Lim Wee Kiat holds a PhD in Sociology, specialising in sociology of disaster, from University of Colorado Boulder, where he was a graduate research assistant at the Natural Hazards Center. His research interests lie at the intersection of risk, disaster, and organisation, investigating how organisations make sense of, prepare for, and respond to sociotechnical disruptions. […]
Monamie Bhadra Haines (Assistant Professor in 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 against using mandatory contact tracing apps in the effort to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Many governments around the world are now […]
Kamalini Ramdas and David Taylor of the Department of Geography at the National University of Singapore argue that pandemic response should include haptic as well as optic approaches to space—paying attention to how humans experience space, rather than taking only a ‘bird’s-eye’ view. Geographers have long been interested in how viruses and diseases travel, and […]
Andy Hau Yan Ho, Associate Professor of Psychology at Nanyang Technological University and Joint Honorary Associate Professor at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, considers the impact of social distancing on the psychological well-being and development of youths in Singapore. One of the strongest measures put in place throughout the world to protect people […]
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 […]
Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, argues that it would not be fair to blame the Singapore government for missteps that are apparent only in hindsight. The crisis in foreign worker dormitories, on the other hand, was predicted. The government’s failure to act quickly […]
Chong Ja Ian, Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, discusses the risks—from both public health and other perspectives—of holding a General Election when COVID-19 remains at large. Without a doubt, Singapore is in an extraordinary situation. It faces an ongoing pandemic, as does much of the world. Beyond disease control, there will be the challenges of responding […]
Chong Ja Ian, Harvard-Yenching Institute Visiting Scholar 2019-2020, discusses claims that authoritarian political systems are better able to handle the COVID-19 crisis than are more open ones. Currently making mainstream and social media rounds are claims that authoritarian systems or places with supposed “Confucian values” are better than more open political systems at handling public […]
Linda Lim, Professor Emerita at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, considers some of the economic implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for Singapore and the world. The ongoing rout on global stock markets is driven by uncertainty about the path that COVID-19 will take. There is fear that even if its health consequences turn […]