Political tool or quality experience? Urban livability and the Singaporean state’s global city aspirations

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11670489
AutoresShaun S K Teo (0000-0002-5850-3933, National University of Singapore, autor correspondente), Shaun Teo
Ano2014
Volume35
Fascículo6
Páginas916-937
Data de publicação2014-06-27
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoUrban Geography (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0272-3638 • E-ISSN: 1938-2847
EditoraTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/02723638.2014.924233
OpenAlexW2031136059
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas14
Referências citadas69

In this article, I argue that the concept of urban livability is used as a political tool by the Singaporean state to further its pursuit of global city status. I show how the state uses neighborhood “upgrading” as a mechanism to inscribe strategic meanings of livability onto Singapore’s residential landscapes with the expectation that residents will align their experiences of livability with the former. I use an embodied approach to analyze state manipulation of two residential landscapes—condominiums and public housing—as an active means of official attempts to create two types of citizen-subjects. By juxtaposing the state’s operationalization of livability against livability as understood in the context of residents’ localized lifeworlds, I show how indeterminate outcomes arise from the state’s livability project

Context (archaeology · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Geography · Operationalization · Political science · Politics · Sociology · State (computer science · Law · Socioeconomic Development in Asia · Urban Planning and Governance