At the Bloomberg New Economy Forum convened in Singapore in November 2021, a hot topic of discussion was the serious rethinking of urban planning in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Devise and conduct one in-depth interview

• First, devise an original interview guide to gather primary data for your proposal. Use your question guide to conduct ONE interview with a resident of Singapore to find out their desires for Singapore as a city of the future.
• As this exercise is meant to get you to reflect on urban planning and how it affects individuals living in a city, you are expected to explain the design and execution of your questionnaire within your proposal. When crafting your interview questions, consider the following:

1. Who you chose to interview, and why
2. Why you have chosen to ask the questions you designed
3. The efficacy of, and limitations to, your design

• Your interview should be informed by Chapter 6: Planning the Urban Environment. For example, you could consider the objectives for urban planning listed in section 6.1, and/or the concepts of ‘urban utopia’, ‘city beautiful movement’, and ‘entrepreneurial city’ reflected in subsequent sections.

Proposal Essay

• The ECA allows you to recognize the relevance of urban sociology to understanding your city. You must incorporate ideas from your close reading of the article highlighted at the outset as well as apply concepts from the course. In particular, consider the concepts raised in Chapter 6 ‘Planning the Urban Environment’, to present a sociologically driven proposal. You may consider the following:

1. What kind of objectives must be taken into account when planning a city?
2. How do the different approaches to urban planning play a part in addressing a post-pandemic city of the future?
3. How might a post-COVID city balance ideal for a ‘garden city’ and ‘entrepreneurial city’ with concerns such as social distancing, caps on crowd-gathering, and tracking of movement to contain the virus?
4. Finally, how would COVID-19 present an urban problem (6.5) of the 21st century?

• Using the above, develop a proposal that makes a convincing argument for your city of the future, one based on Singapore society and the public. Analyze the primary data you have gathered from your interview and also conduct additional research of your own. Although your proposal is not informed by your findings from the interview alone, these must be incorporated effectively into your points of argument.
• In your proposal, at whichever points best suited, you must include an explanation of your approach to the interview by discussing the points you were given to consider when crafting your questions:

1. Who you chose to interview and why
2. Why you have chosen to ask the questions you designed
3. The efficacy of, and limitations to, your design

You may incorporate these where appropriate in your proposal, showing, for example, how the themes or theoretical issues related to post-pandemic urban planning informed the questions you asked or are relevant to your choice of the respondent. Use your discretion to structure your proposal for utmost coherence.

• Further, support your primary interview data and course material with secondary research such as media releases, critical commentaries, and academic articles, amongst others, relevant to the need for an evolved city in the post-pandemic era.