Renaissance Singapore Economy Culture And Politics

Contains discussions on Singapore's public rhetoric about liberalization and its association with the development of a creative economy, focusing on questions surrounding conservatism, national identity and values, civil society activism, and the societal role of the younger generation.

Investigates the Singapore Government's approach to the construction of national identity. This book focuses on the global/national nexus: the tensions between the necessity to embrace the global to ensure economic survival, yet needing a committed population to support the perpetuation of the nation-state and its economic success.

This edited book not only makes a much-needed contribution to research in arts education but also provides a strong grounding of evidential support for Singapore arts education, in contrast to the current state of affairs in arts education in many parts of the world where severe cuts in funding, lackluster support for the arts and imperialist agendas are pervasive. The case of and for Singapore – presented in this edited book through rich descriptions of the dedicated, contextualized practices of arts educators, artists and researchers – offers readers many valuable lessons and reflections on the continued survival and advancement of arts education.

Developed as an exploratory study of artworks by artists of Singapore and Malaysia, Retrospective attempts to account for contemporary artworks that engage with history. These are artworks that reference past events or narratives, of the nation and its art. Through the examination of a selection of artworks produced between 1990 and 2012, Retrospective is both an attribution and an analysis of a historiographical aesthetic within contemporary art practice. It considers that, by their method and in their assembly, these artworks perform more than a representation of a historical past. Instead, they confront history and its production, laying bare the nature and designs of the historical project via their aesthetic project. Positing an interdisciplinary approach as necessary for understanding the historiographical as aesthetic, Retrospective considers not only historical and aesthetic perspectives, but also the philosophical, by way of ontology, in order to broaden its exposition beyond the convention of historical and contextual interpretation of art. Yet, in associating these artworks with a historiographical aesthetic, this exposition may be regarded as a historiographical exercise in itself, affirming the significance of these artworks for the history of Singapore and Malaysia. In short, which history rarely is, Retrospective is about the art of historicisation and the historicisation of art.

This book explores this inherent contradiction present in most facets of Singaporean media, cultural and political discourses, and identifies the key regulatory strategies and technologies that the ruling People Action Party (PAP) employs to regulate Singapore media and culture, and thus govern the thoughts and conduct of Singaporeans. It establishes the conceptual links between government and the practice of cultural policy, arguing that contemporary cultural policy in Singapore has been designed to shape citizens into accepting and participating in the rationales of government. Outlining the historical development of cultural policy, including the recent expansion of cultural regulatory and administrative practices into the ‘creative industries’, Terence Lee analyzes the attempts by the Singaporean authorities to engage with civil society, the ways in which the media is used to market the PAP’s policies and leadership and the implications of the internet for the practice of governmental control. Overall, The Media, Cultural Control and Government in Singapore offers an original approach towards the rethinking of the relationship between media, culture and politics in Singapore, demonstrating that the many contradictory discourses around Singapore only make sense once the politics and government of the media and culture are understood.

Through close readings of contemporary made-in-Singapore films (by Jack Neo, Eric Khoo, and Royston Tan) and television programs (Singapore Idol, sitcoms, and dramas), this book analyzes the prospects of resistance in an advanced capitalist-industrial society with “global city” aspirations.

This book provides an introduction to the contemporary issues that are occurring in cultural policy in East Asia today. Interest in East Asia has grown considerably in recent years due not only to the emergence of economic super-powers such as China but also to the cultural impact the region is making throughout the world through Japanese film and Korean Pop-Music. Addressing the relationship between the state, culture and the creative economy, this collection highlights how cultural policy within this region has to be understood within its social, historical and political context. By presenting a variety of chapters that examine the role of culture within the countries of China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan, this book offers readers an insight into the key issues affecting development of cultural policy in these countries. This book was originally published as a Special Issue of the International Journal of Cultural Policy.

Through a focus on Singapore, this book presents an analysis of authoritarian legalism, showing how prosperity, public discourse, and a rigorous observance of legal procedure enable a reconfigured rule of law - liberal form but illiberal content. It shows how institutions and process become tools to constrain dissenting citizens while protecting those in political power.