Bibliography of Singapore Demography contains the most comprehensive and up-to-date list of 1,165 titles covering various aspects of the demography of Singapore. The titles have been classified into twenty sections dealing with the more important topics such as census reports, population laws, population distribution, ethnic composition, mortality, fertility, family planning, labour force, population ageing, and future population trends. Within each section, the titles have been arranged according to the alphabetical order of the author's name, and also included is an author index. The book is an indispensable source for researchers interested in the demography of Singapore.
The third edition of this book presents a most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of population trends and patterns in Singapore since its foundation in 1819 to the present day. Separate chapters are devoted to population growth and distribution, changing population structure, migration, mortality trends and differentials, marriage trends and patterns, divorce trends and patterns, fertility trends and differentials, family planning, abortion and sterilisation, fertility policies and programmes, immigration policies and programmes, labour force and future population trends. The strength of the book lies in the author's deep familiarity with the subject acquired through spme personal involvement in the compilation of demographic statistics, as well as the formulation of population policies for the country.
When C.M. Turnbull's A History of Singapore, 1819-1975 appeared in 1977, it quickly achieved recognition as the definitive history of Singapore. A second edition published in 1989 brought the story up to the elections held in 1988. In this fully revised edition, rewritten to take into account recent scholarship on Singapore, the author has added a chapter on Goh Chok Tong's premiership (1990-2004) and the transition to a government headed by Lee Hsien Loong. The book now ends in 2005, when the Republic of Singapore celebrated its 40th anniversary as an independent nation. Major changes occurred in the 1990s as the generation of leaders that oversaw the transition from a colony to independence stepped aside in favour of a younger generation of leaders. Their task was to shape a course that sustained the economic growth and social stability achieved by their predecessors, and they would be tested towards the end of the decade when Southeast Asia experienced a severe financial crisis. Many modern studies on Singapore focus on current affairs or very recent events and pay a great deal of attention to Singapore's successful transition from the developing to the developed world. However, younger historians are increasingly interested in other aspects of the country's past, particularly social and cultural issues. A History of Modern Singapore, 1819-2005 provides a solid foundation and an overarching framework for this research, surveying Singapore's trajectory from a small British port to a major trading and financial hub within the British Empire and finally to the modern city state that Singapore became after gaining independence in 1965.
This book examines the relationship between population policies and individual reproductive decisions in low-fertility contexts. Using the case study of Singapore, it demonstrates that the effectiveness of population policy is a function of competing notions of citizenship, and the gap between seemingly neutral policy incentives and the perceived and experienced disparate effects. Drawing on a substantial number of personal interviews and focus groups, the book analyzes the developmental welfare state's overarching emphasis of citizen responsibility, and examines population policies that reinforce social inequalities and ignore cultural diversity. These factors combine to undermine elaborate state policy efforts in encouraging citizens' biological reproduction. The book goes on to argue that in order to facilitate positive fertility decisions, the state needs to modify the "economic production at all cost" approach and pay much more attention to the importance of social rights. This suggests that the Singapore government might profitably approach the phenomenon of very low fertility with major initiatives similar to those of other advanced industrialized societies. This book offers a significant contribution to the literature on social policy, East Asian and Southeast Asian studies.
The second edition of this book presents a most comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the multiracial population of Malaysia, with painstaking effort and skill of the author in interpreting the vast array of materials and statistics at his disposal. The strength of the book lies in the author’s deep familiarity with the country where he was educated up to secondary level, taught for some time in the University of Malaya, and was even involved in the planning of population censuses. The book is indispensable to policy-makers and social scientists who wish to seek a greater understanding of the demographic issues facing the country.
Two hundred years ago, Sir Stamford Raffles established the modern settlement of Singapore with the intent of seeing it become ‘a great commercial emporium and fulcrum’. But by the time independence was achieved in 1965, the city faced daunting problems of housing shortage, slums and high unemployment. Since then, Singapore has become one of the richest countries on earth, providing, in Sir Peter Hall’s words, ‘perhaps the most extraordinary case of economic development in the history of the world’. The story of Singapore’s remarkable achievements in the first half century after its independence is now widely known. In Planning Singapore: The Experimental City, Stephen Hamnett and Belinda Yuen have brought together a set of chapters on Singapore’s planning achievements, aspirations and challenges, which are united in their focus on what might happen next in the planning of the island-state. Chapters range over Singapore’s planning system, innovation and future economy, housing, biodiversity, water and waste, climate change, transport, and the potential transferability of Singapore’s planning knowledge. A key question is whether the planning approaches, which have served Singapore so well until now, will suffice to meet the emerging challenges of a changing global economy, demographic shifts, new technologies and the existential threat of climate change. Singapore as a global city is becoming more unequal and more diverse. This has the potential to weaken the social compact which has largely existed since independence and to undermine the social resilience undoubtedly needed to cope with the shocks and disruptions of the twenty-first century. The book concludes, however, that Singapore is better-placed than most to respond to the challenges which it will certainly face thanks to its outstanding systems of planning and implementation, a proven capacity to experiment and a highly developed ability to adapt quickly, purposefully and pragmatically to changing circumstances.
