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In Urban Land Rent, Anne Haila uses Singapore as a case study to develop an original theory of urban land rent with important implications for urban studies and urban theory. * Provides a comprehensive analysis of land, rent theory, and the modern city * Examines the question of land from a variety of perspectives: as a resource, ideologies, interventions in the land market, actors in the land market, the global scope of land markets, and investments in land * Details the Asian development state model, historical and contemporary land regimes, public housing models, and the development industry for Singapore and several other cities * Incorporates discussion of the modern real estate market, with reference to real estate investment trusts, sovereign wealth funds investing in real estate, and the fusion between sophisticated financial instruments and real estate

Stringent containment and closure policies have been widely implemented by governments to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. Yet, such policies have significant impacts on people’s emotions and mental well-being. Here, we study the effects of pandemic containment policies on public sentiment in Singapore. We computed daily sentiment values scaled from −1 to 1, using high-frequency data of ∼240,000 posts from highly followed public Facebook groups during January to November 2020. The lockdown in April saw a 0.1 unit rise in daily average sentiment, followed by a 0.2 unit increase with partially lifting of lockdown in June, and a 0.15 unit fall after further easing of restrictions in August. Regarding the impacts of specific containment measures, a 0.13 unit fall in sentiment was associated with travel restrictions, whereas a 0.18 unit rise was related to introducing a facial covering policy at the start of the pandemic. A 0.15 unit fall in sentiment was linked to restrictions on public events, post lock-down. Virus infection, wearing masks, salary, and jobs were the chief concerns found in the posts. A 2 unit increase in these concerns occurred even when some restrictions were eased in August 2020. During pandemics, monitoring public sentiment and concerns through social media supports policymakers in multiple ways. First, the method given here is a near real-time scalable solution to study policy impacts. Second, it aids in data-driven and evidence-based revision of existing policies and implementation of similar policies in the future. Third, it identifies public concerns following policy changes, addressing which can increase trust in governments and improve public sentiment.

The rapid economic development of Singapore has been attributed to its plan-rational technocratic elite, according to the developmental state model. However, few studies have addressed the impacts of the country's deeply entrenched developmental state tradition on its environment and environmental governance. This article establishes the nexus between these two by examining Singapore's transition into a garden city. It demonstrates how the Singaporean government has maintained a top-down, nonparticipatory approach to policy making in line with the postulations of authoritarian environmentalism and how this mode of governance is related to the developmental state legacy. While Singapore's environmental policy resulted in its international reputation as a model green city with a remarkable expansion of green spaces and infrastructure, these outputs signify the results of the developmental state's deliberate planning and management based on a utilitarian view toward nature rather than on the outcomes of an organic and comprehensive transition to a green society.

In many organizations, subsidiary performance goals are developed remotely by optimistic leaders back at headquarters, leaving deployed managers vulnerable to unrealistic operational expectations on the frontline, unable to follow orders. Most management research categorizes employees’ failure to follow workplace directives as deviant behavior. In contrast, I argue that in some circumstances ‘disobeying orders’ should be considered a virtuous, responsible leadership strategy when facing unachievable tasks. Through a historical analysis of the surrender of the British colony Singapore to Japan during World War II, this paper links pro-social rule breaking (PSRB), productive resistance, and responsible leadership literatures, developing a process model that explains how some deployed leaders cope with ethical dilemmas in virtuous ways by ‘disobeying orders’.

This study aimed to develop a deeper understanding of contemporary aspects of meritocracy based on a qualitative meta-synthesis of the scholarly literature. Eighteen empirical studies of meritocracy in various disciplines were reviewed for this study. Thematic analysis revealed three main higher-order themes with six sub-themes that described the characteristics of meritocracy today. The findings present an overview of the current issues considered by meritocracy studies and provide a foundation for the ongoing debate over the necessary conditions for a better meritocracy.

Rulemaking in digital trade is proceeding apace. Many preferential trade agreements contain dedicated e-commerce or digital trade chapters and some states have entered into stand-alone digital economy agreements. This article seeks to establish whether, and to what extent, normative change is occurring in digital trade agreements, the nature of any changes, and identify which states are acting as norm entrepreneurs. We employ a new method of legal coding, systematically comparing the nature and prescriptiveness of digital provisions in 12 trade agreements concluded between 2019 and 2023. We find evidence of substantial policy innovation, and identify Singapore as the key norm entrepreneur. A new wave of ‘Singapore-led’ agreements substantially expands the scope of digital trade, to cover areas such as digital identities, e-invoicing and e-payments, the governance of AI, and regulation of new digital technologies. Commitments are typically couched as soft rather than hard law, reflecting the nascent stages of rulemaking. Norm entrepreneurship on the part of Singapore and its allies reflects a desire to position themselves as ‘digital hubs’ in the global economy, spur rulemaking in areas where innovation is ahead of regulation, and promote digital interconnectivity at time of regulatory divergence and geopolitical rivalry.

