Events

CHAIRPERSON

Dr Wenn Er Tan, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

PROGRAMME

ABSTRACT

Urban policy learning in Southeast Asia has become increasingly prominent amid inter-city competition, geopolitical shifts, social polarization, and climate-related pressures. Cities in the region actively “learn from abroad,” drawing on best practices and global exemplars, but unlike the Global North, these transfers are closely bound to national agendas and elite visions. Foreign ideas are often mobilized not only to address technical challenges but also to reinforce political legitimacy and national identity. Historically, Southeast Asia’s colonial port cities absorbed foreign models and tastes, a legacy still visible in today’s urban aesthetics and policy experiments.

This dynamic reflects broader debates on policy mobilities, worlding and inter-referencing, and Asian urbanisms. Policies are simultaneously relational and territorial, shaped by global flows but adapted through local agency. Yet, tensions persist: while policy learning aspires to liberal ideals of innovation and exchange, it often collides with developmentalist, authoritarian, and hierarchical governance structures in the region.

This roundtable discussion explores these themes, focusing on Southeast Asia as a producer of knowledge rather than a case study, foregrounding its unique role in shaping global urban debates. By engaging theoretical, methodological, and practical tensions, we highlight how cities negotiate between global best practices and local socio-political realities, underscoring the messy, contested, and multi-scalar nature of policy mobility.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sulfikar Amir is a faculty member in the Sociology Programme at the School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University. His research interests primarily focus on examining institutional, political, and epistemological dimensions of scientific knowledge and technological systems. He has conducted research on technological nationalism, development and globalization, nuclear politics, risk and disaster, design studies, city and infrastructure, and resilience.

Tim Bunnell is a geographer whose main research focus is urban and regional change in Southeast Asia. That includes a longstanding interest in urban innovation as well as in the politics of how particular sites become mobilized as models and “points of persuasion”.

Daniel PS Goh is a sociologist who uses ethnographic and comparative-historical methods to study state formation, urbanism, postcolonialism, race and multiculturalism, and religion in Asia. He works closely with anthropologists, geographers, historians, legal scholars, planning scholars, and fellow sociologists on interdisciplinary research projects. His works and research aim to leave a legacy of knowledge.

REGISTRATION

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