Please Stay: Pied-a-Terre Subjects in the Megacity
Title:
Please Stay: Pied-a-Terre Subjects in the Megacity
Author:
Ong, Aihwa
Appeared in:
Citizenship studies
Paging:
Volume 11 (2007) nr. 1 pages 83-93
Year:
2007-02
Contents:
In contrast to the idea of the big city as a denationalized space of human rights, this article proposes an alternate concept of the megacity as a national space that activates “neoliberal” desires for foreign experts, creative know-how, and capital accumulation. In addition, expatriates add to and reflect the symbolic values of Asian cities arriving on the global stage. But the limited commitments of global professionals, actualized and symbolized by the pied-a-terre, deter and challenge the deep commitments required by classic citizenship. Is the global nomad a cog in international information networks, a figure who expresses the fundamental denationalized character of capitalism itself? Or is the pied-a-terre the hinge between a global meritocracy and the megacity? The talented expatriate, poised between staying and going, participates in a kind of dysfunctional marriage with the host city that suspends norms of permanent belonging.
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