Please Stay: Pied-a-Terre Subjects in the Megacity

Abstract

In contrast to the idea of the big city as a denationalized space of human rights, this article proposes an alternate concept of the megacity as a national space that activates “neoliberal” desires for foreign experts, creative know-how, and capital accumulation. In addition, expatriates add to and reflect the symbolic values of Asian cities arriving on the global stage. But the limited commitments of global professionals, actualized and symbolized by the pied-a-terre, deter and challenge the deep commitments required by classic citizenship. Is the global nomad a cog in international information networks, a figure who expresses the fundamental denationalized character of capitalism itself? Or is the pied-a-terre the hinge between a global meritocracy and the megacity? The talented expatriate, poised between staying and going, participates in a kind of dysfunctional marriage with the host city that suspends norms of permanent belonging.

Notes

¹ For a contemporary discussion of citizenship as a tension between public virtue and private interests, see Habermas (1973).

² The “megalopolis” has been defined entirely in terms of size, that is, eight million. It is predicted that by 2015, 19 of the 33 megalopolises will be in Asia. See Koolhaas (2003, pp. 4, 6).

³ Xinhua News Agency, 25 September 2004.

⁴ http://www.contactsingapore.org.sg/moving_visas_Employment.shtml

⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Singapore

⁶ Simmel (1990, pp. 505–506).

⁷ Interview with top scientist administrator, 6 June 2006, Singapore.