Friday, April 4, 2008

What is a hinterland?

Originally I was going to do a independent study module paper talking about Singapore and its transnational agricultural hinterland: preconditions of a city state or an encroaching ecological footprint.

However, a senior pop by today and got me thinking that transnational doesn't just mean Malaysia and that's what I was working towards. Likewise, agricultural doesn't mean vegetables. How do I lead into talking about Malaysia and Singapore's historical trade?

So in the end, I decided that a change of title is needed.

What I've ended up doing for 2 hours today is to compile a list of definitions of Hinterlands, the different type of usage in different conceptual relationships such as hinterlands in metropolis-hinterland relations or transport geography, foreland-hinterland. There is also heartland-hinterland relationship. I've also looked at rural-hinterland versus urban-hinterland, urban fringe and metropolis. There is international/global/transnational hinterland versus local/immediate hinterland. But do I really need to read central place theory to really know what I am talking about? When do I get to the main dish? Enough with the appetizers already!

Updates @ 11.21pm
Alternative titles may include:

"City-States and Transnational Agricultural Hinterlands: a case study of Singapore-Malaysia Fresh Vegetable Trade"

"Locating the fresh vegetable supply trade within the global food crisis: a Singapore perspective"

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