SPATIAL JUSTICE: BETWEEN SPACE OF FLOWS AND SPACE OF PLACE IN NEOLIBERAL SINGAPORE

Abstract

One of the important layers that support Castells’ theory of space of flows is the infrastructure which enables this flow to take place. Building upon this, Graham and Marvin’s Splintered Urbanism brings into light the premium developments that occur in the 21st century which serve a group of elites, disjointed from the common community and more often than not, are the actors within the space of flows. Singapore as a city state has the need to balance between a global city, a hub within the space of flows which is essential to its survival in the global economy, while attempting to retain its identity and values; the degree to which space of place must give way to space of flows. Castells provides no answer to how the space which balances between the spaces of flows and spaces of place can be met although this balance suggests justice: distributive justice between those that operate in the metropolitan space of flows and those which remain grounded to its physical locality, and spatial justice that gives as much to the infrastructure of the international neoliberal economy as to the necessary built environmental provisions of the local neighbourhood.