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A burgeoning literature on 'left behind' places has emerged that captures the backlash against globalisation and highlights the locales that lag world cities. This paper integrates the 'left behind' and world cities literatures through the lens of discontent in the context of Singapore, using sentiment analysis and topic modelling as well as interviews with local professionals to unpack the multidimensional aspects of discontent. Focusing on the Singapore–India Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement that spurred discontent directed at foreign Indian professionals, we show that the worlding generated by transnational flows has accentuated intra-urban inequality through racialisation and spatialisation of financial business and suburban residential hubs. Discontent from intra-urban inequality unsettles years of efforts by the state to cultivate cosmopolitan spaces aimed at reducing social exclusion and difference in the world city of Singapore. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

International financial centres (IFCs) are regarded as important nodes in governing global flows of money and capital. With increased globalization and rapid technological changes, the rivalry among IFCs has further intensified competition for financial labour—as a concentrated pool of highly skilled finance workers in an open and flexible labour market is crucial to sustaining the competitive dynamics of these urban financial hotspots. This study investigates the importance of different skills and tasks in financial work. Based on surveys and interviews conducted among Singapore's IFC workers, the findings show that cognitive, interpersonal communication and managerial‐leadership skills and tasks are more important in financial work, whereas programming, mathematics and systems‐based skills are perceived to be less important. Additionally, a network visualization of finance occupational skills obtained from Singapore's national skills database reinforces the importance of cognitive and relational skills in that sector. Higher‐order cognitive and relational skills are expected to become even more critical as the financial sector undergoes rapid digital transformation, reinforcing the importance of IFCs as agglomerations of skilled finance talent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability reporting has seen increased adoption as more businesses are recognizing wider societal and environmental obligations outside of traditional shareholder commitments. Several jurisdictions such as Malaysia and Hong Kong have passed regulations to encourage or mandate sustainability reporting. Likewise, Singapore has instituted mandatory sustainability reporting for all listed companies since 2016. The development of sustainability reporting in Singapore is explored using material from government agencies, company sustainability reports, conference speeches and newspaper articles. Viewing sustainability reporting as a socio-material assemblage of heterogeneous actors, discursive practices and other policy artefacts, local corporate sustainability initiatives are framed heavily in business logics such as the 'triple bottom line', while being anchored to broader national sustainability campaigns and commitments under international agreements. Such an economistic framing may limit the effectiveness of efforts to drive genuine changes in corporate sustainability, as companies may merely engage in a 'checkbox ticking' exercise to fulfil regulatory obligations. This paper highlights the multisited nature of policymaking and the tensions that may arise in a top-down approach to implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated digitalisation efforts in many countries as they try to contain the virus. With the physical handling of cash posing as a potential virus transmission risk, digital payments have become important in the urgent transition to a cashless society and a key feature of smart city projects. Critical analyses have typically framed smart cities as neoliberalist developmental projects that see the partnering of the state with private corporations. However, it is unclear how the smart city emerges under the technocratic inclinations of the developmental state. Focusing on the digital payments project under Singapore's Smart Nation initiative, this paper unpacks the discursive practices employed in mobilising citizen support for electronic payments through a critical analysis of publicly available government materials and recent initiatives. The discourse surrounding digital payments is bound up in narratives surrounding economic competitiveness, technological progress and public health and safety, and strongly rooted in a technocratic governance ethos that limits genuine citizen participation in shaping smart payments technologies. This paper argues that such discursive framings represent a missed opportunity to build a smart city that is truly citizen-centric. This reorientation requires more bottom-up and grassroots-based modes of governance that reformulate smart citizenship into one that pays greater attention to the affective and social contexts behind digital technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]