g. l. ooi and b. j. shaw, beyond the port city: development and identity in 21st century singapore

G. L. Ooi and B. J. Shaw, Beyond the Port City:Development and Identity in 21st Century Singapore

Prentice Hall, Singapore, 2004, 184 pp

Roy Jones

Published online: 26 October 2006� Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2006

As one of the world’s few remaining city-states,

Singapore would be an idiosyncratic place even

without its distinctive ethnic mix and political

structures. It is also passing through interesting

times following the recent Asian economic crisis

and the exacerbation of political and cultural

tensions following 9/11 and the ‘War on Terror’.

It is in these contexts that the authors set out to

provide an applied historical geography of Singa-

pore which describes the evolution of its econ-

omy, society and polity from those of a colonial

port city, assesses its current situation as an

affluent and diverse ‘‘developmental state’’ (p. 3)

in a rapidly changing region and considers the

prospects for its future beyond (what they con-

tend to be) a contemporary ‘‘crossroads’’ (p. 9).

The subject categorisation of this book as

‘Economics’ on the publisher’s website is there-

fore rather misleading. As the full title suggests,

and as the authors argue in their introductory

chapter, the ‘‘book is generally preoccupied with

the constitution of social identities and specifi-

cally with the Singapore identity given the devel-

opment of its political economy’’ (p. 11). Here,

and throughout the volume, they therefore con-

trast the ‘‘hegemonic narratives’’ (p. 9) of the

colonial port city, which operated for the benefit

of the imperial power and treated the ethnically

diverse population on a divide and rule basis, and

of the contemporary independent nation state as

it attempts to set and to modify its own develop-

mental goals.

Chapter 2 therefore traces the early nineteenth

century historical processes whereby Singapore

displaced its rivals, such as Penang and Malacca,

to become the region’s, pre-eminent port before

considering the port’s more contemporary con-

straints and competitors. Chapter 3 concentrates

on the post independence drives for modernisa-

tion and westernisation, emphasising the extent to

which ‘‘little exists without planning in Singa-

pore’’ (p. 35) and to which social and environ-

mental amenity have been preserved and, indeed,

improved over several decades of rapid economic

and industrial growth—a salutary reminder to

societies pursuing more free market models of

economic development. But this chapter also

emphasises the relative lack of public involve-

ment in political decision-making and of local

identity in a state committed to integration with

the global economy.

Chapter 4 considers these omissions in the

context of Singapore’s (multi) ethnic policies,

contrasting the segregated residential patterns of

the colonial city with the deliberately integrated

housing policies of the modern state and demon-

R. Jones (&)Faculty of Media, Society and Culture,Curtin University of Technology,Perth, WA, Australiae-mail: r.jones@curtin.edu.au

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GeoJournal (2006) 66:377–378

DOI 10.1007/s10708-006-9032-1

strating how ‘‘ethnic differences have been man-

aged ... in programmes to pre-empt their politi-

cisation’’ (p. 63). This theme is further developed

in Chapter 5, ‘‘The Politics of Control: Making

Good Citizens’’. It describes the trajectory from

the elimination of popular politics in the 1960s,

through the increase in the power of the bureau-

cracy in the 1970s to the creation of, in Castells’

terms, a ‘developmental state’, in which the state

is the lead actor, economic development is the

end and political stability (achieved through the

ongoing dominance of the governing People’s

Action Party) is the means, by the 1980s. How-

ever, this chapter also describes how governance,

particularly at the local level, has become ‘‘a

technical exercise that has become more spatially

and socially relevant to planners than to resi-

dents’’. Indeed this lack of civic engagement is

posited as a major element of the ‘crossroads’ at

which Singapore is, it is claimed, currently situ-

ated.

Chapter 6 provides an alternative perspective

on the issues raised in the preceding chapters

though an insightful juxtaposition of the housing

and electoral geographies of Singapore, illustrat-

ing how the ‘developmental’ goal of achieving

socio-economic mix within housing developments

impacts upon ‘identity’ by preventing the estab-

lishment of ethnic enclaves and thus upon the

electoral system by dispersing and disempowering

the ethnic vote.

Chapter 7, subtitled ‘‘Ship Chandlers and

Bankers’’, traces Singapore’s transformation from

an ex-imperial shipping and manufacturing hub to

a global centre of commerce, communications

and air transport. However, this transformation

has also increased the ethnic and socio economic

diversity of the Singaporean (resident) population

as its economic success attracts increasing num-

bers of expatriate professionals and domestic and

construction workers. It has also changed the

planning and urban development imperatives,

since centres of global commerce and, still more

so, centres of global tourism benefit from the

possession of distinctive place identities and,

therefore, from the distinctive cultural, historical

and environmental characteristics which give rise

to such identities. Chapter 8 therefore considers

several examples of how place identities have

been generated, fought for and, on occasion,

preserved in Singapore and, in the process, it

documents rare examples of successful political

resistance and civic engagement. Indeed not only

do the authors see heritage and identity issues as

a possible basis for the ‘‘revival of civic society’’

(p. 137) in Singapore, but they conclude the book

by contending that Singapore must both discover

an ethnic and cultural identity and sell this

identity on the global market if it is to succeed

in the new millennium.

In a minor way this volume likewise lacks an

identity insofar as it uses terms such as ‘kilome-

ters’ and ‘programmes’ to such an extent that it is

unclear which variant of English (Singlish?) it

purports to use. Furthermore, while the publisher

claims that this work is intended for both a

Singaporean and an international audience, it can

often demand a degree of local knowledge (e.g.

on the nature of the ‘verandah riots’ or the ‘25%

quota’ in schools) which may not be possessed by

an international readership. Such a readership

would also benefit from the more generous

provision of maps and photographs.

However, these are detailed criticisms. Both

Singaporean and international readers should

also appreciate the scholarship that is evident

from the effective and imaginative integration of

a mass of detailed academic and archival material

from Singapore with an impressive range of

sources from the global literature on global and

port cities and, indeed, on urban studies more

generally. In the best traditions of historical

geography, this volume succeeds in combining a

wide range of economic, political, social and

environmental information in order to provide

valuable insights into the evolution of a place.

What makes it particularly valuable, both within

and beyond Singapore, are the ways in which

these retrospective views are also used to identify

significant concerns relating to the country’s

present and its future.

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