ABSTRACT
This chapter positions the cultural economy within the evolution of the global (or world) cities discourse, opening with an acknowledgement of culture as a marker of the global city. This discussion is followed by the lineage of the discourse over the past fifty years, starting with Peter Hall's seminal The World Cities, and through to benchmark studies by John Friedmann and Saskia Sassen. The chapter presents taxonomies of cultural sectors and industries, and a discussion of culture as aspect of power projection. It includes a discussion of important ideas and debates concerning the shaping of the global city, incorporating concepts of transnationalism and cosmopolitanism that challenge orthodoxies concerning the dominant globalization paradigm. Heritage tourism in Singapore has included the efforts of professionals and public groups committed to conserving important signifiers of the indigenous and colonial periods, but the dominant player has been the national state, exercised largely through the policies and programs of the Singapore Tourist Board (STB).