This paper explores the motives and mechanisms behind data localization implemented by states to protect data, which is essential to emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence. Despite the significant negative aspects of data localization for states, the practice has become increasingly prevalent, leading to the unexplored question of why states choose to implement it. This suggests that data localization is a form of economic means derived from digital technologies and employed by states to serve political objectives. Focusing on the data in platforms, the theoretical mechanism of data localization is captured in light of two factors: network perception and security externality. Network perception pertains to a state’s perception of the positive network effect generated by platforms, while security externality refers to a state’s consideration of the security implications in relation to the economic benefits derived from the positive network effect, serving the national interest in domestic and/or international contexts. To substantiate these theoretical propositions, the paper employs a comparative case study approach where Vietnam, Singapore, and Indonesia have been chosen as empirical cases based on the selection strategy. The paper bridges the concept of economic statecraft with digital technologies, fosters interdisciplinary discussions, and offers policy implications.

Cities are important sites for interrogating the social, scalar and spatial dynamics that underpin climate responsibility. To date, however, there is limited theoretical and empirical understanding about how discourses, practices and politics of climate responsibility might be enacted in the urban context. This gap is particularly significant in the Asia Pacific – a region characterised by high rates of economic growth and rapid urbanisation alongside extreme poverty and exposure to the effects of climate change. This article explores the politics of urban climate responsibility in two cities – Hong Kong and Singapore. Based on empirical research with NGOs, it considers if and how cities have a responsibility to act on climate change, how such responsibility may be configured within the city, and the role of international and regional dynamics in creating and maintaining climate responsibility. The article reframes the contested and contingent geographies of urban climate responsibility through the dimensions of attribution, production and spatialisation before drawing out implications for climate justice and resilience in the Asia Pacific region. 城市是质疑支撑气候责任的社会、标量和空间动态的重要场所。然而，迄今为止，对于气候责任的论述、实践和政治如何在城市背景下形诸法律，理论和经验理解都有限。这一空缺在亚太地区尤为显著，该地区的特点是高速增长的经济、快速城市化、极端贫困和受气候变化影响。本文探讨了香港和新加坡两个城市的城市气候责任政治。基于对非政府组织的实证研究，本文探讨城市是否有责任针对气候变化采取行动以及在这方面有哪些责任，如何在城市内部配置这些责任，以及国际和区域动态在创建和维护气候责任方面的作用。本文从归因、生产和空间化的维度重新定义了城市气候责任的争议性、或然性地理学，然后引出了对亚太地区气候正义和复原力的含义。

Purpose The aim of this study is to trace the factors that have contributed to the adoption and institutionalization of foresight practices within the Singapore Public Service, Government of Singapore. Design/methodology/approach This study discusses the history of the adoption and institutionalization of foresight practices in the Singapore Government; this study has carried out content analysis of secondary literature and conducted 11 in-depth semi-structured interviews with elite informants. Findings This study finds that the adoption and institutionalization of foresight practices in the Singapore Government was brought about by a combination of five factors. The most foundational factor in our model is the role of institutional entrepreneurs, who drew upon the symbolic representation of Singapore’s vulnerability to legitimize the use of foresight, thus resonating well with local technocratic groups to maintain steady economic progress. This study further argues that the underdevelopment of foresight in the local private and academic domains can be at least in part explained by the historical connotations of foresight that were uncovered. Research limitations/implications As the findings are fruit of the authors’ interpretation of the secondary literature/interview data, they require further triangulation by future research. Originality/value This study presents the interpretation of elite informants’ accounts and historical documents to explain one of the most exemplar yet classified case studies of governmental foresight globally.

Regulation of rapidly developing changing policy areas is a well-known challenge for any government. It can involve balancing factors from elite factional politics to development strategies, national security, and public health. In the regulation of science and technology, regulation is made harder by limited data for risk assessment and policymaking, and the uncertain implications and safe use guidance for emerging and enabling technologies. Adaptive regulation has been widely proposed as a solution in which governments iteratively update and adjust technology policy as new data become available. We argue that such a strategy, however, desirable, cannot be deployed in any standardized or uniform fashion within all countries. Rather, it depends on the regime. In this paper, we contend that the political regime within a given country has a direct impact upon its ability to adopt an adaptive governing strategy and review how two key variables within such regimes—polyarchy and number of power-wielding principals—have influenced adaptive governing strategies within four countries for the case of synthetic biology. Our four illustrative cases of countries that invested seriously in synthetic biology but have very different regimes are Australia, the USA, Singapore, and Saudi Arabia. Broadly, adaptive regulation will be most likely and successful in polyarchies with few principals, while multi-principal polyarchies will be more inclined to rigidity, with possible islands of adaptive regulation in clearly delimited agencies. While single-principal non-polyarchies can be successful in developing credible adaptive regulation, such regimes are rare and tend not to last.