Stefan Rother published an article “Multi-level Migrant Civil Society Activism in Southeast Asia” in Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia, eds. Eva Hansson and Meredith L. Weiss (2023).

Herlin Chien (National Pingtung University of Science and Technology) and Akihiro Ogawa (University of Melbourne) spoke at the 2023 Parliamentary Openness and Monitoring Forum held in Taipei for 14-16 March.  Here is the local newspaper coverage.

Anthony J. Spires and Akihiro Ogawa published a co-edited volume Authoritarianism and Civil Society in Asia (Routledge,2022).

Trace-Together; Space-Apart?

Observations on Civic Behaviour in Singapore during the Pandemic

Registration link here

In the initial months of the pandemic, Singapore emerged as a poster boy for its efficacy in managing the spread of the virus. However, very soon this situation reversed when the backbone of the country’s crucial construction industry, the migrant workers, mainly originating from South Asia, were infected with the virus in their thousands on a daily basis due to the congested dormitories they were living. The construction industry was paralyzed by this. In March 2020, the Singaporean Government introduced an app called ‘TraceTogether’ The app enabled quick identification of persons who may have come into close contact with anyone who has tested positive for Covid-19 and their locations. This was world’s first main COVID-19 tracking app. Despite many concerns over privacy, the app was slowly adopted by the population of Singapore, eventually reaching a 92% adoption rate in May 2021. The app is now mandatory for people to access spaces such as markets, restaurants and offices. In addition to general restrictions of gatherings in public spaces and social distancing measures, the ‘TraceTogether’ introduced a particular regime that triggered new dynamics on the interplay between public spaces and civic behavior. The proposed presentation discusses, based on some photo-documentation in a popular market in Little India, a particular aspect of civil behavior in relation to the requirement of a ‘sticker’ to be pasted when entering a public space and return it when exiting. The presentation strives to position the civic behaviors during the pandemic period in the context of a myriad of significant transformations taking place in the domain of democracy in Singapore.  

Dr. Udan Fernando, Head of the Colombo Charter of Asian Civil Society Research Network (ACSRN), talked about whether civil society is the liberator of democracy at a webinar held on September 15, which marked the International Day of Democracy. Here is the link for a media report.