Adaptations and negotiations of local people towards 'development': case of Hambantota, Sri Lanka

Abstract

"Planners, designers and architects are not paying attention in knowing how things work in cities. On the contrary, they havegone togreat pains to learn how cities have to Ivork and what have to begoodfor people " (Jacobs, 1961). This has made them create cities in a way which they found 'ideal' to achieve lvhat they (mis)understood as 'development'. Furthermore, the trend of the recent ciry development in ma1!Yparts of the world incfuding Sri Lanka has been 'changing the existing according to what power wants'. All of which do not seem appropriate to the socio-cultural spaces that are produced by the localpeople in their dailY life. The localpeople, therefore, adapt various strategies to transform tuba: is given into hOJVit can be lived. This research examines such adaptation process and the responsive negotiations of local people towards 'development' in the case of Hambantota, Sri Lanka.