The Hard State Soft City Of Singapore

With Singapore serving as the subject of exploration, the volume explores the purview of imaginative representations of the city. Alongside the physical structures and associated practices that make up our lived environment, and the conceptualised space engineered into material form by bureaucrats, experts and commercial interests, a perceptual layer of space is conjured out of people's everyday life experiences. While such imaginative projections may not be as tangible as its functional designations, they are nonetheless equally vital and palpable. The richness of its inhabitants' memories, aspirations and meaningful interpretations challenges the reduction of Singapore as a Generic City. Taking the imaginative field as the point of departure, the forms and modes of intellectual and creative articulations of Singapore's urban condition probe the resilience of cities, and the people who reside in them, through the images they convey or evoke as a means for collective expressions of human agency in placemaking.

With Singapore serving as the subject of exploration, The Hard State, Soft City of Singapore explores the purview of imaginative representations of the city. Alongside the physical structures and associated practices that make up our lived environment, and conceptualized space engineered into material form by bureaucrats, experts and commercial interests, a perceptual layer of space is conjured out of people's everyday life experiences. While such imaginative projections may not be as tangible as its functional designations, they are nonetheless equally vital and palpable. The richness of its inhabitants' memories, aspirations and meaningful interpretations challenges the reduction of Singapore as a Generic City. Taking the imaginative field as the point of departure, the forms and modes of intellectual and creative articulations of Singapore's urban condition probe the resilience of cities and the people who reside in them, through the images they convey or evoke as a means for collective expressions of human agency in placemaking.

This book examines spirituality in Singapore, showing how important the city state is for understanding contemporary global configurations of urban space, religion, and spirituality. Joanne Punzo Waghorne highlights how the formal religious spaces-temples, churches, and mosques-have been confined to allotted sites on the map of Singapore, whereas various “spiritual” organizations, particularly of Hindu origins and headed by a guru, still continue to operate as “societies” classified by the government with other “clubs.” These unconventional religiosities are not confined but ironically make their own places, meeting in ostensive secular venues: high-rise flats, malls, businesses, and community centers, thus existing in the overall space of religion, commerce, and the state. The book argues that State of Singapore also operates between the secular and the religious, constructing an overarching spatial regime that both accommodates and yet rivals the alternate spheres that spiritual movements construct under its umbrella. Both spatial configurations challenge the presumed relationships between myth and reality, religion and commerce, the ethereal and the concrete, the sacred and the secular, on the levels of self, community, and polity. Singapore, now deemed a model for urban development in Asia, also offers an understanding of a new post-secularity and perhaps reveals where the urbanized world is headed.

Handbook of Waterfront Cities and Urbanism is the first resource to address cities’ transformations of their coastlines and riverbanks and the resulting effects on environment, culture, and identity in a genuinely global context. Spanning cities from Gdańsk to Georgetown, this reference for design, development, and planning explores the transition of waterfronts from industrial and port zones to crowd-drawing urban spectacles within the frameworks of urban development, economics, ecology, governance, globalization, preservation, and sustainability. A collection of contextual studies, local perspectives, project reviews, and analyses of evolution and emerging trends provides critical insight into the phenomenon of waterfront development and urbanism in cities from the East to the West. Features: Explores the transformation of waterfronts from industrial hubs to urban playgrounds through the lenses of preservation, governance, economics, ecology, and more. Presents chapter-length case studies drawn from cities in China, Bangladesh, Turkey, the United States, Malaysia, the European Union, Egypt, and other countries. Includes contributions from an interdisciplinary team of international scholars and professionals, a much-needed corrective to the historical exclusion of researchers and issues from the Global South. An ideal reference for graduate students, scholars, and professionals in urban planning, architecture, geography, and history, the Handbook of Waterfront Cities and Urbanism deserves to be on the shelf of urban authorities and any internationally minded academic or practitioner in real estate development, water management, preservation, or tourism.

This book aims to promote greater understanding of social cohesion amidst existing complexities of faith and identity, and what it portends for our future.Social cohesion defies easy definition; yet, every pursuit of social cohesiveness requires nurture, patience and a consensus that it is germane to the success of any community. Indeed, challenges abound, developments such as the COVID-19 pandemic, evolving geopolitical tensions, and a rise in access to technology impact social cohesion. In such times, it is pertinent to maintain on-going conversations revolving around social cohesion to bridge the divides through diversity and technology.This book continues to build on the conversations from the second edition of the International Conference of Cohesive Society (ICCS), held from 6-8 September 2022 in Singapore. Over 25 essays across three ICCS 2022 themes — How Faith Can Bridge Divides, Diversity, and Technology — present international and interdisciplinary perspectives in building confident identities and connected communities.

Yesterday’s malls as today’s heritage. This book unearths Singapore’s latent histories, cultures and communities that grew within its now ageing modern shopping centres, envisioned in the 1960s futuristically as “Arcades in the Air”. Contributors for this edited book highlight some of such unexpected narratives from the pioneering “Planned Shopping Centres”. They include: malls as historical and photographical sites, as homes for pioneering arcade gamers, youths cultures and veteran rock musicians, and as platforms for artistic imaginations and exhibitions. As largely individually owned shops units within the buildings, the older malls have also fostered more diverse and autonomous communities and businesses. Amidst Singapore’s constantly changing urban landscape, these otherwise dated shopping centres stand precariously as venerable sites of collective social and cultural memories. Includes essays from: Chua Beng Huat, Yu-Mei Balasingamchow, Darren Soh, Roy Kheang, Eunice Lim, Elena Yeo, Steve Ferzacca, Kar-men Cheng, Wee Li Lin

This book explores how cities are shaped by the lived experiences of inhabitants and examines the ways they develop strategies to cope with daily and unexpected challenges. It argues that migration, livelihood, and public health challenges result from inadequacies in the hard city—urban assets, such as land, infrastructure, and housing, and asserts that these challenges and escalating vulnerabilities are best negotiated using the soft city—social capital and community networks. In so doing, the authors criticise a singular knowledge system and argue for a granular, nuanced understanding of cities—of the interrelations between people in places, everyday urbanisms, social relationships, cultural practices, and histories. The volume presents perspectives from the Global South and the Global North and engages with city-specific cases from Africa, India, and Europe for a deeper understanding of resilience. Part of the Urban Futures series, it will be of great interest to students and researchers of urban studies, urban planning, urban management, architecture, urban sociology, urban design, ecology, conservation, and urban sustainability. It will also be useful for urbanists, architects, urban sociologists, city and town planners, policy makers, and those interested in a deeper understanding of the contemporary and future city.