Conferences, Symposiums & Talks

On Concepts of Otherness

Date

26 April 2017

Type

Seminar

Speakers: 
Dr Venka Purushothaman, Vice-President (Academic) & Provost, LASALLE
Chuan Fei Chin, Senior Tutor in Philosophy, National University of Singapore
Dr Sheuo Hui Gan, Lecturer in Contextual Studies, LASALLE

The Policy of Others: Apathy and Agency in Arts and Cultural Policy in Industrialising Nation States
Dr Venka Purushothaman

It is often noted that people are apathetic towards things social, cultural, technological and political. Be it an accident along the road; a policy that affects everyday living; or engaging with functional technologies, there is a disaffect to matters of personal concern. Apathy is often fanned at the ‘silent majority’ that fails to engage at levels desired or imposed by the ‘engaged group’. While apathy is contestory and primarily associated with political engagement, the presence of 'activated' apathy – a form of embodied behaviour in social, cultural and social media – is equally potent. Looking at the arts and cultural policies in the public discourse today, this paper studies apathy as indifference, moral inertia, ambivalence, displacement, and affectation, and their representation in policy documents. In doing so, it contends that apathy is embodied otherness thereby serving as a means of determining and maintaining a sense of personal and national identity. 

Living with Precarious Others
Chuan Fei Chin

How do Singaporeans live in complicity with precarity? I analyse our moral relations and social dynamics with some of Singapore’s most precarious workers. First, I examine how we manage responsibility for transient migrant workers. Drawing on recent social scientific research, I explain how our strategies contribute significantly to the workers’ precarity and why they make us variously complicit in it. Second, I explore how this complicity challenges social virtue, social harmony, and social identities. Using models of the self-developed in moral and social theories, I explain what happens when we dehumanise others or draw moral boundaries based on narrow loyalties and ethnic stereotypes.

Cosplaying Otherness
Dr Sheuo Hui Gan

The relation of otherness to discrimination, alienation, and the lack of positive social identity has often been discussed. Yet, among the many forms of “otherness” is also the conscious creation of difference by individuals who wish to distance themselves from mainstream culture. This presentation investigates cosplay activities in Southeast Asia as examples of the creation of “otherness”, tracing their historical and recent development and importance. There is a tendency to associate manga and anime with certain social issues such as hikikomori and otaku or other, more exotic images. There have also been attempts to normalize fan behaviour through the discussion of active participation that emphasizes the positivity of their devotion. This raises the question of whether it is possible to normalize otherness, as a chosen quality, not as a status present at birth.