Geography on Your Doorstep- A Local Perspective

In today’s post, I want to talk about the more practical aspects of the Geography modules that I have studied so far this year. The four modules I have taken this semester are:

• Changing Landscapes of Singapore
• Geographies of Social Life
• Geographies of Development
• Globalisation and Asian Cities

The thing that has struck me is the scale of the cases that are used as examples on these courses. While in the UK, the modules have drawn on case studies from all over the world. In Urban Geography, examples come from a variety of regions such as North and South America and South Asia, while in Globalisation & Asian Cities the majority of real life examples that have been used have come from the Asian region. In Development Geography (at UCL), there was more of a focus on Sub Saharan Africa and Latin America whereas in Geographies of Development (at NUS), there was a strong interest in Asia's progress, in particular, the 'Asian Miracle'. This links back to my first blog post on how academics are wanting to contribute perspectives from under-studies regions to existing theories that centre on the West.

On the practical side, the tendency to base modules on more local geographical phenomena has resulted in courses that require us to venture out into the field more than I have done at UCL. For the Geographies of Social Life module, I was required to create a fieldwork journal analysing one social group in a neighbourhood of my choice. I decided to visit an area called Tiong Bahru (a well-known area undergoing gentrification) to examine how its newfound popularity with the younger generations has affected the elderly population. In Changing Landscapes of Singapore, I had two fieldwork-based assignments. One involved us exploring the arts landscape in Little India. The second gave us more freedom- we were allowed to choose any location, as long as the project was based on heritage tourism. Our group chose to visit the last remaining kampong (rural village) in Singapore which is unknown even to many Singaporeans. Considering Singapore’s remarkable urbanization journey of the last few decades, it was fascinating to get a glimpse of what life used to be like on this island.

From a geographer’s perspective, I believe these are really good exercises for encouraging us to apply what we learn in lecture theatres to our surroundings, and vice versa. It has also encouraged me to engage more with the people in these landscapes as well (because for some projects, mini-interviews were required). From an exchanger’s perspective, this aspect of the courses is great as it allows me to discover neighbourhoods that I would not otherwise have visited. It also forces me to enter these landscapes with a geographical frame of mind, whereas on a day-to-day basis, this would not necessarily be the case. With any luck, the modules next term will continue to allow me to discover new areas of Singapore.