Globalization and Local Resistance: The Creation of Localities in Manila and Bangkok.

The dual process of globalization and localization in the metropolis provides a challenging perspective for urban sociology and urban anthropology. Particularly in the mega cities of the third world, this process is highly contradictory and leads to intensifying conflicts about the use of urban land. By concentrating on the emerging localities and local forms of organization, it has been illustrated that globalization inevitably remains incomplete. the social creativity and agency of the city dwellers make them actors rather than objects or victims in the dynamics of change of the city. Localities thus provide a starting point for urban studies in which global, structural development can be linked with local processes and everyday life. From such a perspective, it seems possible to connect a sociological macroprospective of a world-system with anthropological research on the formation of local groups. In established slums in Manila, Philippines and Bangkok, Thailand closed-knit networks beyond kinship and ethnicity form the basis of local organizations. Personal relations in everyday life allow for social control, a rapid spread of information and a potential for the emergence of trust and solidarity.