Abstract

Singapore is multicultural global city-state. The bedrock for Singapore’s stability is built on the unwavering emphasis for social interactions between people of different ethnocultural identities, country of origins, and socio-economic backgrounds. This is especially so in the case of residential neighbourhoods, where a combination of unique housing policies has enabled 8 in 10 Singaporeans to live in government built public apartments. The formation of residential enclaves is further mitigated through a set of ethnic and immigrant residential quota, and social mixing is promoted through shared spaces and amenities. In-spite of meticulous urban planning, spatial longitudinal data from the last 10 years have pointed to nascent signs of racial and class concentrations at the regional level. This presentation will first showcase the methodology to identifying ethnic and immigrant spatial density, follow by the social and built environment characteristics that shape attitude to inter-racial and immigrant perceptions, what and where are the emerging hotspots of interest, and how may current policies be finetuned to promote more robust and meaningful multicultural contact.​

About the Speakers

Professor Chua Beng Huat, is currently Emeritus Professor at the Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore (NUS) and Visiting Fellow at the School of Social Sciences and the Urban Institute, Singapore Management University. He has previously served as Provost Chair Professor, Faculty of Arts and Social Science (2009-2017), Research Leader, Cultural Studies in Asia Research Cluster, Asia Research Institute (2000-2015); Convenor Cultural Studies Programmes (2008-2013) and Head, the Department of Sociology (2009-2015), at the NUS.

Dr Leong Chan-Hoong is Senior Fellow and Head of Social Cohesion Research Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University.  He sits on the International Advisory Board at the Centre for Applied Cross-cultural Research, in Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.