Infrastructure's Expenditures: Changi Airport,Food Cargo and Capital's Technosphere

Urban research has long maintained that an unwavering link exists between urbanization and infrastructures, with the latter serving as structuring devices that give material and discursive shape to a city's socio‐ecological composition. But, while infrastructures’ mediative power and consequent ecological effects are well established, present scholarship tends to associate them with only a specific set of metabolisms—namely, those tied to urban (re)production—at the expense of wider capitalist projects that may exceed discrete urbanisms. Complexifying this view, this article posits that infrastructures can constitute larger systems and frameworks that help capital achieve networked forms of accumulation. Specifically, it follows recent theorizations on the technosphere—artificialized environments of interacting systems—to demonstrate how infrastructures help drive particular dispositions and modes of production and consumption beyond cities. Through documentary analyses and interviews with industry players, the article uses the emergent food cargo business at Singapore's Changi Airport as an empirical case to exemplify the enfolding of one such technosphere through infrastructures. It shows how paying heed to these technospheric formations exposes hidden expenditures—in this instance, of land, energy and labour—that not only underpin a global regime of (food) circulation, but also result in additional socio‐ecological costs often omitted in urban research.     

新加坡的发展对我国的借鉴与启示

新加坡经过了40多年的发展,经济上增长迅速已进入现代化国家的行列,社会的精神文明建设上也有显著成效。新加坡思想政治教育具有明确的培养目标、丰富的内容和鲜明的时代特点。研究新加坡思想政治教育对我国开展思想政治教育具有重大的借鉴和启示。     

Family Roles in the Selection of Schools in Multiracial Singapore: An Examination of Demographic Differences

ABSTRACT

Family roles in deciding household purchases have intrigued marketers for a long time, with researchers calling for more studies on the subject–especially those which look into the roles played by children and ‘others’ in the decision process. This paper investigates the relative influence of the husband, wife, children and ‘others’ in five sub-decisions involved in the choice of a school, and distinguishes families reporting different roles on their demographic characteristics. Cluster analysis was used to develop segments on the basis of family roles. Results indicate that children and ‘others’ have negligible influence in this particular service and that the wife dominates four sub-decisions, while the husband dominates one. It is also seen that couples reporting wife dominant decision-making are older and are less susceptible to interpersonal influence than those reporting joint decision-making. Implications for school management are discussed.     

Internet professionals: job skills for an on-line age

The paper explores the increasing popularity of the Internet technology Singapore. It argues that the diffusion of Internet technology to South-East Asia would create new duties and responsibilities for human resource (HR) managers. One such duty is the identification of the skills which professional Internet staff would need to perform their work effectively in organizations. Using a triangulation research method, empirical study has identified the new professional Internet jobs which have emerged the IT industry in Singapore and the skills that professional Internet personnel require do their jobs effectively. Analysis of the findings indicates that professional Internet skills involve both technical and creative abilities and that, in explaining or defining professional Internet skills, it is necessary to use both the technical and the social conceptions of skill. This argument is based on the view that the creative skills include tacit skills so that a definition based solely on the technical conception of skill cannot capture the various dimensions of Internet skills. The implications of the research findings for human resource managers are raised.     

Price Fluctuations and Growth Patterns in Singapore's Trade, 1831–1913

Using a newly created trade price index, this paper determines the real growth rate of Singapore's trade during 1831–1913. We find that Singapore's trade grew between 1831 and 1873 at a higher rate than during the later period. An analysis of the terms of trade and purchasing power parity reveals that the growth pattern of Singapore's entrepôt trade changed after 1850 from growth fuelled by transit trade of industrial products to balanced growth between regional imports and exports. This change resulted from the operation of the international monetary system, which enhanced market integration between Britain and Southeast Asia via Singapore.     

The economic importance of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore: An extreme-scenario analysis

This paper proposes a decision tree model to estimate the loss to global economy on the hypothesis of an extreme scenario of blockade of the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. The insurance surcharges, inventory costs and the time values of cargoes, and Time Charter Equivalent rate are used to estimate the psychological loss, the loss to industries, and the loss to carriers, respectively. Interestingly, there is a pseudo-paradoxical phenomenon with respect to the loss to carriers. An illustrative example is also provided to explain the “Malacca Paradox”.     

新加坡社区医疗卫生服务的经验及其启示

新加坡推行的政府主导的社区发展模式和丰富的社区医疗服务使其成为世界上社区建设和治理最为成功的国家之一。新加坡为社区居民提供的医疗卫生服务主要包括政策参与、医疗诊治、宣传教育、环境维护四个方面。借鉴新加坡社区医疗卫生服务的成功经验,改善我国社区医疗卫生服务应构建"四位一体"的医疗卫生机构服务体系、以社区首诊制度为开端、合理配置社区医疗卫生资源、善于借助社会力量等。     

新加坡劳动关系三方机制应对金融危机的启示

新加坡的劳资关系因其独特的劳、资、政三方机制而闻名，被誉为是亚洲最稳定和最具有弹性的劳资关系体系。遭受金融危机和经济下滑的冲击，新加坡劳、资、政三方积极应对，提出了发展和培养具有全球竞争性劳动力的任务目标，采取了一系列提升劳动力素质、建立良好雇佣关系行为规范、实行全面弹性工作安排及弹性薪酬体系等措施，以获取经济的持续稳定增长。     

论新加坡学校德育的儒家思想底色

新加坡学校德育以科学化、本土化、现代化和社会化的儒家思想为指导，确定学校德育的教学目标，课程设置和教学内容。用儒家思想整合多元化的社会价值观，抵御西方腐朽价值观的侵蚀，完善学校、家庭、社会三维一体的德育网络。探究新加坡学校德育的儒家思想底色，寻求我国学校德育改革的新思路。     

新加坡会展业发展动因及其发展阶段初探

新加坡会展业自上世纪70年代起步以来发展迅猛，在亚洲乃至全球都有举足轻重的地位。作为一个资源并不丰富的城市国家，新加坡何以能在短期内取得如此巨大成功？本文试图探讨其发展的推动因素，发展中经历的几个阶段，以期对中国的会展业发展起到借鉴作用。