Social Policy

Golden Mile Complex is a Brutalist building facing potential demolition after its owners agreed to a collective sale attempt – much to the dismay of many in Singapore. Most news coverage, however, focuses on its architectural importance to Singapore’s heritage. But it plays an important social role, too, for Thai migrants. In this long-form research paper, Al Lim explores Golden Mile, and investigates the effect of its potential destruction on the Thai migrant community in Singapore.

BY SAM BARRAK This past November, Massachusetts made history as the first state to affirm transgender non-discrimination protections in a public referendum. To those voters who said yes on Question 3, thank you for making the state that I love a safer place for me to live as a transgender person. While we rightly celebrate […]

BY BRETT J. BANKER Imagine there were a bipartisan agreement in Congress for a package of critical reforms to a politically important government agency. Say that the chief sponsors of the legislation enacting those reforms included both the chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus[1] and a prominent member of the Congressional Progressive Caucus.[2] Let’s […]

A humane society cares for all of its members, whether they are citizens or not. But in today’s world, rights are often tied to citizenship. Poh Yong Han explores the options for migrant worker advocacy in Singapore, focusing on the potential power of the arts in bringing about positive change.

Tay Hong Yi examines the psychology behind the “elite” and “neighbourhood” school labels, exploring the link between school names and the prestige associated with “elite” schools. He argues that school names play a role in entrenching educational stratification and have become an indicator of social hierarchy – and that reframing the discussion this way can facilitate more targeted education policy design.

BY EVELYN NAM When Dr. Ford was asked what she remembers to be the worst about her experience of sexual assault, she responded: “the laughter – the boys laughing at me at my expense.” A few days later, the President of the United States made a punchline of Dr. Ford at a rally, and thousands […]

BY COLIN KILLICK People with disabilities know, firsthand, that America’s current social safety net is unsustainable. Wage stagnation,[i] automation, and outsourcing threaten jobs,[ii] meaning more and more people will find themselves unable to make ends meet through full-time work. This next generation of unemployed workers will need government programs to help them get back on […]

Public spaces are under appreciated in their impact on society, Nur Atiqa Asri writes. Based on her evaluations of public spaces in Singapore regularly used by migrant workers, she argues that democratizing our public spaces can help address the emerging fault lines between migrant workers and locals in Singapore’s social fabric.

The stimulant Captagon has been portrayed as a super drug underlying the violence in Syria and Iraq. But the emphasis on the drug’s side-effects, in conjunction with a fear of narcotics bred by the war on drugs, has detracted from a proper analysis of the foundational causes of that violence.

Extreme weather events made worse by climate change are wreaking havoc on cities worldwide. Al Lim evaluates Singapore’s climate resilience through the lens of the recent MRT flooding incidents, and explores how Singapore can strengthen social resilience as a community.

BY CLAUDIA NG While many of us are worried about escalating tensions in the Korean peninsula, there is a looming national security threat right here at home: obesity. In fact, one in three Americans between the ages of 17 to 24 cannot be drafted for military service because they are overweight or obese. Why are […]

“My apartment is everything I prayed for when I was locked up,” Morgan[1] says, his brown eyes twinkling. “Do you want to see it?” Morgan pulls his phone from his back pocket, turns the screen toward me, and opens a photograph of a bright galley kitchen with a couple of pots resting on the electric […]