Reproduction, discipline, inequality: Critiquing East-Asian developmentalism through a strategic-relational examination of Singapore's Central Provident Fund

Greener, Joe ORCID: 0000-0001-7087-3040 and Yeo, Eve (2022) Reproduction, discipline, inequality: Critiquing East-Asian developmentalism through a strategic-relational examination of Singapore's Central Provident Fund. GLOBAL SOCIAL POLICY, 22 (3). pp. 483-502.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/14680181211059971

Abstract

<jats:p> The five ‘developmentalist’ welfare states of East Asia (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan) have been presented as successful projects of economic progress, positively aligning citizen-interests with business objective. Utilising Jessop’s Strategic-Relational Approach (SRA), we analyse the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Singapore’s ‘forced savings’ social policy which organises housing, healthcare, education and retirement. Through a myriad of eligibilities/ineligibilities, Singapore’s CPF administers desired social behaviours while sustaining a series of inequalities supporting certain classed and gendered interests over others. Our analysis breaks down the CPF into three social relational orientations: (1) heteronormative familial responsiblisation, (2) labour market activation and (3) class reproduction. The article highlights the function of CPF in institutionalising conservative and pro-market political interests. CPF reproduces material inequalities and fashions behaviours conducive with the dominant accumulation strategy while discouraging those which are not, privileging some interests over others. </jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Central Provident Fund, class, developmentalism, East Asian social policy, gender, Strategic Relational Approach
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Law and Social Justice
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Mar 2022 08:50
Last Modified:	18 Jan 2023 21:11
DOI:	10.1177/14680181211059971
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3150151