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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Lion City Zoopolis: Urban Crittizenship In Biophilic Singapore, George Wong
Lion City Zoopolis: Urban Crittizenship In Biophilic Singapore, George Wong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
A central theme of Singapore’s “City in Nature” vision is framed through biophilic urbanism, or efforts to harmonize biodiversity and urban development through built, social, and political design. The central discourses of Singapore’s biophilic urbanism have revolved around flora-centric paradigms, including habitat conservation, greening spaces, and access to natural capital. This paper detours from conventions of Singapore’s urban ecological futures and instead explores the governance of fauna co- existence in the city–state through the concept of “urban crittizenship.” Defined as a more-than-human denization framework that interrogates urban wildlife governance, urban crittizenship interrogates the politics of urban wildlife’s rights to the …
Mobile Cities, Modelling Policies: Importing/Exporting The Singapore ‘Model’ Of Development, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
Mobile Cities, Modelling Policies: Importing/Exporting The Singapore ‘Model’ Of Development, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
A recent focus of research has been the making, mobility and mutations of urban policy. The global circulation of urban models – or exemplars of best practices and values that are deemed to be desirable and achievable – has gained significant traction. Such models are those that are dislocated from their place of origin, and transplanted to an adopted site. This chapter draws on the case of Singapore: one of the most emblematic examples of an importable/exportable urban model – a prototype for growth-oriented urban development with its normative and technical plans for growth and management – to foreground problems …
Ambitions Of A Global City: Arts, Culture And Creative Economy In 'Post-Crisis' Singapore, Lily Kong
Ambitions Of A Global City: Arts, Culture And Creative Economy In 'Post-Crisis' Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper chronicles some of the key policies pertaining to the arts and culture in post-independent Singapore. A brief summary is first provided of the early (1960s and 1970s) cultural policy focusing on the harnessing of arts and culture for nation-building purposes, followed by the subsequent (1980s) recognition that the arts and culture had tourist dollar potential. The paper then expands on the cultural/creative economy policy of the 2000s, in which arts, heritage, media and design are recognized for their economic value (beyond their role in tourism to include their export value and their importance in attracting global workers). The …
Singapore’S Chinatown: Nation Building And Heritage Tourism In A Multiracial City, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Lily Kong
Singapore’S Chinatown: Nation Building And Heritage Tourism In A Multiracial City, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper focuses on the pivotal role played by the state in refashioning the Chinatown landscape as part of both nation-building and heritage tourism projects, and the ensuing cultural politics. After a brief history of the creation of Singapore’s Chinatown, the paper discusses, first, Chinatown’s place in Singapore’s post-independence nation-building project and, second, the reconfiguration of the Chinatown landscape as a tourism asset. The final section reflects on the changing politics of place as Chinatown gains legitimacy in state discourses on heritage, tourism and multiculturalism, as well as in the popular imagination as an ethnic precinct par excellence.
From Precarious Labor To Precarious Economy? Planning For Precarity In Singapore's Creative Economy, Lily Kong
From Precarious Labor To Precarious Economy? Planning For Precarity In Singapore's Creative Economy, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The important place of the oftentimes "hidden" independent worker, or freelancer, has been acknowledged in developed countries where the creative economy has grown. These creative workers do not belong to the traditional employment set-up organized around firms. Instead, they move from portfolio to portfolio, assignment to assignment, interspersing corporation-based jobs with periods of self employment. Their work offers freedom, independence and creative space, but has also been characterized as precarious, because the securities of old working patterns no longer hold. While governments in many countries and cities have become attracted to the potential of the creative economy, those that have …
Making Sustainable Creative/Cultural Space In Shanghai And Singapore, Lily Kong
Making Sustainable Creative/Cultural Space In Shanghai And Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Shanghai and Singapore are two economically vibrant Asian cities that have recently adopted creative/cultural economy strategies. In this article I examine new spatial expressions of cultural and economic interests in the two cities: state-vaunted cultural edifices and organically evolved cultural spaces. I discuss the simultaneous precariousness and sustainability of these spaces, focusing on Shanghai's Grand Theatre and Moganshan Lu and on Singapore's Esplanade-Theatres by the Bay and Wessex Estate. Their cultural sustainability is understood as their ability to support the development of indigenous content and local idioms in artistic work. Their social sustainability is examined in terms of the social …
