Trained as an urban sociologist at the University of Chicago, Associate Professor Ho Kong Chong’s research interests are in neighbourhood and community development, heritage and place-making, the political economy of cities as well as a more recent interest in higher education.

Much of his published work is on East Asian (Hong Kong, Seoul and Taipei) and Southeast Asian (Bangkok and Singapore) cities. Recent publications include “The Neighbourhood Roots of Social Cohesion: Notes on an exceptional case of Singapore” Environment and Planning C (2018, with Chua) and Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia (University of Amsterdam Press, 2019).

His active research projects include: the Ministry of National Development (MND) funded “Study of Mixed Housing Typologies” (Lead Researcher), SSRTG grant “In Work Poverty and Challenges of Getting by among the Young” (Co Lead), USPC_NUS grant “Governing Diverse Cities in Europe and Asia”, MND funded “PLAB: A Research and Design Investigation of the Redevelopment of the Paya Lebar Airbase” (Co-Lead) and SSHR grant “Fostering Positive Community Behavior (Co-Lead).

Neighbourhood and Community Behaviour
Place-Making
Political Economy of Cities
Higher Education

Last three years

2021
K.C. Ho, Land and Housing in Singapore: Three Conversations with Anne Haila, American Journal of Economics and Sociology, vol.80(2):325-351, March 2021. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ajes.12394

Ravinder Sidhu, Yi’ En Cheng, Francis Collins, Kong Chong Ho, Brenda Yeoh, International student mobilities in a contagion: (Im)mobilising higher education? Geographical Research, 20 April 2021 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1745-5871.12471

2020
K.C. Ho (July 2020) chapter 1 ”The Decision to Build Public Housing”, chapter 4 “Public Housing and Community Development” chapter 6 “Public Housing and Society” in UNHabitat Housing Practices Series on Public Housing in Singapore. https://unhabitat.org/housing-practice-series-singapore

Cho IS; Ho KC (2020, Jan). Participatory Design to Co-create Community Spaces. In C.H. Leong and L.C. Malone-Lee (Eds.) Building Resilient Neighbourhoods in Singapore. (pp. 81-99) Springer, Singapore.

Ge Y; Ho KC (2020, Jan) Conceptualizing the second education circuit for China’s doctoral students in Asia, International Journal of Chinese Education, 8 (2), 186-208.

2019
KC Ho. Neighbourhoods for the City in Pacific Asia (University of Amsterdam Press).

Ravinder Sidhu, K.C. Ho, Brenda Yeoh Student Mobilities and International Education in Asia (Palgrave MacMillan).

Chua Beng Huat, Ken Dean, Ho Eng Seng, Ho Kong Chong, Jonathan Rigg, Brenda Yeoh, “Area Studies and the Crisis of Legitimacy: A View from South East Asia” Southeast Asian Research DOI: 10.1080/0967828X.2019.1587931

Jean-Paul D. Addie, Michele Acuto, K.C. Ho, Stephen Cairns, Hwee Pink Tan “Perspectives on the 21st Century Urban University from Singapore – A viewpoint forum” Cities, 88, 252-260.

Sonia Lam-Knott, Creighton Connolly, K.C. Ho (eds.) Post-Politics and Civil Society in Asian Cities, Routledge.

Sonia Lam-Knott, Creighton Connolly, K.C. Ho “Theorising the Post Political in Asian Cities. In Post-Politics and Civil Society in Asian Cities, Sonia Lam-Knott, Creighton Connally, K.C. Ho (eds.), Routledge.

Mike Douglass, Romain Garbaye, K.C. Ho (eds) Progressive Cities East and West, Springer.

K.C. Ho “All the Lonely People, Where do they All Come From” in They Told Us to Move, edited by Ng Kok Hoe, (pp.61-65) Ethos Press.

K.C. Ho “Cities of Protest and Cities of Progress” In The Rise of Cities East and West, M. Douglass, R. Garbaye and K.C. Ho (eds), (pp.203-215) Springer.

• Urban Heritage: Place, Memory and Identity
• Urban Studies Capstone Project
• Social Life of Cities
• Social Policy and Social Planning