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License to travel

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  • Choon Piew Pow

Abstract

In the world of 'fast policy transfer', stylized models of 'successful' paradigmatic cities have been assembled and circulated widely around the world, providing supposedly 'best practices' and 'tried and tested' policy solutions for a variety of problems. Far from being neutral and objective, these traveling models and policy assemblages are deeply embedded in power relations and animated by urban imaginaries of 'good places' to live and work. Both in rhetoric and form, the purported 'Singapore model', driven by the entrepreneurial zeal of state agencies as well as private developers, has been exported to many cities in the global south. Yet how does this self-stylized Singapore model possess the representational power and 'license to travel'? What role does urban materiality play in the circulation and flow of the Singapore model? To this end, this paper argues that the Singapore model rests on the seductive narratives of a self-orientalized 'Asian success story' that is enacted and materialized through an assemblage of policy artifacts. On the whole, however, rather than converging towards a unified singular policy narrative, the Singapore model is consumed in highly differentiated and uneven ways, thus underscoring the contradictions and friction that underpin the process through which mobile policies and neoliberal urban models are assembled and circulated around the world. Beyond the empirically grounded analysis of assemblage theory and policy mobility, this paper attends to the diverse urbanisms that are being assembled and produced both within and beyond the global south.

Suggested Citation

  • Choon Piew Pow, 2014. "License to travel," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(3), pages 287-306, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:cityxx:v:18:y:2014:i:3:p:287-306
    DOI: 10.1080/13604813.2014.908515
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    Cited by:

    1. Jorn Koelemaij, 2022. "The world’s number 1 real estate development exporter? Assessing announced transnational projects from the United Arab Emirates between 2003–2014," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 54(2), pages 226-246, March.
    2. Yu Zhou, 2021. "Qujing (å –ç» ) as policy mobility with Chinese characteristics: A case study of ultralow-energy building policy in China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(2), pages 410-427, March.
    3. Shakirah Esmail Hudani, 2020. "The Green Masterplan: Crisis, State Transition and Urban Transformation in Post‐Genocide Rwanda," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(4), pages 673-690, July.
    4. Astrid Wood, 2016. "Tracing policy movements: Methods for studying learning and policy circulation," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(2), pages 391-406, February.
    5. Farhad Mukhtarov & Martin de Jong & Robin Pierce, 2017. "Political and ethical aspects in the ethnography of policy translation: Research experiences from Turkey and China," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(3), pages 612-630, March.
    6. Emma Colven, 2020. "Thinking beyond success and failure: Dutch water expertise and friction in postcolonial Jakarta," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(6), pages 961-979, September.
    7. Lucrecia Bertelli, 2021. "What kind of global city? Circulating policies for ‘slum’ upgrading in the making of world-class Buenos Aires," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(6), pages 1293-1313, September.
    8. Napong Tao Rugkhapan, 2021. "Learn from elsewhere: A relational geography of policy learning in Bangkok’s Creative District," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 53(8), pages 1952-1973, November.
    9. Bertelli, Lucrecia, 2021. "What kind of global city? Circulating policies for ‘slum’ upgrading in the making of world-class Buenos Aires," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 109311, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    10. Frances Brill & Veronica Conte, 2020. "Understanding project mobility: The movement of King’s Cross to Brussels and Johannesburg," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 38(1), pages 79-96, February.
    11. Enora Robin & Laura Nkula-Wenz, 2021. "Beyond the success/failure of travelling urban models: Exploring the politics of time and performance in Cape Town’s East City," Environment and Planning C, , vol. 39(6), pages 1252-1273, September.
    12. Sharon M. Meagher, 2015. "The politics of urban knowledge," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(6), pages 801-819, December.
    13. CP Pow, 2018. "Constructing authority: Embodied expertise, homegrown neoliberalism, and the globalization of Singapore’s private planning," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 50(6), pages 1209-1227, September.
    14. Nina Ebner & Jamie Peck, 2022. "FANTASY ISLAND: Paul Romer and the Multiplication of Hong Kong," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 26-49, January.

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