'Far from crippling' : divorce, individualisation and personal communities

Divorce is commonly perceived as a tragic event that destroys both individual and family lives. Scholarly discussion on divorce has largely focused on the negative consequences of divorce, specifically in the areas of finances, accommodation and emotional wellbeing. In addition, conservative scholars, politicians and religious leaders have portrayed divorce as a social problem that threatens the very solidarity of society - to them, divorce signifies the decline of the social institutions of marriage and family. My research, however, finds that insufficient emphasis has been given to the positive aspects of the divorce experience. Moreover, it challenges these common assumptions, both popular and scholarly, on divorce and divorced individuals and addresses the gaps in the literature on divorce. My study engages theories of individualisation in its discussion on divorce, showing that divorcees exercised choice and possessed autonomy when making the decision to end their marriage, design their divorce biography and manage their personal relationships. At the same time, I interrogate theories of individualisation and extend claims advanced by their critics, indicating that divorcees did not make their decisions based solely on individual preferences, but also in close relation to members of their personal community. My study shows that relationships with members of individuals' personal community remain salient in their post-divorce lives. To understand the subjective experience of divorcees - from making the choice to leave the marriage to employing different strategies to cope with the crisis and reconstructing a personal community - I conducted semi-structured, in-depth interviews with forty respondents from Singapore and Australia. With the support of empirical evidence, my study argues that my divorced respondents gained a sense of achievement and self-fulfilment from their ability to pursue authenticity, reclaim control, gain independence, work through the challenges of divorce and reconstruct a personal community for intimacy, belonging and support. Moreover, my research generates findings about how the respondents continued to pursue and achieve personal fulfilment in different aspects of their lives even after the rupture of their marriage. I also find that although the narrative accounts of my respondents from both countries revealed subtle variances due to the differences in the political and cultural contexts of their location, they converged to the same positive account. My sociological account of divorce involves the consideration of scholarship on individualisation, personal communities, marriage, family and divorce and is combined with my analysis of the respondents' narratives that I developed in this thesis. My study is beneficial to the sociology of divorce as it demonstrates the relevance of the well-established debate about individualisation and the significance of personal community to the discussion of divorce and offers a relatively overlooked positive perspective on the experience of divorce: far from being crippled by divorce, individuals can go on to pursue and often attain personal fulfilment in different aspects of their lives

Transnational divorces in Singapore: experiences of low-income divorced marriage migrant women

Global economic restructuring saw the dramatic expansion of feminised labour and extensive mobilisation of women from less wealthy to wealthier countries to supply reproductive labour. Some migrant women perform unpaid reproductive labour through marriage migration in their roles as wives, mothers and daughters-in-law. The paper seeks to understand the divorce experiences of low-income marriage migrant women in Singapore after their marriage with Singaporean husband has ended. By engaging theorisations on transnational families, the paper discusses the transnational aspects of the women’s divorce biographies. Using empirical data collected through in-depth interviews, this article examines how the women work out their transnational divorce biographies in these three areas: one, coping with divorce proceedings and obtaining legal representation; two, working out the rights to remain in Singapore and other livelihood issues; and three, negotiate with ex-spouse over post-divorce co-parenting arrangements. To avoid framing the women’s experiences in ‘victim versus agent’ binary terms, the paper examines both their struggles and strategies using a transnational, intersectional feminist framework. This analytical perspective allows the paper to discuss how unequal effects of globalisation and intersection of the women’s social identities shape their divorce trajectories, in terms of the struggles they face and strategies they employ

Heteronormativity and sexuality politics in Singapore: the female-headed households of divorced and lesbian mothers

This article explores the family practices of female-headed households in Singapore, specifically, those of lesbian and divorced mothers as they negotiate the entrenched normative orders of sexuality and gender in Singapore. In examining the non-normative lives of lesbian and divorced mothers, this article marshals two distinct fields of study to explore the profound effects of heteronormativity on all who stand outside its fold. Using empirical data collected from in-depth interviews with Singaporean lesbian and divorced mothers, this article provides insights into how the women lead, organise and practise family; identifies the challenges they face in an unfavourable policy and social environment in which heteronormativity is assumed at every turn; and asks after the hopes and aspirations of these women for their non-normative households. Based on these accounts, the paper outlines a broader vision for government policy positions on the family and for sexuality politics relevant for contexts deeply invested in a heteronormative ideal

Cohort profile : Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO)

The Singapore Preconception Study of Long-Term Maternal and Child Outcomes (S-PRESTO) is a preconception, longitudinal cohort study that aims to study the effects of nutrition, lifestyle, and maternal mood prior to and during pregnancy on the epigenome of the offspring and clinically important outcomes including duration of gestation, fetal growth, metabolic and neural phenotypes in the offspring. Between February 2015 and October 2017, the S-PRESTO study recruited 1039 Chinese, Malay or Indian (or any combinations thereof) women aged 18–45 years and who intended to get pregnant and deliver in Singapore, resulting in 1032 unique participants and 373 children born in the cohort. The participants were followed up for 3 visits during the preconception phase and censored at 12 months of follow up if pregnancy was not achieved (N = 557 censored). Women who successfully conceived (N = 475) were characterised at gestational weeks 6–8, 11–13, 18–21, 24–26, 27–28 and 34–36. Follow up of their index offspring (N = 373 singletons) is on-going at birth, 1, 3 and 6 weeks, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months and beyond. Women are also being followed up post-delivery. Data is collected via interviewer-administered questionnaires, metabolic imaging (magnetic resonance imaging), standardized anthropometric measurements and collection of diverse specimens, i.e. blood, urine, buccal smear, stool, skin tapes, epithelial swabs at numerous timepoints. S-PRESTO has extensive repeated data collected which include genetic and epigenetic sampling from preconception which is unique in mother–offspring epidemiological cohorts. This enables prospective assessment of a wide array of potential determinants of future health outcomes in women from preconception to post-delivery and in their offspring across the earliest development from embryonic stages into early childhood. In addition, the S-PRESTO study draws from the three major Asian ethnic groups that represent 50% of the global population, increasing the relevance of its findings to global efforts to address non-communicable diseases