EMOTIONAL LIVING IN THE CITY: HOW EMOTIONS AFFECT THE URBAN LIVEABILITY OF SINGAPOREANS WITH MOBILITY PROBLEMS

Abstract

This thesis examines the confluence between emotions, disability and urban liveability through the conceptual framework of relationality. Singapore recently signed the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities and as a nation, ranks highly on various liveability indices. Within this context, this thesis seeks to demonstrate the spatiality and temporality of emotions as played out within the lives of people with mobility issues, illustrating how seemingly immaterial emotions can have very material spatial impacts at different scales. Drawing upon in-­-depth qualitative interviews, mini go-­-alongs and discourse analysis, this thesis sheds light upon the complex intersections between the materiality and emotionality of the embodied experiences of being physically and mobility impaired in Singapore. In doing so, the paper considers how Singaporeans with mobility problems have a possible agency in building an environment for themselves that provides for their physical and mental well being, and thus analyses how liveable and healthy Singapore is for these citizens.