Obliged smart freedom: The Singaporean experience of advanced neoliberal-developmental governance

Abstract

Despite criticism, the smart city solutionist rhetoric has gained popularity and investment across the world. In response, this paper interrogates the notion of neutrality in smart city projects and investigates the resulting rationales of the smart brand as a technology of control. The paper develops Nikolas Rose’s argument that a central tenet of liberal governance is to create, and then obligate, a desirable form of freedom, through a framework of economic maximisation, self-responsibility and autonomy. This framework is applied to the Singaporean Smart Nation as a neoliberal-developmental state to consider how the Smart City can be understood as a governance technique. The research is undertaken through a mixed method analysis to unpick the discursive frameworks shaping how individuals navigate the smart city. This approach identifies one of the many ways realities have become governable, to provide a relational perspective through the juxtaposition of government and citizen experiences. Data is drawn from three key government documents, an online survey of Singaporean residents (n = 255), and key informant interviews (n = 9). The results demonstrate the potential of the digital environment of Singapore to oblige freedom to engender a compliant population. In addition, the Singaporean case highlights the need for contextualised analysis of smart city projects to explore the governance potential, especially beyond the western perspective.