Some 'clean' cities only keep their good reputation by dumping all their illegal stuff and 'vice' into neighboring towns across the border.
March 25, 2026
Original Paper
Sin City Retrofit: Calibrated Marginality and the Reconstructing of Johor-Singapore Urban Vice Topographies as Anticipatory Truth Spots
SSRN · 6463991
The Takeaway
Using the Singapore-Malaysia border as a case study, this paper shows that 'virtuous' cities don't actually eliminate illegal gambling or sex work; they outsource them. Through 'calibrated marginality,' authorities keep these activities accessible to their citizens in a 'shadow' city while keeping them just far enough away to evade surveillance and maintain their own city's moral image.
From the abstract
Cities are fascinating sites for multifaceted layers of the urban milieu. Among these, ”urban vice”, characterized as activities with negative social and moral connotations, are often examined through the lenses of formal urban institutions, processes and governance in explaining why and how it persists. Using fieldwork and interview findings from sex work and poker home-game activities within Johor-Singapore urban vice topographies, I present a different but complementary reading of how urban v