Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore: Power Relations and the Urban Built EnvironmentIn the British colonial city of Singapore, municipal authorities and Asian communities faced off over numerous issue. As the city expanded, disputes arose in connection with sanitation, housing, street names, control over pedestrian 'five-foot-ways', and sacred spaces such as burial grounds. Brenda Yeoh's Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore details these conflicts and how they shaped the city. The British administration structured the private and public environments of the city with an eye toward shaping human behaviour, following scientific principles and the lessons of urban planning in other parts of the world. For the Asian communities, Singapore was the place where they lived according to their own values, priorities and resources. The two perceptions of the city frequently clashed, and the author reads the cityscape of Singapore as the result of this contest between discipline and resistance. Drawing on meticulous research and a theoretically sophisticated use of cultural and social geography, post-colonial historical discourse, and social theory, the author offers a compelling picture of a critical stage in Singapore's past. It is an important contribution to the study of colonial cities and an indispensable resource for understanding the shape of modern Singapore. |
Contents
Establishing an Institution of Control over | 28 |
Municipal Sanitary Surveillance Asian Resistance | 85 |
From | 136 |
Urban | 175 |
Municipality 1896 | 184 |
ORDERING THE PUBLIC ENVIRONMENT | 215 |
Conflicts over | 243 |
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Common terms and phrases
Appendix ARSM Asian Asian communities Asiatic Association August backlane Bridge Road British built environment Bukit by-laws Cantonese Cemetery Census cent China Chinatown Chinese burial grounds classes colonial city colonial Singapore Committee coolies cubicles cultural death district European February feng shui five-foot-way Geography Geomancy graves hawkers Health Officer's Department hence Hokkien Housing Difficulties Report Ibid Indian insanitary institutions Journal Kampong landscape large number latrines Legislative Council living London Malay Malaya Medical Medicine MGCM Michel Foucault MPMCOM municipal authorities Municipal Commission municipal commissioners municipal health officer Municipal Ordinance municipal president municipal street-names municipal water night-soil nineteenth century overcrowding Oxford University Press pail place-names places PLCSS police population public spaces Raffles Rochor sanitation scheme sewage Singapore Free Press Singapore Improvement Trust Singapore River social society South Bridge Road spatial Straits Chinese Straits Settlements strategies Tan Jiak Kim tion town urban built environment verandah water supply whilst