This study sought to understand using qualitative methods why and how the Government of Singapore came to set-up organized research units (ORU) in her two autonomous universities - the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Nanyang Technological University (NTU). That is, are ORUs the chief means in transforming NUS and NTU into top WCUs? The underpinnings of the institutional theory in the globalized context, the theory of academic capitalism, and guidance by frameworks on educational policy transfer, as well as the glonacal heuristics, together with document and discourse analysis of published documents, aided in the design of this study.This study finds that key state and institutional actors in Singapore decided to emulate the key features of U.S.-originated organized research units to make R&D and innovation-led economic growth the vehicle of sustaining this global city-state's global competitiveness in the knowledge-economy and to better elevate the status of both NUS and NTU as world-class. Because global rankings have branding implications, catch-up nations and institutions should make serious attempts to balance the ranking-enhancement effort with their local, national, and regional science-research needs given the constraints of available capital and resources.

This study examines the production of a new regional space known as the Growth Triangle. The Growth Triangle represents a (re)integration of the economies of Singapore, the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia and Johor State in Malaysia. It is argued that the Growth Triangle should be seen as an ‘open region.’ The open region is affected by a wide range of ‘external’ influences and is open to shifting representations which are important to its unfolding. The study takes on the interpretation of the open region through a consideration of the unstable and amorphous realm of ‘middle space.’ Middle space is manifold. It includes: 1) the middle spaces between the global and the local; 2) the middle spaces between conceptual divisions (e.g., urban/rural and labour/capital); and 3) the middle spaces of circulation (i.e., connections between individuals, firms and places). The triangulation of these three arenas provides a heuristic device for the examination of the changes sweeping the Growth Triangle. The analysis moves from a time when the region’s global niche was based on the movement of goods to more recent developments where-in the movement of information and capital are crucial. The global flows of information and capital are the ‘winds’ of the title. The region, and various ways of conceptualizing it, are the ‘shadows.’ The main findings are that: 1) global change must be seen in terms of local roots and consequences; 2) local differentiation and the representation of difference are increasingly important, even in the frame of globalization; 3) analytic strength may be gained by dulling the edges of interpretive constructs (such as information or labour); 4) there are strong connections between the circulation of goods, people, money and information (spatial interaction) and the generation of new and distinct geographies (areal differentiation); and 5) there are strong linkages between Singapore’s shift towards advanced world city functions (‘intensive globalization’) and the mega-urbanization of the near-by international hinterlands (‘extensive globalization’). To understand each of the three corners of the Growth Triangle one must engage Singapore as a World City and as an Open Region.

This study examines the production of a new regional space known as the Growth Triangle. The Growth Triangle represents a (re)integration of the economies of Singapore, the Riau Archipelago in Indonesia and Johor State in Malaysia. It is argued that the Growth Triangle should be seen as an ‘open region.’ The open region is affected by a wide range of ‘external’ influences and is open to shifting representations which are important to its unfolding. The study takes on the interpretation of the open region through a consideration of the unstable and amorphous realm of ‘middle space.’ Middle space is manifold. It includes: 1) the middle spaces between the global and the local; 2) the middle spaces between conceptual divisions (e.g., urban/rural and labour/capital); and 3) the middle spaces of circulation (i.e., connections between individuals, firms and places). The triangulation of these three arenas provides a heuristic device for the examination of the changes sweeping the Growth Triangle. The analysis moves from a time when the region’s global niche was based on the movement of goods to more recent developments where-in the movement of information and capital are crucial. The global flows of information and capital are the ‘winds’ of the title. The region, and various ways of conceptualizing it, are the ‘shadows.’ The main fmdings are that: 1) global change must be seen in terms of local roots and consequences; 2) local differentiation and the representation of difference are increasingly important, even in the frame of globalization; 3) analytic strength may be gained by dulling the edges of interpretive constructs (such as information or labour); 4) there are strong connections between the circulation of goods, people, money and information (spatial interaction) and the generation of new and distinct geographies (areal differentiation); and 5) there are strong linkages between Singapore’s shift towards advanced world city functions (‘intensive globalization’) and the mega-urbanization of the near-by international hinterlands (‘extensive globalization’). To understand each of the three corners of the Growth Triangle one must engage Singapore as a World City and as an Open Region.

