Affective cosmopolitanisms in Singapore: Dancehall and the decolonisation of the self

Abstract

This paper advances a new understanding of cosmopolitanism, one that is rooted in the affective potential of the body. It argues that while the self is often projected onto the body, so too can the body play an important role in (re)imagining the self. As such, the body can decolonise the self from the mind, from the expectations of society and culture, and from the normative epistemological underpinnings of academic knowledge production. I validate these theoretical arguments through an empirical focus on the practice of dancehall in Singapore. Dancehall is an emancipatory cultural movement that emerged in Jamaica in the late 1970s, and, among other things, has become known for its sexually provocative representation of the human body. Singapore, on the other hand, is a conservative Asian city‐state in which cosmopolitan self‐fashioning is an elite, top‐down process imparted by the government and education system. By reconciling dancehall culture in/and the Singapore context, I explore how Singaporean youths forge new, more affective, forms of cosmopolitan self‐realisation. Through dancehall, they learn how to engage with the self on their own terms, and thus realise new ways of being in the world.

The affective embeddings of gacha games: Aesthetic assemblages and the mediated expression of the self

“…This is a grounding that renders the player more-than-human, in turn complicating the role of (ir)rationality -and the accusations of gambling therein -in influencing player behaviours. Through the mediation of the self, the distinctions between human and nonhuman life are overcome, and the virtual becomes a new basis for the differentiation and reimagination of the social (see Woods, 2019;Woods, 2021c). Building out Isbister's (2016) call for 'more nuanced and detailed appreciation for home game move players emotionally' (p. 132), there is a need for research to explore how the mediated self might intersect, align with or diverge from, its unmediated counterpart.…”

When planetary cosmopolitanism meets the Buddhist ethic: Recycling, karma and popular ecology in Singapore

“…As Elden (2005, p. 8) argues, the globe diagnoses ‘a particular way of grasping place … as something extensible and calculable, extended in three dimensions and grounded on the geometric point’ (see also Cosgrove, 2001). By taking the globe and globalisation as a reference point in approaching the worldwide, these hyphenated versions of cosmopolitanism remain firmly rooted in the orbit of Western colonial ontology, and are ultimately ‘proscribed by a centre that sets the parameters for difference’ (Jazeel, 2011, p. 77; Sidaway et al., 2014; Woods, 2021). Consequently, not only are such accounts often limited in problematising the ‘irredeemably European and universalising set of values and human normativities’ underlying cosmopolitan thought (Jazeel, 2011, p. 77).…”

Clashing cyphers, contagious content: The digital geopolitics of grime

“…Specifically, I consider how two artists – one based in London, the other Manchester – engaged in a “clash” using the content‐sharing platform, YouTube, to exchange music videos in ways that reproduced friction between themselves and the cities they represent. While existing scholarship has done much to unravel the resistant nature of urban music (Forman, 2000; Lamotte, 2014; Simões & Campos, 2017; Woods, 2019b, 2020a, 2020b, 2020c), there has been no consideration of how digital technologies can be catalysts for the reproduction of agency and affect. Moreover, in view of the need to understand the “interdependence between digital circuits and the ‘real’ worlds to which they refer” (Simões & Campos, 2017, p. 171), this paper develops an understanding of the interplay between different representational registers, and their geopolitical effects.…”