The youth mental health crisis and the subjectification of wellbeing in Singapore schools

Abstract

The news of a 16-year old teenager hacking a 13-year old boy to death in a toilet unprovoked in a secondary school in Singapore shook the whole nation in July 2021. In this article, we analyze the institutionalizing responses to the growing sense of youth mental health crisis in Singapore, catalyzed by River Valley High School incident, as the subjectification of wellbeing. We argue, firstly, that the national schools have become the main site for the production of networked surveillance and internalization of wellbeing. We examine the inclusive production of subjects ­characterized by varying levels of wellbeing in a rehabilitative social ­system exercising authority and control. Secondly, we argue that a totalizing system of surveillance and internalization is emerging in a technocratic heterotopia. We conclude by discussing interdisciplinary and intersectional alternative approaches emerging from the heterotopic space of the school.

Keywords:

• Foucault
• Singapore
• well-being
• youth and mental health
• heterotopia

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the two reviewers of this journal for their constructive and incisive comments and suggestions, and Qiao Earn Tay and Shai-Ann Koh for their research assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Daniel P. S. Goh

Daniel P. S. Goh is Associate Professor of Sociology, National University of Singapore. He is a comparative historical sociologist who works on state formation, cultural politics, Asian urbanisms, religion in Southeast Asia, and comparative education in Singapore.

Aaron Koh

Aaron Koh is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is the Joint Editor of International Studies in Sociology of Education and Co-Editor of the Book Series, Cultural Studies and Transdisciplinarity in Education. His research fields are elite schooling, international and comparative education and global studies in education.