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Publication MEANINGS IN PLACE : RECAPTURING THE KAMPUNG IN SINGAPORE(1999) EDDIE KOH; SOCIOLOGY; MARIBETH ERBBeing a quintessential notion in Singapore society, the kampung has been subject to various forms of discourse in recent years. While landscapes like these have mostly disappeared, peoples' ideas of such places have yet to subside. Following a social constructionist approach and guided by the interpretive framework in cognitive anthropology, this paper outlines the symbolic presence of the kampung in the Singaporean lifeworld and its sociological implications in everyday settings. While the State conceptualizes the kampung as a moral construct and as an 'imagined community', peoples' perception of the kampung present a different, if not contesting set of logics at work. This paper argues that the kampung still 'thrives' in a variety of contexts. Reflecting different notions and images for people who play a part in the 'cultural imagination' (Paerregaard, 1997: 54) of place, the kampung in Singapore is an amorphous concept that resists classification. Paradoxically, it is these ideas and meanings which are responsible for the kampung's resurgence in everyday contexts. This process of construction also reflects different stakes and values at work. Narratives about the kampung by residents (those who are living there) and the State are thus examined. This paper proposes that these subjective interpretations of the kampung further reflect different degrees of peoples' attachment to place which they find meaningful and even satisfying.Publication BEYOND MILITARY DEFENCE : NATIONAL SERVICE AND SINGAPORE SOCIETY(2001) MICHELLE NGOEI SU MAY; SOCIOLOGY; JASMINE CHANChapter 1 highlights how National Service has become an accepted fixture of Singapore life and is seen as a common national experience that bonds young men from all sectors of society. It also briefly discusses various studies that have been carried out on the Singapore Armed Forces. The objectives and rationale of this thesis are addressed. Finally the methodology employed in the research is stated and its limitations discussed. Chapter 2 lays the conceptual framework for the entire thesis. The concepts of nationhood, and the state, and citizenship are examined. Besides these political aspects, the work of ideology and identity are also discussed. The place of history in the nation and its potential in ideological mobilisation and the legitimisation of the state are also discussed. Chapter 3 is divided into two sections. The concepts discussed in the previous chapter are utilised to examine in the first section of this chapter, the nation-state of Singapore, and the ideological work that the state is constantly engaged in to maintain its hegemony. This is linked in the second section, which focuses on the military and the crucial need to gain the consensual consent of its conscripts. The ideological work carried out, i.e. what is claimed about the army, is examined. The findings from the fieldwork are presented to substantiate my arguments. Chapter 4 focuses on the historical narratives and myths that are utilised during National Service to motivate and ideologically mobilise the men. The issue is not on the validity of the stories but the power that lies behind them. The means in which these narratives are propagated and the reactions of the men to them are analysed. Chapter 5 rounds up the thesis with a discussion on the problems manifested in the ideological work, and provides a conclusion and answers to the questions raised earlier in the thesis.Publication THREE GENERATIONS OF SIKH WOMEN IN SINGAPORE(2003) HARSIMAR KAUR D/O GURDIP SINGH; SOCIOLOGY; LIAN KWEN FEEThis study aims to track the progress that Sikh women have made over three generations and uncover the changing roles, ideas and expectations that Singaporean Sikh women have had. This paper documents the accounts of Sikh women and highlights the areas in which social change has occurred among the community in Singapore. The Sikhs form a small but significant portion of the Singapore population. The focus in this dissertation is on the individual lives of the women from a particular Sikh temple in Singapore, Gurdwara Katong. This temple is frequented mainly by Arora and Khatri Sikhs. The first three chapters of the thesis provide an introduction to the study, the Sikhs in Singapore and some of the literature that has been done on them. Chapter 4 presents an account of the methods entailed in the research process. This is followed by a discussion of certain key areas in which social change has occurred in the Sikh community in Singapore.Publication ILLEGAL SOCCER BETTING IN SINGAPORE(2001) TAN SOON HENG; SOCIOLOGY; TAN JOO EANPublication MALAY ELITES AND THE MALAY LANGUAGE IN SINGAPORE(1998) SARINA BTE PUHARI; SOCIOLOGY; GEOFFREY BENJAMINThe aim of my thesis on "Malay Elites and the Malay Language in Singapore' is to find out the different roles played by the Malay elites in the development of the Malay language in Singapore. The key emphasis of this thesis is on the differences between Standard Malay (bahasa baku) and colloquial Malay. Since the early 1990s, the Malays in Singapore have been encouraged to speak in Standard Malay. This effort was propagated by the Malay elites who are members of the Malay Language Committee of Singapore (Majlis Bahasa Melayu Singapura or MBMS) and were implemented through schools. Standard Malay is not a language variety that is used widely among the Malays in Singapore. It is used only in formal situations, in schools and in the radio and television programmes. The Malay elites are the ones who are actively promoting the language variety by monitoring the situation, by ensuring that Malay students use it in schools