The Michael Fay conflict in 1994 provided an opportunity to use Singapore as a subject for mass communication research.Three prominent U.S. newspapers, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, were chosen for content analysis of their coverage of Singaporean news eight months before, six months during and eight months after the Fay trial proceedings. The amount of news space devoted to Singaporean news ray the three newspapers during the three periods was also studied.The objective of the study was to determine if the coverage of Singaporean news by U.S. newspapers changed as a result of the Fay case.Results of the study showed that U.S. newspapers provided a negative coverage of Singaporean news as a result of the Fay controversy. In terms of news space alloted to Singaporean news, the New York Times remained fairly constant throughout the three periods. The Los Angeles Times first decreased its coverage during the trial proceedings, but expanded its coverage after the case ended. Conversely, the Chicago Tribune increased its coverage of Singaporean news during the case, but its coverage dwindled with the conclusion of the case. / Department of Journalism

<p>This dissertation develops a "politics of ambiguity" through case studies of affect in contemporary works by European, American and Singaporean composers. While studies of intercultural music have focused on narratives of power relations (e.g. orientalism, postcolonial ambivalence), a new method of interpretation can be based on the affective ambiguity that arises from intercultural encounters, indicating a less than totalitarian power and thus forming a basis for political struggle. The focus is on three pieces of music by American-born John Sharpley, Belgium-born Robert Casteels, and Singaporean Joyce Koh, who hail from across the globe and incorporate Asian musics, arts, and philosophies into a variety of modernist, neo-romantic, and postmodern musical idioms. Modalities of ambiguity include: perceptual focus on musicalized Chinese calligraphy strokes, versus perceptual liminality arising from modernist technique; the musical embodiment of Buddhist disembodiment; and, ambiguous relationality of intercultural sounds. Liminality, disembodiment, and relationality mark the cessation of identity politics in favor of a form of cultural hermeneutics that pays heed to the complex interaction between society, sonic media and the neurophysiology of listening.</p> / Dissertation

This thesis is an anthropological and historical exploration of Singapore's emergence as a nation state and determines what it means to have a Singaporean national identity today. As a relatively new country, Singapore and its government has worked to carefully construct its national identity in the past fifty years after independence from the British in 1965. This thesis will show Singapore as a distinctive entity in the study of nationalism and nation building, especially in comparison to the decolonization efforts of other countries in the region and throughout the world in the twentieth century. It is a carefully constructed nation state, and its distinctiveness lies in the authoritarian government's neo-colonial policies, its economic success due to its capitalist system, semi-democratic political environment, and its multiethnic population.

The thesis aims to suggest directions towards a defensible conception of citizenship and approach to citizenship education in Singapore. In recent years, citizenship in Singapore has centred around the themes of identity and participation. Among educationists in general, there is a recognition that citizens need to be prepared for involvement in the political process. In plural societies, however, there is no one set of values which can guide deliberation and resolve differences. Consequently, there are questions as to the values which could be advocated in citizenship education. The approach in this thesis is to analyse the concept of citizenship, with due consideration given to the values and assumptions of Singapore society, and its social, political and economic circumstances. This analysis is carried out in the light of the research and theorising on citizenship and citizenship education in England and Wales. Controversial issues exist on which there is no agreement on which society is divided. The neutral approach, which is sometimes suggested as being appropriate for handling such issues, is examined. The larger question of state neutrality is also discussed, and a case is made for state perfectionism. In addition, it is argued that there are legitimate variations in moral judgement, and an account is presented of the nature of moral thinking that admits of such variations. It is suggested that a common culture is important in a plural society because this provides the grounds for policy decisions, particularly where state perfectionism is espoused; it also allows for the development of a national identity. Developing this common culture requires public deliberation in exploring the values and issues concerning a society. Finally, the arguments that have been presented are related to citizenship and citizenship education in Singapore, and recommendations made.

