MOVING BODIES, FEELING HEALTH: EXAMINING THE EMBODIED POLITICS OF HEALTH-PROMOTING INFRASTRUCTURE IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

In recent years, cities around the world are racing to reconfigure their environments to meet public health goals. This includes the city-state of Singapore that seeks to secure population access to physical activity by mobilising an infrastructural configuration in its health governance efforts. Drawing upon in-depth interviews with 17 fitness programmes producers and diary and diary-interviews with 22 participants, this thesis examines the socio-spatial implications arising from the growing role of infrastructural configurations in Singapore’s health intervention efforts and suggests ways forward for future efforts to connect with social equity concerns centred on politics of difference. The findings illustrate that participation in physical activity is mediated by emotional and affective capacities that vary amongst bodies intersected by ethnicity, gender, and body size. In uncovering the invisible multi-sensorial environmental influences on spatial access to health, this thesis has broader implications for public health research concerned with addressing health disparities amongst marginal(ised)individuals.