On this podcast, I’ve traditionally featured the research and social work and projects of others. I make a small exception today, because I want to share about two recent research journal articles I’ve published, which, I think, in an interesting fashion, draws from earlier episodes I produced for past seasons of this socialservice.sg podcast.
Today, as part of our “Civic Engagement and Action” mini-series, where we speak to folks about expanding communities and spaces for sustained civic engagement and political participation, I am joined by our co-host, Isaac Neo, a political and security risk analyst. We chat briefly about his GE2020 newsletter and his involvement in a number of other Singaporean initiatives and organisations before diving into his thesis, titled “Pragmatic resistance as counter-conduct: Civil society advocacy in Singapore”. He details how actors in the environmental and migrant worker sectors use non-confrontational and technocratic methods and shift between cooperation and contestation vis-à-vis the state.
This episode is the second of a two-part series covering ground-ups and their contributions in Singapore. If you’ve not heard the first part about the emergence and impact of ground-ups, be sure to listen to that before coming back to this. With Jen Goh of The Majurity Trust and Dr. Adrian Chan of Acerpacer Consulting, we previously discussed the value of start-ups, the emergence of new activators, and the challenges of funding, time, and contacts.
Today, we finish up our conversation on funding before exploring recommendations and the building of synchronicity among ground-ups and communities of ground-up communities. As a reminder, Jen is part of the philanthropy and community building team at The Majurity Trust. Dr. Chan is an independent scientist-practitioner and the director of Acerpacer Consulting.
Through this platform, in the past year, we’ve heard from ground-up initiatives, community movements, as well as aggregators and intermediaries. In this two-part series, with Jen Goh and Dr. Adrian Chan, we go further by taking a deeper dive into ground-ups and their contributions in Singapore, focusing in particular on a recent research report published by philanthropic organisation The Majurity Trust. Today, we discuss definitions and value of start-ups, the emergence of new activators in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, and finally the challenges of funding, time, and contacts.
One year ago, we documented community initiatives and discussed structural challenges related to the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore. One year later, we are inviting the same guests back to talk about their work, how they are feeling, and what they think we have learnt or have yet to learn from the pandemic. Last year, Adriel Yong started a spreadsheet to collate opportunities for students looking for summer internships. We ask about what he’s learnt from the initiative and how he’s applied those lessons in his life.
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