by Cherian George Since 2000, laws against offensive expression have been among the most frequently triggered speech restrictions in Singapore. Most of these cases have been initiated by citizens taking offence at racially or religiously provocative online content. How to deal with such cases continues to be debated. Like in most societies, there’s growing alarm […]
Steve Ferzacca, Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Lethbridge, discusses the emergence of community through music-making in Singapore. I arrived in Singapore in 2011 to take up an appointment as a Senior Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute for a year. My plan was to complete a manuscript of […]
Private sector economists Manu Bhaskaran and Nigel Chiang argue that in both labour and total factor productivity, Singapore is under-performing relative to trading partners, peers and OECD countries, reflecting deep and systemic issues in the economy, especially in sectors where an over-reliance on labour force growth through migrant labour has affected incentives to invest. This is […]
Professor Yaacob Ibrahim, Professor of Engineering at the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), gave this speech on identity on 30 October 2020, as part of the Cendekiawan Lestari Series (CLS) organised by the Malay Heritage Foundation. I would like to share my take on the Malay community’s path in finding a place for itself in […]
Terri-Anne Teo and Yasmine Wong (Research Fellow and Senior Analyst respectively at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, NTU) consider how recent manifestations of pandemic-era xenophobia and social collaboration in Singapore can be understood in terms of ontological security. Singapore has settled into some semblance of a new normal amid the fight against COVID-19. […]
DONALD LOW, professor of practice in public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, explains what Singapore can learn from the Swiss — the Swiss army knife, that is. The recent Parliamentary debate on whether Singapore should have a legislated minimum wage has generated more sound than light. It has also been […]
Mohan J Dutta (Dean’s Chair Professor of Communication and Director of the Center for Culture-Centered Approach to Research and Evaluation (CARE) at Massey University) discusses strategies for improving universities’ responses to sexual violence on their campuses. Between 2018 and 2020, at least five publicly circulated cases of sexual violence on university campuses in Singapore have […]
In light of Singapore’s burgeoning data collection systems, Monamie Bhadra Haines (Assistant Professor of Sociology at NTU) and Hallam Stevens (Associate Professor of History at NTU and Associate Director (Academic) of the NTU Institute of Science and Technology for Humanity) argue that citizen technology assessments should be integrated into building the Smart Nation. On 25 […]
by Teo You Yenn Gender issues are not just women’s issues. Inequality—between people who are categorized as women and those who are categorized as men, as well as between people whose categorizations are generally recognized and those whose categorizations are contested—is central to understanding the significance of gender in contemporary societies. The scholarship on gender […]
Academics often bear bad tidings. Our critical analyses focus on the problematic. Yet we are often deeply idealistic about the potential for ameliorative change offered up by the systematic and sustained pursuit of knowledge. Knowledge can improve lives, enhance wellbeing and expand freedoms. The standard model requires those who want to learn to come to […]
