Introduction: cultures of resistance in Asia’s transforming cities

The convergence of global capital, technology and labour flows together with the efforts of Asian nation-states vying to position their cities as major nodes in the global economy is bringing about new challenges and opportunities in these urban centres. This is generating what Burawoy (2000) calls a ‘transformative crisis’ in urban space, in that cities which mediate global economic activity and the movement of goods, capital, technology and people, are doing so under conditions of disparity and segmentation (Knox 2002, Sassen 2005), fracturing urban landscapes into new enclaves of spatial and economic inequality, disrupting former frames of reference and spaces of order within the city. Overt opposition to these transformations has come from various perspectives: from political groups, NGOs and activists. This chapter, however, aims to introduce a series of essays that document these contemporary processes of urban transition from the perspective of everyday resistance, giving voice to the experiences of lives embedded and implicated in these processes, and exploring how ordinary inhabitants of Asia’s transforming cities are responding and actively intervening in urban and social change

Home/hotel : managing the challenge of globalisation

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Precarious experiences of Indians in Australia on 457 temporary work visas

The study of temporary skilled migration in Australia is relatively new. As a rapidly emerging source of labour and settlers for Australia's immigration programme, temporary skilled migration will have a major and potentially long-lasting impact on Australia. Since the mid-1990s, temporary skilled migration (under the subclass 457 visa programme) has overtaken permanent migration to Australia. India is now the largest and fastest growing source of temporary skilled migrants. This is a major new development in Australian migration history; yet, to date, there has been little qualitative research into the subjective experiences, motivations and settlement patterns of Indian temporary skilled migrants in Australia, from the perspective of the migrant. This article presents findings from a 3-year qualitative study on the experiences of temporary skilled migrants from India living and working in Australia. It argues that many of the quantitative studies on this topic fail to offer a nuanced reading of these workers' experiences in Australia, in particular, their situations of vulnerability engendered by the recruitment process, visa conditions, unlawful employment practices and living arrangements.22 page(s

The Diaspora and the global circulation of Tamil cinema

Hitherto, the academic study of Indian cinema has focused primarily on Bollywood, despite the fact that the Tamil film industry, based in southern India, has overtaken Bollywood in terms of annual output. This book examines critically the cultural and cinematic representations in Tamil cinema. It outlines its history and distinctive characteristics, and proceeds to consider a number of important themes such as gender, religion, class, caste, fandom, cinematic genre, the politics of identity and diaspora. Throughout, the book cogently links the analysis to wider social, political and cultural phenomena in Tamil and Indian society. Overall, it is an exciting and original contribution to an under-studied field, also facilitating a fresh consideration of the existing body of scholarship on Indian cinema.Introduction: The Cultural History and Politics of South Indian Tamil Cinema / Selvaraj Velayutham -- 1. A Good Woman, A Very Good Woman: Tamil Cinema’s Women / C.S. Lakshmi -- 2. The Tamil Film Heroine: From a Passive Subject to a Pleasurable Object / Sathiavathi Chinniah -- 3. Presencing the Amman in Tamil Cinema: Cinema Spectatorship as Sensuous Apprehension / Kalpana Ram -- 4. Politics and the Film in Tamil Nadu: The Stars and the DMK / Robert Hardgrave -- 5. The Nurturing Hero: Changing Images of MGR / Sara Dickey -- 6. Tamil Cinema in the Public Sphere: The Evolving Art of Banner Advertisements in Chennai / Preminda Jacob -- 7. Encountering a New Art: Writers Response to Cinema in Tamil / Nadu Theodore Baskaran -- 8. Cinema in the Countryside: Popular Tamil Film and the Remaking of Rural Life / Anand Pandian -- 9. Imaginary Geographies: The Makings of ‘South’ in Contemporary Tamil Cinema / Rajan Krishnan -- 10. Encounters with ‘India’: (Ethno)-Nationalism in Tamil Cinema / Vijay Devadas and Selvaraj Velayutham -- 11. The Diaspora and the Global Circulation of Tamil Cinema / Selvaraj Velayutham

Responding to globalization : nation, culture and identity in Singapore

Focuses on the globalisation nexus in Singapore: the tensions between the necessity to embrace the global to ensure economic survival and the need for a committed population to support the perpetuation of the nation-state and its economic success.Introduction: Globalization and the nation-state -- 1. The making of the Singapore nation-state and the quest for a national identity -- Imagining Singapore: from colony to nationhood -- Developing the Singapore nation: strategies and policies of nation-building -- The question of national identity in the academic literature -- Internationalizing Singapore: nationhood and its connections elsewhere -- 2. The rhetoric of Asian values and the embracing of a "New Asian" identity -- Economy, identity, modernity, ambivalence: for functions of Asian values in Singapore -- 3. Creating national citizens for a global city -- The next lap: building the global city 1991-1997 -- 4. Re-branding Singapore: cosmopolitan cultural and urban redevelopment in a global city-state -- Cosmpolitanizing national culture: recent cultural policy trends in Singapore -- Managing and branding: evaluating Singapore's vision for a cosmopolitan global city -- Nationhood and the dilemmas of the cosmopolitan city-state -- 5. At "home" in a globalized city-state? -- Affect, identity and the nateriality of nation -- The contradictions of Singaporean social modernity -- Managerial speak and governmental forms of belonging -- Singapore and the gift of social life

Affect, materiality, and the gift of social life in Singapore

This paper draws on research data gathered from an Internet discussion forum, e-mail survey, and newspaper report to examine the question of national identity and belonging in Singapore. It considers how Singaporean citizens relate to the kinds of discourses on national identity presented by the government and articulate their experiences and sense of belonging to the Singapore nation. It argues that the government's approach to nation building based on economic developmentalism and survivalism has created an ambivalent and tenuous relationship of mutual obligation between the individual and the nation-state. It is therefore crucial that the basis of national identity is dislodged from the ideology of survivalism if an ethical practice of obligation/reciprocity is to emerge.27 page(s

Everyday racism in Singapore

In this paper, I outline some of the common forms of racism that Singaporean Indians experience in their daily lives. Though other racial minority groups such as the Malays and Eurasians also experience racism within the Chinese dominated Singaporean society, I am limiting my focus to the Indians as my research is based on this community. It should be pointed out that the experience of racism among the Malays has been well documented (see Tremewan 1996 & Rahim 1998). Moreover, because the Malays are often singled out as a “socially and economically underachieving” community in Singapore which in turn has generated critical response and resentment from countries like Indonesia and Malaysia, racism towards the Malays is also well publicised. However, racism towards the Indians has received little public attention. Even though Indians face racial discrimination in their everyday lives, their high socio-economic standing relative to their population size puts them as a prosperous and successful community in Singapore. As a result, racism has been become a non-issue for the India community and effectively ruling out the possibility of articulating experiences of racism discrimination in any official capacity.8 page(s