Foreseeable: A Podcast Series by Global-is-Asian

The last time we spoke to Leong Ching, Vice Provost for Student Life, NUS, and Associate Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, we discussed the "yuck factor" which describes people's visceral aversion to drinking recycled water. Today, we'll be expanding on that topic to look at the rationale behind irrational environmental behaviour in general.

As an institutional economist, Professor Leong uses narratives, perceptions and stories to understand collective public behaviour as well as environmental identities. 

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Urban environments, from infrastructure to green spaces, play a crucial role in shaping lifestyle choices, social dynamics, and overall quality of health. 

Tan Shin Bin is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy (LKYSPP). She previously worked as an urban planner at Singapore’s Urban Redevelopment Authority, the government body tasked with guiding the physical development of Singapore in a sustainable manner.

She joins us to discuss how urban environments impact health, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced when developing policies to promote healthier lifestyles within urban spaces.

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Dr Marina Kaneti is an Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Her area of research centres on global governance and questions of migration, climate and geopolitical developments.

She has explored the influence of China around the world, including the Belt and Road initiative. Recently, she produced a two-part documentary series titled “The Seas That Bind Us and Define Us”, exploring maritime heritage and its significance in Asia.

She joins us to talk about maritime heritage, exploring the shaping and impact of narratives, and implications for the present and beyond.

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In an increasingly interconnected world, the advent of mobile banking has ushered in a transformative era. Access to mobile banking can have a profound impact on people in developing economies. The impact of mobile banking extends beyond individual lives – it ripples through entire communities, affecting aspects such as migration and inequality.

Dr Saravana Ravindran, Assistant Professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, studies challenges and potential policy solutions relating to migration, including mobile banking and digital financial services. He has conducted research into whether mobile technology can reduce inequality by modernising traditional ways to transfer money. He joins us to explore the socio-economic impact of mobile banking on communities. 

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The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) aims to create a highly integrated regional economy by 2025. Known as the ASEAN Economic Community (AEC), the initiative faces many obstacles that may hinder the achieving of its goal.

To understand the obstacles and opportunities, we speak to Dr Denis Hew. Currently Senior Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Dr Hew has served as Director of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Policy Support Unit. He also spent time managing technical assistance programmes on regional cooperation and integration at the Asian Development Bank. Dr Hew has published extensively on policy issues related to economic integration in ASEAN and the Asia-Pacific region.

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Singapore is world-renowned for its urban planning. While it is enjoying the success of the good planning of the past, it finds itself in the middle of an important shift to be prepared for the environment of the future. To understand the challenges and opportunities, we speak with Dr Woo Jun Jie. Dr Woo is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Policy Studies, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, where he heads the Governance and Economy department. His work focuses on urban policy, economic development, and crisis management in Asia. 

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Visiting Professor Emmanuel Skoufias served as a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice of the World Bank Group, from 2004 until his retirement in 2022.

His area of expertise includes the use of microdata to analyse the determinants of poverty and household welfare, the impacts of risk and risk management strategies, and the targeting of social protection programs.

He joined us for a deep dive into how microdata informs policy planning and decisions.

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What are the most effective methods of protecting, and hopefully restoring, the planet's biodiversity?

This is a key question underlying the work of Tanya O'Garra, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Environment and Sustainability, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy. Tanya is an environmental economist with over 15 years’ experience conducting research on the valuation of ecosystem services and the collective management of shared natural resources. She has recently published a study on the effectiveness of community-based approaches to conservation and natural resource management.

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Benjamin Cashore is Li Ka Shing Professor in Public Management and Director of the Institute for Environment and Sustainability (IES) at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.

He specialises in global and multi-level environmental governance, comparative public policy and administration, and transnational business regulation and corporate social responsibility. In his role as the Director of IES, he focuses on helping governments and private sectors close the gap between policy commitments and actual outcomes through "fit-for-purpose" policy analysis. He joins us to help explain just how that works in the real world.

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Dr Ng Kok Hoe is a Senior Research Fellow and Head of the Social Inclusion Project and Case Study Unit at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (NUS). His research interests are public housing policy, homelessness, income security and minimum income standards.

In August this year, Dr Ng Kok Hoe from the Social Inclusion Project at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy published findings from a nationwide count of the number of homeless people sleeping on the streets and in temporary homeless shelters during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is the second nationwide street count of homelessness in Singapore. The first, conducted by the same researcher, was in 2019. Before this research, homelessness was generally a hidden issue. Most people were not familiar with the issue.

Since 2019, public concern, media interest and policy attention have all grown. In this podcast, we will discuss with Dr Ng on how the research came about, what we have learnt and what we need to do next.

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