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Feminist geographic debates have drawn attention to the multi-scalar role of borders as processes of social differentiation that are reproduced and inscribed on the bodies of migrant workers in everyday life. This thesis explores these questions in the context of Singapore’s global city-state where the increasing visibility of low-wage foreign workers in local residential areas has become a subject of tense neighbourhood frictions that frequently bring borders into sharp relief. Using the case-study of a recent public furore surrounding the proposed location of a foreign worker dormitory in Serangoon Gardens, one of Singapore's well-known middle-class estates, it examines the ways that migrant exclusions in local residential areas are informed by border anxieties and practices that mark out the labouring bodies of foreign workers as alien and “out of place.” The Serangoon Gardens incident exhibited a moment of tension whereby gendered, racialised, and class-based meanings attached to specific forms of flexible labour (particularly foreign construction and domestic work) were inserted into wider debates about nation, community, and the socio-spatial preservation of middle-class identity and belonging. Insofar as Singapore’s growth remains undergirded by the systematic in-flow of low-wage foreign workers to service its infrastructural and social reproductive labour needs, a study of borders helps illuminate the inherent contradictions and barriers of mobility within the global city as an exclusionary landscape. This thesis argues that the deeply marginalised place of foreign workers in society stems predominantly from the constitutive role of the state’s managerial migration regime in shaping everyday social meanings and practices that construct these workers as unassimilable subjects within the city-state. The outcome of these multi-scalar forms of bordering practices has been to produce a transient, depoliticised, and governable migrant population in the interests of security and economic prosperity in Singapore’s global city-state. / Thesis (Master, Geography) -- Queen's University, 2010-05-11 15:31:12.683

Written as three publishable papers, this dissertation examines the sources of several forms of social capital in Singapore, and the effects of social capital on occupational success. Using representative survey data from Singapore, these papers make several important theoretical contributions: The first paper examines how and why categorical forms of stratification such as gender and ethnicity tend to produce distinctive forms of network inequalities: for example, whereas Chinese (relative to Malays and Indians) tend to have greater access to well-educated, wealthy, Chinese and weak tie social capital (but not non-kin), men (relative to women) tend to have greater access to men, non-kin and weak ties (but not well-educated, wealthy and Chinese). The key to understanding such distinctive patterns of network inequalities (by gender and ethnicity) is to understand the distinctive ways in which gender and ethnic groups are distributed in routine organizations such as schools, paid work and voluntary associations. The second paper examines the significance of personal contacts in job searches, in the context of Singapore’s meritocratic system. I show that in certain sectors such as the state bureaucracy, social networking brings no distinct advantages as appointments are made exclusively on the basis of the credentials of the candidates. Thus, personal contacts are not always useful, especially in labour markets that rely heavily on the signalling role of academic credentials to match people to jobs. In contrast, personal contacts are more useful among less qualified job searches in the private sector. The third paper shows that while job contacts (i.e. ‘mobilized’ social capital) may not always pay off in meritocratic labour markets, ‘accessed’ social capital remains extremely important. The leveraging power of social capital in meritocratic markets is not the active mobilization of job contacts per se, but more subtly, the result of embedded social resources such as knowing many university graduates and wealthy people. Together, these papers illustrate how socio-structural factors such as meritocracy, gender and racialization form important predictors of the distribution, role and value of social capital in everyday life and labour markets.

Written as three publishable papers, this dissertation examines the sources of several forms of social capital in Singapore, and the effects of social capital on occupational success. Using representative survey data from Singapore, these papers make several important theoretical contributions: The first paper examines how and why categorical forms of stratification such as gender and ethnicity tend to produce distinctive forms of network inequalities: for example, whereas Chinese (relative to Malays and Indians) tend to have greater access to well-educated, wealthy, Chinese and weak tie social capital (but not non-kin), men (relative to women) tend to have greater access to men, non-kin and weak ties (but not well-educated, wealthy and Chinese). The key to understanding such distinctive patterns of network inequalities (by gender and ethnicity) is to understand the distinctive ways in which gender and ethnic groups are distributed in routine organizations such as schools, paid work and voluntary associations. The second paper examines the significance of personal contacts in job searches, in the context of Singapore’s meritocratic system. I show that in certain sectors such as the state bureaucracy, social networking brings no distinct advantages as appointments are made exclusively on the basis of the credentials of the candidates. Thus, personal contacts are not always useful, especially in labour markets that rely heavily on the signalling role of academic credentials to match people to jobs. In contrast, personal contacts are more useful among less qualified job searches in the private sector. The third paper shows that while job contacts (i.e. ‘mobilized’ social capital) may not always pay off in meritocratic labour markets, ‘accessed’ social capital remains extremely important. The leveraging power of social capital in meritocratic markets is not the active mobilization of job contacts per se, but more subtly, the result of embedded social resources such as knowing many university graduates and wealthy people. Together, these papers illustrate how socio-structural factors such as meritocracy, gender and racialization form important predictors of the distribution, role and value of social capital in everyday life and labour markets.

