Creating modern women: The kitchen in postcolonial Singapore, 1960–90

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 414-434
Author(s):  
Ying-kit Chan
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
The State ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Class Status

This article examines the modern kitchen as a technological artefact and a mechanism through which the postcolonial Singaporean state and agents of household consumerism such as advertisers, retailers, home economists, and social scientists constructed the image of a modern Singaporean woman. By revealing how the female consumer-cum-homemaker became a symbol of material success and middle-class status in Fordist Singapore, the article highlights two types of domestication: the subordination of women to the patriarchal imperatives of family and nation, and the transformation of hard successes in the economy into soft comforts in the kitchen. This article suggests that although the state had narrowed the gap between popular expectations for improved living standards and its ability to fulfil them, it also unwittingly enmeshed definitions of femininity, womanhood, and female citizenship in a series of contradictions and tensions that had implications for contemporary Singaporean society.

scholarly journals LIVING IN UNCERTAINTY - PROSPERITY AND THE ANXIETIES OF NGO MIDDLE-CLASS WOMEN IN THE CONTEXT OF MARKETISATION AND PRIVATISATION IN VIETNAM

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Binh Trinh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Activities ◽  
Market Values ◽  
Moral Conduct ◽  
New Middle Class ◽  
Class Status ◽  
Individual Self ◽  
The University ◽  
Middle Strata

Studies of the new middle-class often write about the anxieties of falling behind with its members acquiring their middle-class status from uncertain and unpredictable market values. This type of anxiety is typical for members of the white-collar middle-class who often deal with pressures to maintain a conspicuous consumption level to remain in the middle strata. I argue that some of the anxieties associated with wealth experienced by the new middle class in Vietnam are also the result of a mode of governmentality that is used by the state to boost individual self-reliance and economic efficiency with the appeal of public contributions. Governmentality, in Foucault’s proposition, consists of technologies that allow the state to govern individuals from a distance with the vision of correct conduct. This mode of governance is done in Vietnam through the idea of “moral conduct”, by which the state guides the autonomous economic activities of individuals with the moral appeal of public contributions. This paper looks at the performance and experiences of Vietnamese female NGO professionals in the process of marketisation and privatisation in Vietnam. I show that their economic and professional performances demonstrate the morality of domestic responsibilities and public contributions, resembling the symbol of the virtuous woman in Vietnam’s Confucian and socialist tradition, a symbol which continues to be applauded by the state. The findings in this paper are drawn from my PhD research project at the University of Leeds, with data collected from a six-month fieldwork study conducted in Hanoi between 2016 and 2017.

The Right to Dream: Gender, Modernity, and the Problem of Class in Kate O'Brien's Bourgeois Bildungsromane

2019 ◽  
Vol 49 (2) ◽  
pp. 276-289
Author(s):  
Naoise Murphy
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Identity Formation ◽  
Coming Of Age ◽  
Female Identity ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
The Novel ◽  
Class Status ◽  
The Right ◽  
Aristocratic Culture ◽  
Modern Form

Feminist critics have celebrated Kate O'Brien's pioneering approach to gender and sexuality, yet there has been little exploration of her innovations of the coming-of-age narrative. Creating a modern Irish reworking of the Bildungsroman, O'Brien's heroines represent an idealized model of female identity-formation which stands in sharp contrast to the nationalist state's vision of Irish womanhood. Using Franco Moretti's theory of the Bildungsroman, a framing of the genre as a thoroughly ‘modern’ form of the novel, this article applies a critical Marxist lens to O'Brien's output. This reading brings to light the ways in which the limitations of the Bildungsroman work to constrain O'Brien's subversive politics. Their middle-class status remains an integral part of the identity of her heroines, informing the forms of liberation they seek. Fundamentally, O'Brien's idealization of aristocratic culture, elitist exceptionalism and ‘detachment of spirit’ restricts the emancipatory potential of her vision of Irish womanhood.

Middle class ideologies: Norms and historical changes.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Huynh ◽  
Igor Grossmann
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Central Feature ◽  
Intergroup Dynamics ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Historical Trends ◽  
Societal Norms ◽  
Norms And Values ◽  
Behavioral Tendencies ◽  
American Society ◽  
Definition Of

Ever since social scientists became interested in understanding intergroup dynamics, the topic of the “middle class” and its distinction from other groups in society became the central feature of a theoretical and empirical research enterprise. In this overview essay we discuss the beliefs, values and behavioral tendencies attributed to American middle class beliefs, and discuss their implications for understanding class-related norms and values. We end with a reflection over the historical trends that impact societal norms and the definition of middle class in the American society.

