Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
publishedVersion
Publication Date
11-2000
Abstract
In this paper, I examine the role of cultural policy in a newly industrialised economy, which is at the same time a state with a short history and only nascent beginnings in nation-building and efforts to construct a distinctive cultural identity. Using Singapore as the site of analyses, develop an understanding of the intersection between the economic and socio-cultural agendas behind cultural development policies. I illustrate the hegemony of the economic, supported by the ideology and language of pragmatism and globalisation. At the same time, I explore the reception of and attempts to negotiate (and at times, contest) state policies by "cultural practitioners" - artists, dancers, playwrights, actors, directors and so forth, illustrating the disjuncture between state policies and practitioners' ideals. This may be cast as a conflict between social and cultural development priorities as envisaged by the practitioners as opposed to economic development priorities as embodied in the state's cultural economic policies.
Keywords
cultural policy, cultural economy, Singapore
Discipline
Asian Studies | Human Geography | Sociology of Culture | Urban Studies
Research Areas
Humanities
Publication
Geoforum
Volume
31
Issue
4
First Page
409
Last Page
424
ISSN
0016-7185
Identifier
10.1016/S0016-7185(00)00006-3
Publisher
Elsevier
Citation
Kong, Lily.(2000). Cultural Policy in Singapore: Negotiating Economic and Socio-Cultural Agendas. Geoforum, 31(4), 409-424.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/soss_research/1775
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Additional URL
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0016-7185(00)00006-3
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