiang Mai (literally, “new city”) suffered badly in the 1997 Asian financial crisis as the Northern Thai real estate bubble collapsed along with the Thai baht, crushing dreams of a renaissance of Northern prosperity. Years later, the ruins of the excesses of the 1990s still stain the skyline. In Ghosts of the New City, Andrew Alan Johnson shows how the trauma of the crash, brought back vividly by the political crisis of 2006, haunts efforts to remake the city. For many Chiang Mai residents, new developments harbor the seeds of the crash, which manifest themselves in anxious stories of ghosts and criminals who conceal themselves behind the city’s progressive veneer.

Hopes for rebirth and fears of decline have their roots in Thai conceptions of progress, which draw from Buddhist and animist ideas of power and sacrality. Cities, Johnson argues, were centers where the charismatic power of kings and animist spirits were grounded; these entities assured progress by imbuing the space with sacred power that would avert disaster. Johnson traces such magico-religious conceptions of potency and space from historical records through present-day popular religious practice and draws parallels between these and secular attempts at urban revitalization.

Through a detailed ethnography of the contested ways in which academics, urban activists, spirit mediums, and architects seek to revitalize the flagging economy and infrastructure of Chiang Mai, Johnson finds that alongside the hope for progress there exists a discourse about urban ghosts, deadly construction sites, and the lurking anxiety of another possible crash, a discourse that calls into question history’s upward trajectory. In this way, Ghosts of the New City draws new connections between urban history and popular religion that have implications far beyond Southeast Asia.

Author information

JohnsonAndrew Alan:

Andrew Alan Johnson is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University.

Reviews

General readers are likely to find the book engaging, as Johnson provides many vivid vignettes and stories drawn mainly from his field work, though they may also find it at times mystifying. . . . For readers interested in the complex uncanny of (post) modern subjectivity, and certainly for specialists of Thai scholarship, the book is a rich contribution on contemporary Thailand from a closely attentive ethnographer.

Ghosts of the New City makes an important contribution to Thai studies, urban studies, and ethnography. . . . The book is a stellar example for scholars of Southeast Asian studies in particular, demonstrating an analytics that operates within the cracks between hegemonic frameworks and regimes of knowledge.

This colourful and detailed book analyses how Thailand's northern capital of Chiang Mai is struggling with progress. . . . Students of Thai culture should find this book provocative and highly informative. Specialists in urban studies should also find this book a valuable example of analysing urban development through the perspective of culture.

The book is both ethnographically and theoretically captivating; each chapter recounts how the entanglements of
the haunting ghosts and the haunted urban architectures and exclusive communities produce a series of social discourses on progress, cultural essence, and social discontent. . . . The strengths of this book are shown in Johnson’s rich ethnographic materials and ample theoretical engagements.

Frontmatter Free access PDF PDF	i
Contents Free access PDF PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Free access PDF PDF	ix
Note on Transcription Free access PDF PDF	xi
Introduction: The Broken Building Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	1
1. Progress and Its Ruins Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	7
2. Foundations Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	32
3. Mediums Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	71
4. Lanna Style Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	94
5. Rebuilding Lanna Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	129
Conclusion: The City Doesn’t Have a Future Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	153
Notes Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	157
Glossary Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	169
References Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	173
Index Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	185
About the Author Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	191
Other Volumes in the Series Access restricted Content is available PDF PDF	193

Ghosts of the New City

Spirits, Urbanity, and the Ruins of Progress in Chiang Mai

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