The Urban Studies Foundation (USF) is delighted to announce the publication of a new open access book, presenting ten of C.P. Pow’s most impactful paper publications. The book is free to download below, and has been produced by the USF to honour the legacy of Pow’s work and contribution to urban studies. Pow also served as a USF Trustee from 2016 to 2020, during which time he acted in a number of roles for the Board, not least as Chair for the International Fellowships awarding panel.
To celebrate the publication of this collection, and to advance support of urban studies in the region, the USF is also pleased to announce that one International Fellowship will be reserved in memory of Pow during the 2025 round of the scheme. This will be awarded to a scholar from and/or focused on urbanisation East and Southeast Asia. You can read more about the International Fellowships here.
Read more about the USF International Fellowships here.
An introduction to the collection can be found below, authored by USF Trustee Deljana Iossifova.
There will be a launch event for the book held at the 2025 International Conference on China Urban Development, UCL, London.
Title: C.P. Pow: selected essays
Publisher: Urban Studies Foundation (2025)
Contributors: C.P. Pow, Tim Bunnell, Deljana Iossifova, and Harvey Neo
Design: Montserrat Bao (pdf) and Henrietta Sampson (e-book)
Production: Joe Shaw
Format: pdf and e-book
ISBN: 9781917466011
DOI: 10.69752/0bcp-r306
In honour of C.P. Pow (1974-2021)
Prof Deljana Iossifova (University of Manchester)
In this collection, we bring together some of C.P. Pow’s most impactful papers, not only as a celebration of his scholarly achievements but as a testament to the ongoing relevance of his work in the study of cities and urban phenomena. An urban cultural geographer of China, East Asia, and Southeast Asia—though his contributions defy easy categorisation—Pow’s work continues to transform Urban Studies, expanding the field’s conceptual vocabulary and engaging with critical topics such as gated communities, sensory politics, and ecological urbanism, all while examining cities through a ground-level lens.
The essays by Bunnell (2023) and Neo (2023), two of Pow’s Singapore-based colleagues, illustrate that reflecting on Pow’s scholarship is not only a tribute to his intellectual rigour but also a genuinely personal journey for those privileged to have known him. For the trustees and staff of the Board of the Urban Studies Foundation (USF), serving alongside Pow during his five years on the board and witnessing his commanding presence and exceptional intellect has been a privilege and an honour. He was instrumental in supporting initiatives that encouraged critical engaged research and promoted the next generation of urban scholars. As a Trustee, Pow brought the same qualities to the USF that characterised his scholarship—humility, intellectual generosity, and an unwavering commitment to advancing the field.
I consider myself fortunate to have crossed paths with Pow over a decade and a half, each encounter leaving me as moved by his modest nature, astute observations, and subtle humour as by his meticulous and thoughtful scholarship. Engaging with his research on gated urban enclaves early in my academic career helped shape my own approach to cities and emerging urban conditions—teaching me to question assumptions, look closer, and think deeply from the ground up.
Neoliberalism’s moral geographies and sensory politics
Pow’s contributions are distinguished by his understanding of urban spaces as sites where social, cultural, and moral dynamics intersect. He examined the moral geographies underpinning Shanghai’s gated communities, linking sociospatial segregation with class-based moral judgements and emphasising the distinction between ‘civilised’ versus ‘uncivilised’ behaviours (Pow, 2007). In Pow’s view, gated enclaves enacted both physical and symbolic separation, embedding cultural and moral judgements that went beyond economic barriers. This was a pivotal shift from traditional analyses of gated communities, which often centred on economic disparities alone.
Connecting sensory urbanism with urban metabolism, Pow (2017) demonstrated his ability to combine ethnographic sensitivity with rigorous theorising, establishing himself as a methodological innovator. His exploration of the visceral dimensions of urban exclusion showed how class-based sensory distinctions create socio-spatial boundaries. This focus on sensory politics introduced a new dimension to analyses of urban inequality, highlighting how affective and sensory aspects contribute to exclusion. (See note 1)
Pow (2009) elaborated further on these themes, examining how neoliberal policies shape urban spaces and lives in complex ways, providing a critical lens on the socio-political forces that redefine urban spaces and determine access to transformed environments. This theme closely links with his work on luxury housing and elite lifestyles in Asian cities, Singapore in particular (Pow, 2011). Here, Pow analysed urban lifestyle segmentation as a socio-cultural process that defines class relations and reconfigures urban hierarchies. Rather than viewing gated communities as mere symbols of urban alienation, he invited readers to recognise these spaces as containing what he termed ‘epistemologies of hope’, revealing agency and adaptability among residents (Pow, 2015).
Ecological urbanism and policy mobility
Picking up on these insights, Pow developed work on ecological urbanism as a central theme in his work. In a 2013 paper co-authored with Harvey Neo, Pow examined eco-city projects in China, critiquing their portrayal as paradigms of urban sustainability. Pow and Neo (2013) argue that eco-city projects often prioritises aesthetic and economic gains over social justice and inclusivity. Pow’s critique extended to the Sino-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city project (Pow & Neo, 2015), which he framed as a ‘sustainability fix’ favouring investment incentives over environmental justice. Pow (2018a) further articulated this critique by examining how ‘eco-aesthetics’ underpin China’s eco-civilisation agenda, revealing state-driven urban greening as a tool for fostering compliant citizens while obscuring socio-environmental inequalities.
