“You are your only limit”: Appropriations and valorizations of affect in university branding

This article considers the role of affect in university branding in a context of neoliberal higher education, by way of examining the semiotic landscape of the Singapore Management University concourse. Contemporary branding often involves stimulating stakeholder/audience investments of meaning and affect into the brand, thereby appropriating consumers’ affective labour for brand‐building and communications. Adopting a discourse‐analytic approach, I examine how linguistic, visual and spatial modalities are utilized to evoke and semiotize particular affective meanings and orientations in the emplaced discourse within the university's brand space. This discourse, which includes organizational branding discourse as well as more organic student‐generated texts, becomes part of the affective regime, helping to encourage and enjoin what is deemed to be normative affective sensibilities and practices in that context. Consequently, the article also considers the kinds of affective subjectivities that are valorized, and how stakeholder/student‐subjects are interpellated in a context of neoliberal‐oriented higher education.     

An appropriation of ashes: transient aesthetic markers and spiritual place‐making as performances of alternative ethnic identities

In this paper I consider the material ways in which individuals overlay an imaginary, ethnicized secondspace in the form of a spiritual realm onto their state‐defined, lived firstspaces. Through the use of temporary roadside altars and shrines, I argue that this imaginary space is reified into transient aesthetic markers that subvert state‐mandated, purpose‐built structures and ethnic narratives, allowing for alternative versions of diasporic ethnic identities to be performed and consumed. Through the use of a case study of a suburban town centre in Singapore, I employ a mix of visual and sensorial observation methods and take the role of a hungry ghost during the seventh lunar month, exploring the material manifestations of ethnic imaginations.     

Xenophobia online: unmasking Singaporean attitudes towards ‘foreign talent’ migrants

In recent years, Singaporeans have become highly anxious about the future of their country and their own personal livelihood due to the influx of educated and professional migrants known as ‘foreign talent’ and express their ire at the presence of these migrants through xenophobic posts online. This article suggests that such comments, however, are indicative of the feelings of disillusionment and abandonment Singaporeans have towards the People's Action Party – the only government Singaporeans have ever known. While Singaporeans have been critical of their government on economic issues that impact their lifestyle and existence, it is the presence of foreign talent migrants that have pushed Singaporeans into using the migrant situation to emotively express their opinions of disappointment in the government and its policies online like no other issue, functioning as the unlikely glue that has galvanised and united an ethnically disparate Singaporean population.     

港城关系与港口城市转型升级研究——以新加坡为例

本文通过对港城关系的梳理,分析了港城关系演变特征、港城腹地发展类型、港一城经济互动等理论,通过新加坡转型升级中的港城关系研究,发现新加坡不存在港城关系演变中的自增长效应阶段。新加坡产业的转型升级也伴随着港城关系的改变,从初始联系——相互联系——集聚效应。港口城市新加坡转型升级成功的经验值得我们学习借鉴。     

人民行动党与新加坡行政体系

新加坡人民行动党表面上具备了西方代议制政党的一般特点,但在实质上它对新加坡的行政体系施加着重大影响。人民行动党对新加坡政府的控制主要是通过左右政府的组成人员来实现的。由于人民行动党与政府在人事上高度重合,在一定程度上使得人民行动党与公共政策过程近似于政府与公共政策过程。人民行动党及其政府在社会中高高在上的地位,是新加坡国内最大的政治力量,几乎垄断了国内的政治资源和经济资源,这使得人民行动党及其政府以外的监督力量显得力不从心。人民行动党和政府自身监督才是最有效的监督。     

The economic marginality of ethnic minorities: an analysis of ethnic income inequality in Singapore

This paper examines ethnic income inequality in Singapore from the perspectives of labour‐market segmentation and human capital. The findings of this study show that neither perspective is useful in explaining ethnic income inequality in Singapore. Further, the analysis shows that educational differences among the Chinese, Indians and Malays account for very little of the income gap. Much of the income difference is due to discrimination. The source of this discrimination lies in the segregation of ethnic minorities in lower‐paying jobs and occupations across all industries, reflecting Chinese domination in the economic and political spheres.     

新加坡英语的历史背景及其特点

由于新加坡独特的地理位置和殖民文化特色,形成了其无论在语音、词汇还是语法上都很有特点的新加坡英语。新加坡英语作为一个语言变体,得到了许多语言学家的重视,尤其是在其本土,已有诸多研究。文章从其历史背景、历史形成及语言特色几个方面介绍了新加坡英语的历史和现状。     

新加坡潮人教育事业与政治环境的互动——潮人学校转型的观察

现存由潮人社团始创或资助的学校 ,大多经历了两次明显而重要的转型。第一次是从潮人学校转型为深受中国政治因素影响的华侨学校 ,而在二战后由华侨学校逐渐融入当地的教育体系 ,最终转型为新加坡的公立学校。新加坡潮人社团兴学的历程 ,表明了新加坡潮人社团的教育事业与中国、新加坡的政治与社会大环境之间的互动关系 ;新加坡潮人社团随着时代与社会的变迁 ,相应调整其教育事业以更恢宏的姿态主动纳入历史的潮流 ,融入国家社会的建设行列 ,去巩固其传统的地位和加强其现代的价值     

与时俱进的新加坡小学公民与道德教育课程

新加坡小学公民与道德教育课程一方面以儒家文化为核心,同时不断创新,与时俱进,不断拓展新的道德教育领域和内容。中国和新加坡同属亚洲儒家文化圈,新加坡经济腾飞中的道德教育课程建设与变革,对我国的德育变革乃至社会发展都具有重大的借鉴意义。     

现代化进程中的价值选择——新加坡的“公民与道德教育”及其对我们的启示

新加坡的公民与道德教育 ,以东方价值观为核心内容 ,以青少年为主要教育对象 ,以学校、课堂为主要阵地 ,辅以榜样、阐释、规劝、环境、经验等项道德实践活动。德治与法制相辅相成 ,工业化现代化与传统价值观并行不悖。这些成功经验对于我国公民道德教育与精神文明建设具有重要启发借鉴意义。