LIVING STANDARDS AND PROPORTIONS AFFECTING FOR STRUCTURAL CHANGES IN THE ECONOMY

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (9) ◽  
pp. 42-46
Author(s):  
G. T. PULATOVA ◽  
◽  
T. A. KADYROV ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Economic Growth ◽  
Theoretical Analysis ◽  
Structural Changes ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Total Production ◽  
Direct Connection ◽  
Fund Industry ◽  
Time Changes

This article considers the direct connection of the state of living of the population with the structures of the economy. In this regard, it is noted that the territorial aspects of the structure of the economy are also factors in shaping the structure of people 's needs, despite the fact that the latter are poorly structured. The study showed that the extent of structural changes in the economy, apart from the needs of the population, is affected by such critical proportions as the ratio of production to consumption, the savings fund to consumption fund, industry and agriculture, growth of production and transport development, growth of cash incomes of the population and their commodity coverage. In total production theoretical analysis has also shown that structural changes in the economy depend on the level of change in the share of each sector of the economy At the same time, changes also affect economic growth and human well-being in different ways.

Size, Correlates and Consumption Patterns of the Middle Class: Evidence from Pakistan

2021 ◽  
pp. 002190962110204
Author(s):  
Masood Ur Rehman ◽  
Sameen Zafar ◽  
Rafi Amir-ud-Din
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Relative Income ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Consumption Patterns ◽  
Asset Ownership ◽  
Urban Residence ◽  
Luxury Goods ◽  
Absolute Income ◽  
Agricultural Employment

Using three definitions of the middle class (MC) and the Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement surveys from 2004 to 2014, we estimated the size of the MC and examined the correlates and consumption patterns of the MC for Pakistan. According to the absolute income, relative income and asset–ownership definitions, the MC grew by 16%, 8%, and 10%, respectively, from 2004 to 2014. The results of the biprobit model showed that the probability of entering the MC was associated with higher education, urban residence and non-agricultural employment. Additionally, the MC was associated with greater consumption of ordinary and luxury goods.

Peran UMKM Dalam Mengurangi Tingkat Pengangguran Masyarakat dan Strategi UMKM Ditengah Pandemi Covid-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-107
Author(s):  
Nida Alfi Nur Ilmi
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Unemployment Rate ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Financial Assistance ◽  
Living Standards ◽  
Lower Middle Class ◽  
Qualitative Descriptive ◽  
Descriptive Approach ◽  
The Government

ABSTRACT This paper tries to explain and describe the position of UMKM in the Kepuh, Boyolangu Village, Banyuwangi, as an effort to reduce the unemployment rate, especially in the lower middle class and to see how the strategy of the UMKM founders in maintaining their position in all conditions. So it is hoped that readers can find out and analyze UMKM within the scope of the region as an effort to minimize unemployment and increase living standards. This paper use qualitative research method with a qualitative descriptive approach. Establishing UMKM is certainly not an easy thing, because the large number of workers does not guarantee UMKM, who is determined by the appropriate expertise and strategy. In addition, the Government has not been maximally perfect in overcoming problems and financial assistance for community UMKM which in reality is able to absorb many new workers, and has an impact on reducing the unemployment rate.

Teaching the Future of Technology in the History Classroom: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 253-262 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Staley
Keyword(s):  
Incomplete Information ◽  
The State ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Social Scientists ◽  
Traditional Methods ◽  
Research Seminar ◽  
Historical Method ◽  
The Future ◽  
The Right

This article will describe how historians can teach the future of technology. Historians need not alter their traditional methods of historical inquiry to teach the future, and indeed the history classroom is a natural site for foresight education. Historical inquiry begins with questions, and futuring similarly begins with asking the right questions. The historian seeks out evidence, and futurists as well identify drivers and blockers, considering how these drivers and blockers will interact with each other. In contrast to social scientists, historians work with imperfect or incomplete information, an apt description of the state of our evidence about the future. In a manner similar to historians, futurists interpret and draw inferences from evidence. After the research an analysis of the evidence is complete, the historian/futurist writes representations. This article will describe how I employed the historical method to teach the future of technology in a history research seminar, the results produced by the students, and ways that the study of the future can be situated in the history classroom.

scholarly journals Turkey’s Hybrid Competitive Authoritarian Regime; A Genuine Product of Anatolia’s Middle Class

2016 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 201 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nikolaos Stelgias
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Middle Class ◽  
Political Power ◽  
Political Competition ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Relations ◽  
Universal Suffrage ◽  
Hybrid Regime

Few years since the 9/11 Attacks in New York and following its rise to power, the AKP has gradually established a so-­called “competitive authoritarian regime,” in order to consolidate and secure its political power. This regime is hybrid and it is based on liberal principles (absence of tutelary authorities, protection of civil liberties, universal suffrage, free elections etc.). The AKP also provides for a reasonably fair level of political competition between the party in power (government) and the opposition. At the same time, however, the system shows some undemocratic features (violation of civil liberties, unfair elections, and uneven political competition.) This hybrid regime is based on three pillars: the state, the party and a newly emerged middle class in Anatolia. Through this hybrid regime Anatolia’s newly emerged middle class redefines its cultural and socio-­economic relations.

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