Pow’s insights on eco-urbanism resonate with his broader critique of fast-policy transfers and urban policy mobility. His exploration of the ‘Singapore model’ and its global circulation highlighted how policy models are reinterpreted and adapted as they travel, shaped by the agency of local actors (Pow, 2014). This empirical focus on urban actors’ agency in shaping policy underscored the relational and contested nature of urban policy transfer. In a later publication, Pow (2018b) tackled the politics of expertise within urban consultancy, offering a rare view into the embodied practices of Singaporean planners abroad. His nuanced analysis of ‘homegrown neoliberalism’ demonstrated how local planning expertise was leveraged by the Singaporean state to assert its urban model globally. This strand of Pow’s work not only illuminates the intersections of policy mobility and neoliberal urbanism but also calls into question the presumed neutrality of expertise, showing how authority is constructed and contested within transnational planning circuits.
Contributions and lasting impact
The legacy that Pow leaves behind, as both a scholar and a person, cannot be overestimated. His scholarship establishes a clear trajectory for future research, urging scholars to consider the contingent and negotiated nature of urban spaces. His work on green urbanism and policy mobility highlights the need for more critical perspectives on sustainability, to confront climate change and environmental degradation. Pow’s engagement with China’s eco-city projects underscores the need for critical assessment of the social justice implications of sustainability initiatives. His contributions to sensory urbanism also encourage researchers to adopt multi-sensory approaches when examining urban exclusion, recognising how socio-spatial exclusion is experienced in embodied, sensory ways.
Pow’s scholarship has laid a durable foundation for the study of contemporary urban phenomena, rounded in his conviction that urban research should aim not only to reveal inequalities but also to imagine and foster more just and inclusive cities. His presence—in the classroom, the boardroom, and in the field—continues to resonate, and his absence is felt deeply by all whose lives he touched. This collection serves both as a celebration of Pow’s scholarship and an invitation to new generations to build upon his transformative legacy.
Read more about the USF International Fellowships here.
Acknowledgements
With heartfelt thanks to USF staff and former trustees (in particular, Joe Shaw, Fulong Wu, and Hyun Bang Shin), as well as Pow’s Singapore-based friends and collaborators (Harvey Neo and Tim Bunnell) for their thoughtful comments on drafts of this introduction and contributions to the development and production of this collection.
Deljana Iossifova, Professor of Architecture and Urban Studies at the University of Manchester, directs the Urban Studies Lab (USL) and serves as Academic Director of the Confucius Institute. She is Editor-in-Chief of The Journal of Architecture, Chair of the AzuKo Foundation, and former Chair of the Urban Studies Foundation. An award-winning architect, Iossifova’s transdisciplinary research centres on urban transformations, social practices, and coexistence. She leads SusInfra, an international research programme and network focused on urban infrastructural transitions. Her recent publications include Urban Infrastructuring (2022), Defining the Urban (2018), and Translocal Ageing in the Global East (2020).
Notes
1. See also the Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography: Volume 44, Issue 1, Special Section: a tribute to the late Pow, for further tributes to Pow’s life and work.
Bibliography
Bunnell T. (2023) C.P. Pow: Our intersecting academic pathways and some of his lasting contributions. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(1): 12-21. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12462
Neo H (2023) ‘Born to Run’: Remembering C.P. Pow. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44(1): 22-27. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12461
Pow CP (2007) Securing the “Civilised” Enclaves: Gated Communities and the Moral Geographies of Exclusion in (Post-)socialist Shanghai. Urban Studies, 44(8): 1539 – 1558. http://www.informaworld.com/10.1080/00420980701373503
Pow CP (2009) Neoliberalism and the Aestheticization of New Middle-Class Landscapes. Antipode, 41(2): 371-390. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00677.x
Pow CP (2011) Living it up: Super-rich enclave and transnational elite urbanism in Singapore. Geoforum, 42(3): 382-393. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2011.01.009
Pow CP (2014) License to travel. City, 18(3): 287-306. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604813.2014.908515
Pow CP (2015) Urban dystopia and epistemologies of hope. Progress in Human Geography, 39(4): 464-485. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132514544805
Pow CP (2017) Sensing visceral urban politics and metabolic exclusion in a Chinese neighbourhood. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, 42(2): 260-273. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/tran.12161
Pow CP (2018a) Building a Harmonious Society through Greening: Ecological Civilization and Aesthetic Governmentality in China. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 108(3): 864-883. https://doi.org/10.1080/24694452.2017.1373626
Pow CP (2018b) Constructing authority: Embodied expertise, homegrown neoliberalism, and the globalization of Singapore’s private planning. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 50(6): 1209-1227. https://doi.org/10.1177/0308518×18778036
Pow CP and Neo H (2013) Seeing Red Over Green: Contesting Urban Sustainabilities in China. Urban Studies, 50(11): 2256-2274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013478239
Pow CP and Neo H (2015) Modelling green urbanism in China. Area, 47(2): 132-140. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1111/area.12128