1,721,066 research outputs found
Syed Serajul Islam and Md. Saidul Islam. The Jamaat Question in Bangladesh: Islam, Politics and Society in Post-Democratic Nation. New York: Routledge, 2024. 278 pp. ISBN 9781032316383.
No full textThe student revolution in Bangladesh successfully ousted the authoritarian regime of Sheikh Hasina Wajid. However, the supporters of the old regime and its regional allies are still trying to manipulate the long-held fear of Jamaat-e-Islami to undermine the revolution's credibility and its goals. They argue that the revolution would allow the dominant Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, to come to power and transform the country into a theocratic state, which would be detrimental to minorities in the country (Mojumdar, A., 2024). Even during the revolution’s early days, the previous regime claimed that the revolution was a conspiracy orchestrated by Jamaat-e-Islami to overthrow the ruling secular government (Chaudhury, R., 2024). Although this claimgained little support after the revolution, fears surrounding the party/movement persist.. In this context, the book ‘The Jamaat Question’ published during the previous authoritarian regime, remains relevant as it helps us understand why and how Jamaat became a contentious issue in Bangladeshi intellectual and political circles as we witnessed a glimpse of it during and after the revolution. What makes the book even more intriguing is the central question it aims to address: how has Jamaat remained resilient despite significant repression, discrimination, and scrutiny from the ruling regime over the past 16 years? (p. 2). In addressing this driving question, the editors of the book, Serajul Islam and Md. Saidul Islam, did an impressive job of bringing experts on Bangladeshi politics and society to reflect on the history, evolution, changes, and impact of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. The comprehensive coverage of themes in the book shows that it has succeeded in situating the movement within the broader socio-political and economic landscape of the country
The gamble of the gig economy: the accentuated precarity of platform workers from low-income backgrounds in Singapore
No full textUntil recently, the gig economy in neoliberal Singapore has received little attention since its emergence and creeping growth. However, the Covid pandemic and other international events have spotlighted structural gaps in prevailing labour protection standards and employment practices. By reframing neoliberalism as disintermediation and using the theory of conjunctural geographies, this study employs a triangulation of methods to examine three key questions—how the gig economy is sustained in a neoliberal context, what the central dynamics of the gig economy in Singapore are, and what lived realities of gig workers from low-income backgrounds in Singapore are like. The results illustrate how the situated agency of these workers have and continue to struggle amidst inflationary pressures. By understanding the situated agency of these individuals, this study seeks to improve our capacity for a more nuanced discourse on this topic as we move toward a more equitable integration of the gig economy in the Singapore society.Bachelor of Social Sciences in Sociolog
Singapore's Baweanese : making sense of a Malay sub-ethnic group identity
No full textThis paper explores the identity negotiations of the Baweanese in Singapore, one of the many sub-ethnic groups that make up the Malay racial category. The paper shows that race and ethnicity are are very salient sites of identity in the everyday lives of Singaporeans. Yet, the simple CMIO racial categories ignores the internal diversity that exists within each group. The paper looked at how members of the Baweanese community negotiate these complexities and make sense of their sub-ethnic group identities against the competing state-defined ‘Malay’ identity. Using a multi-directional qualitative study, it studied the perspectives of two generations of Baweanese, gen-X and gen-Y, on sub-ethnic group identity, identity construction and markers of identity.Bachelor of Art
Global value chain analysis of the formation of governance structures in the offshore outsourced service industry.
No full textThis research paper employs ethnography and the Global Value Chain (GVC) framework to study the relationship between two firms to examine the choice of governance structures within the offshore outsourced service industry. Prior models lack either a micro-sociological view or are unable to provide sufficient coverage to analyze all organizational governance structures. As a contrast to macro-social models, I utilize a combination of a meso-level structural framework, the GVC framework, and ethnographic observations of interactions to analyze reasonings behind the choices between governance structures. My research findings prove that any study of governance structures neglecting understandings of micro-sociological interactions is severely deficient. As an improvement, I propose the addition of a new determinant to make the GVC framework more accurate for the unique factors of the offshore outsourced service industry.Bachelor of Art
Behaviour on public transportation - the study on priority seats in Singapore.
