In Asia many young men and women feel obligated to give allowances to their parents. Scholars have shown that Singapore has reinforced traditional family relationships as a source of economic national security among citizens by drawing these feelings of obligation. I argue that students’ experience with parent-child relationships of obligation within Singapore comes from a combination of state policy and parental expectations. These relationships are not created solely by the state, but co-created by the combination of parents and the state and result in reciprocal relationships expressed as gratitude. This thesis argues that there are state programs in Singapore that reinforce sons’ bonds to parents while they are studying overseas in order to inculcate the idea of self-motivated gratitude to give money to parents. This study draws on data gathered from ethnographic interviews and participant observation conducted in Singapore with male students returning from studying overseas in 2015. The conscription of men into the military, scholarships for overseas educations, and funding for overseas Singaporean communities were all arenas where the state invested in strengthening the ties between sons and their parents in order to keep overseas students close to family. Among the respondents in this study the pressure to give back to family was solidified as a result of these programs which demonstrate that the state of Singapore seeks to sustain a global governance of gratitude among Singaporean transnational families. / Graduate / 0326 / raviv_litman@outlook.com

People from many different ethnic backgrounds settled in Singapore over the course of the nineteenth century, making new lives for themselves on an island with very little recent human habitation. The homes they chose to build for themselves reflected new, sometimes aspirational, hybrid identities. A close observation of these structures helps to form a more complete picture of social conditions in turn of the century Singapore.

Presenting an authoritative one-party rule since fifty years, the case of Singapore does not concord with the various theories of democratization. After proving that Singapore is not a Liberal-Democracy, we argue that the country manages to create a model of stability both in terms of politics and economy, that act as trade- offs to liberal characteristics. The approach uses a qualitative analysis of the electoral framework, a cultural comprehension of contemporary elements and data on its economic success. Ultimately, this thesis aims at studying the idea that Liberal-Democracy is not a model that necessarily needs to be implemented for the functioning of all nations.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-80). / by Pui Leng Woo. / M.C.P. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning; and, (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaves 210-213. / by Ellen Lou. / M.S.

Thesis (M.C.P.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Urban Studies and Planning, 1982. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH / Thesis (M.S.)--M.I.T., Dept. of Architecture, 1982. / Bibliography: leaves 78-80. / by Pui Leng Woo. / M.C.P.

This study focuses on the analysis of collective meaning associated with secondary school-teachers' and outdoor practitioners' beliefs about the value of outdoor education in the city-state of Singapore. A phenomenographical approach was employed to map the qualitatively different ways in which people understand, perceive, or experience various aspects of outdoor education. By conducting in-depth interviews with school-teachers and outdoor practitioners (n=11), a range of beliefs about the value of outdoor education were revealed. Through a phenomenographic analysis framework, three conceptions were identified that detail the participants' collective meanings of the value of outdoor education; namely (a) belief in the value of outdoor environments in providing affordances for authentic, realistic learning, (b) belief in its value in fostering social emotional growth, physical and mental robustness, and (c) belief in the value of outdoor education as preparation for students' futures. A secondary research question considered the factors that influence the beliefs of the two sets of actors, teachers and outdoor practitioners, who are the focus of this study. The analysis and discussion focus on the context and meaning of the values ascribed to outdoor education as well as the factors that influenced the beliefs. The findings indicate that school-teachers and outdoor practitioners have strong beliefs about the value of outdoor education. This strong intrinsic belief is constructed through 'sense-making' of their own experiences in the outdoors. This suggests that there is value in investing in the continuing professional development of school-teachers and outdoor practitioners in their outdoor education practice, so that this increased capacity in their complementary roles can bring about the added value of outdoor education to students. Several recommendations for policy, practice as well as further research in the field are offered.

