Zelig Lee

Environmental Cyber Activism in Singapore is a relatively new area of study which has not been previously researched. This paper investigates the role of cyberspace in shaping environmental activism in Singapore through analysis of Singaporean environmental websites and interviews with environmental activists. It is argued that cyberspace has played a relevant role in strengthening environmental awareness among Singaporeans significantly, where activists are further empowered to forge collective environmentalism in a stronger, expressive and emboldened manner. However, its effects in shaping state-society relations and influencing tangible, offline environmental initiatives remain uncertain.

Despite a city filled with numerous shopping malls, there are surprisingly few shopping malls in Singapore which have followed environmentally friendly building practices. City Square Mall is marketed by its developer as Singapore's first " Eco-Mall ". Using a combination of information from the developer, tenants and customer attitudes, this paper aims to investigate how City Square Mall has effectively and successfully portrayed itself as an " Eco-mall " from the marketing and operational perspective. Empirical investigations reveal mixed results where the mall's identity as an " Eco-Mall " is largely perpetuated by the developer, anchor and niche tenants; yet being subverted by the silent majority of small tenants as well as the general public due to inadequate resources and education; resulting in much uncertainty over the mall's long term sustainability and identity as an " Eco-mall " .

There has been a growing interest in citizen participation by government, civil society and citizens in democratizing Asian cities such as Singapore. Whilst prevailing studies of citizen participation have adopted a binary, principal-agent approach without considering intervening factors, we argue that intermediaries such as social service organizations, social enterprises and interest groups play a critical role in facilitating the inclusion of Persons with Disabilities (PWDs) in citizen participation processes. Based on the qualitative approach comprising of semi-structured interviews and participant observations, this study explores perspectives of diverse respondents including individual PWDs, intermediaries and government agencies on the current citizen participation dynamics in Singapore.

In this study, we aim to investigate (i) how far does the inclusion of PWDs in the policy consultation process lead to policies that address their needs better, and (ii) to what extent do intermediaries help accentuate PWDs’ needs for better policy outcomes. Our findings reveal that the inclusion of PWDs in the policy consultation process indeed can lead to policies that address their needs better. Acknowledging the significance of the involvement of intermediaries in helping to accentuate their voices in the policy consultation process, individual PWDs expressed concern about whether these intermediaries can adequately represent their perspectives without having lived experiences. Representation and accessibility for PWDs of all disabilities and backgrounds, capacity-building of disability advocacy groups as well as citizen participation formats should be reviewed to further enhance the inclusion of PWDs in citizen participation processes. Future research should consider more carefully the increasing interest of citizen participation in Asia and the Global South, the rising prominence of social enterprises and other socially responsible companies in articulating social agendas; and the growing use of innovative methods under participatory research.

Environmental Entrepreneurship has been widely researched in the discipline of Business Management, where scholars have critically analyzed the behavioural profile of environmental entrepreneurs (ecopreneurs) as well as the organizational management of their start-up firms. This thesis aims to enhance the existing research in Business Management by offering a geographical dimension, where concepts such as space, networks and embeddedness across local, national and transnational scales are critically applied to forge an environmental entrepreneurial geography as a prospective sub-field within Geography. Using Singapore as a case study, this thesis aims to investigate how ecopreneurs maintain a balance between their profit and activist agendas through their business activities; as well as to ascertain the significance of space in shaping their decisions. The thesis also seeks to investigate whether Singapore-based ecopreneurs are more influenced by local or transnational factors. I argue that Singapore-based ecopreneurs maintain a stable yet ambiguous equilibrium of both their profit and activist agenda in shaping their business motivations and decisions. They value Singapore’s small size and position as an economic centre in the Asia-Pacific as conducive for facilitating strong, efficient networks between various stakeholders locally and transnationally, playing a constructive role in forging environmental sustainability through their business and activist capacities. Lastly, unique local factors such as Singapore’s pragmatic culture and the role of government pose significant challenges to ecopreneurs’ aspirations to expand their businesses and forge the environmental cause locally and beyond. The thesis concludes with a critical proposal in which geographers can contribute to the development of an environmental entrepreneurial geography.