1 Calabrese, Andrew, ‘The MacBride report: Its value to a new generation’, Quaderns del CAC, 21 (2005): 23–6Google Scholar; Haentzschel, Alexander, ‘Should Singapore rejoin Unesco? Why Singapore withdrew from Unesco and has still not rejoined’, Asia-Europe Journal, Intercultural Studies in the Social Sciences and Humanities, 2, 4 (2004): 549–56Google Scholar; United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (hereafter UNESCO), Many voices, one world (Paris: UNESCO, 1980)Google Scholar.

2 Horkheimer, Max and Adorno, Theodor W., Dialektik der Aufklärung: Philosophische Fragmente (Frankfurt am Main: Fischer Verlag, 2006), pp. 128–76Google Scholar.

3 Paetzel, Ulrich, Kunst und Kulturindustrie bei Adorno und Habermas – Perspektiven kritischer Theorie (Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2001), pp. 35–44CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 Singapore's first cultural policy, The Ong Teng Cheong report, was not published until April 1989.

5 From the 1970s, many governments worldwide, including the United States and the European Union, adopted the visionary ‘knowledge society’, ‘information society’ and ‘knowledge-based economy’ concepts (originally developed by academics throughout the world), announcing a future in which economic and social development would be based increasingly on knowledge. For a critical assessment of the conceptual and social construction of knowledge societies, first as academic concepts and second as stages of development, see Hornidge, Anna-Katharina, Knowledge society – Vision and social construction of reality in Germany and Singapore (Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2007)Google Scholar.

6 National IT Plan Working Committee, National IT plan: A strategic framework (Singapore: National IT Plan Working Committee, 1985), p. vGoogle ScholarPubMed.

7 From the mid-1990s onwards, numerous governments worldwide rediscovered the economic potential of creativity and culture. In 1998, the UK Creative Industries Taskforce published its ‘Creative industries mapping document’, which later also influenced Singapore's respective policymaking. See UK Creative Industries Taskforce, Creative industries mapping document (London: Department for Culture, Media and Sport, 1998)Google Scholar.

8 This article adopts the term ‘creative industries’, rather than ‘cultural industries’. While this term is used mainly by Singapore and many nation states worldwide, the notion of ‘cultural industries’ meets the terminological preference of UNESCO. For defining both terms, an emic perspective is taken, following the definitions adopted by UNESCO and Singapore. The section explicitly assessing UNESCO's perspective on the topic therefore also adopts the term ‘cultural industries’, but changes back to ‘creative industries’ for the rest of the article.

9 Paetzel, Kunst und Kulturindustrie, p. 40.

10 William F. Fore, ‘A new world order in communication’, http://www.religion-online.de (last accessed 20 April 2008); UNESCO, Many voices, one world.

11 The Singaporean minister of state for education and manpower, Gan Kim Yong, quoted in Theresa Tan, ‘S'pore rejoins Unesco 20 years after pullout’, Straits Times, 8 Oct. 2007.

12 Workgroup on Creative Industries, Creative industries development strategy (Singapore: Economic Review Committee-Subcommittee Service Industries/Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2002)Google Scholar.

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16 UK Creative Industries Taskforce, Creative industries mapping document.

17 Stuart D. Cunningham, ‘The evolving creative industries: From original assumptions to contemporary interpretations’ (Transcript of a seminar, 9 May 2003, Queensland University of Technology: Brisbane, 2003).

18 UNESCO Publishing, Culture, trade and globalization – Questions and answers (UNESCO Publishing, 2000), pp. 11–12Google Scholar.

19 UNESCO, Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, Article 4.4–4.5 (Paris: UNESCO, 2005), p. 5Google Scholar.

20 UNESCO and the Global Alliance for Cultural Diversity, Understanding creative industries, p. 1; http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=30297&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 9 Mar. 2010).

21 Nevertheless, these definitions and distinctions have not been entered onto the UNESCO website. The notion of ‘creative industries’ acts as a third-level link from the main website (culture > creativity > creative industries), but then is not defined. Instead, UNESCO speaks in the subsequent text of ‘cultural industries’, and states: ‘The cultural industries, which include publishing, music, cinema, crafts and design, continue to grow steadily apace and have a determinant role to play in the future of culture’. The distinction between creative and cultural industries is not mentioned on the website, but instead the two notions are used interchangeably. UNESCO, ‘Creative industries’, http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=35024&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html (last accessed 9 March 2010).

22 UNESCO Institute for Statistics (hereafter UIS), The 2009 framework for cultural statistics (Montreal: UIS, 2009), p. 19Google Scholar.

