LAKSHYA
Enchanting the hearts and minds of Singapore's youth through citizen research
The word Lakshya लक्ष्य is Hindi for "mission".
The report describes the Lakshya project as an adaptation of the citizen research model adapted to environmental issues and community engagement in a Singapore neighborhood. The project aims is for Little India to be an enchanting destination for Singaporeans young and old, a place to experience the authentic cultural heritage of India and South Asian communities, a home to a diverse mix of religious and ethnic communities and a community that has a sustainable regenerative impact on the natural environment.
The project aims to organize and engage Singapore youth in collaboration with the Little India community through citizen research to develop the design for a styrofoam free Little India 5-year masterplan. By engaging Singaporean youth to work directly in crafting Little India’s future, this will enhance the appeal and encourage more youth energy and attraction to the area.
Read the draft report on ResearchGate
AN ECOLOGICAL CRISIS
The threat from the risks of degradation and loss of natural resources is intensifying in the 21st century much of which can be attributed to the activities to support the growth and maintenance of cities [1] These threats take multiple forms from warming the atmosphere due to carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels for energy, soil erosion losses from intensive agriculture, biodiversity loss from multiple factors including habitat destruction and plastic pollution to the oceans. In the post-industrial era the global average temperature of the atmosphere has risen by +0.9 C and based on current levels of emissions is projected to warm up 2-3 C by the end of the century. Such levels of warming could be catastrophic for some regions due to sea level rise from melting glacial ice, droughts, heat waves and extreme weather events - floods, tropical cyclones [2]. The average abundance of native species in most major land-based habitats has fallen by at least 20%, mostly since 1900. More than 40% of amphibian species, almost 33% of reef-forming corals and more than a third of all marine mammals are threatened [3]. Human activity directly affects 70% of the ice-free global land surface [4]. This plastic enters the food chain from the oceans and today the average person could be ingesting up to 5 grams of plastic per week, the weight of one credit card [5].
THE WICKED PROBLEM: MOTIVATING SYSTEMIC ACTION
Despite the risks of environmental losses, the level of collective response to transition to a more sustainable economy is far from what would be required by the global physical and ecological capacity constraints. In 2018 the gap between projected emissions based on current policies 60 Gt CO2eq/yr and the safe limit for +1.5 C warming (25 Gt) is estimated to be 35 Gt or 58% of projected emissions. Not only current policies but also conditional nationally declared contributions (NDCs) to the Paris Agreement fall far short of the required emissions reduction by 29 Gt [6]. The barriers to action are a combination of factors - costs for the investment, lack of urgency, and coordination problems for deciding who is responsible to lead the change - governments, businesses or citizens, and how to allocate the costs burden. Successful strategies for motivating action either to businesses, government leaders or members of the public is to present the solutions in a way that is least threatening to economic interests. The challenge of urban sustainability is that the scale of the boundary is very large on a geographic scale and only exists unambiguously as the global level with the earth as the boundary. Such a scale is beyond the case study model of successful cooperative governance models for sustainable use of natural resources such as those studied by Elinor Ostrom in her research "Governing the Commons" [7]. For the case of urban sustainability, the natural capital which is affected by the decisions in the urban systems is outside the urban jurisdictional boundaries in a collective network of global hinterlands [1].
MILLENNIALS AND GEN-Z ARE CONCERNED AND WILLING TO ACT
Youth around the world and in Singapore are alarmed about the climate crisis and resolved to act. They are willing and able to resolve issues for society and an expectation that others should act as well. According to a report by the Singapore National Youth Council, Millennials are “value-driven [...] with a noticeable shift in perspectives, attitudes and behaviours”. They feel a “moral imperative to deploy the massive potential of digital for the good of businesses and society” [8]. For the business community, they make an “active effort to patronize small, local businesses, but are also willing to penalize companies whose stated and practices values conflict with their own” [9].
Millennials are also willing to take action individually through behavioral and lifestyle shifts such as recycling, modal shifts in transportation, smaller family size and volunteering, activism [9]. 38% of Singapore youth participate in civic engagement activities either donating or volunteering for causes and 14% of volunteering is for environment related causes [8].
A DIVERSE NEIGHBORHOOD LOSING TOUCH WITH THE FUTURE GENERATION OF PATRONS
Little India’s is a vibrant neighborhood in Singapore host to several cultural heritage sites. It's history traces to the early 20th century with the establishment of Tekka Market. The area is known by locals as a place to buy certain rare items of South Asia or Middle East origin which can only be found in Little India [10]. Many come to the area regularly on a weekly basis to shop for spices, vegetables and other amenities [10]. The irregular weekly timing pattern and space constraints can result in large crowds during peak periods on Sundays while mostly uncrowded during the rest of the week. An issue weighing on the minds of the shopkeepers and regular visitors is that the neighborhood has lost it's original appeal to the younger generation of Singaporeans, and this has spill-over effects that make it difficult to staff the shops. The most frequent reasons cited included overcrowding. Another nuisance to the grocery and flower market shops is handing the constant flux of styrofoam boxes inundating them the from their suppliers. The problem of styrofoam is not unique to Little India and for now the shopkeepers might not feel the have cost effective recycling solutions to choose from.
APPLYING TIME TESTED SOLUTIONS TO NEW URBAN CHALLENGES
The tragedy of urban un-sustainability and its impacts on the natural environment for many is cause for concern. Observers who are aware of the systemic outcomes feel concerned but paralyzed by the scale and powerless to act in a way that could change the outcomes. This project is designed for such concerned observers who have neither the financial resources to influence markets nor the power of state authority. The strategy draws from success lessons of Elinor Ostrom's research on self-governing agricultural communities such as Sri Lanka rice farmers and modern learning networks [7]. The project shares the strategic logic of these programs that the key to lasting sustainable solutions is to empower local communities to develop novel solutions tailored to their unique circumstances [7].
Read the full draft report "Citizen research : building bridges between communities and making an impact for environmental sustainability" for more information about the methodology and background research.
REFERENCES
Rees, William E., and Mathis Wackernagel. “Urban ecological footprints: why cities cannot be sustainable—and why they are a key to sustainability.” 2008.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Special report on global warming of 1.5 C.” 2018
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). “Global assessment report on biodiversity and ecosystem services.” 2019
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). “Special report on Climate Change and Land.” 2020.
World Wildlife Federation. “Revealed: plastic ingestion by people could be equating to a credit card a week.” 19 Jun 2019
UN Environment programme. “Emissions gap report.” 2019.
Ostrom, Elinor. “Governing the Commons.” 1990
Singapore National Youth Council. “State of the youth in Singapore 2018.” 2018
Deloitte. “The Deloitte Global Millennial Survey 2020.” 25 Jun 2020.
Samdin, Nadia. “Little India’s chaos: Conservation that 'keeps it real.'” 15 Jan 2017.