School of Social Sciences

Over the last few years, there have been events that brought about dramatic changes to Asia. These events included the 1997 financial crisis, the economically crippling Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) epidemic, the accelerated formation and near collapse of Southeast Asia as an economic regional bloc, terrorist attacks and Islamic extremism, among others.

ABSTRACT: Can the arts and cultural prosper under a less than democratic political regime? This paper looks at the soft authoritarian Singaporean government and the making of Singapore into a “City for the Arts”. Many scholars advocate that a culturally vibrant and creative city must also celebrate diversity, tolerance and experimentation. This implies that a democratic space is needed for creative energies to flow. Singapore is not known for its democracy.

Resume: Can the arts and cultural prosper under a less than democratic political regime? This paper looks at the soft authoritarian Singaporean government and the making of Singapore into a “City for the Arts”. Many scholars advocate that a culturally vibrant and creative city must also celebrate diversity, tolerance and experimentation. This implies that a democratic space is needed for creative energies to flow. Singapore is not known for its democracy.

Abstract Tourism is entwined in economics, politics, culture, and social life. Despite Denmark's attempt to re-brand itself as a modern, trendy and vibrant destination, the Danish tourism authorities is still selling the country's historical sights and Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales to attract a growing number of Chinese tourists. While tourism authorities want to please the Chinese, other Danish authorities are concerned with overstaying tourists who may end up as illegal immigrants.

Resume: Tourism offers an arena through which a place identity is imagined, negotiated and contained. This paper compares the Czech Republic and Slovakia, and show how these countries construct and assert their identities through tourism. They both share a common history as Czechoslovakia, however, they are perceived differently by the outside world. These former Eastern Bloc countries are promoting themselves in several ways and they are also marginalising their socialist past and invoking their Central European identity.

Abstract The arts and culture are considered core in a creative industries strategy. But the promotion of the creative industries brings about revised notions of creativity. These revised notions are being applied to the arts. Creativity is now seen to be largely manageable. All individuals are made to believe that they can be creative. Not only that, creativity is seen to be a money spinner. Workers should tap into their creativity and bring about innovations in the work place.

Abstract: Using the concepts of auto-communication and micro-orientalism, this article argues that nation branding at World Expos produces and propagates notions of difference and otherness. By use of the Danish 'Welfairytales' pavilion at the 2010 Expo in Shanghai, we show how national Self is performed in two versions. One attempts to communicate 'the good Danish life'to the Danes themselves, while the other claims Occidental superiority.

Resume: Destination branding attempts to frame the place in a unique manner, so that it will stand out in the global tourism market. The assertion of uniqueness has become an institutionalized global practice for celebrating destination identity. The emphasis on uniqueness in the destination brand however overshadows another important but complementary strategy: the accreditation approach. This paper gives attention to the accreditation strategy while presenting the Singapore case.

Resume: This paper was prepared for the “Organizational Ethnography, Assessing its Impact” theme of the 26th EGOS Colloquium 2010, Lisbon. It examines awkward moments ethnographers encounter during their field studies. We present our experiences in China and Indonesia and raise issues on how ethnographers normally impart their findings. Personally uncomfortable field situations are usually marginalised or ignored, so as not to cast doubts on the quality of our field data.

Many towns and cities around the world are developing their creative economy, so as to spur economic development, attract investments, rejuvenate their physical environments and spice up their cultural vibrancy (eg see Crewe & Beaverstock, 1998; Dahms, 1995; Hutton, 2003; Jayne, 2004; Tallon & Bromley, 2004). Singapore is no exception. With the growth of the creative industries, these towns and cities are also becoming sites of cultural consumption (Crewe et al., 1998; Hughes, 1998).

Abstract It is widely assumed that the practice of city branding attempts to frame the place in a unique manner, so that it will stand out globally. The assertion of uniqueness has become an institutionalized global practice for celebrating city identity. The emphasis on uniqueness in the place brand however overshadows another important complementary–but under-theorized and tacit–strategy: the accreditation approach.

Creativity has been conceived as the currency for economic growth for many researchers, urban planners and policy makers (eg Caves 2000; Florida 2003b; Howkins 2001; Landry 2008). Countries from Sweden to Singapore have devised strategies to release the creativity in the people. The so-called creative industries have brought together different businesses, ranging from computer games to theatre plays, onto a common platform for spurring economic growth.

Abstract Singapore has embarked on an ambitious program to make the city-state into a significant player in the global creative economy. The country is being rebranded as a creative city. The government agrees that in the creative economy, the environment must be conducive to experimentation and innovation. As a result, more social and political spaces have been opened up to spur Singapore's fledging creative economy and also to signal that the nation has become more transparent and tolerant.

The respected Political and Economic Risk Consultancy (PERC) Group has consistently assessed Singapore's domestic political risk as low. Since 1997, on a scale of between zero and 10, with zero being the best grade possible and 10 the worst, the city-state's worst grade for domestic political risk was below 3 (PERC 2005). Singapore's scores hover mostly around the 2 mark.

The pursuit of work-life balance alludes to how work and everyday life have become entangled. The demarcation of one's private emotional life against one's professional work no longer holds true as companies want workers to be part of a corporate family and emotional expressions are (selectively) welcomed in the work place.

Resume: In using the Bakhtinian dialogic approach, this paper examines the microscopic interaction of three artists, two art buyers and one gallery sales executive in Singapore. The importance of galleries, as go-betweens for artists and art buyers is acknowledged in art world research. This paper however looks at the interactional levels and identifies social mechanisms that shape art buying and selling behavior.

Resume: This paper draws inspiration from Edward Said's orientalism, and examines how the three National Museums of Singapore–the Singapore History Museum, the Singapore Art Museum and the Asian Civilizations Museums–are orientalized. The process is mediated through the museums' close links to tourism promotion in the city-state.

Abstract This article uses an attention structure framework to understand tourism experiences. Past studies have predominantly concentrated on using psychological and cognitive approaches to studying tourism experiences. However, such approaches tend to marginalize environmental and contextual factors, as well as, ignore the role of tourism mediators in tourism experience consumption.

Resume: Societal changes are seldom discussed in the literature on city branding. The time element is important because it highlights the fluctuating reality of society. The city brand message freezes the place but in fact, the city branding exercise is a continuous process. Society emerges too. City brands are supposed to accentuate the uniqueness of the city, be built from the bottom-up and reflect the city's identity.