23 Löwy, Ilana, ‘The strength of loose concepts – Boundary concepts, federative experimental strategies and disciplinary growth: The case of immunology’, in History of Science, 30 (1992): 371–96CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

24 Ibid., p. 373.

25 Ibid.

26 Mollinga, Peter, The rational organisation of dissent, ZEF Working Paper Series no. 33 (Bonn: University of Bonn, 2008)Google Scholar; Mollinga, Peter, ‘Boundary work and the complexity of natural resources management’, Crop Science, 50, 1 (2010): S1–S9Google Scholar. Peter Mollinga discusses ‘water control’ as a boundary concept in Mollinga, Peter, For a political sociology of water resources management, ZEF Working Paper Series no. 31 (Bonn: University of Bonn, 2008), pp. 12–14Google Scholar.

27 Star, Susan Leigh and Griesemer, James R., ‘Institutional ecology, “translations” and boundary objects: Amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's Museum of vertebrate zoology, 1907–39′, Social Studies of Science, 19, 3 (1989): 387–420CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 Mollinga, The rational organisation of dissent, p. 22.

29 Ibid., p. 24.

30 The quote continues: ‘These objects may be abstract or concrete. They have different meanings in different social worlds but their structure is common enough to more than one world to make them recognisable, a means of translation. The creation and management of boundary objects is a key process in developing and maintaining coherence across intersecting social worlds’. In Star and Griesemer, ‘Institutional ecology, “translations” and boundary objects’, p. 393.

31 Löwy, ‘The strength of loose concepts’, pp. 374–5. Here, Löwy also distinguishes between ‘boundary objects’ and ‘boundary concepts’ by stressing: ‘“Boundary objects” are composed of a “hard core” – the zone of agreement between interacting professional groups – and of a “fuzzy periphery” which is different for each of these groups. “Boundary concepts” (“ideal types”) are loosely defined concepts which, precisely because of their vagueness, are adaptable to local sites and may facilitate communication and cooperation.’

32 Mollinga, The rational organisation of dissent, p. 22.

33 Ibid., p.37.

34 Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialektik der Aufklärung, pp. 128–76. Paetzel, Kunst und Kulturindustrie, pp. 35–44.

35 UNESCO, Cultural industries – A challenge for the future of culture (Paris: UNESCO, 1982)Google ScholarPubMed.

36 Horkheimer and Adorno, Dialektik der Aufklärung, pp. 128–76; Paetzel, Kunst und Kulturindustrie, pp. 9–92.

37 Regarding General Conferences of UNESCO, the figure merely captures the conference from 1976, during which the term ‘cultural industries’ entered the conference's resolutions for the first time.

38 Additionally to the herein displayed events, the General Conferences of UNESCO (every two years) contributed substantially. These are illustrated in Figure 1 with regard to the degree that the term ‘cultural industries’ was mentioned in the respective resolutions. Figure 1 merely includes the General Conference of 1976, where the term ‘cultural industries’ for the first time entered the resolutions, and the General Conference of 2005, where the Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions was adopted.

39 UNESCO, Records of the General Conference nineteenth session, Nairobi, 26 Oct.–30 Nov. 1976, Vol. 1 – Resolutions (Paris: UNESCO, 1976), p. 36Google Scholar.

40 UNESCO, Approved programme and budget for 1979–1980 (20C/5 Approved), Theme 4/3/05, pp. 409–10, paras. 420.1 and 420.5 (Paris: UNESCO, Feb. 1979), quoted by UNESCO, Cultural industries – A challenge for the future of culture, p. 5.

41 Ibid., p. 5.

42 UNESCO, Records of the General Conference twenty-first session, Belgrade, 23 Sept.–28 Oct. 1980, Volume 1 – Resolutions (Paris: UNESCO, 1980)Google Scholar.

43 UNESCO, Cultural industries – A challenge for the future of culture.

44 UNESCO, Mexico City declaration on cultural policies adopted by the World Conference on cultural policies Mexico, 6 Aug. 1982 (Mexico City: UNESCO, 1982)Google Scholar.

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46 World Commission on Culture and Development, Our creative diversity (Paris: UNESCO, 1995)Google ScholarPubMed.

47 UNESCO Bangkok, Statistics on cultural industries, p. iii.

48 The commission, in the acknowledgements of the report, nevertheless thanks Chua Soo Pong of Singapore, amongst many others, for contributing (World Commission on Culture and Development, Our creative diversity, p. 302).

49 Instead, the non-governmental organisation Asian Media Information and Communication Centre, based in Singapore, was present with five representatives and involved actively in two panels. See ‘Intergovernmental conference on cultural policies for development’, Final report (Stockholm, Sweden, 30 March – 2 April 1998)Google ScholarPubMed.