'Hungry Ghosts' is an account of thirty-six hours of a young woman's life following her arrival in Singapore. Sarah, the protagonist of the novel, is accompanying her partner Paul on a business conference. It is increasingly apparent that Sarah's motives for leaving her home town, Adelaide, have more to do with her need to escape than her commitment to Paul. A room in an international hotel offers Sarah the comforts of a cocoon, where signs of previous occupation and ties to the past are erased on a daily basis. But Sarah is obviously dislocated from her surroundings, which are in turn out of step with the external environment: the air-conditioning is freezing; the orchids are plastic and nod in an artificial breeze. In this sterile environment Sarah is troubled by flashbacks of what she has left behind. Sarah begins to emerge from her cocoon, venturing into a big city that, for her, could be anywhere. She recognizes places generic to big cities as well as a few unique landmarks, becoming aware of the continual and universal tensions of progress and the past. In this way the novel becomes a study of the role of memory, ghosts and the absent dead, all of which play a part in informing Sarah's present and her understanding of the future. At the hotel Sarah encounters a group of war ‘pilgrims'. A mother, her son Bradley and an elderly British Army Major are all on a 'pilgrimage', and, in their different ways, all trying to make peace with the past and its insatiable ghosts. As Sarah learns their stories and witnesses the battles they wage, she is forced to challenge her own beliefs about being able to leave traumatic events behind. Her absent mother haunts her on the sun-drenched streets of fast-moving Singapore. A bond begins to form between herself and Bradley who, like Sarah, has been left out-of-whack by a recent calamity. 'Hungry Ghosts' explores several dualities: the claims of the past, both cultural and personal, balanced against the demands of the future; private memories that must be reconciled with the demands of public living and progress; the world of the mind that is dependent on the physical body occupying 'real' space. The novel examines the strangely transitory spaces that people can find themselves in: the liminal areas of grief, travel, dislocation, the unfamiliar. It asks why, in an age of globalisation, the claims of place, and in particular of home, remain so strong. My exegesis, written as three essays, addresses three aspects of my manuscript, ‘Hungry Ghosts’. In the first essay I look at the importance of ‘place’ in my novel, and the different types of ‘places’ I explore. In the second essay I look at how contemporary theories on war commemoration, coupled with my own research and witnessing of ‘actual’ events, have informed my depiction and treatment of the theme of war memory. In my final essay I reflect on the role mourning has played in the development of my manuscript, considering both the challenges it has presented to my narrative and the ways in which it has strengthened it. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Adelaide, School of Humanities, 2009

By 1970, Singapore’s urban landscape was dominated by high-rise blocks of planned public housing built by the People’s Action Party government, signifying the establishment of a high modernist nation-state. A decade earlier, the margins of the City had been dominated by kampongs, home to semi-autonomous communities of low-income Chinese families which freely built, and rebuilt, unauthorised wooden houses. This change was not merely one of housing but belied a more fundamental realignment of state-society relations in the 1960s. Relocated in Housing and Development Board flats, urban kampong families were progressively integrated into the social fabric of the emergent nation-state. This study examines the pivotal role of an event, the great Kampong Bukit Ho Swee fire of 1961, in bringing about this transformation. The redevelopment of the fire site in the aftermath of the calamity brought to completion the British colonial regime’s ‘emergency’ programmes of resettling urban kampong dwellers in planned accommodation, in particular, of building emergency public housing on the sites of major fires in the 1950s. The PAP’s far greater political resolve, and the timing of and state of emergency occasioned by the scale of the 1961 disaster, enabled the government to rehouse the Bukit Ho Swee fire victims in emergency housing in record time. This in turn provided the HDB with a strategic platform for clearing other kampongs and for transforming their residents into model citizens of the nation-state. The 1961 fire’s symbolic usefulness extended into the 1980s and beyond, in sanctioning the PAP’s new housing redevelopment schemes. The official account of the inferno has also become politically useful for the government of today for disciplining a new generation of Singaporeans against taking the nation’s progress for granted. Against these exalted claims of the fire’s role in the Singapore Story, this study also examines the degree of actual change and continuity in the social and economic lives of the people of Bukit Ho Swee after the inferno. In some crucial ways, the residents continued to occupy a marginal place in society while pondering, too, over the unresolved question of the cause of the fire. These continuities of everyday life reflect the ambivalence with which the citizenry regarded the high modernist state in contemporary Singapore.

This thesis examines and explains multinational employers' experiences of localized shortages of skilled process workers in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), China. It explains three challenges facing SIP employers in accessing sufficient skilled process workers and their responses within HRM to such challenges. These three challenges are employers' experiences with vocational education and training (VET) deficiencies in students' skill development, employers' experiences of poaching of skilled process workers by other companies, and employers' experiences of provision of workplace training for skilled process workers in their own companies. In response to these challenges, SIP employers have adopted various HRM measures that include differing combination of recruitment and selection, employee retention, training and development, and employment relations management. These policies and practices represent the different ways that SIP employers have attempted to meet the challenges of localized skill shortages in the context of their own business strategies.