Prof
Timothy Gwyn BunnellProfile page
Professor
Geography
RESEARCH INTERESTS
I work on human geographies of urban and regional change. That includes examination of the transformation of urban regions (cities and wider urban territories), the lives and aspirations of people in those territories, and constitutive connections between them. Empirically, I have focused on Southeast Asia (mostly working on cities in Malaysia and Indonesia) and on interurban connections between that region and elsewhere.
Beginning with doctoral research carried out in the 1990s, my work on the discursive and material making of megaprojects and high-tech urban space in and around Kuala Lumpur culminated in the publication of Malaysia, Modernity and the Multimedia Super Corridor (Routledge) in 2004. The main focus of my research subsequently shifted to examination of historical linkages between Southeast Asia and the port city of Liverpool through the lives of Malay men who arrived there as seafarers in the middle decades of the twentieth century. The book which emerged from that research, From World City to the World in One City: Liverpool through Malay Lives (Wiley) was published in 2016.
I also have a longstanding interest in relations between innovation, broadly conceived, and urban and regional studies – ranging from economic geographies of firm location and networks, to policy and governance ‘good practice’ and to ground-level incremental change associated with individual and community aspirations. I have begun to develop that thread of my research into a book project on geographies of the future.
I am currently involved in two main research projects. The first is a global comparative study of smart city development, led by Prof Byron Miller (University of Calgary) and sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Together with Lily Kong and Orlando Woods (SMU), I am part of the team undertaking the Singapore component of this international collaboration. The second ongoing project is also comparative, and focuses on the planning and construction of new administrative centres in Southeast Asia. Daniel Goh and I have used initial seed grant funding on this topic to build a larger grant application on Putrajaya, Nusantara (the planned new Indonesian capital), and Singapore as "capitals of the future".
Beginning with doctoral research carried out in the 1990s, my work on the discursive and material making of megaprojects and high-tech urban space in and around Kuala Lumpur culminated in the publication of Malaysia, Modernity and the Multimedia Super Corridor (Routledge) in 2004. The main focus of my research subsequently shifted to examination of historical linkages between Southeast Asia and the port city of Liverpool through the lives of Malay men who arrived there as seafarers in the middle decades of the twentieth century. The book which emerged from that research, From World City to the World in One City: Liverpool through Malay Lives (Wiley) was published in 2016.
I also have a longstanding interest in relations between innovation, broadly conceived, and urban and regional studies – ranging from economic geographies of firm location and networks, to policy and governance ‘good practice’ and to ground-level incremental change associated with individual and community aspirations. I have begun to develop that thread of my research into a book project on geographies of the future.
I am currently involved in two main research projects. The first is a global comparative study of smart city development, led by Prof Byron Miller (University of Calgary) and sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Together with Lily Kong and Orlando Woods (SMU), I am part of the team undertaking the Singapore component of this international collaboration. The second ongoing project is also comparative, and focuses on the planning and construction of new administrative centres in Southeast Asia. Daniel Goh and I have used initial seed grant funding on this topic to build a larger grant application on Putrajaya, Nusantara (the planned new Indonesian capital), and Singapore as "capitals of the future".