Digital participation has become a hot topic in recent years, whereby traditional methods of gathering feedback from the public – Town Halls, workshops and meetings – are increasingly being augmented by online tools. In this blog post we explore the potential for existing digital collaboration platforms such as GitHub to support participatory planning.
Towards more participatory governance in Singapore By Hoa Nguyen and Julienne Chen Since the early days of independence, the Singapore government has tried and tested various modes of engagement with its constituents. Many of the earlier iterations of engagement consisted of campaigns to communicate policies and national development goals; however, with time, these methods of engagement
Food waste management in Singapore: envisioning the possibilities of a Zero Waste Nation By Cheryl Low and Julienne Chen Global food waste is a complex problem that threatens food security and environmental sustainability. It points towards massive inefficiencies and severe mismanagement of resources in the global food network. According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation
Humanising the Smart City Democratise Understanding Through Smart City Icons Design Smart cities can bring benefits to many. But yet more than half of the population in major Asia-Pacific cities find it difficult to identify the value of smart city initiatives. Many of them are also worried about technology's impact on their lives and societies.
Singapore’s route to urban transformation is often narrated as a success story that gave rise to a sleek cityscape of modern skyscrapers, preserved shophouses and iconic public housing estates. What used to be a society housed primarily in low-density village-like ‘kampungs’ in the pre-independence era was quickly transformed into dense residential high rises where roughly 80% of the population now lives. In doing so, the Housing Development Board (HDB) tried to balance the need for density and land optimization with maintaining the close-knit bonds and communities common in the kampungs.
Towards a research agenda on what innovation in government consists of, how the current focus on innovation may be changing the public sector service delivery function, and the extent to which it is a distinct phenomenon as opposed to previous cycles of governmental reform efforts.
If cities are at the center of so much innovation, as is commonly argued, do we adequately understand innovative processes and innovative outcomes at the city level? Moreover, are cities tracking the innovative activities occurring in their midst? Could the goals of supporting innovation be better realized if innovative activity was better understood at an urban scale?
In our new, rapidly changing societies – perhaps the way forward is not to try to tightly control new innovations, but to have the right government structure to safely try new things, respond quickly, evaluate, adjust and adapt.
In recent years, we have seen a growth in popular discourse about the importance of the "city as the future." Within the context of the increasing importance of the city as a unit, there has also been a corresponding emphasis on the need for city government to “innovate” their policies, services and practices. This post explores a typology of government innovation help to bring clarity to these emerging practices.
How should we refer to people who are aged 65 years or over? This is a question others (Firor, 2016: Graham, 2012; Jaffe, 2016) are pondering and perhaps one that needs further attention in Singapore. There are a number of reasons why we may need to reflect on how we refer to people aged 65
