Events

CHAIRPERSON

Prof Ho Kong Chong, Asia Research Institute, and Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore

ABSTRACT

This talk will examine how contemporary processes of extended urbanisation can result in increased vulnerability to infectious disease outbreaks. In particular, it will focus on how shifting socio-ecological dynamics, infrastructure networks and governance dynamics can play a role in both giving rise to and mitigating the impact of infectious disease along the urban periphery. Subsequently, it will consider urban design responses to infectious disease outbreaks, including how density can be better integrated in cities in order to raise the quality of life, and minimize the potential for and impact of future outbreaks. The talk will be grounded through recent examples of the uneven emergence of COVID-19 in Singapore and Hong Kong, and innovative governance and planning mechanisms that have been developed in response.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Creighton Connolly is Senior Lecturer in Development Studies and the Global South in the School of Geography, University of Lincoln, UK. He researches urban political ecology, urban-environmental governance and processes of urbanisation and urban redevelopment in Southeast Asia, with a focus on Malaysia and Singapore. He is Editor of Post-Politics and Civil Society in Asian Cities (Routledge 2019) and has published in a range of leading urban studies and geography journals. He was a postdoctoral fellow in the Asian Urbanisms Cluster at Asia Research Institute from 2016-18. 

Stephen Cairns is an architect whose work concerns the interaction of buildings, cities and society. He is Director of the Future Cities Laboratory (FCL) in Singapore, Professor in Architecture at ETH Zurich, and Principal Investigator of the Urban-Rural Systems design-research group at FCL. He co-authored Buildings Must Die: A Perverse View of Architecture (with Jane M. Jacobs) (MIT Press 2014), and co-edits the Future Cities Laboratory: Indicia series (with Devisari Tunas) (Lars Müller Press with NUS Press 2017, 2019 and 2021). Urban-Rural Systems’ pilot project for an ‘expandable house’ was awarded Best Living Space (Indo-Pacific) at the Inde Awards (2020).

REGISTRATION

Registration is closed, and instructions on how to participate in this webinar has been sent out to registered attendees. Please write to aritm@nus.edu.sg if you would like to attend the webinar.