Civic and Community Engagement Commons^™

Bridging Policy And Grassroots Action With Technology: A Framework For Civic Engagement In Environmental Sustainability, Mikhail Ola Adisa, Sonny Rosenthal, Shola Oyedeji, Ifeoma Adaji, Jari Porras

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Grassroots and civic organizations are increasingly recognized as “middle actors” in sustainability, leveraging ICT-driven solutions to bridge top-down policies with bottom-up citizen engagement and behavioral change. This study examines how civic organizations in Finland and Singapore integrate digital tools to support sustainable waste management practices aligned with Sustainable Development Goals 11, 12, and 17. Guided by a Design Science Research (DSR) approach and drawing on Middle-Out and multi-level governance theories, we developed and validated the Integrated Sustainability Engagement Framework (ISEF) based on interviews with 21 civic organizations and iterative feedback. Findings highlight the central roles of policy translation, localized practices, …

Smu Celebrates 25 Years Of Its Communityservice Programme During Silver Jubilee Year, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

The first university in Singapore to make community service a graduation requirement commemorates another major milestone in its 25th anniversary. SMU has consistently championed community engagement as a cornerstone of its educational mission.

Singapore At 60: Home Truly Is An Idea That Never Stands Still, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

There are many new stories to embrace but also quiet distances between us that we must bridge.

In a National Day op-ed published in The Straits Times, SMU President Professor Lily Kong reflects on what ‘home’ means as Singapore marks its 60th year of independence — and how that meaning continues to evolve across generations. Prompted by a walk through a familiar playground now transformed, Prof Kong considers how Singapore’s changing physical and social landscape mirrors shifts in national identity. While progress and policy evolution signal a society in transition, she also notes the emergence of quieter divides – between …

Impact Assessment Of Uniqlo’S Neighbours Helping Neighbours, Weng Lin Ng, Dalvin Sidhu

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

The UNIQLO Neighbours Helping Neighbours (NHN) is a pilot programme that redistributes recycled UNIQLO products to those in need. Preloved UNIQLO clothing in good condition are collected, washed and pressed, and then redistributed to partnered social service organisations and family service centres for donation to their core beneficiaries.

The objective of the current study is to document and evaluate the impact of the NHN programme on its beneficiaries and present evidence-based recommendations that will aid UNIQLO’s efforts to improve and scale subsequent iterations of this programme.

This report will present results obtained from the following data sources: (1) a quantitative …

Empowering Ageing-In-Place, Zidane Tiew, Wei Tin Hiah, Rachel Wen Yi Ngu, Wensi Lim

ROSA Research Briefs

In the past year, three governmental ministries – the Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Development, and Ministry of Transport – have jointly led Age Well SG, a national programme that seeks to support older Singaporeans in ageing well in their homes and their communities. This programme reflects the government’s priority in enabling ageing-in-place, a trend that has been increasingly welcomed by older Singaporeans. Current policies that seek to enable ageing-in-place are centred on three forms of enhancements in the environments in which older Singaporeans live, such as the implementation of Active Ageing Centres, strengthening of support for care needs, …

Report On Findings From Household Needs Study, Paulin T. Straughan, Mathew Mathews

ROSA Research Briefs

The Household Needs Study (HNS) aimed to capture public perspectives on essential items and activities that are deemed necessary for a normal life in Singapore and to understand the extent to which Singaporeans are able to access these items and activities. To do so, the study adopted the Living Standards Approach (Saunders, Naidoo & Wong, 2022), which purports that individuals experience relative deprivation and/or social exclusion if they do not have access to items and activities that are deemed to be essential by society. In this study, a survey was conducted with a nationally representative sample of around 4,000 respondents …

Why Citizens Engage In Co-Production: A Theoretical Framework And Experimental Evidence, Seulki Lee, Chongmin Na

