Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and ChangeThis book tracks the phases of Singapore’s economic and political development, arguing that its success was always dependent upon the territories links with the surrounding region and the wider global system, and suggests that managing these links today will be the key to the country’s future. Singapore has followed a distinctive historical development trajectory. It was one of a number of cities which provided bases for the expansion of the British empire in the East. But the Pacific War provided local elites with their chance to secure independence. In Singapore the elite disciplined and mobilized their population and built successfully on their colonial inheritance. Today, the city-state prospers in the context of its regional and global networks, and sustaining and nurturing these are the keys to its future. But there are clouds on the elite’s horizons; domestically, the population is restive with inequality, migration and surplus-repression causing concern; and internationally, the strategy of constructing a business-hub economy is being widely copied and both Hong Kong and Shanghai are significant competitors. This book discusses these issues and argues that although success is likely to characterize Singapore’s future, the elite will have to address these significant domestic and international problems. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 65
... networks, and sustaining and nurturing these are the keys to its future. But there are clouds on the elite's horizons; domestically, the population is restive within equality, migration and surplusrepression causing concern; and ...
... the line of advance was dictated by contingent events; 13 the political institutional key was the creation of a network of colonial port cities: 14 Calcutta and Madras; Penang, Malacca and Singapore; Hong Kong; plus the informal.
... networks which carried goods, people and ideas; contemporary scholars treat this broad Asian sphere as the core area of the global system prior to the emergence of Europe and America.19 20 European and, later, American traders began to ...
... networks of trade from the sixteenth century onwards. At first they were only minor figures: a few ships, a few people, visiting a few ports in order to exchange a limited spread of goods. Their impact grew on the back of the ...
... networks. East Asian regionalism is developing slowly; it will develop in its own fashion – slow networking rather than formal institutional mechanisms. Debate is ongoing. Macro-phases. In East Asia there were three macro-phases in the ...
Contents
Impact and reply 40 | |
General crisis 58 | |
New trajectories 79 | |
Locating Singapore 100 | |
Trading cities 160 | |
Unfolding trajectories 197 | |
Notes 216 | |
Bibliography 263 | |
Index 275 | |
Other editions - View all
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Preston Limited preview - 2007 |
Singapore in the Global System: Relationship, Structure and Change Peter Wallace Preston No preview available - 2007 |