Consumption, Cities and States: Comparing Singapore with Asian and Western Cities PDF
Preview Consumption, Cities and States: Comparing Singapore with Asian and Western Cities
Consumption, Cities and States Key Issues in Modern Sociology Series Anthem’s Key Issues in Modern Sociology series publishes scholarly texts by leading social theorists that give an accessible exposition of the major structural changes in modern societies. These volumes address an academic audience through their relevance and scholarly quality, and connect sociological thought to public issues. The series covers both substantive and theoretical topics, and addresses the works of major modern sociologists. Its emphasis is on modern developments in sociology with relevance to contemporary issues such as globalization, warfare, citizenship, human rights, environmental crises, demographic change, religion, postsecularism and civil conflict. Series Editor Bryan S. Turner – City University of New York, USA, and Australian Catholic University, Australia Editorial Board Thomas Cushman – Wellesley College, USA Rob Stones – University of Western Sydney, Australia Richard Swedberg – Cornell University, USA Stephen Turner – University of South Florida, USA Darin Weinberg – University of Cambridge, UK Consumption, Cities and States Comparing Singapore with Asian and Western Cities Ann Brooks and Lionel Wee Anthem Press An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company www.anthempress.com This edition first published in UK and USA 2014 by ANTHEM PRESS 75–76 Blackfriars Road, London SE1 8HA, UK or PO Box 9779, London SW19 7ZG, UK and 244 Madison Ave #116, New York, NY 10016, USA Copyright © 2014 Ann Brooks and Lionel Wee The moral right of the authors has been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested. ISBN-13: 978 1 78308 226 1 (Hbk) ISBN-10: 1 78308 226 7 (Hbk) Cover photo: aphotostory/Shutterstock.com This title is also available as an ebook. TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix Chapter 1. Consumption, Reflexivity and Citizenship in Global Cities 1 Chapter 2. Orders of Reflexivity 19 Chapter 3. Rescaling for Competitiveness 37 Chapter 4. The Dynamics of State–Society Negotiations 53 Chapter 5. (De-)Regulating Asian Identities: Comparing Asian Cities and States 73 Chapter 6. Citizenship, Reflexivity and the State: Investigating ‘Defensive Engagement’ in a City-State 89 Chapter 7. Governing the Citizen-Consumer: Citizenship, Casinos and ‘Cathedrals of Consumption’ 107 Chapter 8. Regulating Consumption and the ‘Pink Dollar’ 131 Chapter 9. States as ‘Midwives’ to Cities: Cosmopolitanism, Citizenship and Consumption in the Modern State 153 References 173 Index 189 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The authors would like to acknowledge the support of a number of individuals in this project. Ann Brooks was supported by a six-month Asia Research Institute (ARI) senior visiting research fellowship at the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Lionel Wee and Ann Brooks were supported by a grant from the NUS toward the production of the book. Both authors are immensely grateful for this support, without which the book would not have been possible. We would particularly like to thank Professor Prasenjit Duara, director of the ARI and Raffles professor of humanities and director of research for humanities and social sciences in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the NUS, for his immense support of the project. We would also like to acknowledge the support of the migration cluster leader and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, Professor Brenda Yeoh. In addition the entire administrative team at the ARI were immensely supportive. A special thanks to Jonathan Lee from the ARI team for his assistance in designing the front cover of the book. Both authors wish to acknowledge the encouragement of Bryan Turner in suggesting Anthem Press to us. At Anthem our editor Rob Reddick and the entire team at Anthem have been excellent and made the production process effortless. INTRODUCTION In this book we analyze the intersection of consumption and rights within the context of different states and cities in Asia and the West. We focus on the concept of the global city and consider a range of contested understandings within this concept. We are interested in the cultural economy and political economy of the global city set in the context of globalization. Stevenson (2013, 38) notes, ‘In “wealthy nations” such as Japan, Australia, and those of North America and Western Europe, between 72 and 95 percent of the population lives in cities, whereas in Africa and Asia, the percentage is 38 and 41, respectively.’ Despite the figure for Asia, what is clear is that global cities are becoming the hallmark of growth in Asia. A key factor in the growth of cities globally in late modernity is neoliberalism. Theoretical debates around neoliberalism are thus explored in the chapters of this book. Stevenson observes that ‘Neoliberalism is also implicated in the increasing spatial division and fragmentation that is evident in cities around the world. Of significance is a deepening of the inequitable distribution of urban resources, which although taking a number of forms, is perhaps most highly visible in residential segregation’ (Stevenson 2013, 26). Different cities offer different insights, and we draw on the Asian city- state of Singapore as an exemplar of an aspiring global city. Singapore is of particular interest because it also serves as a model for many other cities and states with aspirations toward global city status (see Chua 2011). To provide a more comprehensive analysis we also draw on a range of cities in Asia and in the West to highlight parallels and divergences. Secondly, cities also exist as part of states. This then raises the further question of whether it might be at all feasible to attempt an exploration of the politics of global city aspirations without taking into account the relationships between cities and states. In this introductory chapter we briefly outline our thoughts on these issues in order to provide some background to the book.
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