Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 481 - 494 of 494

Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Cemetaries And Columbaria, Memorials And Mausoleums: Narrative And Interpretation In The Study Of Deathscapes In Geography, Lily Kong Mar 1999

Cemetaries And Columbaria, Memorials And Mausoleums: Narrative And Interpretation In The Study Of Deathscapes In Geography, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper reviews research on deathscapes, particularly by geographers in the last decade, and argues that many of the issues addressed reflect the concerns that have engaged cultural geographers during the same period. In particular, necrogeographical research reveals the relevance of deathscapes to theoretical arguments about the social constructedness of race, class, gender, nation and nature; the ideological underpinnings of landscapes, the contestation of space, the centrality of place and the multiplicity of meanings. This paper therefore highlights how the focus on one particular form of landscape reveals macro-cultural geographical research interests and trends.


A Randomized Trial Of The Use Of Print Material And Personal Contact To Improve Mammography Uptake Among Screening Non-Attenders In Singapore, Paulin Tay Straughan, Paulin Tay Straughan, E. H. Ng, H. P. Lee Nov 1998

A Randomized Trial Of The Use Of Print Material And Personal Contact To Improve Mammography Uptake Among Screening Non-Attenders In Singapore, Paulin Tay Straughan, Paulin Tay Straughan, E. H. Ng, H. P. Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore Breast Screening Project was a nationwide study inviting a random sample of women between the ages of 50 and 64 years for mammography at one of two hospital-based screening centres over two years. The current study was undertaken to determine if (1) mailed health educational material alone, or (2) the same material delivered during a home visit made to the subject and her family would increase the uptake among Singapore women who had not responded to two previous invitations for mammographic screening as part of the Project. This randomized trial employed a standard second reminder letter (R), the …


Stereotyping And Self-Presentation: Effects Of Gender Stereotype Activation, Chi-Yue Chiu, Ying-Yi Hong, Ivy Ching-Man Lam, Jeanne Ho-Ying Fu, Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong, Venus Sau-Lai Lee Jul 1998

Stereotyping And Self-Presentation: Effects Of Gender Stereotype Activation, Chi-Yue Chiu, Ying-Yi Hong, Ivy Ching-Man Lam, Jeanne Ho-Ying Fu, Jennifer Yuk-Yue Tong, Venus Sau-Lai Lee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent research has shown that the presence of stereotype-relevant environmental cues can inadvertently bias people's judgments of others in the direction of the stereotype. The present research demonstrated analogous activation effects on self-stereotyping. In two experiments, the effects of stereotype activation on the tendencies to stereotype others and to self-stereotype were examined. Experiment 1 tested whether incidental exposure to gender-related materials might activate gender stereotypes and hence affect perception of another person. Experiment 2 investigated gender stereotype activation effects on female and male high school students' self-presentation behaviors. The results showed that incidental exposure to stereotype-relevant environmental cues increased both …


Fatalism Reconceptualized: A Concept To Predict Health Screening Behavior, Paulin Tay Straughan, Adeline Seow Jun 1998

Fatalism Reconceptualized: A Concept To Predict Health Screening Behavior, Paulin Tay Straughan, Adeline Seow

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social norms governing health seeking behavior affect perceived self-efficacy which in turn determines if self-directed change is sustained. Using this argument, we contextualized the link between social background and preventive health behavior. We argued that fatalism influenced self-efficacy, which in turn affected acceptability of four screen tests: mammography, clinical breast examination, breast self-examination, and the Pap Smear Test. A seven-item index was developed to measure fatalism. From data obtained through a community survey of women between 50 to 65 years, the index was validated. Logistic regression was conducted to verify the empirical link between fatalism and the four screen tests. …


Refocusing On Qualitative Methods: Problems And Prospects For Research In A Specific Asian Context, Lily Kong Mar 1998

Refocusing On Qualitative Methods: Problems And Prospects For Research In A Specific Asian Context, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A recent issue of Area (1996, Volume 28.2) devoted space to six papers on focus groups, attesting to their increasing importance as a means of obtaining qualitative data. The papers provided interesting insights into the use of focus groups in specific research and cultural contexts, and raised three main issues in my mind. The first is a continuing misunderstanding as to the nature of knowledge, which surfaces in discussions of, and approaches to, the use of qualitative methods such as focus groups. The second is the range of related techniques that are actually involved in the qualitative method, known as …


Popular Music In A Transnational World: The Construction Of Local Identities In Singapore, Lily Kong Apr 1997

Popular Music In A Transnational World: The Construction Of Local Identities In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As an area of geographical inquiry, popular music has not been explored to any large extent. Where writings exist, they have been somewhat divorced from recent theoretical and methodological questions that have rejuvenated social and cultural geography. In this paper, I focus on one arena which geographers can develop in their analysis of popular music, namely, the exploration of local influences and global forces in the production of music. In so doing, I wish to explore how local resources intersect with global ones in a process of transculturation. Using the example of English songs by one particular songwriter and artiste …