Office buildings in hot humid Singapore appear to be designed for stable and uniform indoor conditions. It is proposed in this thesis that this is unnecessary, as occupant comfort expectations do not warrant it and energy is wasted as a result. A comfort-based approach to design is advocated, as a means of balancing user needs with the objective of energy conservation.This issue of how perception of comfort is linked with indoor stability emerged from the question, 'why do office buildings, despite Bioclimatic prescriptions for hot humid conditions, continue to be predominantly climate rejecting and active-run?' The literature was found to be polarised by arguments for architectural solutions that are climatically responsive and present lower energy costs, and those for engineered solutions that deliver greater, more consistent comfort, albeit through reliance on electro-mechanical systems.It is argued that comprehending the gaps in the literature, and between theory and application, requires a better understanding of occupant comfort. This would be an inside-out view of comfort and climate, predicated on how the occupant is affected by the building and the cognitive nature of comfort itself.Relying on a sample of office buildings, the thesis set out to establish the following:Prevalence of the climate-based approach, specifically Yeang's Bioclimatic ModelPrevalence of uniformity and stability of the indoor environmentOccupant perception of indoor comfort, both thermal and visual, particularly with regard to variability of ambient conditionsOccupant perception of various operational modes: passive, mixed and activeThese goals were addressed through observations of form, envelope and layout, occupant surveys and the monitoring of buildings in passive and active modes.It was found that the Bioclimatic approach is non-existent in the context of the Singapore office ++ / building. In the case of two Bioclimatic buildings in Malaysia, the Model is not consistently applied. This disparity appears partly due to conflicting priorities, in particular style, cost and client pressures, and partly due to assumptions about occupant comfort.The Singapore office building was found to be predominantly active-run, operating within a narrow bandwidth of temperatures across most spaces. Occupant perception of variability outside the primary workplace, however, is one of acceptance, even preference. It was found through analysis of user feedback that the office building, on the basis of comfort expectations, could be divided into three activity zones: Work, Support and Transit.This 3-tiered structure was subsequently tested through a large-scale, longitudinal survey carried out across three spaces, each representing an activity zone, within a single building. The survey was accompanied by adjustments to the building's temperature settings to test the limits of acceptance in each zone. Findings from this exercise support the notion of a three-zoned office building, in which thermal conditions for each zone could be varied without affecting comfort. Energy figures that were monitored before and after the resetting showed drops of 7.1 % in chiller consumption and 2.9% in overall consumption.These findings led to a comfort-based, tri-modal proposal for office buildings in hot humid conditions, defined as the Psychoclimatic Model for its basis in comfort expectations and the interaction between climate, building and the occupant.The implications of the thesis outcome on regulatory control in Singapore and thermal comfort theory are discussed. Recommendations are made for future research into other building types and national context, plus a parametric study into the full energy-saving potential of the Psychoclimatic Model.

This study is a comparative investigation of organizational leadership internationally in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. The thesis developed is largely based on the "PM" (Performance/Maintenance) model of leadership developed by Misumi over the last three or four decades in Japan.The Misumi model sets a precedent interesting for its Eastern juxtaposition with Hofstede and for the tension it recognizes between behaviours general to all situations of organizational leadership and those which are context-specific. In addition to the focus on this theory in particular, the study examines the relationship of national and personal values to perceptions and interpretation of organizational leadership behaviour. The underlying purpose is to increase understanding of cross-cultural variables in the field of organizational leadership.For its premise, the research undertaken makes the suggestion that leadership behaviours are influenced by national cultural variables and therefore national similarities or differences are, at least to some extent, culturally determined. It is the scope of this cultural imperative which becomes the focus for the thesis. Hypotheses developed, and the data gathered to test them, centre on the perceptions of consistency between organizational leadership in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.

Due to the scarcity of land at coastal regions around the world, land reclamation is commonly carried out for the future expansion of various infrastructure facilities. Marine clay is present at the coastal regions of Southeast Asia. Land reclamation on this highly compressible soil foundation often requires the use of soil improvement works to eliminate significant future settlements from occurring. The combination of prefabricated vertical drains with preloading is one of the most widely used ground improvement methods in land reclamation projects. The best means available for field measurement and back-analysis of the marine clay geotechnical characteristics under reclamation fills is by carrying out extensive field instrumentation and in-situ tests. In-situ testing of marine clay was carried out at a test site. In-situ penetration testing was used to analyse the degree of consolidation, the improved shear strengths, overconsolidation ratio and the effective stress of marine clay prior to reclamation as well as after surcharge loading. In-situ dissipation testing was used to determine the coefficient of consolidation due to horizontal flow and horizontal hydraulic conductivity of the marine clay prior to reclamation as well as after surcharge loading. The in-situ penetration and dissipation tests were carried out by means of the field vane shear, piezocone, dilatometer, self-boring pressuremeter and BAT permeameter. Field instrumentation methods, assessment and hack-analysis of marine clay behaviour under reclamation fills forms the crux of this research. / The factors that affect the field instrumentation assessment of marine clays treated with prefabricated vertical drains, forms an integral part of this research study. Settlement gauges and piezometers were used to monitor the performance of the vertical drains and to assess the degree of consolidation of the improved soil at two case study sites. The field settlement data were back-analysed by the Asaoka and Hyperbolic methods to predict the ultimate settlement of the reclaimed land under the surcharge fill. Back-analysis of the field settlement and piezometer monitoring data also enabled the coefficient of consolidation due to horizontal flow to be closely estimated. Finite element modeling of marine clay and prefabricated vertical drains was carried out and compared with the field surface settlement results at the two case study sites.