DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE SSA1201: SINGAPORE SOCIETY Semester 1, AY 2013/14 Module Outline Dr.

Noorman Abdullah Dr. Rose Liang Module Description This

module takes Singapore society as an object of sociological inquiry. Over a span of several decades, Singapore has rapidly transformed itself from a former colonial hub to a thriving economic powerhouse and global city. This period has witnessed significant changes in social and cultural life, as well as the mapping of new visions and aspirations by different social actors. The module will introduce you to these critical developments, inviting you to suspend any taken-for-granted stock of knowledge you have about Singapore in order to appraise it within a broader historical, comparative and holistic framework. At the same time, you are encouraged to actively and freely draw upon your own lived experiences and observations in Singapore in order to dialogue with and problematise the extant empirical and conceptual material offered in this module. Throughout the course, we hope that you will be able to cultivate an appreciation of the legacies, social processes, issues, problems, and contradictions in the making of Singapore society both historically and contemporaneously. More crucially, the module aims to furnish you with critical skills in understanding and making sense of Singapore society, encouraging you to develop alternative interpretations of the development of such a society, alongside dominant, main/male-stream constructions.

To make sense of these broad concerns, the material is organised to introduce to you the multiple, complex, and occasionally contesting strands in the literature on the study of Singapore society traversing different fields of disciplinary study, including sociology, anthropology, feminist writings, and cultural studies. An additional component on current issues will be addressed in the last section of the lectures, in which local practitioners and experts from different institutions will be invited to come and give a brief talk and discussion on the given topic. You should note that this is not an introductory course on sociology or anthropology. Rather, it will tap on basic perspectives and concepts from sociology and anthropology to understand and analyse Singapore society. This is a Singapore Studies module that is open to all students from different disciplinary backgrounds so it is not necessary to possess any prior background of sociology or anthropology to take this module. You are however expected to keep abreast with contemporary issues in Singapore and critically analyse, engage, and make sense of these concerns accordingly.

Lecture Time and Venue

Friday, 12.00 to 2.00pm, LT8

Contact Details Dr Noorman Abdullah (Coordinator) AS1 #05-46

Tel: 6516-4440 Dr Rose Liang AS1 #02-18 Tel: 6516-3823

socnoorm@nus.edu.sg

soclryh@nus.edu.sg

Module Requirements & Assessment

Given that the module is partly predicated on our lived experiences, there is only 1 mandatory reading assigned for each lecture, a short mid-term assessment and a 20-minute group presentation in tutorials which will require you to work on a topic pertaining to Singapore and partake on some minifieldwork exercise. These tutorial assignments (40% of your grade) are designed to enable you to procure primary empirical data on Singapore and link your findings, experiences and insights with the conceptual tools introduced to you in the lectures and readings. I. Group Presentation (15%) Group presentations will commence on the third tutorial onwards after the recess week (Week 7 & 8). You will work together as a group of about four students to organise and lead a class session on ONE of the following topics: Tutorial 3 (Week 7 & 8) Multiculturalism and Ethnic Relations; OR Gender and Sexuality Tutorial 4 (Week 9 & 10) Class and Meritocracy; OR Religion and Spirituality Tutorial 5 (Week 11 & 12) Popular Culture and the Arts There will be two groups presenting per tutorial meeting, with the exception of Tutorial 5. Your tutor will assign each group a topic in the first tutorial through balloting. Your presentation should not take more than 20 minutes. It should incorporate and critically appraise the reading assigned for that topic as well as include your own further research on the issue. Your group presentation should also be used as an opportunity to present the arguments and findings from the course readings and beyond, as well as to comment on the validity of the claims these readings propose. You can find further details on group presentations in a separate attachment in the IVLE workbin under Tutorial Instructions .
II. Mid- Term Assessment (15%)

There will be a mid-term assessment scheduled on 18 Oct 2013 conducted during lecture. You will be required to answer a short essay question based only on the topics covered before the recess week. There will be no make-up assessment scheduled unless you have a valid medical certificate. III. Tutorial Participation (10%) Tutorial participation will include regular attendance, as well as informed contributions to class discussion and student presentations. You are expected to keep up with the assigned readings for the tutorial and come to class prepared with comments and questions. You are also expected to attend all 5 tutorial sessions punctually and to inform your tutor the reason for your absence ahead of time. * For students who enrol themselves in the Odd week tutorials, please note that Week 5 is scheduled as E-learning week. There will not be any tutorials held in our regular venues, but rather this will be conducted through IVLE on a discussion forum. More details can be found in a separate document attached in the IVLE workbin under Tutorial Instructions.