The Construction Of National Identity Through The Production Of Ritual And Spectacle: An Analysis Of National Day Parades In Singapore, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh Mar 1997

The Construction Of National Identity Through The Production Of Ritual And Spectacle: An Analysis Of National Day Parades In Singapore, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, we adopt the view that 'nation' and 'national identity' are social constructions, created to serve ideological ends. We discuss this in the specific empirical context of Singapore's National Day parades. By drawing on officially produced souvenir programmes and magazines, newspaper reports, and interviews with participants and spectators, we analyse the parades between 1965 and 1994, showing how, as an annual ritual and landscape spectacle, the parades succeed to a large extent in creating a sense of awe, wonderment and admiration. Discussion focuses on four aspects of the celebrations: the site of the parades, their display and theatricality, …


Singapore And The Experience Of Place In Old Age, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo Oct 1996

Singapore And The Experience Of Place In Old Age, Lily Kong, Brenda S. A. Yeoh, Peggy Teo

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Through case studies of two neighborhoods in Singapore with large concentrations of elderly residents-Tiong Bahru and Chinatown-we explore the relationship between the aged's emotional attachments to place and the sustenance of their personal identities, their continued participation in life, and their adaptation to changing circumstances. In particular, we examine their feelings of physical, social, and autobiographical insideness. We emphasize the rapidly changing physical conditions in Chinatown wrought by the government's conservation strategy and their implications for the elderly. In Tiong Bahru young people are moving to newer housing developments, leaving the aged behind in an essentially little-changed physical environment; we …


Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong Jun 1996

Ideology, Social Commentary And Resistance In Popular Music: A Case Study Of Singapore, Phua Siew Chye, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Popular music as a site of struggles over meaning is focused upon, where the social and political relations between different groups in Singapore society are mirrored. How ruling elites and everyday people make use of the same cultural form--popular music--for different purposes is examined.


Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Making "Music At The Margins"? A Social And Cultural Analysis Of Xinyao In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Formalist critics and aestheticians have argued that music does not possess any kind of "extra-musical" significance, that there is no meaning beyond the form and structural relations of the notes. For them, music exemplifies the laws of mathematical harmony and proportion rather than the social and political contexts within which it is produced, reproduced and consumed. This view has been challenged by a number of social theorists: Max Weber, Theodor Adorno and Edward Said have all argued for an understanding of music within its social, cultural, economic and political contexts. Such analysis of popular music is now unquestioned. Indeed, it …


Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1996

Popular Music And A Sense Of Place In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper illustrates how popular music written, produced, and performed by Singaporeans provides a means through which the culture and society of Singapore may be understood. Music with English language text conveys a sense of place and reflects a distinctively Singaporean spirit and identity. The paper examines four themes: the portrayal of Singapore's multiracial population which reflects a unique cultural synthesis; the Singaporeans' concept of urbanity, manifested as the simultaneous attraction and repulsion towards the city and the desire for nature and the rustic; the distinctive social engineering in Singapore; and the way in which global issues are imported into …


Music And Cultural Politics: Ideology And Resistance In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 1995

Music And Cultural Politics: Ideology And Resistance In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper focuses on popular music written and produced by Singaporeans to illustrate the nature of social relationships based on ideological hegemony and resistance. Analysis is based on two groups of music: 'national' songs supported by the government in the 'Sing Singapore' programme; and songs brought together in Not the Singapore song book. Interviews with local lyricists and analysis of video productions provide supplementary information. Music is used by the ruling elite to perpetuate certain ideologies aimed at political socialization and to inculcate a civil religion that directs favour and fervour towards the nation. Music is also a form of …


'Environment' As A Social Concern: Democratising Public Arenas In Singapore?, Lily Kong Jan 1994

'Environment' As A Social Concern: Democratising Public Arenas In Singapore?, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the question of who defines the agenda of environmental concerns in Singapore. It argues that the state plays an inordinately large role in defining the agenda and implementing the solutions. Few other competing environmental agendas have been set in alternative public arenas. While this has worked generally well in Singapore, there are larger roles for environmental groups, businesses and industries, and other bodies to play. It is in the enlarged roles of these bodies that the hope for a greater democratization of public arenas in Singapore lies.


Urban Constraints, Political Imperatives: Environmental 'Design' In Singapore, Victor R. Savage, Lily Kong Aug 1993

Urban Constraints, Political Imperatives: Environmental 'Design' In Singapore, Victor R. Savage, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What lies at the heart of the continuing efforts at social education and engineering? We argue that they stem from a political elite which recognises the constraints facing Singapore and the need to deal with them at national level. Specifically, the government in Singapore has recognised the spatial constraints of an island-state and the dangers of a burgeoning population, particularly in relation to the need to sustain a viable urban ecosystem. They have therefore been conscientious in planning and population control. They have also stressed the importance of remaining economically viable in order to survive and an entire survival and …