50 UNESCO, World culture report 1998: Culture, creativity and markets (Paris: UNESCO, 1998)Google Scholar.

51 UIS, Proceedings for the International Symposium on Culture Statistics (Montreal: UIS, 2003)Google Scholar.

52 Instead, one representative of the Singapore-based non-governmental organisation Asian Media Information and Communication Centre presented a paper on ‘Cultural statistics in Asia: Problems and prospects’, Ibid., pp. 403–15.

53 UNESCO Bangkok Office, UNESCO Bangkok newsletter, issue no. 3, May 2005, p. 7.

54 UNESCO Bangkok Office, Asia-Pacific creative communities: A strategy for the 21st century. The Jodhpur initiatives (Bangkok: UNESCO Bangkok Office, 2005), p. 1Google Scholar.

55 UNESCO Bangkok Office, Cultural industries in Asia and the Pacific, http://www.unescobkk.org/culture/our-projects/cultural-industries-and-creative-enterprises/cultural-industries-in-asia-and-the-pacific/senior-expert-symposium-on-cultural-industries/beyond-the-symposium (last accessed 12 Feb. 2010).

56 Baey Yam Keng, ‘Art, creativity and industry: The case of Singapore’ (speech at the Senior Expert Symposium, Jodhpur, India, 22–26 Feb. 2005).

57 Sheldon Shaeffer, ‘Creative communities: A strategy for the 21st century – UNESCO and the promotion of cultural industries in the context of the millennium development goals’ (speech at the Senior Expert Symposium, Jodhpur, India, 22–26 Feb. 2005).

58 Comprising the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), UIS, United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

59 UNESCO Bangkok Office, Cultural industries in Asia and the Pacific.

60 The remaining two took place in Bogota, Colombia and Dakar, Senegal.

61 UNESCO Bangkok Office, Cultural industries in Asia and the Pacific.

62 In the sub-theme ‘Measuring creativity's contribution to happiness and well-being’, Ms Chow presented Singapore's indicator system for creating an innovation-conducive environment; Kit Boey Chow, ‘A creativity benchmarking index: Singapore ASAT model’ (Speech at the Open Forum on Measuring Creativity, Happiness and Well-being, 8–12 Nov. 2006, Hong Kong).

63 UNESCO Bangkok, Statistics on cultural industries.

64 Ibid., p. xi.

65 UNESCO, Convention on the protection and promotion of the diversity of cultural expressions, p. 4.

66 UNESCO, Singapore – Ratified conventions. See http://portal.unesco.org/la/conventions_by_country.asp?contr=SG&language=E&typeconv=1 (last accessed 23 March 2010).

67 Singapore's legal system aims to enforce a disciplined society; see Yap, Mui Teng, ‘Identitätskonstruktionen in Singapur’, in Singapur – Metropole im Wandel, ed. Kieserling, Manfred (Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 2000), pp. 105–29Google Scholar. This is reflected in government censorship over the media including magazines, newspapers, movies, the Internet and television programmes. A recent event was the International Herald Tribune apologising for a story on dynastic politics in Asia, which, according to Asia Sentinel, ‘does not appear to include libel’ and can be regarded as an example; see John Berthelsen, ‘Singapore's Lees cow the International Herald Tribune again’, Asia Sentinel, http://asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2359&Itemid=181 (last accessed 24 March 2010). Furthermore, diverse forms of sexuality, i.e. homosexual intercourse, remain illegal (Section 377A of the Penal Code of Singapore).

68 UNESCO, Records of general conference, 20th Session, Proceedings (Paris: UNESCO, 1978)Google Scholar.

69 Paetzel, Kunst und Kulturindustrie, pp. 35–40.

70 See UNESCO, Cultural industries; UIS, Proceedings of the International Symposium on Culture Statistics, 21–23 Oct. 2002 (Montreal: UNESCO, 2003)Google ScholarPubMed.

71 UNESCO, Records of General Conference, 32nd Session, Proceedings (Paris: UNESCO, 2003)Google Scholar.

72 UNESCO, Records of General Conference, 33rd Session, Proceedings (Paris: UNESCO, 2005)Google Scholar.

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74 The National Computerization Plan (1980–5), the National IT Plan (1986–91), A Vision of an Intelligent Island – The IT2000 Report (1992–9), Infocomm21 (2000–3), Connected Singapore (2003–6) and Intelligent Nation 2015 (2006–15). For details, see Hornidge, Knowledge society.

75 Examples form the eGovernment Action Plans and Master Plans for IT in Education.

76 The Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) is a statutory board of the government under the Ministry of Trade and Industry, which oversees 12 research institutes.