No full textThis research mainly focuses on how commuters negotiate their spaces on public transportation and the impact of social sanctions on behaviors based on the sociology of mobility. Mobility studies have been seen as part of everyday life that is taken for granted. The travel journey on public transportation should be constructed as a meaningful platform for social interactions. To provide a deeper understanding of social interactions amongst social actors on public transportation in Singapore, priority seats have been used as a point of contention to determine if social sanctions play a role in shaping social behaviors. Using Gidden’s structuration theory, the action of giving up priority seats highlights the duality of structure and agency, in which determines how social sanctions affect people’s agency in deciding their seats. This study also serves to justify how social structure is constructed in everyday interactions through social sanctions imposed on the occupancy of priority seats in Singapore.Bachelor of Art
Everyday multiculturalism : examining the daily interactions and lived experiences of local and migrant nurses
No full textThis study examines the daily interactions and lived experiences of both local and migrant nurses in the workplace setting. The influx of migrant nurses has made the nursing industry culturally diverse. While the state and healthcare employers assume that assimilation and integration would take place through current policies fostering multiculturalism. I argue that assimilation and integration is not an eventual outcome with the current state of multiculturalism. Despite numerous studies into the migrant nurses’ experience, there has been little research that has taken into account the perspectives of the local nurses. It seeks to fill the gap by examining both groups of nurses using the conceptual framework of multiculturalism and its current interpretation of “everyday multi-culturalism”. This study outlines how the interactions between local and migrant nurses are dynamic alternating between “conviviality” and “conflict” influenced and shaped by the “mixophilic” “mixophobic” policies of the state and health care industry.Bachelor of Art
‘Simulations and spectacles' : a study on theme park consumption among young Singaporean adults
No full textTheme parks are postmodern cultural creations of entertainment targeting consumers of all ages while promoting consumption. It has become a global phenomenon and is notably part of the social landscape in most developed countries. Using the notions of Baudrillard’s (1981) “Simulation and Simulacra” as well as Debord’s (1967) “The Society of the Spectacle”, this paper attempts to analyse the local perspective of young Singaporean adults who have experienced visiting Universal Studios Singapore or other theme parks in the world. Using in-depth interviews, I would like to find out 1) Would having a theme park in Singapore change the cultural expectations of Singaporeans? 2) Are Singaporeans awed by the simulations and spectacle created by theme parks? 3) To what extent would Singaporeans like to be exposed to simulations and spectacles in their lives?Bachelor of Art
Gender and nationalism : the subaltern woman in a war commemorative museum.
No full textThis paper examines the possible relationships between gender and nation in the context of a physical war commemorative landscape, Memories at Old Ford Factory. Drawing on the methods of textual analysis, interviews with visitors and reading other ethnographic data, I explore the gendered portrayals of war within the site, and the specific ways in which women have either been removed or stereotypically represented. Using Gramsci’s notion of the ‘subaltern’ (later adapted by postcolonial theorists), I argue that the state assumes and enforces the subaltern status of women within its national narratives regarding the Second World War and the Japanese Occupation. Gender, then, appears to be dominated and overwritten by nationalism, and the gendered subaltern subject becomes merely a representational category in the hegemonic patriarchal representational system.Bachelor of Art
The nostalgia industry : producing longing and belonging in Singapore
No full textThis paper discusses the nostalgia industry in Singapore. Using Kopytoff’s cultural biographies, we expand upon the traditional Marxian thought on mass culture. Trends such as the memorialisation of physical spaces and the revival of everyday objects of the past show the expansion in cultural biographies and the expansion in commodification in the current nostalgia industry. This cultural logic has significant buy-in amongst those who subscribe to hipster culture, and consumption of this nostalgia is also mostly undertaken by the middle class. Results have shown that there is a new regime of authenticity beyond that of the State that these cultural producers subscribe to, leading to the expansion of the cultural politics of Nostalgia and influencing discussions of identity and belonging.Bachelor of Art
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