Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore: Power Relations and the Urban Built Environment

Chapter 1: Power Relations and the Built Environment in Colonial Cities

1 Power Relations and the Built Environment in Colonial Cities The Distinctiveness of Colonial Cities THE morphology and development of Third World colonial cItles have been enduring geographical research concerns over the last three decades, but as David Simon observed in a stock-taking effort, 'much of the published evidence is fragmentary and purely empirical, thereby rendering the important socio-scientific tasks of comparison and generalization difficult'. 1 Up to the 1960s, conceptualizations of urban development such as Sjoberg's pre-industriaVindustrial dichotomy2 failed to distinguish sufficiently between different urban dynamics in Europe and the Third World. Since then, the evolving scholarship has shown that subsuming the colonial city under such a dichotomy, or characterizing the colonial city as an 'industrializing' form articulating the transition bet\veen pre-industrial and industrial cities (as Sjoberg himself suggests),3 is both inadequate and distorted, largely because it ignores the force and impact of colonialism and imperialism.4 The search for a theory of Third World urbanization which is not largely derivative of European models .was spearheaded by scholars such as Ronald J. Horvath and Terence G. McGee who argue, inter alia, that the colonial city represents a heterogeneous but distinct urban type which does not conform to the pre-industrial, transitional, or industrial model. Instead, it has been stressed that the distinctiveness of the social, morphological, and functional features of colonial cities cannot be understood apart from their pivotal role in establishing, systemizing , and maintaining colonial rule.5 In the main, three particular features intrinsic to the colonial process itself distinguish the colonial city. The first is its racial, cultural, social, and religious pluralism.6 The colonial city contains a diversity of peoples, induding colonialists, immigrants, and indigenes intermeshed within a social matrix comprising newly constituted relations of domination and dependence between individuals and between collectivities of people. These social groups are derived from vastly different societies, each with its own ingrained cultural behaviour, civil traditions, and institutionalized practices. The 1 Power Relations and the Built Environment in Colonial Cities The Distinctiveness of Colonial Cities THE morphology and development of Third World colonial cItles have been enduring geographical research concerns over the last three decades, but as David Simon observed in a stock-taking effort, 'much of the published evidence is fragmentary and purely empirical, thereby rendering the important socio-scientific tasks of comparison and generalization difficult'. 1 Up to the 1960s, conceptualizations of urban development such as Sjoberg's pre-industriaVindustrial dichotomy2 failed to distinguish sufficiently between different urban dynamics in Europe and the Third World. Since then, the evolving scholarship has shown that subsuming the colonial city under such a dichotomy, or characterizing the colonial city as an 'industrializing' form articulating the transition bet\veen pre-industrial and industrial cities (as Sjoberg himself suggests),3 is both inadequate and distorted, largely because it ignores the force and impact of colonialism and imperialism.4 The search for a theory of Third World urbanization which is not largely derivative of European models .was spearheaded by scholars such as Ronald J. Horvath and Terence G. McGee who argue, inter alia, that the colonial city represents a heterogeneous but distinct urban type which does not conform to the pre-industrial, transitional, or industrial model. Instead, it has been stressed that the distinctiveness of the social, morphological, and functional features of colonial cities cannot be understood apart from their pivotal role in establishing, systemizing , and maintaining colonial rule.5 In the main, three particular features intrinsic to the colonial process itself distinguish the colonial city. The first is its racial, cultural, social, and religious pluralism.6 The colonial city contains a diversity of peoples, including colonialists, immigrants, and indigenes intermeshed within a social matrix comprising newly constituted relations of domination and dependence between individuals and between collectivities of people. These social groups are derived from vastly different societies, each with its own ingrained cultural behaviour, civil traditions, and institutionalized practices. The 1 Power Relations and the Built Environment in Colonial Cities The Distinctiveness of Colonial Cities THE morphology and development of Third World colonial ClUes have been enduring geographical research concerns over the last three decades, but as David Simon observed in a stock-taking effort, 'much of the published evidence is fragmentary and purely empirical, thereby rendering the important socio-scientific tasks of comparison and generalization difficult'. I Up to the 1960s, conceptualizations of urban development such as Sjoberg's pre-industrial/industrial dichotomy2 failed to distinguish sufficiently between different urban dynamics in Europe...