The Singapore Experience @ LKY School is a co-curricular programme designed to provide opportunities for developing a deeper and more critical understanding of public policy and administration in Singapore. It consists of various components:

1. The Bukit Timah Dialogues: A series of weekly lunchtime seminars where students get a chance to interact with Singapore leaders.

2. Angsana Evenings: Formal dinners where eminent speakers are invited to engage in lively dialogue.

3. Conversations: A series of informal chats with key figures in Singapore’s public sector.

4. Tours and Visits: A chance to visit key institutions and organizations in Singapore.

5. Singapore Film Club: Regular screenings of Singapore films followed by lively discussions.

In addition to these, students can learn more about Singapore through other resources such as:

1. Singapore-specific modules

PP5242D Singapore: The City
Singapore is both an Asian and global leader in urban planning and sustainable development. This module, co-taught by a Singaporean and an American (both political scientists), analyzes how Singapore has transformed itself in little more than four decades from a Third World city with dismal apparent prospects to the vibrant high-amenity First World city it is today. The module focuses on public policy formation and implementation, with particular attention to Singapore’s integrated pursuit of economic growth, environmental quality and sustainability, high-quality transport and housing, quality-of-life amenities, social peace, and nation building. Throughout, it links the analytics to real world examples, but mostly through sessions designed to enable direct interaction with policy-makers and civic organizations. Real world examples will also be drawn from other countries and urban regions. Possible implications for other Asian cities will also be discussed.

PP5285 State-Society Relations in Singapore
In 1991, Minister George Yeo famously declared that the banyan tree needed pruning for the undergrowth to thrive: Singapore’s strong state, deemed necessary for rapid post-colonial growth and development, had, it seemed, stunted the growth of contemporary civil society. This module explores the evolving relationship between state and society in a global city that appears to be liberalizing in some respects, and yet not others. Students will acquire a conceptual vocabulary for thinking about the state, governance, democracy, and civil society, through which case studies on issues including gender, class, welfare, the arts, and public morality can be discussed critically.

2. Books, chapters, and articles on Singapore authored by Faculty

Paul Barter. 2008. "Singapore's Urban Transport: Sustainability by Design or Necessity?" in Spatial Planning for a Sustainable Singapore, eds. Wong Tai Chee, Belinda Yuen, and Charles Goldblum, pp. 95-114. Dordrecht: Springer.

Paul Barter. 2006. "Multiple dimensions in negotiating the cross-border transport links that connect and divide Singapore and Johor, Malaysia". Asia Pacific Viewpoint, 47, no. 2: 287-303.

Paul Barter. 2006. "'Central' Singapore Island, 'Peripheral' Mainland Johor: making the link", in Bridging Islands: The Impact of Fixed Links, ed. G. Baldacchino. Charlottetown: Acorn Press.

Paul Barter. 2005. "A vehicle quota integrated with road usage pricing: a mechanism to ease the phase-out of high fixed vehicle taxes in Singapore". Transport Policy, 12, no. 6: 525-36.

Henri Ghesquiere. 2007. Singapore's Success: Engineering Economic Growth. Singapore: Thomson.

Neo Boon Siong and Geraldine Chen. 2007. Dynamic Governance: Embedding Culture, Capabilities and Change in Singapore. Singapore: World Scientific.

Kenneth Paul Tan. "Forum theater in Singapore: resistance, containment, and commodification in an advanced industrial society". positions: east asia cultures critique (forthcoming).

Kenneth Paul Tan. "Service learning outside the US: initial experiences in Singapore's higher education". PS: Political Science and Politics (forthcoming, July 2009).

Kenneth Paul Tan. "Scholarships for public service in Singapore". Journal of Public Affairs Education (forthcoming).

Kenneth Paul Tan. 「文藝復興之城」新加坡的文化產業. Film Appreciation Journal (forthcoming).

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2009. "Who’s afraid of Catherine Lim? The state in patriarchal Singapore". Asian Studies Review, 33: 43-62. [Download article]

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2008. Cinema and Television in Singapore: Resistance in One Dimension. Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill.

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2008. "Meritocracy and elitism in a global city: ideological shifts in Singapore". International Political Science Review, 29, no. 1: 7-27. [Download article]

Kenneth Paul Tan (ed.). 2007. Renaissance Singapore? Economy, Culture, and Politics. Singapore: NUS Press.

Kenneth Paul Tan, with G. Lee. 2007. "Imagining the gay community in Singapore". Critical Asian Studies, 39, no. 2: 179-204. [Download article]

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2007. "Singapore's National Day Rally speech: a site of ideological negotiation". Journal of Contemporary Asia, 37, no. 3 : 292-308. [Download article; also available online].

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2003. "Democracy and the grassroots sector in Singapore". Space and Polity, 7, no. 1: 3-20. [Download article]

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2003. "Sexing up Singapore". International Journal of Cultural Studies, 6, no. 4 (2003): 403-423. [Download article]

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2003. "Crisis, self reflection, and rebirth in Singapore's national life cycle". Southeast Asian Affairs: 241-58.

Kenneth Paul Tan. 2001. "'Civic society' and the 'new economy' in patriarchal Singapore: emasculating the political, feminizing the public". Crossroads: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 15, no. 2: 95-122. [Download article]