Sedimented surveillance in Southeast Asia's "smart" city-state: The case of Singapore

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

12-2024

Abstract

This chapter argues that surveillance is a sedimented construct in Singapore, having become deeply implicated in the technologies of modern statecraft and social ordering. We interpret “technology” in broad terms, to include not just information technologies but also the technologies of governance that enable the circulation of power from state to society and within society itself. When understood in conversation with each other, these technologies become mutually reinforcing, creating sedimented patterns of surveillance that are normalised throughout everyday life. Adopting a genealogical approach to unravelling Singapore's surveillant architecture, we explore five distinct epochs in Singapore's modern history – the late colonial, post-independence, the Internet age, the formation of the Smart Nation, and Covid-19 – to better understand the contemporary era of “smart” surveillance. Throughout, we offer critical insight into how sedimented surveillance leads to wide-ranging and often invisible control over public spaces, but at the same time these controls can create slippages through which “deviance” is reproduced.

Discipline

Asian Studies | Human Geography | Urban Studies and Planning

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

The handbook on cities and crime

Editor

OBERWITTLER, Dietrich; WICKES, Rebecca

First Page

468

Last Page

482

ISBN

9781800375703

Identifier

10.4337/9781800375710.00039

Publisher

Edward Elgar

City or Country

Cheltenham

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800375710.00039

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