KENNETH PAUL TAN Readings on Singapore’s neo-authoritarian traits, minority stereotyping, academic interventions and community engagement, contributed as a follow-up to the webinar, “Beyond the pandemic”, on 1 May 2020. The coronavirus pandemic is a lens through which the weaknesses of Singapore’s neo-authoritarianism can be seen more clearly. Over the years, my research interests have grown […]
CHERIAN GEORGE Yes, this is a time to rally around the flag, but only in the spirit of open-minded, open-hearted patriotism. Further thoughts on the ‘Beyond the pandemic’ webinar, 1 May 2020. In the course of the yesterday’s roundtable, I argued that the Singapore establishment’s nationalist rhetoric is not just unhelpful, but also dangerous. Allow […]
TEO YOU YENN How the concepts of differentiated deservedness and neoliberal morality may help us understand Singapore’s responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. Further reflections on the social science roundtable organised by Academia.SG on 1 May 2020. As a sociologist who studies inequality, I have tried to emphasize two things that sound contradictory: on one hand, […]
Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, argues that Singapore must look beyond a narrow focus on efficiency, and give greater weight to considerations of resilience and justice. Over the last 30-40 years, most economies have prioritised efficiency or economic growth over considerations of resilience […]
Economists Yeoh Lam Keong, Manu Bhaskaran, Donald Low and Tan Kim Song set out key principles that should guide the state’s support for the private sector, the poor and the unemployed in what is turning out to be a cataclysmic disaster. An economic crisis looms, with medium-term impacts on our well-being which could well rival […]
Linda Lim, Gunalan Nadarajan and Jessie Yang—Singaporean professors at the University of Michigan—make a case for the arts and humanities in the age of tech and coronavirus. COVID-19 has caused a marked shift in scientific research around the world away from other problems toward investigating and fighting the virus. This will take much time to […]
Jung Jong Hyun, assistant professor at NTU, has been researching social determinants of mental health, using the stress process model as a guiding framework. Here he examines how COVID-19 can undermine mental health and how we can cope with it. (Banner photo: Amanda Ho) Another month! After hearing about the Circuit Breaker extension, I wondered […]
Chong Ja Ian, Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, argues that the pandemic reveals the need for Singapore to reconsider how it makes decisions about national directions and policy trade-offs. (Banner photo credit: Sumita Thiagarajan) Singapore’s state-affiliated mainstream media has lately been publishing pieces relating to inequality. Undoubtedly, this has to do with the disproportionate economic […]
Chong Ja Ian, Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, considers the external political environment that Singapore will face in light of the pandemic. As Singapore grapples with increasing COVID-19 infections and their consequences, a post-pandemic world awaits. This environment will differ from the one we all left behind in 2019 and the shifts will not only be economic. […]
Howard Lee, PhD candidate at Murdoch University, argues that there is a need for the Singapore government to rethink its rules-based approach in order to suppress community spread of COVID-19. It is still early days yet in tackling COVID-19, but no less opportune a time to review the role of authoritarian governance in combating the […]
