GOVERNING DIFFERENCE: MANAGED MULTICULTURE AND ENCOUNTERS AT PLAY IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This thesis is about the governing of difference in cities, and explores the relationship between practices of government and urban encounters in Singapore. It interrogates the role the State plays in shaping the encounter experience of everyday multiculture and contends that encounter research has neglected the rhythmic and systemic ways through which intercultural encounters are performed. Using the Foucauldian concept of governmentality as a conceptual scaffold, this thesis focuses on the micro-settings of intercultural encounters at playgrounds in Singapore. It considers if Singapore’s initiatives, through a toolkit encompassing spatial interventions, social policy and conceptions of ‘othering’, have engendered a greater capacity for people to live with difference more widely, whilst also attentive to how alternative imaginings of ‘thirdspace’ may immanently emerge. In doing so, this work engages with contact hypothesis literature, seeking to empirically evidence if Gordon Allport’s claim that institutional supports effectively promulgate intergroup contact, holds true.