Faculty Profile

George Wong is Assistant Professor of Sociology (Education) at the School of Social Sciences at the Singapore Management University, where he is the Coordinator of the Global Asia second major programme. 

George is also visiting Senior Research Fellow at the Asian Centre for Changemakers (ACC), Wealth Management Institute (WMI). His research sits at the intersection of 3Cs: Cities, Communities and Capital in Asian contexts. His works include examining community powers and development, and the role of private and public capital in making (im)possible urban regimes and everyday experiences on the ground. He is also a trained ethnographer with a decade of experience in examining state-sponsored urban community development as political legitimacy projects in Asia. 

His current research projects include a study of state-sponsored grassroots leaders in neighbourhood micro-governance, an urban political analysis of sustainability regimes in Asian cities, and a study of private concessional capital in tri-sector urban development. His works have been published in the Journal of Intercultural Studies, Anthrozoös, and Asian Studies Review. He currently teaches courses in Urban and Political Sociology, including Anthropocene Asia.

Qualifications

• PhD in Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, 2022
• MA in Sociology, Nanyang Technological University, 2017
• BSocSc in Political Science & Sociology, Singapore Management University, 2014

Research Interests

• Urban regime analysis and community power
• State-sponsored grassroots organizations in urban governance and politics in Asia
• Urban eco-politics
• Philanthropic and concessional capital in urban development

Course(s) Taught in SMU

• Big Questions
• Understanding Societies