Publication Type
Journal Article
Version
acceptedVersion
Publication Date
5-2024
Abstract
A burgeoning literature on ‘left behind’ places has emerged that captures the backlash against globalisation and highlights the locales that lag world cities. This paper integrates the ‘left behind’ and world cities literatures through the lens of discontent in the context of Singapore, using sentiment analysis and topic modelling as well as interviews with local professionals to unpack the multidimensional aspects of discontent. Focusing on the Singapore–India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement that spurred discontent directed at foreign Indian professionals, we show that the worlding generated by transnational flows has accentuated intra-urban inequality through racialisation and spatialisation of financial business and suburban residential hubs. Discontent from intra-urban inequality unsettles years of efforts by the state to cultivate cosmopolitan spaces aimed at reducing social exclusion and difference in the world city of Singapore.
Keywords
CECA, discontent, globalisation, ‘left behind’, world cities, Singapore
Discipline
Asian Studies | Race and Ethnicity | Urban Studies
Research Areas
Integrative Research Areas
Publication
Urban Studies
First Page
1
Last Page
18
ISSN
0042-0980
Identifier
10.1177/00420980241246913
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Citation
TAN, Gordon; POON, Jessie P. H.; and WOODS, Orlando.
Discontent in the world city of Singapore. (2024). Urban Studies. 1-18.
Available at: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/cis_research/162
Copyright Owner and License
Authors
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/10.1177/00420980241246913