Module Outline

Module Code Module Title Semester Modular Credits Faculty Department Tags Teaching Staff

SSA1201 : SINGAPORE SOCIETY

Created: 10-Dec-2009, Updated: 26-Jul-2011

SSA1201 SINGAPORE SOCIETY Semester 1, 2011/2012 4 Arts & Social Sciences Sociology -DR Daniel PS Goh socgohd@nus.edu.sg Lecturer

CHONG WU LING g0800302@nus.edu.sg Tutor

SIM WEI CHUN JOSHUA a0029536@nus.edu.sg Tutor

TAN WEI XIAN ALVIN a0029837@nus.edu.sg Tutor

GALVEZ VICTORIA FRANCESCA a0028690@nus.edu.sg Tutor

Weblinks

Aims & Objectives

Schedule

Syllabus

Practical Work

Pre-Clusions

Workload

Aims & Objectives

Top

This module introduces students to critical developments in the development of Singapore as a society and nation-state. It enables students to develop skills in understanding and making sense of Singapore society. It also encourages them to develop alternative interpretations of the development of Singapore society. The topics include: the origins of Singapore, ideology and identity, ethnic relations, industrialization, family, gender, religion, the state and civil society. This is a Singapore Studies module and is open to students from all faculties. For this semester, our aim is to maximize fun while learning, so as to get you to see Singapore in new ways and to be excited about Singapore again. The topics are organized thematically according to the five national ideals (the five stars in the flag!). An additional section on current issues will be covered in the last 2 weeks, in which invited speakers from civil society organizations or government outfits will come to give a talk and hold a discussion session with you. The syllabus is planned on the principle of experiential learning. You will be reading less and there will be no written term assignments. Instead, the tutorial assignments (40% of grade) will get you to experience Singapore society and interrogate the experience with new sociological lenses to obtain deeper insights into how Singapore society functions and with what consequences. The final examination (60% of grade) will be an open book examination consisting of three

cross-topic questions, where you will have to answer one using the readings and research materials you gathered, and two questions on the current issues, where you will have to answer one using the readings and notes you have taken down during the talk and discussion session.
Schedule Top

strong>Lectures: Fridays, 2-4pm, LT11 IMPORTANT: Skip lectures at your own peril. Studies conducted by the university have shown that there is a strong statistical correlation between lecture and tutorial attendance and examination results. I will not entertain email or face-to-face consultation requests to repeat lectures you have missed. If you want to record the lecture for any reason, please ask me for permission first, out of courtesy and legal liabilities (on your part and mine). Examination: 25th November 2011, 9am IMPORTANT: Please take note of the examination date and make sure that you are able to sit for examination before signing up for the module. I will not entertain requests for alternative examination due to exchange programmes, competitions, conferences or any other related university activities.
Syllabus Top

IMPORTANT: PDFs of readings will be uploaded to the Workbin. Please download them. There is no textbook or course-pack associated with the module. For students who are interested in learning more about the topics covered here, a good book to read is Terence Chong (ed.), Management of Success: Singapore Revisited, Singapore: ISEAS, 2010. Introduction Week 1 Diaspora/BIOGRAPHY

Joan Ferrante, 2008, Sociology: A Global Perspective, Belmont: Thomson Wadsworth, pp. 2-39. Philip Holden, 2008, A Man and an Island: Lee Kuan Yews The Singapore Story, Autobiography and Decolonization: Modernity, Masculinity, and the Nation-State, Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 168-88, 239-44. Theme: PROGRESS Week 2 Nationalism

Lily Kongand Brenda SA Yeoh, 2003, Housing the People, Building a Nation, The Politics of Landscapes in Singapore: Constructions of Nation, Syracuse: SyracuseUniversity Press, pp. 94-117. Week 3 History/MUSEUM

Hong Lysa and Huang Jianli, 2008, Imagining a Big Singapore: Positioning the Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, The Scripting of A National History: Singapore and Its Pasts, Singapore: NUS Press, pp. 181-204, 269-76. Weeks 3-4 Tutorial 1: BIOGRAPHY

Theme: PROSPERITY

Week 4

Modernity

CJW-L Wee, 2007, The Modern Construction of Postcolonial Singapore, The Asian Modern: Culture, Capitalist Development, Singapore, Hong Kong: Hong KongUniversity Press, pp. 33-51, 171-4. Week 5 Religion/HERITAGE TRAIL OR RELIGIOUS SITE