77 Hornidge, Anna-Katharina, ‘Singapore: The knowledge-hub in the Straits of Malacca’, in Straits of Malacca – Knowledge and diversity, ed. Gerke, Solvay, Hans-Dieter Evers and Anna-Katharina Hornidge (Münster: Lit-Verlag, 2008)Google Scholar.

78 Biopolis is part of Fusionopolis, which comprises Vista X-Change (centre for private–public partnership and industry development, financial and business services), Central X-Change (centre for information and communication technologies, media and education industries) and Life X-Change (Biopolis). In 2003, Fusionpolis was regarded in a newspaper article to be ‘Singapore's icon of the knowledge economy where talents gravitate naturally and where diverse ideas thrive’ (Singapore: JTC Corporation, 20 Feb. 2003).

79 Examples of government initiatives are action plans such as Library 2000 and Library 2010, collectively establishing a vast library system.

80 Kwok, Kian-Woon and Low, Kee-Hong, ‘Cultural policy and the city-state: Singapore and the “new Asian Renaissance”’, in Global culture: Media, arts, policy and globalization, ed. Crane, Diane, Kawashima, Nobuko and Kawasaki, Ken'ichi (New York: Routledge, 2001), pp. 149–68Google Scholar.

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82 Kong, Lily and Yeoh, Brenda S.A., The politics of landscapes in Singapore: Constructions of “nation” (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2003), p. 174Google Scholar.

83 Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts, Report of the Advisory Council on Culture and the Arts (Singapore: Singapore National Printers, 1989)Google Scholar.

84 Ibid., pp. 5–6.

85 Ministry of Information, Communications and the Arts, ‘Arts – Overview’, see http://www.mica.gov.sg/aboutus/abtus_logo.html (last accessed 25 Aug. 2008).

86 Lee, ‘Creative shifts and directions’, p. 286.

87 Ibid., p. 288.

88 George Yeo, quoted in Kwok and Low, ‘Cultural policy and the city-state’, p. 152.

89 Lee, ‘Creative shifts and directions’, p. 288.

90 Ministry of Information and the Arts (hereafter MITA), Renaissance city report: Culture and the arts in renaissance Singapore (Singapore: MITA, 2000)Google Scholar.

91 Lee, ‘Creative shifts and directions’, p. 290.

92 Kong, Lily, ‘Cultural policy in Singapore: Negotiating economic and socio-cultural agendas’, Geoforum, 31, 4 (2000): 409–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

93 While some initiatives clearly address one group, others also incorporate parts of two or all three categories.

94 Workgroup on Creative Industries, Creative industries development strategy.

95 UK Creative Industries Taskforce, Creative industries mapping document.

96 Florida, Richard, The rise of the creative class (New York: Basic Books, 2002)Google Scholar.

97 Ibid., p. 8.

98 Heng, Toh Mun, Choo, Adrian and Ho, Terence, Economic contributions of Singapore's creative industries (Singapore: Ministry of Trade and Industry, 2003), p. 52Google Scholar.

99 Workgroup on Creative Industries, Creative industries development strategy.

100 Workgroup on Creative Industries, Creative industries development strategy, pp. 9–20; MITA, Renaissance city report.

101 Ibid., p. 14.

102 Ibid., pp. 21–32.

103 Ibid., p. 27.

104 Ibid., pp. 33–49. Media Development Authority (hereafter MDA), Media 21: Transforming Singapore into a global media city (Singapore: MDA, 2003)Google Scholar.

105 Workgroup on Creative Industries, Creative industries development strategy, p. 37.

106 Th.S. Koh, Interview with the author, 30 March 2005.

107 Peter F. Drucker, ‘Knowledge work and knowledge society: The social transformations of this century’, John F. Kennedy University, The 1994 Edwin L. Godkin Lecture, 4 May 1994.

108 Resulting in the opening of the School of Creative Arts and Media at the Nanyang Technological University, as well as the planned opening of a faculty of arts and social sciences at this former technological university.

109 J.Y.P. Tan, Interview with the author, 26 Jan. 2005.

110 For a detailed discussion and quantitative data supporting this argument, please see Hornidge, Anna-Katharina, ‘Re-inventing society: State concepts of knowledge in Germany and Singapore’, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 22, 2 (2007): 202–29CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

111 Baey Yam Keng, Interview with the author, 30 March 2005.

112 Fore, ‘A new world order in communication’; UNESCO, Many voices, one world.

113 Laws strengthening the government's position are the Societies Act, the Charities Act, the Public Entertainments Act and the Public Lotteries Act for raising public funds, the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act (for the licensing of newsletters) and the Penal Code for unlawful assembly, obscene or other speech subject to criminal sanction.

114 Tan, ‘S'pore rejoins Unesco 20 years after pullout’.

115 Hornidge, Knowledge society, 2007.