Constructing authority: Embodied expertise, homegrown neoliberalism, and the globalization of Singapore’s private planning

Abstract

The rise of global urban consultancy and the role of private planners in facilitating “knowledge transfer” between cities have received much critical attention in the recent years. Notwithstanding the burgeoning literature critiquing such neoliberal “fast policy” transfer, little is understood in terms of the nuanced politics of expertise and the careering practices of urban consultants in negotiating the diverse international planning fields through their embodied knowledge. Using Singapore as a case study, this paper investigates how ‘homegrown neoliberal’ urban consultancy firms from the city-state operate overseas and interrogates the unwieldy geographies and histories behind the travel of the Singapore model. To the extent that Singapore has often been held up as an exemplary urban model, this paper is interested in how Singaporean planners negotiate foreign planning cultures and assert their authority as urban experts by positioning themselves in elite policy networks to strategically exploit their liminal status as public/private planners. In doing so, the paper not only sheds light on the politics of urban knowledge and expertise but also disrupts hegemonic understanding of neoliberalism by acknowledging the diverse histories and conjunctural contexts that underpin the globalization of private planning.