Vineeta Sinha, 2005, Making Sense of Muneeswaran in Singapore, A New God in the Diaspora? Muneeswaran Worship in Contemporary Singapore, Copenhagen: NIAS Press, pp. 236-72, 295. Weeks 5-6 Tutorial 2: MUSEUM

Theme: PEACE Week 6 Multiculturalism

Charanpal S Bal, 2009, Bhangra and the Reconstruction of Punjabi-ness in Multiracial Singapore, in Daniel PS Goh et al (eds), Race and Multiculturalism in Malaysia and Singapore, London: Routledge, pp. 173-90. RECESS Week 7 Race/FOOD OR MUSIC

Chua Beng Huat and Ananda Rajah, 2003, Food, Ethnicity and Nation, in Chua, Life is Not Complete Without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore, Singapore: Singapore University Press, pp. 93-117. Weeks 7-8 Tutorial 3: HERITAGE TRAIL OR RELIGIOUS SITE

Theme: EQUALITY Week 8 Citizenship

Aihwa Ong, 2006, Baroque Ecology, Effervescent Citizenship, Neoliberalism as Exception: Mutations in Citizenship and Sovereignty, Durham: Duke University Press, pp. 177-94, 255-6. Week 9 Class and Gender/FILM OR THEATER

Yao Souchou, 2007, "I Not Stupid: Localism, Bad Translation, Catharsis, The State and the Culture of Excess, London: Routledge, pp. 140-58, 198. Weeks 9-10 Tutorial 4: FOOD OR MUSIC

Theme: DEMOCRACY Week 10 Politics

Syed Muhd Khairudin Aljunied, 2010, "Ethnic Resurgence, Minority Communities and State Policies in a Network Society", Identities: Global Studies in Culture and Power, vol. 17, no. 2&3, pp. 304-26. Week 11 Globalization

Kevin Chua, 2001, In Venetian Waters: Singaporeat the 49th Venice Biennale, focas: Forum On Contemporary Art & Society, no. 3, pp. 273-87.

Jeannine Tang, 2006, Spectacles Politics and the Singapore Biennale, Journal of Visual Culture, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 365-77. (download from NUS digital library, search title in LINC) Theme: CURRENT ISSUES Week 12 Current Issues 1: Migrant Workers

Reading to be announced. Weeks 11-12 Tutorial 5: FILM OR THEATER Week 13 Current Issues 2: Urban Redevelopment

Reading to be announced.
Practical Work Top

Practical work, the CA of which makes up a total 40% of the grade, comprises 2 components:
1. 2.

A team fieldwork study of museums, heritage trails/religious sites, food/music, film/theater. The findings to be presented in Tutorials 2-5 (30%) Individual participation at all five tutorials (10%)

For (1), you will work in a team of 2-3 students to be determined at Tutorial 1 together with the selection of the topic (2 teams per topic). Presentations limited to 30 minutes per team. No computer-based presentations; the only equipment available are whiteboard and the overhead projector, so please be creative! Detailed descriptions of the practical work and tutorials follow. Theme: PROGRESS Weeks 5-6 Tutorial 2: MUSEUM Visit a museum and study the exhibitions. Focus on the representations of the exhibitions to evaluate the following hypothesis: Singaporean museums tend to tell a positive story of linear national development, with the PAP government as the main protagonist.

Theme: PROSPERITY Weeks 7-8 Tutorial 3: HERITAGE TRAIL OR RELIGIOUS SITE Select a National Heritage Board-marked heritage trail (http://heritagetrails.sg/) and walk the trail. Your team can either study the official heritage representations of the whole trail or focus on one religious site in the trail. Conduct some extra research about the trail sites on the Web to evaluate the following hypothesis: modernization in Singapore reduces rich cultural practices to their economic value and function.

Theme: PEACE Weeks 9-10 Tutorial 4: FOOD OR MUSIC Conduct research into either a local dish (e.g. Mee Rebus, Char Kway Teow) or a local song (e.g. national day songs, folk songs and local pop bands compositions). Focus on the racial and multicultural aspects in your research to evaluate the following

hypothesis: Singaporean food and music are racially marked, but they are really products of multicultural hybridization. Theme: EQUALITY Weeks 11-12 Tutorial 5: FILM OR THEATER Watch a local film, television programme (choose a few episodes in a drama or sitcom series) or play. Study the representations and answer the following question: how are class and/or gender divisions represented in the film/programme/play?
Pre-Clusions SS1202SC Top

Workload 2-1-0-3-4

Top

Aims & Objectives

Schedule

Syllabus

Practical Work

Pre-Clusions

Workload