Ability grouping has long been a subject of heated debate in education systems worldwide. Despite being such a controversial topic, ability grouping is still widely used in classrooms across the world. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact that ability grouping has not only on students, but also on those who implement this tool in the classroom, namely teachers. To provide a balanced view, the paper considers the advantages and disadvantages of ability grouping. The paper also compares ability grouping in both the U.S. and Singapore to demonstrate that no system is perfect. Each comes with its own strengths and weaknesses. However, aspects of each system can be borrowed and incorporated to strengthen existing education systems. Because each country has unique political, economic, and social forces, it is important for policy makers to customize foreign practices according to the political and cultural landscape of their country.

Current literature on public communication campaigns suggests that challenges and problems remain, even though generally the effectiveness of campaigns has increased in the past years. Challenges and problems are issue-specific and efforts put into influencing particular social behaviours through public communication campaigns have not been significantly successful. Although public communication campaigns are a popular method employed to influence social behaviours in many societies, campaign strategies inadequately consider the impact of cultural elements on social behaviours. The disappointing results through the use of campaigns are exacerbated by the difficulties faced in translating research observations to appropriate campaign strategies. In view of current challenges, this research examines public communication campaigns. Two main variables shaped this research ??? ???identity??? and ???culture???. The research postulated that a person???s identity influences his or her behaviour. It also argued that culture would impact on behaviour. The theoretical orientation drew on interpretivist perspectives. Using a comparative cross-cultural method, this research nominated the issues of organ donation and waste disposal behaviours in public places and the countries of Australia and Singapore for empirical study. Focus group research was employed. A total of sixteen focus groups were conducted ??? eight groups on organ donation (four in Sydney, Australia and four in Singapore) and eight groups on waste disposal behaviours (four in Sydney, Australia and four in Singapore). In line with the theoretical orientation, ???grounded theory??? was used to analyse the focus group transcripts. It is argued that a person???s decision to organ donation or waste disposal behaviour was intimately related to his or her identity. Cultural elements are critical constituents of identity. This is to say, cultural values, beliefs and attitudes have significant impact on social behaviours. These intricacies were made apparent when each issue was seen in the national contexts of Australia and Singapore. This research concludes that issues of identity can partly explain the type of decision a person makes about organ donation, and the kind of waste disposal behaviour a person enacts. It also argues that the effectiveness of campaign strategies can potentially be enhanced, if the strategies are responsive to people???s identities.

This thesis examines the formation, development, role and behaviour of the Singapore National Employers' Federation (SNEF). Its focus is primarily the field of labour management. It addresses key issues in the role of the SNEF from its formation in 1980 to 2004, in the institutional context of Singapore's politics, economic development and industrial relations. This longitudinal study makes a substantial original contribution to understanding Singapore's leading national employers' association, and is a pioneering study of a national employers' association in East Asia. The thesis is a qualitative case-study, using fieldwork interviews, primary documents and the secondary literature as data sources. Through the critical event method, the work focuses analysis on key junctures for the SNEF's development and change during the period examined. In addition, the author employs the Sheldon and Thornthwaite (1999) model of employers' association strategy in framing the analysis of the thesis' central questions, and in examining SNEF's strategic decisions in response to changes in its external environment. By analysing how the SNEF's external roles and internal relations changed during each period, the research draws attention to the dynamic nature of this employers' association in the rapidly changing conditions marking Singapore's development. Given the central role of the People's Action Party (PAP) in Singaporean society, a central theme of this thesis is how the SNEF balances political pressures from Singapore's government-dominated corporatist system, with the needs of its diversified membership. The narrative core of the thesis identifies five distinct periods of Singaporean industrial relations - through the lens of the SNEF - reflecting larger economic developments through which the government guided the economy and society. The thesis finds that, while the SNEF is an independent and apolitical organisation, it is nevertheless deeply embedded in the Singaporean variant of corporatism. Accordingly, the SNEF's role and behaviour are inherently guided by the PAP's ideology of pragmatism and, in Singapore, sectoral interests deferred to and institutionally served national interests.

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-212).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-212).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Trinity International University, 2004. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 258-261).