The hearth : social integration in public parks within heartlands

• Main Author: Ng, Shanice Li Qing
• Other Authors: Laavanya Kathiravelu
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Sociology::Urban sociology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/69982
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

This paper seeks to have a better understanding of the social interactions within the neighborhood parks of the Housing Development Board (HDBs) to observe the inclusion or exclusion of social groups. Given that the parks in Singapore are state-run, the use of governmentality by Foucault as a framework is useful in understanding how the use of biopower can determine the social purposes of the parks and how the effects of biopower can alter social interactions between individuals or groups in the parks. Despite having biopower by the state, resistances by the park users through deviances or dysfunctions are also as a challenge to the dominant discourses of the park being a place for regulative behaviors. In addition, this research places huge emphasis on age-differences in interactions due to the spatiality of park facilities. This study also aims to highlight how the society functions will have unintended sociological outcomes.