This thesis discusses some aspects of the exhibition designer's role in state museums and galleries. It draws on the author's experiences in Singapore and his observations as a student living in Sydney. Museum exhibition designers are servants of the state. They help create public culture and promote a version of history. But if one is to understand the ways in which designers create meaning (and serve their employer's interests) we need to identify the 'vocabulary' and 'grammar' that they have at their disposal. To this end, the thesis outlines the variables that they work with and argues that they need to understand their employer's ideologies and history. The design vocabulary and grammar that the exhibition designer works with to create meaning in bridging understanding needs to be commensurate with the knowledge of history and the primary ideologies of the state which he/she serves. Singapore's recent interest in arts and heritage museums as part of a larger desire for regional economic and cultural survival and pre-eminence needs to be identified with the evolution, interconnectedness and ambitions of Singapore's arts and cultural organisations. In conjunction, some of the implications of Singapore's Arts and Heritage Policy need to be unpacked. A brief but concise comparative history of Sydney, Australia is made for the arts, cultural and museum comparison between Australia and Singapore. The exhibition designer's vocabulary and grammar can then be used to evaluate four exhibitions in Sydney and Singapore. This dissertation addresses the issues of 'Asian-ness' , modernisation without westernisation and the state's desire to meet the challenges which global communication systems place upon Singapore citizen's welfare. The dissertation is very art focused. It discusses all display objects as though they were paintings and works of fine art / Master of Arts (Hons)

This study investigates the role of the state in Singapore???s political economy. The conventional methodology in the neoclassical economics tradition is essentially apolitical and is thus inadequate to appraise the inner working mechanism of the Singapore polity, given the pervasive influence of politics in policy decisions. This study therefore synthesizes a new analytical methodology, drawn from neo-institutionalism, to analyse the interrelations of state, market and social institutions in the Singapore of the People???s Action Party (PAP). Ronald Coase???s theorem of transaction costs, Steven Cheung???s economics of property rights and Douglass North???s theories of institutions and institutional change, collectively, provide a theoretical framework that allows this study to examine the intrinsic nature and characteristics of the Singapore polity. Three major areas are investigated using this research paradigm. The first is the post-war political transition from colony to self-rule and the eventual emergence of an independent Singapore in the context of Cold War politics. The second is the process of social engineering through reconstitution, resettlement and socialization, a process that has aimed to alter the institutional environment that regulates the state and people and has tended to generate a submissive social ethos. The focus of the third is the redefining of property rights through nationalization, industrialisation, and privatisation that, in effect, has resulted in the extensive transfer of private wealth to the state. Four case studies are offered to demonstrate the impact of politics in the making of economic policy, the general effect of which has been to eradicate entrepreneurs in favour of state-owned entities. The analysis concludes that Singapore is essentially to be characterised as a predatory state, and adopts Mancur Olson???s ???stationary bandit??? theory to reconcile the state???s predatory behaviour with Singapore???s record of positive economic development. The study identifies nine unique features that have characterised the Singapore polity, the single most important feature being the emergence of ???Lee???s Law??? which amounts to the paramount Singapore informal rule in regulating all aspect of social exchange. It is paramount because without reference to this rule the inner working mechanism of Singapore???s political economy cannot be explicated. But the predominance of PAP control imposes a heavy social cost as it risks Singapore???s long-term viability as a national state because of the likely emergence of distributional collusion and institutional sclerosis. Singapore???s long-term viability is therefore contingent upon the kind of political reformation that would reinstitute a low transaction cost mediation mechanism that would then facilitate incremental institutional change.