during their Malay lessons and by exhibiting an example by using Standard Malay in their speeches and interviews. Even though many efforts are done by the Malay elites, the general Malay public still prefer to use colloquial Malay because they consider Standard Malay as rigid and stiff (kaku), unnatural (tak semulajadi) and awkward (janggal). Their perception of Standard Malay centres exclusively on its pronunciation (sebutan baku) because that has been the emphasis of the language campaigns organised in the last few years.Publication AGED WORKERS IN THE SERVICE SECTOR(1997) LOW AI LING; SOCIOLOGY; HING AI YUNThe aged are often portrayed as "happy retirees". This is reinforced in our daily interactions with each other and other institutions. However, evidence shows that a substantial number of the aged population in Singapore are still in continued labour beyond retirement age and many work in the service sector earning low wages. Using the political economy perspective, this study tries to provide a holistic understanding of the position of the aged in today's society. The first aim of this study is to understand why certain segments of the aged population are in the low-paid service occupation. A second aim is to understand the nature of the working experience of the aged service worker. The dramaturgical approach was deployed by portraying service work as 'invisible'. The study explains how the invisible marginalised aged is 'appropriate' for cleaning, a back region work necessary for successful impression management. Findings reveal the dynamics of status maintenance amidst influences from society, economy and polity that determine the aging, work and retirement experience of the elderly. The findings also reveal that the aged is not a homogenous group but are instead divided along class and gender lines. This study hopes to contribute to the increasing of the visibility of the aged and their problems. Only with visibility of problems, will solutions come forth.Publication RETHINKING THE "PROBLEM CHILD"(2001) WONG FANG YING; SOCIOLOGY; VINEETA SINHAPublication CLASS MATTERS: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SINGAPOREAN MOTHERS’ WORK-FAMILY ARRANGEMENTS(2019-04-19) LEE CHIEN PING TABITHA; SOCIOLOGY; MU ZHENGRecent studies have revealed that in Singapore, social class is a greater social divide than race, and there are low political efforts in tackling the existing economic inequality. Additionally, while Singaporean women’s educational advancement and active labour force participation may hint at gender equality, within the family, women still bear majority of housework and caring duties, leading to the problem of a double shift. Women of different social classes are equipped with various resources to cope with this double shift. However, existing scholarships have primarily focused on the work-family balance of middle-class professional women, and studies on working class are also based on single-class analysis. This study systematically explores how social class shapes Singaporean women’s work-family balance. Particularly, I examine how various aspects of social class - material, social and cultural resources - influence mothers’ values and ability to manage work-family arrangements. I also investigate how structural powers such as the state and labour market organize along class lines to affect mothers’ opportunities and agency in balancing family and work. My findings based on qualitative interviews with twenty-eight Singaporean mothers of different social classes show that class impacts mothers’ work-family balance through differences in resources, ideologies and state interventions. This indicates that class and gender inequalities are intertwined to profoundly shape the intimate arena of the family in Singapore, and deserve more effective public interventions.Publication SHELTERED OR HIDDEN(2001) CARYN MO YAYI; SOCIOLOGY; CHANG HAN-YINPublication A STUDY OF THE GENERATION GAP IN SINGAPORE : AN INTERACTIONIST APPROACH(1995) ANG BOON HUN; SOCIOLOGY; KO YIU CHUNGThe family is considered the basic building block of the society. Yet with the onslaught of modernity and wage labour, familial bonds are no longer required for sustenance. Consequently what holds the family unit together is emotions. However sentiment is something that is inherently fluid and unstable. This means that the workings of our family relationship must be constantly negotiated over time. This thesis attempts to look into one aspect of family ties, the inter-generational relationship in Singapore between parents and their offspring. The subject matter concerns generation gap and the mutual consensus or co-orientation of the parent and the child. This study is convinced that a person is more affected by subjective meanings and attributions to the extent that it is taken as ultimate reality. Hence we take on the Symbolic Interactionist framework in pursuing this social phenomenon to m1derstand how the parent and the offspring perceive themselves, the opposite party and the matter of contention. All in all at the very heart of human relationship is the very significance of how one thinks the other is thinking essentially to try and understand the other and respond accordingly. As a child moves out of their dependency there must be a corresponding change in role identity and patterns of interactions in both parent and child. This remains a constant challenge in all families to sustain a shared definition of the situation with an ideal establishment of separateness and connectedness for amicable family relationships. No matter insurmountable the task at hand may be, with family ties being precious human bonds, we must continue unremitting efforts to uphold family relationships to prevent them from degenerating into irksome bonds.