Conditional inclusion in the sensory contact zone: coexisting with desis in Singapore’s gurdwaras

Publication Type

Journal Article

Publication Date

9-2025

Abstract

This paper advances an understanding of Sikh temples (gurdwaras) in Singapore as ‘sensory contact zones’, where co-ethnic encounters are negotiated through the sensory body. By foregrounding the sensory within the notion of contact zones, we show how minor acts—such as how one smells, sounds, or moves—can trigger subtle yet consequential forms of social sorting. Rather than focusing on inter-ethnic difference or visible markers of diversity, our analysis draws attention to how inclusion and differentiation within shared ethno-religious communities are shaped less by discursive labels than by sensory judgements—of smell, speech, comportment, and proximity. Based on ethnographic research with 27 long-term residents comprising of Singapore citizens and permanent residents, we examine how they interpret, manage, and sometimes contest the presence of temporary migrant co-ethnics. Distance is sustained not through exclusion, but through sensory regulation, which renders migrant workers’ bodies ‘out of place’. These everyday encounters actively reproduce social boundaries by shaping who is sensed as belonging. In attending to the sensory politics of co-ethnic encounters, we offer a framework for analysing migration-led diversity and integration beyond binaries of inclusion or exclusion by reframing inclusion as contingent and stratified, enacted through embodied moral judgements of who belongs where.

Discipline

Race and Ethnicity | Religion | Sociology

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

Social and Cultural Geography

First Page

1

Last Page

21

ISSN

1464-9365

Identifier

10.1080/14649365.2025.2564639

Publisher

Taylor and Francis Group

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1080/14649365.2025.2564639

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