This research considers the performance of situated subjectivity where the state and the individual vie for dominion over the drives that construct the body as what one has (the body as object), as what one is (the body as subject), and as what one becomes (the absent body). To turn power into pain, the State prospects the body of the subject to anchor its power through abjection. In so doing, it compels that body to channel the abject as a power to be wielded as a weapon of the weak, thus forcing into view the true interior of the State. Sections I and II position a discourse of trauma in Singapore using a parenthetical framework that is constructed by and mediated through the criminalized and punishable bodies of two young Asian males. The first discusses the carefully constructed ob-scene (off-stage) nature of the obscene (abhorrent) execution of convicted drug trafficker Van Nguyen in 2005 (the body as object); the second examines its inverse – the public spectacle of creative ‘death’ imposed upon artist Josef Ng (the body as subject) through government condemnation and expulsion for an alleged obscene (immoral) performance at 5th Passage in 1994. To do this, the thesis engages with the enforced interchangeable processes of disembodiment (for the display of symbolic violence) and embodiment (for the exertion of physical violence). Comparisons are also made of the way the State demonstrates its preparedness to turn the display of power into a process of exacting the ultimate pain from the punishable body. This is perpetrated on the one hand via a spectacle of invisibility that keeps the mandatory death penalty a secretive process, and on the other, its inverse, the publicly staged media spectacle of persecuting performance artist/s and 5th Passage. The events that follow led to the defacto banning of performance art and 5th Passage’s demise in 1994, ending my role as its artistic director. By relocating the performance of death from the high courts and offices of Singapore’s Home Affairs Ministry (the site of symbolic violence) and Changi Prison (site of physical violence) into plain sight in the Australian media, the press is discussed as an instrumental force in deploying a penal counter-aesthetic to pierce through Singapore’s veil of secrecy surrounding its executions. The thesis demonstrates how this engendered a ‘seeing through’ that galvanized acts of intersubjectivity and the performance of social witnessing in Australia as an attempt to save Van Nguyen from the gallows. The institutional censorship of an artwork about the execution in 2005 is discussed to show how signifying practices such as visual art continued to agitate the state’s performance to construct itself as a “global city for arts and culture” on one hand while crushing artistic subjectivity when it is perceived as dissent on the other. This glimpse into the fragility of the Singapore nation’s divergent desires, where one performance portrays the disintegration of another, recalled the originary cultural rupture at 5th Passage in 1994 when artists engaged in performance were sensationalized in the Singapore media as social deviants. As an extension of state apparatus, the media is shown to repress artistic subjectivity through its creation of a controversy that led to the illegitimization of scriptless performance art, thus producing a distinctively Singaporean cultural artefact – the absent body. Out of the personal and social trauma framed by this confrontation with the state, Section III presents a body of visual work that I have since produced in the period marked by these two events (between 1994 to 2008) as a reply to the state. From this place of banishment, the thesis traces its evolvement into the body machine (Rich Manoeuvre series) as part of a practice that sees it for what it is within the paternal order, to locate the points where fragility occur. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This thesis examines and explains multinational employers' experiences of localized shortages of skilled process workers in Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), China. It explains three challenges facing SIP employers in accessing sufficient skilled process workers and their responses within HRM to such challenges. These three challenges are employers' experiences with vocational education and training (VET) deficiencies in students' skill development, employers' experiences of poaching of skilled process workers by other companies, and employers' experiences of provision of workplace training for skilled process workers in their own companies. In response to these challenges, SIP employers have adopted various HRM measures that include differing combination of recruitment and selection, employee retention, training and development, and employment relations management. These policies and practices represent the different ways that SIP employers have attempted to meet the challenges of localized skill shortages in the context of their own business strategies.