Cultural Icons And Urban Development In Asia: Economic Imperative, National Identity, And Global City Status, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Global cities are characterized by the multiplicity of flows that they are implicated in - flows of people, goods, services, ideas, and images. Yet, global cities do not derive their status only on the basis that they are networked nodes. They also require particular forms of cultural capital. Cities with global aspirations have thus increasingly recognized the need to accumulate cultural capital, for which one means is to create new urban spaces, in particular, new cultural urban spaces (e.g. grand theatres, museums, libraries). These often monumental structures are intended to support a vibrant cultural life, in order to attract and …
Religious Schools: For Spirit, (F)Or Nation, Lily Kong
Religious Schools: For Spirit, (F)Or Nation, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper I draw attention to the study of 'unofficially sacred' sites in geographies of religion, which provide significant insights into the construction of religious identity and community, and the intersections of sacred and secular. I show that such sites deserve as much attention as places of worship (the more conventional focus in the geographical study of religion) in our understanding of the place of religion in contemporary urban society. In particular, using the case of Islamic religious schools in Singapore, I examine how Muslim identities and community are negotiated within multicultural and multireligious contexts, and particularly within one …
In Search Of Permanent Homes: Singapore's House Churches And The Politics Of Space, Lily Kong
In Search Of Permanent Homes: Singapore's House Churches And The Politics Of Space, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper focuses on one category of the 'unofficially sacred'-namely, those secular spaces which are used for worship and, in particular, residential spaces which are turned into 'house churches'. Using the case study of a house church in Singapore, the paper examines issues about the politics of religion in urban landscapes in a secular and simultaneously multireligious state. Contrary and in addition to current wisdoms about the politics of religious space, it is argued that various politics are observed: a politics of inclusion; a politics of hybridisation and in-betweenness; a politics of appropriation and nationalisation; and a politics of impermanence …
Cultural Policy In Singapore: Negotiating Economic And Socio-Cultural Agendas, Lily Kong
Cultural Policy In Singapore: Negotiating Economic And Socio-Cultural Agendas, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, I examine the role of cultural policy in a newly industrialised economy, which is at the same time a state with a short history and only nascent beginnings in nation-building and efforts to construct a distinctive cultural identity. Using Singapore as the site of analyses, develop an understanding of the intersection between the economic and socio-cultural agendas behind cultural development policies. I illustrate the hegemony of the economic, supported by the ideology and language of pragmatism and globalisation. At the same time, I explore the reception of and attempts to negotiate (and at times, contest) state policies …
Religion And Modernity: Ritual Transformations And The Reconstruction Of Space And Time, Chee Kiong Tong, Lily Kong
Religion And Modernity: Ritual Transformations And The Reconstruction Of Space And Time, Chee Kiong Tong, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, we use the case of Chinese religion in Singapore to examine the relationships between religion and modernity, and between social processes, on the one hand, and spatial conceptions, forms and structures and temporal practices, on the other. Specifically, we look at how traditional Chinese rituals are being modified, reinterpreted and invented to fit with modern living. Such ritual transformations entail reconstructed notions of space and time. Through such transformations, modernity does not simply lead to the demise of religious beliefs and practices but allows for a continued role for religion in providing a meaning system for Chinese …
Globalisation And Singaporean Transmigration: Re-Imagining And Negotiating National Identity, Lily Kong
Globalisation And Singaporean Transmigration: Re-Imagining And Negotiating National Identity, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
Within the context of globalisation that confronts the world today, I aim in this paper to illustrate one particular state's attempts at constructing a 'nation' amidst efforts to encourage its citizens to globalise, actions which are ostensibly, or at least, potentially, contradictory; and to analyse how these citizens who became transmigrants construct and negotiate their sense of 'nation' and national identity. Specifically, my empirical questions centre on Singaporean transmigrants working in China. I ask the following questions. What happens to the sense of national identity among Singaporeans and their relationship with the 'nation' when confronted with transnational conditions? What are …
Cemetaries And Columbaria, Memorials And Mausoleums: Narrative And Interpretation In The Study Of Deathscapes In Geography, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper reviews research on deathscapes, particularly by geographers in the last decade, and argues that many of the issues addressed reflect the concerns that have engaged cultural geographers during the same period. In particular, necrogeographical research reveals the relevance of deathscapes to theoretical arguments about the social constructedness of race, class, gender, nation and nature; the ideological underpinnings of landscapes, the contestation of space, the centrality of place and the multiplicity of meanings. This paper therefore highlights how the focus on one particular form of landscape reveals macro-cultural geographical research interests and trends.