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Co-production has been embraced as a robust strategy to improve service quality and create public value. Despite growing interest in citizens’ motivations to engage in co-production, there remain some major gaps in the literature. This study proposes a theoretical framework of factors that influence co-production and offers experimental evidence as to the effects of those factors from an online survey experiment with a sample of 1,297 Koreans. The findings show that public service motivation, driven by normative motivations, is associated with greater willingness to co-produce. We find little effect of monetary or non-monetary rewards, input legitimacy, or individual characteristics such …

Social Engagement, Social Networks, And Well-Being Of Older Adults By Gender And Marital Status, Rachel Wen Yi Ngu, Yi Wen Tan, Yan Er Tan, Wei Tin Hiah

ROSA Research Briefs

In this research brief, we explore the differences in well-being, social engagement, and social networks amongst groups of married and unmarried male and female older adults and discuss potential policy implications. Our study found that single older adult men fared significantly worse than their married counterparts and single older adult women across different aspects of social well-being, such as social engagement and social support. While this emphasizes the need for increased community efforts to engage men, especially single men, in social activities, specific outreach efforts may be required to better understand their needs and how community programmes can address them.

Project Silverlight: Community Based And Participant-Led Initiatives To Increase Civic Engagement Among Older Adults, Paulin T. Straughan, William Tov, Wensi Lim, Rachel Ngu, Yan Er Tan, Mindy Eiko Tadai

ROSA Research Briefs

Project Silverlight was a year-long project aimed at redefining social engagement and participation of older adults in the community. In this report, we share our findings from the project and key recommendations to community partners who are looking to adopt a similar model of participant-led programs. Our study found that by engaging student volunteers as a key partner in this initiative, participants showed a significant improvement in their perceptions of youth, and that participants derived a great sense of satisfaction from being involved in the curation of their activities.

Transforming The Volunteer Experience In The Social Service Sector, Dalvin Sidhu, Weng Lin Ng, Thilanga Dilum Wewalaarachchi

Lien Centre for Social Innovation: Research

Transforming the Volunteer Experience in the Social Service Sector is the first analysis report of its kind that focuses on investigating and enhancing volunteerism in Singapore. Through the perspectives of volunteers and volunteer managers via surveys and in-depth interviews, this report reveals a framework depicting five key features that contribute towards a quality volunteering experience. The study also makes recommendations on the actionable steps and strategies that Social Service Agencies can adopt to engage their volunteers more strategically, so that they can play a more significant role in delivering enhanced quality services to service users.

Ageing Strong, Kheng Min Ma, Jovina Ang, Sheetal Bhardwaj

Asian Management Insights

Making the best of the third age.

Exhibiting Transnationalism After Vietnam: The Alpha Gallery In Pursuit Of An Authentic Southeast Asian Art Form, Wen-Qing (Wei Wenqing) Ngoei

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay examines how the Alpha Gallery, an independent artists cooperative established by Malaysians and Singaporeans, curated and staged art shows in the 1970s that advanced its project to unearth and promote an intrinsically Southeast Asian aesthetic. The cooperative pursuit a transnational vision of inter-regional connections between the Bengali Art Renaissance of the early twentieth century and Balinese folk art. It also harbored ambitions of sparking a cultural renaissance in Southeast Asia, though these were ultimately unfulfilled. Importantly, as this essay shows, the cooperative’s transnational vision mirrored the racist thinking and paternalism of Euro-American colonial discourses about civilizing the region’s …

The Vigilante Identity And Organizations, Fan Xuan Chen, Maja Graso, Karl Aquino, Lily Lin, Joey T. Cheng, Katherine Decelles, Abhijeet K. Vadera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

We test the theoretical and practical utility of the vigilante identity, a self-perception of being the kind of person who monitors their environment for signs of norm violations, and who punishes the perceived norm violator, without formal authority. We develop and validate a measure of the vigilante identity scale (VIS) and demonstrate the scale’s incremental predictive validity above and beyond seemingly related constructs (Studies 1 – 2e). We show that the VIS predicts hypervigilance towards organizational wrongdoing (Studies 2 and 4), punishment intentions and behavior in and of organizations (Studies 3 and 4) as well as in the wider community …

