Reconstructing the Working Class: Neoliberalism and Retail Workers in Singapore

Abstract

This thesis argues that the working class in Singapore has undergone a quantitative shift (industrial to service work), and a qualitative shift. This qualitative shift makes prominent the neoliberal ethos within individual workers, and is characterised by three inter-related aspects b the creation of the neoliberal subject, the internalisation of the neoliberal ethos and its reproduction, and the act of consumption as a crucial part of the workerb s self-identity and sense of his/her position in society. Such a shift is a result of the confluence of forces pertaining to neoliberal globalisation, the Singapore state, and the economic and political history of Singapore. The creation of the neoliberal subject at the same time brings to the fore existing tensions between the subject and the forces that brought about its existence. This paper attempts to locate and explain the working class in contemporary Singapore society, against the backdrop of neoliberal globalisation.