Transforming Kuala Lumpur: hybrid urbanisms in motion

This chapter discusses emergent hybrid urban cultures and social identities as manifested between the intersections of the trajectories of global capitalism, urbanization, identity politics, and class formation. The spectacular transformation of the built environment of the city since the late 1990s is a socio-spatial trajectory that resonates with those of many other primate and secondary cities in the region. The chapter describes some of the dominant features of centrally planned transformative forces exerted on the urban space of the capital city of Malaysia and their ramifications for subaltern denizens of Kuala Lumpur in particular. As the Malaysian economy partially recovered for selected projects to be rebooted, the government announced that the 'zero squatter' target was successfully achieved and that Kuala Lumpur was officially rid of squatter kampungs once and for all. Hyperbuilding has inevitably led to socio-spatial shifts at the street level in terms of traffic circulation, rhythms of the city, and technocratic place-making.