How The Waltz Has Won: Towards A Waltz Aesthetic

This dissertation examines the development of ballroom dancing aesthetics between 1860 and 1915, focusing on the appropriation, neutralization, and commodification of African American somatic performance by various European American agents/actors. The study suggests that the waltz, a dance form that was in decline at the beginning of the twentieth century, became a vital component of European American strategies to safely encapsulate certain elements of African American aesthetics while eliminating others. This negotiation of African American aesthetics into European American performance is presented as a part of a broader discourse concerned with the maintenance of white hegemony during this period. The work is grounded in the field theory best articulated by Pierre Bourdieu, and the critical race theories of Michal Omi and Howard Winant. From Bourdieu the work draws upon three key terms: habitus, codes of perception, and hexis. Taken together these terms provide the structure for contextualizing the choices made by dancers, dancing teachers, and social reformers who were concerned with modifying ballroom dance forms that had been influenced by African American aesthetics. Omi and Winant's work provide a matrix for understanding the choices of these diverse individuals and organizations as a racial project embedded in a discourse of white hegemony that, even at its most progressive, sought to maintain the hegemony of white, European American culture

The political economy of social control in Singapore

Singapore is a highly controlled society. This thesis shows how the system of social control works as a whole. It does this by examining the details of social regulation in relation to political struggles, the phases of capital accumulation, and the alliance between the People's Action Party-state and foreign capital. A theoretical consideration of social control critically examines traditions which have related economic strategies to political resistance and to the role of the state. This chapter acts as a resource to identify and address issues which emerge in the subsequent detailed study of Singapore. The historical origins of current state repression are located in the British response to the anti-imperialist uprising in the post-war period. During the transition to political independence, the Lee Kuan Yew-faction of the People's Action Party built its alliance with foreign capital under the shelter of colonial-state violence. A survey of theoretical approaches to Singapore's political economy favours an interpretation which sees local struggles as the driving force of change within the context of the latest phases of imperialism. The greater part of the thesis concentrates on the concrete ways that social control has worked in Singapore since the PAP came to power. Major institutions are studied in depth: public housing, education, elections and parliament, and the law. Each highlights a major aspect of social control. The system of state welfare provision through public housing and education stratifies society, forces people into wage labour and induces political loyalty. Parliamentarism and the forms of liberal democracy help to convert submission into consent. If consent is not forthcoming, then the coercive powers of the law and the military are applied. The thesis concludes by showing how different political struggles were met by different forms of social control during the various stages of Singapore's economic development. The result is an overview of the way the whole system of social control works

J.B. Jeyaretnam: Three Decades as Lee Kuan Yew's bete noir

J.B. Jeyaretnam was Singapore's most celebrated opposition leader when his career came to an abrupt end in 2001, but he is better known for the injustices he has suffered at the hands of the People's Action Party regime than for anything he has achieved or said. Bankrupted, imprisoned, deprived of his livelihood and expelled from Parliament twice, he has acquired the aura of martyrdom, yet little is known about his life, his ideas or his motivations. Drawing on interview and archival research, this article studies him with a view to better understanding both the man himself and — probably of greater significance — what his experience can tell us about the dynamics of the Singapore policy. Why did he enter opposition politics and keep coming back for more in the face of persecution? Why did the government set out to destroy him with such vehemence? What does this tell us about the limits of political tolerance in Singapore, both today and in the past? What lessons can other opposition figures learn from his experience? And why has Jeyaretnam been treated so harshly while the government nurtures some other opposition MPs as responsible and courteous players