FULFILLING HOUSING ASPIRATIONS ACROSS THE BORDER: TRANSNATIONAL SUBURBIA IN SINGAPORE-ISKANDAR MALAYSIA

Abstract

Despite a wealth of literature on suburbia in urban studies, suburbia is typically pigeonholed as an intra-urban occurrence within national scales rather than conceived as having as extra-national dimension. Drawing on Smith’s (2001; 2005) concept of transnational urbanism, this thesis puts forth the idea of transnational suburbia for critically understanding the extra-territoriality of housing aspirations and cross-border mobilities of capital and people. Studying Singaporeans who have fulfilled their housing aspirations in Iskandar Malaysia, this thesis makes a distinctive contribution by unpacking and advancing the notion of transnational suburbia while utilising (everyday) urban geopolitical lenses to reinvigorate current suburban debates. Using a multi-method approach involving online and on-site research, this thesis explores how transnational flows of housing aspirations, capital and people shape the residential landscape and give rise to the unique phenomenon of transnational suburbia. To this end, this thesis considers the forces behind the emergence of transnational suburbia in Iskandar Malaysia. Understanding that it is partly the outcome of the Malaysian federal government’s vision to propel national development and enhance global competitiveness through the urban-regional growth machine of Iskandar Malaysia, this thesis also examines how place-marketing by the Malaysian federal government plays out against the extra-territoriality of Singaporeans’ housing aspirations and local Johoreans’ ideas of place-making. While borders are often outcomes of the contested housing aspirations in transnational suburbia, borders are also a means of managing them, potentially escalating into a case of urban geopolitics when the governments of Malaysia and Singapore become involved. Lastly, this thesis explores the everyday life of Singaporean transnational suburbanites as they cross the border, including how they negotiate the meanings of the borders and their socio-spatial identities. Overall, this thesis argues that transnational suburbia differs from typical intra-urban suburbia in its development, problems, ways of management and everyday lived experiences for those involved.