Postgraduate research presents particular challenges to students: self-management, independent research, extended writing, and working with a supervisor. If we add to these challenges those faced by international students - the complexity of a new culture, a new academic culture, and the difficulties of a second language - we begin to see the hurdles that such students must overcome. Postgraduate students are already well socialised into their discipline, its discourse, research, and methodology. However, when students undertake their study abroad, how easily do they 'fit' into their new environment? And in what ways does their previous disciplinary socialisation, clash with, or complement their new academic socialisation? Given the large numbers of Chinese international students studying abroad particularly at postgraduate level, a focus on individual student experiences was seen as important in advancing our understanding of these students' experiences and sensitising international providers of such education to the ways in which they may better respond to such students. The purpose of the study was to examine the experiences of Chinese international postgraduate students studying in Singapore to find out how they perceived their new learning environment, and to explore the coping strategies they employed to manage, understand and construct meaning out of their learning situation. The study also sought to focus on their particular learning needs, given their perception of their environment, and the ways in which higher education providers could best accommodate these needs. A qualitative constructivist methodology was used to examine the learning experiences and coping strategies of 12 Chinese international postgraduates balanced by gender and level of higher degree study involved. The students were interviewed twice over a five-month period, with each interview lasting approximately one hour. The study focused on understanding students' experiences of positive and negative incidents in their learning environment, on the construction of meaning around those incidents, and on students' subsequent responses to them. Potential differences across the variables of level of degree study, gender and marital status were also considered in the analysis. Four major themes were identified in the student experiences those of marginalisation: student/supervisory relationship, academic/organisational marginalisation, social marginalisation, and advantaging. The coping strategies identified are those of self-determination and technique. It was found that adjustment for students was most difficult in the first six to twelve months from entry into the new cultural context, largely due to the influence of previous educational and cultural experiences on expectations. Also highlighted was the range of interpersonal and intrapersonal coping strategies that students used to help manage their cultural transition. The importance of collegial support as a key coping strategy for international student adjustment was confirmed in the study. Self-determination was also shown to be a strong motivator for managing research work and interpersonal relationships. The research indicated a number of important differences between masters and doctoral students' experiences and highlighted differences concerning traditional gender roles. Implications arising from the study may inform intervention programmes that are directed to the points of tension identified in students' experiences. The tensions in student experiences may largely be understood in terms of unrealistic or unfulfilled expectations being brought to the new study context but grounded in the home culture. Addressing these needs may be seen in various ways, including: (1) changing student expectations to make them more realistic; (2) sensitising students in cross-cultural issues; (3) sensitising host university staff in understanding and responding to cross-cultural issues in students; (4) providing appropriate levels of support in dealing with issues as they arise; and (5) structuring opportunities for mutual support by students in the host institution. Further research is indicated into the investigation of the cultural transition experiences and coping strategies of other national or ethnic groups at postgraduate level. Investigation of the experiences of international Chinese students in other disciplines, other host countries, and at other education levels is also indicated.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore are of key strategic importance for Australia. These three nations form the geographic and arguably the political core of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). The growing resilience of ASEAN over the last quarter of a century has been a major factor in Australia's secure strategic outlook. In addition, the Indonesia - Malaysia - Singapore triangle lies across the most feasible military approaches to Australia. Hence strategic cohesion in this triangle greatly reduces the prospect of any kind of military threat to Australia.

In this study l investigate the Singaporean characteristics of broadcast media internationalisation. I ask the question &quote Does Internationalisation lead to homogenisation and commercialisation of the television culture in Singapore or does it give way to more diversity, thus stimulating cultural differentiation?&quote . I articulate the constraints and/or tensions of supranational regulation, foreign policy, regional and intraregional alliances upon communication and the cultural and social effects as they impact on and respond to production, programming, scheduling and output in Singapore. I explain how Singaporean Television media culture takes part in the processes of globalisation, and how it challenges existing cultures and creates new and alternative symbolic and cultural communities, within the context of regional communication. In this thesis 1 conclude that whilst Singapore definitely does not have equity in information, wealth or resource flows it is attempting to liberalise. To do so, the government recognises that serious inadequacies and imbalances must be addressed and that the path to greater political and economic growth is through an actively informed public. Despite regulatory restrictions on data flow and technical and service ownership, Singapore is encouraging regional alliances, depoliticising cultural differences and concentrating on economic imperatives to build mutual knowledge and understanding, multilateral agreements, collective ownership, mutual exchange and cooperative dissemination.

