A Critique of Everyday International Relations: The Case of Cultural Pluralism in Singapore and Vancouver

Abstract

In the context of Singapore and Vancouver strategically repositioning themselves as gateway cities between Asian and North American markets, I focus on Singapore's multiracialism and Vancouver's multiculturalism to frame how people encounter ‘the international’ along racialized and cultural lines in their daily lives. Building on an emerging appetite for everyday life theory in international relations, I look at Henri Lefebvre's work on alienation to explore how cultural pluralism policies structure everyday life through what I call ‘everyday borders of the international’. This will reveal how the interrelationships between daily life, political platforms like these policies, and broader political and economic structures shape different everyday encounters of the international.