BUSKERS, NOT BEGGARS: EXPLORING THE URBAN IDENTITIES AND AGENCY OF SINGAPORE’S STREET PERFORMERS

Abstract

Despite its inextricable relation to urban space, the phenomenon of busking is surprisingly understudied in the discipline of Geography, with literature on the performing arts prioritising the study of the arts in the context of indoor spaces. My research contributes to existing urban literature on the performing arts by paying attention to the less spectacular’ art form of busking, which manifests primarily in everyday banal spaces such as the street. Utilising Foucault’s ‘governmentality’ and Lefebvre’s conception of the ‘right to the city’, this paper investigates how the governance of busking by the state and society influences buskers’ urban identities and agency as actors within the urban landscape. My study is situated in Singapore, where busking is rooted in historical state discourses that have for many years, conflated it with begging. Yet, busking has gained much traction in recent years, with the number of licenced buskers more than doubling in the last decade, thus presenting a relevant topic of study. Drawing upon semistructured interviews with 22 buskers, participant observation of busking acts, as well as a discourse analysis of state policy surrounding busking, my findings indicate that buskers continue to occupy precarious identities as a result of the narratives painted on them throughout historical state discourse. Nevertheless, buskers’ agency as urban actors do not correspond to their marginal identities and are evident in two ways: firstly, through their ability to foster difference in the social fabric of the city and secondly, through their capacity to self-manage aspects of the spaces they inhabit, essentially contributing to the production of urban space. I conclude by positing that while busking is a viable way to enhance Singapore’s arts scene, this would require a greater focus on nurturing the intangible socio-political environment within which buskers operate.