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Singapore’s New Urban Landscapes in Rural Malaysia

Book

Couverture livreLes nouveaux paysages urbains de Singapour dans la Malaisie rurale

Amel FARHAT
IRASEC, Bangkok, septembre 2020, 160 p.
ISBN : 978-616-7571-37-9

 

Singapore and Johor, the neighbouring Malaysian state, have close ties due to their shared history and economic and social entanglement. As residents of a modern, global metropolis, Singaporeans enjoy strong purchasing power but also face exorbitant living costs. In comparison, Johor, and especially the Johor Bahru Metropolitan Area, offers Singaporeans competitive prices for housing, shopping centers, and leisure activities. However, Singaporeans do not only associate Johor with attractive prices but also with an area that has retained aspects of the Singapore of yesteryear such as the traditional village image (kampung) and ’wild’ nature. This is why many visitors explore Johor in order to rediscover a rural area that no longer exists in Singapore. Thus, farms and agro-tourism forests in Johor recreate landscapes that are associated with rurality and offer visitors spaces, characters, and experiences that are the antithesis of what is considered urban. However, since these places have been made to reflect the expectations of an urban audience, this book hypothesizes that these spaces are an integral part of urbanization. Indeed, while urban studies generally focus on built-up spaces, such as cities, commercial areas and industrial zones, this study looks at the urban outside of these conventional landscapes.

Book description

 

30 September 2020