Affective cosmopolitanisms in Singapore

Dancehall and the decolonisation of the self

Bibliographic Data

ID8962317
AuthorsOrlando Woods (0000-0001-9218-1264, School of Social Sciences Singapore Management University Singapore Singapore, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume46
Issue1
Pages135-148
Publication date2020-08-14
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12407
OpenAlexW3049147296
LanguageEN
Citations received16
References cited43

This paper advances a new understanding of cosmopolitanism, one that is rooted in the affective potential of the body. It argues that while the self is often projected onto the body, so too can the body play an important role in (re)imagining the self. As such, the body can decolonise the self from the mind, from the expectations of society and culture, and from the normative epistemological underpinnings of academic knowledge production. I validate these theoretical arguments through an empirical focus on the practice of dancehall in Singapore. Dancehall is an emancipatory cultural movement that emerged in Jamaica in the late 1970s, and, among other things, has become known for its sexually provocative representation of the human body. Singapore, on the other hand, is a conservative Asian city‐state in which cosmopolitan self‐fashioning is an elite, top‐down process imparted by the government and education system. By reconciling dancehall culture in/and the Singapore context, I explore how Singaporean youths forge new, more affective, forms of cosmopolitan self‐realisation. Through dancehall, they learn how to engage with the self on their own terms, and thus realise new ways of being in the world

Aesthetics · Art · Context (archaeology · Cosmopolitanism · Elite · Normative · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Gender Studies · History · Law · Migration, Ethnicity, and Economy · Socioeconomic Development in Asia · South Asian Cinema and Culture

Tools

Open DOI