Discursive Constructions of Income Inequality in Neo-liberal Singapore

Abstract

This article examines the discursive constructions of income inequality in neo-liberal Singapore. While the city-state is touted as a model for smart governance captured in the ‘Singapore model’, the accounts of everyday lived experiences in Singapore depict the unsustainability of the model as a template of development, anchored in the deep inequalities interwoven with the model. This article draws on 34 in-depth interviews with high-, middle- and low-income groups in Singapore, stratified by race and citizenship status to reflect population demographics. The interviews document the ways in which inequalities are rendered meaningful amid the interplays of class, race and citizenship status. Based on grounded theory analysis of everyday accounts of inequality in Singapore, the article attends to the discourses of (a) individual responsibility and the disappearing state, (b) xenophobia and (c) paradoxical responses to government policies, simultaneously interrogating the state-espoused values of multiculturalism, meritocracy and pragmatism.