Cultural policy in Singapore: negotiating economic and socio-cultural agendas

By Lily Kong. 2000

131 citations recorded by the source corpus.

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.

Subfields: Sociology and Political Science, Urban Studies

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/cbb5a3e9ca81edd2f54fe7e3d366298e41735be6

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In Sociology and Political Science

1. Chrissie Gibson
2. A. Scott
3. Lily Kong
4. A. Semple
5. L. Khoo
6. C. Grodach
7. Thomas Niedomysl
8. H. K. Hansen

In Urban Studies

1. Chrissie Gibson
2. Lily Kong
3. A. Scott
4. A. Semple
5. L. Khoo
6. C. Grodach
7. Justin O'Connor
8. D. Power

Citations in the corpus

• Profiting from Creativity? The Music Industry in Stockholm, Sweden and Kingston, Jamaica (2002, unknown): “…et al, 2000; Hesmondhalgh, 1997; Scott, 1999a) and the c̀ultural industries' in general (Dziembowska-Kowalska and Funck, 1999; Greffe, 1997; Hirsch, 1972; 2000; Kong, 2000a; Lindeborg, 1993; NUTEK, 1994; Power, 2002; Pratt, 1997a; 1997b; Scott, 1996; 1997; 1999a; 2000a; 2000b; UNESCO, 1982).”
• Cultural-Products Industries and Urban Economic Development (2004, background): “Arts funding schemes often play a role as adjuncts to these programs (Williams 1997; Kong 2000a, 2000b).”
• Knowledges of the creative economy: Towards a relational geography of diffusion and adaptation in Asia (2006, background): “Critics have argued that Singapore may become a kind of emporium for creative products rather than a hearth for the development of local idioms (Kong, 2000).”
• Singapore: The Knowledge-Hub in the Straits of Malacca. (2006, unknown): “Kong talks of the " hegemony of the economic " in Singapore ' s cultural policy ( Kong , 2000 ) .”
• Cultures at work: Why 'culture' matters in research on the 'cultural' industries (2003, background): “1 I have deliberated side-stepped debates about the definitions of ‘popular culture’ here to maintain focus within the paper—for further remarks on how the ‘popular’ itself is articulated, and what it might mean for debates about ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture, and the cultural industries, see Hesmondhalg”
• Cultural icons and urban development in Asia: Economic imperative, national identity, and global city status ☆ (2007, background): “As Kong (2000) has illustrated based on interviews with members of the arts community, the development of large cultural infrastructures attracts large exhibitions and shows (such as the Guggenheim, Tressors, Cats and Les Miserables), but leaves little room for local communities to develop their…”