The Construction And Experience Of Nature: Perspectives Of Urban Youths, Lily Kong, Belinda Yuen, Navjot S. Sodhi, Clive Briffett
The Construction And Experience Of Nature: Perspectives Of Urban Youths, Lily Kong, Belinda Yuen, Navjot S. Sodhi, Clive Briffett
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, we explore the ways in which young people in a highly urbanised setting experience and develop constructions of nature. We do so by using Singapore as our case study, an Asian context in which urbanisation is total (Singapore's population is totally urbanised), Based on focus group discussions, we conclude that young Singaporeans have little interest in and affinity for nature. This stems from a few factors: growing up in a highly urban environment in which contact with nature is limited; over-protective parents of two-children families who worry about the 'dangers' their children are exposed to when playing …
Public Housing In Singapore: Interpreting 'Quality' In The 1990s, Siew Eng Teo, Lily Kong
Public Housing In Singapore: Interpreting 'Quality' In The 1990s, Siew Eng Teo, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
While writings exist on various aspects of public housing in Singapore, recent developments in the 1990s have not yet been given any serious academic attention, Our intention in this paper is to focus on such developments, paying particular attention to the government's policy of providing quality housing, After setting the context of efforts at providing quality in the first three decades of public housing by the Housing and Development Board, we turn our attention specifically to the 1990s, focusing on three areas in which attempts are being made to improve quality, namely, the physical upgrading of older estates, the privatisation …
Nature And Nurture, Danger And Delight: Urban Women's Experiences Of The Natural World, Lily Kong, Belinda Yuen, Clive Briffett, Navjot S. Sodhi
Nature And Nurture, Danger And Delight: Urban Women's Experiences Of The Natural World, Lily Kong, Belinda Yuen, Clive Briffett, Navjot S. Sodhi
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, we address a research lacuna in the area of human experience of, and interaction with, nature. We focus on women in an urbanized setting, exploring their actual and desired experiences of the natural world, using Singapore as a case study. Our intention is to contribute to both the evolving theoretical and empirical discussions on this subject. Based on data collected from focus group discussions and household questionnaires, we conclude that women's relationships with nature in Singapore are underscored by a strong inclination towards nurturing: teaching, tending and caring, in a way that is not as apparent in …
Urban Conservation In Singapore: A Survey Of State Policies And Popular Attitudes, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh
Urban Conservation In Singapore: A Survey Of State Policies And Popular Attitudes, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
This paper focuses on the intersection of state policies and popular attitudes towards urban conservation in Singapore. It first reviews changing state policies which have shaped the built environment from slum clearance in the 1950s and 1960s to the conservation of the city's historic districts in the 1980s and 1990s. It then explores the degree of convergence between the state and the public in terms of the meaning and purposes of conservation, the question of whose heritage to conserve and which strategies are appropriate. While there is general agreement on the need for conservation and the benefits it confers on …
Reading Landscape Meanings: State Constructions And Lived Experiences In Singapore's Chinatown, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Lily Kong
Reading Landscape Meanings: State Constructions And Lived Experiences In Singapore's Chinatown, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The term 'landscape" embodies multiple levels of meaning: it articulates the ideological intent of the powerful who plan or shape the landscape in particular ways and at the same time reflects the everyday meanings implicit in the daily routines of ordinary people associated with the landscape. Through an analysis of four themes constituting the landscape of Singapore's Chinatown, we unpack two different but interdependent versions of landscape reality: the construction of social meanings from the state's perspective and those derived from the lived experiences of Chinatown's inhabitants. In our first theme, we explore the multiplicity of meanings invested in Chinatown's …
Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Negotiating Conceptions Of 'Sacred Space': A Case Study Of Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
In this paper, I approach the study of religious place from a re-theorized cultural geographical stance. Using multi-religious Singapore as a case study, I examine the tensions which arise over the meanings and values associated with religious buildings because of the conflict between state hegemony on the one hand and the oppositional meanings and values of religious groups and individuals on the other. I also examine the ways in which individuals negotiate their conceptions of sacred space in order to cope with changes imposed on their religious places by the state. Primarily, my argument is that conflict is avoided because …
The Sacred And The Secular: Exploring Contemporary Meanings And Values For Religious Buildings In Singapore, Lily Kong
Research Collection School of Social Sciences
The study of human environmental experiences has engaged a range of disciplinary attention, with work deriving chiefly from environmental psychologists and geographers. However, most research has focused on the sensory aspects of environmental experience, while the intangible, immeasurable experiences of environments have been somewhat neglected. Certainly, the meanings and values that are invested in places, which form part of the interaction between humans and environments, have not been sufficiently researched. My intention in this paper is to address one aspect of this silence, namely the ways in which humans experience their religious environments, and more particularly, the symbolic meanings and …