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Title:
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Soft authoritarianism, political pragmatism and cultural policies
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Singapore as a City for the Arts |
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Author:
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Ooi, Can-Seng |
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Abstract:
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Can the arts and cultural prosper under a less than democratic
political regime? This paper looks at the soft authoritarian Singaporean
government and the making of Singapore into a “City for the Arts”. Many
scholars advocate that a culturally vibrant and creative city must also celebrate
diversity, tolerance and experimentation. This implies that a democratic space is
needed for creative energies to flow. Singapore is not known for its democracy.
But Singapore has become relatively successful in being the cultural hub in the
region. A more liberal approach to diversity and criticism of the authorities can
now be observed but there are still many strong-handed social and political
controls in the city-state. This paper shows that the Singapore authorities weigh
the economic, political and social costs while they liberalize the environment to
promote Singapore as a City for the Arts. |
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URI:
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http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7916
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Date:
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2009-09-16 |
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.
