While Singapore is often considered an island city in the singular sense, the city-state actually consists of many islands, with the Singapore mainland being by far the largest. While most of these islands traditionally had thriving indigenous communities, all have since been displaced over time as the islands were developed to service Singapore's economic and metabolic needs as a rapidly urbanizing and developing nation. Some of the islands have also undergone considerable transformation (through reclamation) which has had significant impacts on the ecologies of the offshore islands. This simultaneously allowed for the ‘ruralization’ of mainland Singapore to provide more green space for nature conservation, recreation and leisure. This paper will provide a brief history of these transformations, drawing on specific examples which serve to illustrate how Singapore's offshore islands have been redeveloped over time to service the nation-state and in response to the changing needs of the urban core. In doing so, the paper examines how spaces on the urban periphery are deeply bound up with processes of ‘urbanization’, given their important role in processes of urban metabolism. In this way, the paper contributes to recent work in urban political ecology which has sought to trace processes of urbanization beyond the city and render visible the socio-environmental inequalities produced therein. © The Author(s) 2021.

Within a traditionally subdued civil society, more citizens have stepped forward to address concerns about the impact of neoliberal development policies on Singapore’s heritage and communities. Queenstown is Singapore’s first satellite town with residential housing and amenities, while Geylang is known for its red-light district, illicit activities, and low-cost housing for migrant workers. Using walking tours to promote place-based community heritage in Queenstown and Geylang respectively, volunteer groups My Community and Geylang Adventures offer contrasting yet complementary accounts on how the residents and the broader public can be activated to participate in heritage preservation and local–migrant worker integration. Their civic activism contributes towards a distinct form of bottom-up nation-building and an alternative framework in understanding evolving state–society relations in Singapore.