SHIFTS IN SPATIAL RESPONSES TO INFECTIOUS DISEASES IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Infectious (communicable, contagious) diseases have been prevalent throughout Singapore‟s history. The establishments of medical and healthcare facilities, as well as “breakthroughs” in medicine, modern science and technology over the decades have made possible the detection, prevention and containment of infectious diseases. Besides through medical means to respond to infectious diseases, the city, at the same time responds spatially. This dissertation seeks to hypothesize that there has been a shift in the city‟s spatial responses in disease prevention and/or containment. It will do so by firstly looking at two time frames: the British colonial era (1819-mid 20th century) and postcolonial-present day period under PAP governance. Through the investigations of responses in both periods of the state and the local population, shifts in spatial responses could be discerned. An overview of the city‟s transformation in the housing environment is also discussed when the British powers were transferred to the PAP. In the British colonial period, infectious diseases were already gripping the local population and causing high mortality rates. The unfavourable disease-ridden, overcrowding and insanitary conditions forced the municipal health authorities to revamp housing and the physical environment. In controlling the entry and spread of infectious diseases, the British state had also enforced quarantine measures. Under the PAP governance, I investigate into the recent 2003 SARS outbreak to find out how the state and individuals in society responded spatially. By this time, new and better medical and healthcare facilities have had since appeared across the city-state. Government-owned and private hospitals and clinics had been equipped with advanced medical support infrastructure 4 and the incidence rates of infectious diseases had also since declined. The city had also been transformed into a sanitized housing environment. Thus, the spatial responses during SARS were contingent on the sanitized environment. Comparing both time frames, a shift in the practice of quarantine was observed. Against the backdrop of the PAP state‟s responses during SARS, a „new‟ spatial response involving individuals in society emerged. Drawing on a selection of three evidences, namely „neighbours shutting their windows out‟, „parents keeping their children at home‟, and „people labelling „unsafe‟ areas in the city‟, I assert that a commonality binds these three together: „homes‟ were „safe‟ places. I create the concept of „reversal quarantine’, to describe any well person not exposed to infection who could choose to shut himself out away from spaces beyond his „safe home‟. Along with „reversal quarantine‟, I assert that such new spatial responses: the display of spatial avoidance behaviour, the construction of „safe‟ and „unsafe‟ areas or spatial barriers, and the self-imposition of home quarantine, might not have been possible in or observable during the colonial period. The investigation begins…