Anticipated Guilt And Anti-Littering Civic Engagement In An Extended Norm Activation Model, Sonny Rosenthal, Max S. C. Yu

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

The norm activation model typically concerns behaviors individuals perform to avoid contributing to an environmental problem, which recent research characterized as self-managing behaviors. That research also accounted for behaviors focused on the actions of others, which it labeled other-managing behaviors, finding such behaviors are uniquely related to community attachment and anticipated shame/embarrassment. The current study accounts additionally for civic engagement, which it conceptualizes as a “sibling” of other-managing behaviors. Structural equation modeling of data from a national survey of Singapore residents (N = 949) showed that anticipated shame/embarrassment is related to other managing behavior (β = 0.10) and civic engagement …

Voluntourism – Boon Or Bane?, Sin Harng Luh

Perspectives@SMU

Voluntourists need to be clear about their motive and travel with their eyes open, says SMU adjunct faculty Dr Sin Harng Luh

What Drives Companies To Do Good? A “Universal” Ordering Of Corporate Social Responsibility Motivation, Alwyn Lim, Shawn Pope

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The classic question of why companies do corporate social responsibility (CSR) is central to much theoretical, regression-based, and experimental research. Guiding research into this question is a tripartite schema of normative, instrumental, and political CSR motivations that has become increasingly established in the CSR literature. This paper challenges the schema’s status as a typology of equally plausible alternatives through an integration and analysis of a worldwide literature of 120 existing academic surveys on CSR motivation. Rather, the paper reformulates the schema into a surveyed ordering of CSR motivations that might be called “universal” in having remarkable stability across time periods, …

The Digital Void Of Voluntourism: Here, There And New Currencies Of Care, Orlando Woods, Siew Ying Shee

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores some of the ways in which “care” is being transformed in response to the mediatory role of digital technologies. Digital mediation has caused care to become an increasingly cross-border practice, and a more expansive construct, that destabilises the assumption of presence (“here”) and absence (“there”). Indeed, as the physical and digital merge into one integrated way of being in the world, they enable connectivity across geographical distance, but so too can they create emotional distance within situations of geographical proximity. These outcomes reflect the “digital void” within which caregivers, and society more generally, are implicated. Digital voids …

Rural China Under The Covid‐19 Pandemic: Differentiated Impacts, Rural–Urban Inequality And Agro‐Industrialization, Forrest Q. Zhang, Zhanping Hu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We use field data collected in a village in northern China to examine the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on rural economy and livelihoods. The lockdown effectively protected the village from the pandemic, resulting in zero infection. The economic impacts were mostly negative but differentiated across economic sectors and livelihood strategies; some gained from the business opportunities arising from the pandemic. Wage loss for migrant workers was the most common negative impact but lasted less than 2 months. Overall, rural China has escaped the worst impacts of the pandemic found in other developing countries. We argue that the structure of …

Rural China Under The Covid‐19 Pandemic: Differentiated Impacts, Rural–Urban Inequality And Agro‐Industrialization, Qian Forrest Zhang, Zhanping Hu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We use field data collected in a village in northern China to examine the impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic on rural economy and livelihoods. The lockdown effectively protected the village from the pandemic, resulting in zero infection. The economic impacts were mostly negative but differentiated across economic sectors and livelihood strategies; some gained from the business opportunities arising from the pandemic. Wage loss for migrant workers was the most common negative impact but lasted less than 2 months. Overall, rural China has escaped the worst impacts of the pandemic found in other developing countries. We argue that the structure of …

