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CHAIRPERSON

Dr Zhang Juan, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore.

ABSTRACT

Citizenship and its links to the rights of individuals have become increasingly complex. The impact of globalization has fundamentally transformed the conceptualization of citizenship, the rights and responsibilities accruing to individuals, and the obligations of states who oversee increasingly diverse populations. The movement of peoples through migration and settlement has changed previously clearly defined homogenous populations into increasingly heterogeneous groupings made up of individuals with different ethnic and cultural backgrounds and forming different categories of citizenship (Glenn 2002, 2011; Nash 2010). Citizenship is in fact being increasingly defined by ‘gradations of esteem’ (Carver and Mottier (1998) which recognizes that different kinds of rights and responsibilities accrue to different categories and sub-categories of citizens based on considerations of ‘relative productivity’. What has tended to be left out of these discussions is any attention to the citizen as consumer. The interface between citizen status and consumer activity is important because of the neoliberal assertion that individuals and institutions perform at their best within a free market economy and because of the state’s expectations regarding citizens’ rights and responsibilities as consumers not just as producers. This paper analyses the context of a more dynamic definition of citizenship as a result of globalization and examines these relationships within the context of a particular city-state, Singapore. The paper examines the Singapore state’s attempt to negotiate social change within its populace through the introduction of casinos. This case study of Singapore provides an opportunity to explore the dynamic relationship between citizenship, consumption and the role of the state in late modernity. This paper is drawn from a co-authored book, Ann Brooks and Lionel Wee entitled: Governing the Citizen-Consumer: Reflexivity, Citizenship Rights and the State – Comparing Global Cities in Asia and the United States (Anthem Publishers, forthcoming 2013).

ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Ann Brooks is a Senior Visiting Research Fellow at the Asia Research Institute where she is undertaking research on a co-authored book with Lionel Wee (NUS) entitled Governing the Citizen-Consumer: Reflexivity, Citizenship Rights and the State-Comparing Global Cities in Asia and the US (Anthem Press, 2013). She was a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Sociology at the University of California, Berkeley 2011-2012, where she undertook research on the intersection of emotions and migration, for Hispanic migrants into California. Ann was appointed Prof of Sociology and Cultural Studies at the University of Adelaide in 2008 and is currently part of the Australian Research Council funded Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions, 2011-2017. She has also held senior positions in universities in Singapore and New Zealand. She is author of Academic Women (Open University Press, 1997); Postfeminisms: Feminism, Cultural Theory and Cultural Forms (Routledge, 1997); Gender and the Restructured University (Open University Press, 2001); Gendered Work in Asian Cities: The New Economy and Changing Labour Markets (Ashgate, 2006); Social Theory in Contemporary Asia (Routledge, 2010); Gender, Emotions and Labour Markets: Asian and Western Perspectives (Routledge, 2011). Her latest book is Emotions in Transmigration: Transformation, Movement and Identity (Palgrave 2012). Forthcoming books include: an undergraduate textbook entitled: Popular Culture, Hybridity and Identity (Palgrave, 2013) and a co-edited book entitled Emotions and Social Change: Historical and Sociological Perspectives (Routledge, New York, 2014) (with David Lemmings).

REGISTRATION

Admission is Free. Do register early as seats are available on a first come, first served basis. We would gratefully request that you RSVP to Jonathan at jonathan.lee@nus.edu.sg