Governing urban diversity through culture and higher education: Learning from Doha and Singapore.

Project Information

HubCities

Grant agreement ID: 843269

DOI

10.3030/843269

Project closed

EC signature date 6 May 2019

Start date 1 November 2019

End date 31 October 2022

Funded under

• EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Total cost

€ 281 382,24

EU contribution

€ 281 382,24

Coordinated by

EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - HubCities (Governing urban diversity through culture and higher education: Learning from Doha and Singapore.)

Reporting period: 2021-11-01 to 2022-10-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The fellowship involved conducting a comparative study of Doha and Singapore’s cultural and higher education hub strategies, explaining how they emerged as global cultural and higher education centers, comparing their respective trajectories, analyzing the role that cultural diversity played in this rapid rise, and assessing the role of culture and higher education sectors in the governance of urban diversity.
Doha and Singapore’s cultural and higher education hub strategies have been challenged by the pandemic, which started a few months after the beginning of the fellowship. Therefore, the project analyzed how these cities coped with this COVID crisis, and in particular how their cultural scenes have been impacted, and the tensions that the crisis revealed about their hub city strategies.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The fellow conducted fieldwork in Doha and Singapore and mobilized video as a research tool. The study has produced a large corpus of data on the governance of culture and higher education in Doha and Singapore in the wake of the COVID crisis as well as on the issues and controversies that arose in relation to the management of these cities’ diversities. The fellow has used and is still using these data and the networks established during the fellowship to produce scientific publications, communications and outreach activities as well as new research grant applications. The fellowship has enabled the creation of a MOOC on ‘Governing Diverse Cities in Europe and Asia’ with the collaboration of scholars from Asian and European Universities.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The HubCities project enabled to advance on the comparison and theorization of diversity governance in Doha and Singapore. The analysis enabled to identify and show the coexistence of compartmentalized diversity management frameworks, which correspond to different policy actors, values, and transnational networks. The research shows that cultural and higher education policies each participate in these compartmentalized diversity management frameworks and shows how this compartmentalization is projected in the urban space.
The HubCities project has also analyzed the way Doha and Singapore’s cultural and higher education hub strategies adjusted to the pandemic. The closing of borders and the restrictions on ‘non-essential’ sectors, had dramatic consequences for tourism, culture, and higher education. At the same time, both cities have mobilized the crisis an opportunity to showcase resilience and innovativeness, encouraging digital innovations in culture and higher education.
The HubCities project enabled to initiate new reflections, in particular on the consequences of the digitalization of culture and heritage for the governance of diversity in cities, thanks to the organization of a conference in Singapore followed by a collective publication.

Community Batik Painting in Singapore