Experiencing The Unfamiliar Through Mobile Gameplay: Pokémon Go As Augmented Tourism, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Whilst tourism involves encountering the unfamiliar, digital technologies play an increasingly prominent role in mediating these encounters. Augmented reality applications can cause encounters with the unfamiliar to become relational constructs, as difference is mediated through the familiar interface of the digital. Augmented tourism is a concept through which these mediations can be understood. Specifically, augmented reality mobile games bring people and places together through one, integrative, experience of the world. When played in unfamiliar environments, these games provide an interpretive lens that can shape the tourist experience. I draw on an analysis of 22 in-depth interviews with Singapore-based players of …

A Fluctuating Sense Of Power Is Associated With Reduced Well-Being, Eric M. Anicich, Michael Schaerer, Jake Gale, Trevor A. Foulk

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Social power research has been limited by theoretical and methodological traditions that prioritize static comparisons of high and low-power states. This is a crucial limitation given power’s inherently dynamic nature. Accordingly, Anicich and Hirsh (2017a) recently developed a theoretical framework related to the consequences of vertical code-switching – i.e., the act of alternating between behavioral patterns directed toward higher-power and lower-power interaction partners – known as the approach-inhibition-avoidance (AIA) theory of power. Across five main studies and two supplemental studies, we present the first empirical test of this theory using a mix of survey, experimental, and experience-sampling methods. We demonstrate …

Restore Your Sense Of Control — Despite The Pandemic, Eric M. Anicich, Trevor A. Foulk, Merrick R. Osborne, Jake Gale, Michael Schaerer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

The coronavirus pandemic has wrought unprecedented levels of personal and professional upheaval upon many employees. It may irrevocably transform how we work, communicate, eat, shop, date, and travel. Clearly, these are not “normal” times. And yet, society continues to move forward.

Humanity, Above All: Facing Covid-19 With Altruism, Compassion And Empathy, Michael Jenkins

Social Space

In Singapore, we have seen many examples of altruism, compassion and empathy taking place during this challenging COVID-19 period. These ACE attributes, as I call them, are instances of humanity in action.

Covid-19 Has Rewritten Social Narratives. What We Now Need Is A Unifying Mindset, Arthur Adimoelia

Social Space

As COVID-19 cases climb into the millions and the world scrambles to contain its spread, many fingers are pointed at different members of society for not taking social distancing and other mitigating measures seriously.

Parallel Spaces Of Migrant (Non-)Integration In Singapore: Latent Politics Of Distance And Difference Within A Diverse Christian Community, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how the spatial practices of churches can lead to the (non-)integration of migrant communities. Whilst churches bring migrants and non-migrants together in space and time, so too can they cause them to become divided along ethnic, national, linguistic and/or class-based lines. In such cases, migrants can become integrated into a community of other migrants, which can discourage integration into the church-at-large, or into society more generally. These practices of (non-)integration give rise to parallel spaces of Christian praxis that can lead to the reproduction of distance and difference between (and within) migrant and non-migrant communities. To illustrate …

Bettr Barista For Better Lives, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

How a social enterprise used coffee to help lift those from challenging backgrounds

Subverting The Logics Of "Smartness" In Singapore: Smart Eldercare And Parallel Regimes Of Sustainability, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper argues that the divergent logics of “smartness” and “sustainability” can lead to parallel regimes of sustainability. Whilst sustainability is often used to justify the need for smart cities, smart cities are often undermined by the neoliberal logics of digital governance. Moreover, because the intersection of digital technologies and society is a negotiated one, smart solutions often fail to provide adequate solutions to social problems. This is especially true when smart solutions are used to augment or replace hitherto human-centred processes, like caregiving.Parallel regimes of sustainability are a response to these failures. Drawing onan analysis of a trial of …

Homage: Building An App For Elderly Home Care, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

A Singapore startup banks on data and technology to win the market for on-demand home care for senior citizens

Are Leaders Born Or Made?, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Even if there is a particular gene that turns us into leaders, it can be a mixed blessing with complicated effects

Trailblazing Inclusion In The Higher Education Landscape, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

Inclusion takes a village and everyone has a part to play