This book is a welcome addition to recent critical scholarship on the Singapore state and particularly its incomplete and often one-sided version of history. In its detailing of Singapore’s education system over the past few decades, it provides a valuable record of key moments and changes, central logics and tensions.

This book is a welcome addition to recent critical scholarship on the Singapore state and particularly its incomplete and often one-sided version of history. In its detailing of Singapore’s education system over the past few decades, it provides a valuable record of key moments and changes, central logics and tensions. Most importantly, the authors maintain a sustained commitment to showing the institutionalization of inequalities. They paint a compelling image of what these patterns of segregation have meant for Singaporean Malays in particular, and for Singapore citizens more generally.

(A far lengthier extract is posted at http://www.niaspress.dk/blogs/gerald/blog/2011-november/beyond-defensiveness.)

"… well researched and valuable study.

… will serve as a most useful source for anyone who wants to know what makes modern Singapore tick."

"… well researched and valuable study.

… will serve as a most useful source for anyone who wants to know what makes modern Singapore tick."

[T]his is a combative, carefully crafted, addition to a particular genre – the liberal critique of the Singapore  model – which focuses our attention on the question of how such a successful model has impacted on ethnic difference and outcomes … and how it generates a ruling elite which has a tentacle-like grip on all aspects of nation-building. 

[T]his is a combative, carefully crafted, addition to a particular genre – the liberal critique of the Singapore  model – which focuses our attention on the question of how such a successful model has impacted on ethnic difference and outcomes … and how it generates a ruling elite which has a tentacle-like grip on all aspects of nation-building. 

In summary, the most valuable aspect of the book is that it encourages Singaporeans and Singapore-watchers to evaluate the island’s educational and elite formation shifts for broader patterns and issues, and unintended side-effects.  Anyone truly interested in eduction in Singapore, or in comparative education models, should critically engage with this book.

Constructing Singapore is worhty of the attention of analysts and policy makers.

Constructing Singapore is worhty of the attention of analysts and policy makers.

Constucting Singapore should be essential reading for anyone wishing to study further the nature of elite rule in Singapore and in particular the stark realities that underpin that elitism.

Constucting Singapore should be essential reading for anyone wishing to study further the nature of elite rule in Singapore and in particular the stark realities that underpin that elitism.

Constructing Singapore is a penetrative study that provides an in-depth critical analysis of the elitist culture and mechanisms that shape and lubricate the nation-building process of the city-state into the model of efficacy that it is recognized today.

Constructing Singapore is a penetrative study that provides an in-depth critical analysis of the elitist culture and mechanisms that shape and lubricate the nation-building process of the city-state into the model of efficacy that it is recognized today. … Constructing Singapore aims to illuminate the limits of the city-state’s elitist education policies and the elitist culture of governance and it does just that. It is an invaluable study and critique of the nation’s elitist mechanisms and processes …

 This is a rigorously researched book that focuses on the failures and shortcomings of the nation-building project being undertaken by Singapore’s ruling elites. … This book has a great deal to recommend it. It has been carefully researched and it offers in-depth analyses of the facets and mechanisms of elite formation and elite selection.

 This is a rigorously researched book that focuses on the failures and shortcomings of the nation-building project being undertaken by Singapore’s ruling elites. … This book has a great deal to recommend it. It has been carefully researched and it offers in-depth analyses of the facets and mechanisms of elite formation and elite selection. It is rich in information about Singapore and social theory and interesting in its analysis of elite governance and society. Much of this rings true even for those inclined to be much less critical of the Singapore system.

In Constructing Singapore the authors convincingly demonstrate the eminent role of the education system in nation-building. While this may be true for most nation-building projects, Barr and Skrbiš demonstrate the uniqueness of the Singaporean model.

In Constructing Singapore the authors convincingly demonstrate the eminent role of the education system in nation-building. While this may be true for most nation-building projects, Barr and Skrbiš demonstrate the uniqueness of the Singaporean model. What makes Singapore unique, or at least an extreme example, in Southeast Asia is the explicit elitism of its nation- building and government agenda. Despite this uniqueness, the Singapore‘s nation-building and elite government model seems to be attractive to policymakers beyond the borders of the city state. For those studying nationalism in Southeast Asia, Barr’s and Skrbiš’s work is a very fruitful starting point for further research on state-led nation-building projects and their interrelation to questions of race, class, and gender. 

 Although Barr and Skrbis have not told me anything that I did not know in broad outline, they do provide a substantial and interesting evidential base for their study and add a great deal of detail on the inner workings of Singapore’s particular ‘factory’ system of elite production and, in more culturally specific terms, the schooling of its mandarinate.

 Although Barr and Skrbis have not told me anything that I did not know in broad outline, they do provide a substantial and interesting evidential base for their study and add a great deal of detail on the inner workings of Singapore’s particular ‘factory’ system of elite production and, in more culturally specific terms, the schooling of its mandarinate. I enjoyed reading what they had to say.