Changing Socio-Spatial Structures and Growing Urban Issues in the Quest of Making Thimphu a Dream City

Abstract

Building on the notion of socio-spatial dialectic, this paper examines new forms of urban space emerging in Thimphu city and formulates a critique to the idealisation of Thimphu as a dream city for all. This paper further asserts that new trends of social ordering can potentially pose a threat to Bhutan’s unique development philosophy of Gross National Happiness, which elevates and popularizes the country in global development debates.