This study sets out to analyse the teaching skills of an effective Australian teacher of French in a primary school in Canberra. Chapter One provides an overview of the primary education in Singapore with particular emphasis on the language policies. The purpose and scope of the study and the approach used in carrying out the study are also described in this chapter. Chapters Two to Six present descriptive features of the teacher's teaching approach. Clarity in her goals and instructions to her Year 3 and Year 5 classes were analysed through extracts of the classroom discourse. The way the teacher provided encouragement and feedback on errors to her Year 3 class were also described. The variation in the pace of her speech in relation to the activities and the adjustments made when she posed questions according to the language proficiency of the pupils, also form part of the data analysed. In Chapter Eight, conclusions were made of the possibility of transferring the teaching approaches to the teaching of English as a second language in primary schools in Singapore by comparing the French program described in Chapter Seven with the primary education system in Singapore. The study concludes with an overview of the areas that need further research and study.

This study sets out to examine the language teaching situation of 100 secondary (high) school teachers who are teaching English as the second language (EL2) in the vernacular schools in Singapore. The data was collected by means of questionnaires. Questions asked included the teachers' personal particulars, classroom deviations, methodology, and preference to teach English as the first language instead of as the second language. Also considered were their suggestions and recommendations. Based on the data and the notions of language learning and teaching strategies, various proposals relating to these areas are discussed. Chapter One contains a short outline of the study and its significance with an overall view of Singapore's education system emphasizing the bilingual policy. The terminology of English as the first language (EL1) and English as the second language (EL2) is clarified for Singapore's local context. This is followed in Chapter Two by a review of the relevant literature, for example, in the various aspects of second language learning, the approaches to language teaching and language learning in relation bo the school curriculum. A discussion on the advantages and limitations of mail questionnaire and the principles involved in questionnaire design is also included in Chapter Two, The design of the study (Chapter Three) involves a discussion on the format of the study and the protypical procedure. Chapter Four can be said to be the culmination of the study. It gives an analysis and interpretation of the data collected from the 100 questionnaire returns. The discussion of Chapter Five is based on what was discovered in the data, for example, teachers' training, their size of classes and workload, their methodology and their attitude and suggestions. An evaluation of the study and the problems involved in the study are also mentioned in Chapter Five. From the data available, it can be concluded that the EL2 teaching situation is far from satisfactory. Therefore various changes are necessary. In Chapter Six, proposals and suggestions for research are recommended.

By 1970, Singapore’s urban landscape was dominated by high-rise blocks of planned public housing built by the People’s Action Party government, signifying the establishment of a high modernist nation-state. A decade earlier, the margins of the City had been dominated by kampongs, home to semi-autonomous communities of low-income Chinese families which freely built, and rebuilt, unauthorised wooden houses. This change was not merely one of housing but belied a more fundamental realignment of state-society relations in the 1960s. Relocated in Housing and Development Board flats, urban kampong families were progressively integrated into the social fabric of the emergent nation-state. This study examines the pivotal role of an event, the great Kampong Bukit Ho Swee fire of 1961, in bringing about this transformation. The redevelopment of the fire site in the aftermath of the calamity brought to completion the British colonial regime’s ‘emergency’ programmes of resettling urban kampong dwellers in planned accommodation, in particular, of building emergency public housing on the sites of major fires in the 1950s. The PAP’s far greater political resolve, and the timing of and state of emergency occasioned by the scale of the 1961 disaster, enabled the government to rehouse the Bukit Ho Swee fire victims in emergency housing in record time. This in turn provided the HDB with a strategic platform for clearing other kampongs and for transforming their residents into model citizens of the nation-state. The 1961 fire’s symbolic usefulness extended into the 1980s and beyond, in sanctioning the PAP’s new housing redevelopment schemes. The official account of the inferno has also become politically useful for the government of today for disciplining a new generation of Singaporeans against taking the nation’s progress for granted. Against these exalted claims of the fire’s role in the Singapore Story, this study also examines the degree of actual change and continuity in the social and economic lives of the people of Bukit Ho Swee after the inferno. In some crucial ways, the residents continued to occupy a marginal place in society while pondering, too, over the unresolved question of the cause of the fire. These continuities of everyday life reflect the ambivalence with which the citizenry regarded the high modernist state in contemporary Singapore.