IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v61y2024i6p1071-1093.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Deciphering the ‘cosmopolitan grid’: The production of space in diversifying heartland neighbourhoods of Singapore

Author

Listed:
  • Felicity Hwee-Hwa Chan

    (Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore)

  • Hui Lee Low

    (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore)

Abstract

Global capital and highly-skilled international labour are sought by cities for economic growth. Much research has been about Western cities, but less is known about how pro-growth developmental Asian countries, which have become key global hubs, organise their urban planning and policy efforts to gain global capital and skilled labour in their cities. In Singapore, the state is active in reshaping the city into a ‘cosmopolitan grid’ by planning and developing new urban amenity spaces that can attract human capital to fuel the desired urban growth, such as international schools, private housing options, and access to a global selection of goods and services. Oftentimes, the socio-cultural and socio-spatial changes at the neighbourhood level are seemingly ignored, despite the significance of the neighbourhood as a critical social space for the daily practice and formation of social relations in demographically diverse cities. Drawing on cognitive mapping interviews with foreign-born and native-born residents in two upper-middle income suburban neighbourhoods in Singapore, which are recognised as the heartlands of the native-born but have become popular with highly-skilled foreign-born families (namely Western expatriates) in the last decade, this article shows how the top-down rational production of cosmopolitan space by the state framed in a formation of the ‘cosmopolitan grid’ has played out and shaped the everyday production of social space among the native and foreign-born residents which determines the experience and opportunities for integration in this city-state.

Suggested Citation

  • Felicity Hwee-Hwa Chan & Hui Lee Low, 2024. "Deciphering the ‘cosmopolitan grid’: The production of space in diversifying heartland neighbourhoods of Singapore," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 61(6), pages 1071-1093, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:6:p:1071-1093
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231199347
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00420980231199347
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00420980231199347?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Matthew Hayes & Hila Zaban, 2020. "Transnational gentrification: The crossroads of transnational mobility and urban research," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 57(15), pages 3009-3024, November.
    2. Edward Ludwig Glaeser & Albert Saiz, 2003. "The rise of the skilled city," Working Papers 04-2, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jørn Rattsø & Hildegunn E. Stokke, 2011. "Accumulation of education and regional income growth: Limited human capital effects in Norway," Working Paper Series 11211, Department of Economics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
    2. Beckstead, Desmond Brown, W. Mark Gellatly, Guy, 2008. "Villes et croissance : le cerveau gauche des villes nord-américaines : scientifiques et ingénieurs et croissance urbaine," L'économie canadienne en transition 2008017f, Statistics Canada, Division de l'analyse économique.
    3. Martin Andersson & Börje Johansson, 2008. "Innovation Ideas and Regional Characteristics: Product Innovations and Export Entrepreneurship by Firms in Swedish Regions," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(2), pages 193-224, June.
    4. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    5. Edward L. Glaeser & Raven Saks, 2004. "Corruption in America," NBER Working Papers 10821, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Gilles Duranton & Matthew A. Turner, 2012. "Urban Growth and Transportation," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 79(4), pages 1407-1440.
    7. Amanda Weinstein & Carlianne Patrick, 2020. "Recession‐proof skills, cities, and resilience in economic downturns," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 60(2), pages 348-373, March.
    8. Timothy J. Bartik, 2009. "The Revitalization of Older Industrial Cities: A Review Essay of Retooling for Growth," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(1), pages 1-29, March.
    9. Edward L. Glaeser & Joseph Gyourko & Raven E. Saks, 2006. "Urban growth and housing supply," Journal of Economic Geography, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(1), pages 71-89, January.
    10. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430.
    11. Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Où va l’économie ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(4), pages 5-18.
    12. J. Vernon Henderson & Adam Storeygard & David N. Weil, 2012. "Measuring Economic Growth from Outer Space," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 102(2), pages 994-1028, April.
    13. Michaela Trippl & Franz Tödtling, 2006. "From the ivory tower to the market place? The changing role of knowledge organisations in spurring the development of biotechnology clusters in Austria," SRE-Disc sre-disc-2006_07, Institute for Multilevel Governance and Development, Department of Socioeconomics, Vienna University of Economics and Business.
    14. Richard Florida & Charlotta Mellander & Kevin Stolarick, 2016. "Human capital in cities and suburbs," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 57(1), pages 91-123, July.
    15. Maksim Belitski & Julia Korosteleva, 2011. "Entrepreneurship and cities: evidence from the post-communist world," ERSA conference papers ersa11p288, European Regional Science Association.
    16. André Mollick & Marie Mora, 2012. "The impact of higher education on Texas population and employment growth," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 48(1), pages 135-149, February.
    17. Basher, Syed A. & Lagerlöf, Nils-Petter, 2008. "Per-capita income gaps across US states and Canadian provinces," Journal of Macroeconomics, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 1173-1187, September.
    18. Mikhail Martynovich, 2017. "The role of local embeddedness and non-local knowledge in entrepreneurial activity," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 49(4), pages 741-762, December.
    19. Julie L. Hotchkiss & M. Melinda Pitts & John C. Robertson, 2008. "The Push-Pull Effects of the Information Technology Boom and Bust," Economic Development Quarterly, , vol. 22(3), pages 200-212, August.
    20. Martin Carree & Emilio Congregado & Antonio Golpe & André van Stel, 2015. "Self-employment and job generation in metropolitan areas, 1969-2009," Entrepreneurship & Regional Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3-4), pages 181-201, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:61:y:2024:i:6:p:1071-1093. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.