Open AccessSingapore as a Creative City: vignettes from the perspective of la flâneuse tropique
Author(s) -
Sneha Chaudhury,
Anita Lundberg
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
etropic
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.184
H-Index - 3
ISSN - 1448-2940
DOI - 10.25120/etropic.17.2.2018.3660
Subject(s) - the imaginary , creativity , perspective (graphical) , ethnography , sociology , government (linguistics) , creative city , everyday life , authoritarianism , the renaissance , media studies , aesthetics , political science , visual arts , art , anthropology , art history , democracy , law , psychology , linguistics , philosophy , politics , psychotherapist
The tropical metropolis of Singapore is on a quest to become a creative city. Its policies explicate the need to transform into a ‘renaissance city’, a global hub of creative industries and economies. Yet, for Singapore – better known for its panoptic rather than creative imaginary – the question remains ‘how does the government’s policy of creativity translate on the ground?’ As a theory and method of critically meandering through the city in order to participate and observe quotidian practices at the street level, flânerie offers a way of engaging and contributing to an ethnography of urban life. This paper explores flânerie through the perspective of the female flâneuse. Two vignettes – one concerning heritage and the other graffiti – provide thick descriptions of encounters with creative practices in Singapore.