Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Master Narrative and the Lived City – Half a Century of Imagining Singapore
- Part I (De)-Constructing Master Narratives of the City
- Part II The Arts as Prisms of the Urban Imaginative
- Part III The City Possible in Action
- Conclusion
- Index
- Publications
3 - The City State of Singapore’s Territorial and Social Management Dilemmas: Reminiscing about Classical Athens
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 November 2020
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: The Master Narrative and the Lived City – Half a Century of Imagining Singapore
- Part I (De)-Constructing Master Narratives of the City
- Part II The Arts as Prisms of the Urban Imaginative
- Part III The City Possible in Action
- Conclusion
- Index
- Publications
Summary
Abstract
To better understand, on the one hand, the remarkable and largely commendable transformation that Singapore has undergone over the last century and, on the other hand, its vulnerability, answers should be sought to the following two questions. Does not the relentless overhaul of Singaporean living space, nearly always considered as a fait accompli, yet always subject to being revised by the state, lead to territorial alienation among the city state's citizens and permanent residents? Just as classical Athens and even classical Rome came to depend on a constant and everincreasing supply of foreign labour, Singapore has reached a point where its dependence on a modern and imported form of lumpenproletariat has become apparently irreversible. Is this sustainable?
Keywords: territorial overhaul, territorial alienation, Gramsci
Is Singapore the most successful society since human history began? (Mahbubani 2015)
And it is said that in laying down the laws, the legislator must have his attention fixed on two things, the territory and the population. (Aristotle, Politics 2.3.20)
The purpose of this chapter is threefold. It intends, first, to summarize Singapore's apparently endless territorial revolution, which often involves clearance and relocation, particularly of people, whether alive or dead; secondly, to highlight the growing residential segregation between the city state's citizens and foreign workers; and thirdly, to relate these and other planning issues to the question of Singapore's success as a society. Through an analysis of the changing spatial distribution of its population – whether living citizens, limited stay residents or the deceased – and in order to contribute to the understanding of the relationships between civil society and the state embodied in Singapore's extremely dynamic geography, I summarize the findings of my publication Singapore's Permanent Territorial Revolution: Fifty Years in Fifty Maps (2017).
Singapore as Tabula Rasa: Stretching the Land and Levelling the Stage
Du passé faisons table rase? (Chesneaux 1976)
The massive overhauling and remodelling of Singapore began, or, more precisely, accelerated some 50 years ago; that is, in 1965 when the city state became an independent republic.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Hard State, Soft City of Singapore , pp. 93 - 110Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2020