Singapore as a Creative City: vignettes from the perspective of la flâneuse tropique

Abstract

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.

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