Contesting Relations of Definition: Climate Risk and Subpolitics in Singapore

ABSTRACT

In recent years, a growing number of climate-focused civil society groups have emerged in Singapore, challenging the direction that the government is taking for climate action. This paper uses Ulrich Beck’s risk society thesis and Brian Wynne’s critique of the dominant institutionalized culture of science to examine the ‘relations of definition’ in an era of climate change, highlighting how climate risk is constructed and contested in the context of an Asian technocratic state that appears outwardly committed to tackling climate change. Through participant observation, semi-structured interviews and content analysis of government policies, we argue for the emergence of a climate-focused subpolitics in Singapore organized by civil society groups. In this paper, we describe how this subpolitics is fuelled not only by contestations between expert knowledge, but by differing framings of morality and justice. Furthermore, despite the Singapore state’s outward alignment towards climate action, the continual emphasis on expert understandings of climate risk stymies more meaningful engagement between these climate civil society groups and state bodies. We suggest that in order to meaningfully engage in a ‘whole-of-nation’ approach, the wider meanings of risk must be considered in future collaborations between state bodies and civil society.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate Change
• risk Society
• relations of Definition
• subpolitics
• civil Society
• singapore

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Notes

1. Fieldwork for this paper ended in January 2020. Since then, two new climate groups have been created: Fridays for Future SG and Green Lobang.

2. There have been several 350SGs in Singapore. The first was started by Young NTUC, the youth wing of the National Trades Union Congress, which is closely linked to the ruling government. It has been inactive since 2014. The newer iteration is independent.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Belicia Teo

Belicia Teo is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology at New York University. Her research interests include climate change, the sociology of knowledge and social movements.

Sulfikar Amir

Sulfikar Amir is an Associate Professor of Science, Technology, and Society (STS) and a faculty member in Sociology Programme, School of Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. His research interests primarily focus on examining institutional, political, and epistemological dimensions of scientific knowledge and technological systems. He has conducted research on technological nationalism, development and globalisation, nuclear politics, risk and disaster, design studies, city and infrastructure, and resilience. He is the author of “The Technological State in Indonesia: the Co-constitution of High Technology and Authoritarian Politics„ and the editor of “The Sociotechnical Constitution of Resilience: A New Perspective on Governing Risk and Disaster.