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. Edward L. Glaeser & Giacomo A. M. Ponzetto, 2010. "Did the Death of Distance Hurt Detroit and Help New York?," NBER Chapters, in: Agglomeration Economics, pages 303-337, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Kath Hulse & Judith Yates, 2017. "A private rental sector paradox: unpacking the effects of urban restructuring on housing market dynamics," Housing Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 32(3), pages 253-270, April.
    3. 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.
    4. Niclas Berggren & Mikael Elinder, 2012. "Is tolerance good or bad for growth?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 150(1), pages 283-308, January.
    5. 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.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/1mi8ff4o538jmp9le990rnjgb9 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. 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.
    8. Lee, Jongkwan, 2021. "The Role of a University in Cluster Formation: Evidence from a National Institute of Science and Technology in Korea," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    9. Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Avant propos : évaluation du programme présidentiel pour le quinquennat 2017-2022," SciencePo Working papers Main hal-03567533, HAL.
    10. Edward L. Glaeser & Raven Saks, 2004. "Corruption in America," NBER Working Papers 10821, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. 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.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. Marcus Berliant & Chia-Ming Yu, 2015. "Locational Signaling And Agglomeration," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 55(5), pages 757-773, November.
    15. 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.
    16. Rafael González-Val, 2015. "Cross-sectional growth in US cities from 1990 to 2000," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 17(1), pages 83-106, January.
    17. Peter Mayerhofer & Oliver Fritz & Dieter Pennerstorfer, 2010. "Dritter Bericht zur internationalen Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Wiens," WIFO Studies, WIFO, number 42430.
    18. Chun-Yu Ho & Dan Li, 2009. "The nexus of income and size distribution of Chinese cities, 1984-2003," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 16(17), pages 1677-1682.
    19. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/1mi8ff4o538jmp9le990rnjgb9 is not listed on IDEAS
    20. Guy Michaels & Ferdinand Rauch & Stephen J Redding, 2019. "Task Specialization in U.S. Cities from 1880 to 2000," Journal of the European Economic Association, European Economic Association, vol. 17(3), pages 754-798.
    21. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5p3pm5qhd9mqb0j3u9m5rrhis is not listed on IDEAS
    22. Xavier Ragot, 2017. "Où va l’économie ?," Revue de l'OFCE, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 0(4), pages 5-18.
    23. 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.

    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.