Between Cargo and Citizen – Lorry Rides and Urban Inequity in Contemporary Singapore

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  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): Sociology of Human Rights Roundtables - Table 2

Abstract

The humble lorry often goes unnoticed despite its ubiquity on Singapore’s roads. These lorries, which are open-backed trucks meant for transporting cargo, facilitate the flow of people and equipment needed to (re)construct Singapore’s urban environment and ensure it continues to run. A closer look at the unassuming lorry, however, offers insights into how urban inequality is patterned between citizen and low-waged migrant workers in contemporary Singapore through everyday mobility practices. Debates over the safety of using these lorries to transport migrant workers, while the practice is deemed too dangerous and banned for the general population, highlight how everyday urban inequalities are shaped by moral frames that naturalize unequal worth and differentiated deservingness. Combating such inequalities in authoritarian settings such as Singapore requires transforming the moral frames through which migrant deaths are interpreted. In particular, it requires data humanization of abstract numbers, facilitating social mobilization by reframing it in social and moral terms instead of as struggles for migrant political rights.

Author

• Subadevan Boyd-Devan, Brown University