A Timespace Critique of Singapore, the “Good” Global City

Existing academic literature on global cities tend to be founded upon a space/time dualism. Geographical accounts in particular take a predominantly spatial perspective that leave a necessarily coimplicated temporal dimension severed from the analysis.

As such, this thesis contributes to existing global cities scholarship by extending literature on time and timespace through and to research on global cities. Focusing on the Singapore River area, my research explores how different aspects of time are being (re)produced, consumed/ experienced, and resisted by the public and private sectors and by locals and thus adopts a timespace critique to evaluate Singapore’s utopian aspirations to be a “good” global city for Singaporeans.

Specifically, this thesis focuses on three conceptualisations of time. First, I surface how the naturalized imperative to follow a “global city” developmental trajectory underpins Singapore’s justification for continuous rapid urban change and the effects on heritage and national identity. I then elaborate on the resistances strategies undertaken by the private sector and locals. Just as space encapsulates a social dimension, time is also socially experienced in the everyday.

As such, the second aim of this thesis is to study time as a social everyday experience. I study the governance, self-governance, effects and resistance of a fast pace of life in Singapore. Third, in this neoliberal global city, time is not just experienced but socio-temporal experiences are reconfigured as commodity and capital for monetary exchange and capital accumulation.

Therefore, I explore the spatial reification of different speeds though the formation of temporary and permanent fast spaces and slow spaces and their contribution to a neoliberal global city utopia, the role of private sector resistances to allow for the creation of these spaces and evaluate how these influence the development and experience of Singapore as a “good” and liveable global city.