IV. Final Examination (60%)

There will be a 2-hour closed-book final examination to assess your overall competence and critical skills on the issues covered in the module, which will be reviewed in the final lecture.

Syllabus and Readings

All mandatory course readings have been placed on the IVLE as PDF files. You will also find a separate attachment providing you a resource bibliography and videography with a list of additional readings and videos which are not obligatory for those interested to read and research further on the
issues covered in the lecture.

PART I: Introduction This overview provides an introduction to the sociological imagination as an analytical tool for us to employ to understand the manner in which social life in Singapore is organised in our subsequent lectures. We will interrogate more closely the relationships between individual biographies and collective/global histories; as well as individual action and large scale social forces. More crucially, we will critically engage the manner in which knowledge is produced and sustained in particular social contexts. Week 1 16 Aug Studying Singapore Society (NA) Macionis, John J. (2009). Sociology: Perspective, Theory, and Method. in John Macionis, Society: The Basics, 10th edn, pp. 1-22, 35-36. PART II: State-Society Relations Section II explores the role and power of the state in structuring social relations in Singapore. We will start by deliberating upon the historical development of Singapore and alternative interpretations of analysing history. The lectures will also allude to the social, economic and political conditions that engendered the use of specific ideological apparatus by the ruling party to govern Singapore society as well as the construction of a particular national identity. We will also consider the role of civil society against the backdrop of such a context. Week 2 23 Aug Histories, Memories, and Thinking about the Past (NA) Rahim, Lily Zubaidah (2010). Remembering and Forgetting: Nusantara Malays in the Singaporean National Imagination, in Singapore in the Malay World: Building and Breaching Regional Bridges, Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 13-42. Week 3 30 Aug State, Power and Ideology (RL) Leong, Laurence Wai Teng (2001). Consuming the Nation: National Day Parades in Singapore, New Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 3(2): 5-16.

Week 4 6 Sep Civil Society and Resistance (NA) 3

Lee, Terence (2005). Gestural Politics: Civil Society in New Singapore, Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia, 20(2): 132-54. PART III: Social Institutions & Social Inequalities Section III draws attention to the different social institutions in Singapore and how these have been affected by the processes of industrialisation and modernity which followed Singapores historical development. These include ethnic, gender, and class relations, as well as religiosity and issues concerning social inequalities and exclusion. The lectures are also intimately connected to Section II, given that the role of the state has been integral to frame the manner in which social life has been managed both in historical and contemporary Singapore. Week 5 13 Sep (E-Learning Week) Multiculturalism and Ethnic Relations (RL) Chua, Beng Huat (2005). Taking Group Rights Seriously: Multiracialism in Singapore, Asia Research Centre Working Paper, No.124, pp. 1-26. Week 6 20 Sep Gender and Sexuality (RL) Chan, Jasmine S. (2009). The Status Of Women In A Patriarchal State: The Case Of Singapore, in Louise Edwards and Mina Roces (eds.) Women in Asia: Critical Concepts in Asian Studies, Vol. IV, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 71-88. *** RECESS WEEK (21-29 SEP 2013) *** Week 7 4 Oct Class and Meritocracy (NA) Rahim, Lily Zubaidah (2001). The Institutionalisation of Educational Elitism, in The Singapore Dilemma: The Political and Educational Marginality of the Malay Community , New York: Oxford University Press, pp.117-58. Week 8 11 Oct Religion and Spirituality (NA) Sinha, Vineeta. (2005). Theorising Talk about Religious Pluralism and Religious Harmony in Singapore, Journal of Contemporary Religion, 20(1): 25-40. Week 9 18 Oct Mid-Term Test PART IV: Contemporary Issues & Social Change in Singapore Society 4

The last section focuses on the ever-changing face of Singapore society by examining more closely the processes of social change and transformation. By interrogating contemporary issues and problems encountered in Singapore society, we will address how global and broad-scale transnational processes have influenced different dimensions of social life in Singapore, particularly in terms of the fluid movement of people, ideas, and cultural products. Week 10 25 Oct Popular Culture and the Arts (RL) Yao, Souchou (2007). I Not Stupid: Localism, Bad Translation, Catharsis, in Singapore: The State and the Culture of Excess, Oxon and New York: Routledge, pp. 140-58. Week 11 1 Nov Health and Medicine (NA) Barr, Michael (2008). Singapore: The Limits of a Technocratic Approach to Healthcare, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 38(3): 395-416. Week 12 8 Nov Migration and Globalisation (RL) Low, Kelvin E.Y. (2013). Sensing Cities: The Politics of Migrant Sensescapes, Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture, 19(2): 221-37. Week 13 15 Nov Review Session (NA, RL)