Mobile cities, modelling policies: Importing/exporting the Singapore ‘model’ of development

• Main Authors: WOODS, Orlando, Kong, Lily
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2017
• Subjects: cities; urbanization; Singapore model; Singapore; urban plans; Asian Studies; Urban Studies; Urban Studies and Planning
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/2467; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/soss_research/article/3724/viewcontent/MobileCitiesModelling_av.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

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 and challenges associated with such importation/exportation. We propose a future research agenda that focuses on the sites of origination and application of urban models, and the ways in which social, political, cultural, economic and environmental contexts shape policy transfer – not to mention urban theory – around the world