ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT: HOUSING AND MILLENNIAL MALCONTENT IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

Increasing global attention has been paid to the erosion of socio-economic conditions, hence leading to the increasing instability of adulthood (Lee, 2001). In scholarship, this is known as “emerging adulthood”, where individuals yearn to delay commitments in love and work in favour of a period of exploration and self-discovery, especially throughout their twenties (Arnett, 2011). Singapore offers an interesting context in which to examine this phenomenon. The Singaporean state exerts an exceptionally strong hand in implementing policies for the purpose of social-engineering, which frequently intervenes in and even dictates individuals’ private lives. In particular, public housing policies are vehicles reifying the state’s ideologies regarding marriage/family-formation and economic welfare. Such ideologies become hegemonic, serving as the terrain upon which individuals imagine and live their lives (Crehan, 2016), hence leading to homogenisation and standardisation of individual life courses (Buchmann, 1995) that may refute Arnett’s theorisation of emerging adulthood as being characterised by greater individualism. This study conducted qualitative interviews with 6 young couples of different economic classes in Singapore to examine the crossroads between adulthood and ideology in the context of real estate in Singapore. My research results show that young adults in Singapore largely do not desire to delay adulthood in Singapore, rather adhering to the hegemonic ideological impetus of pragmatism. That said, the possession of economic capital has a role in availing individuals to the open housing market, thereby circumventing undesirable elements of hegemonic ideology that purchase of government-administered public housing demanded.