Calm and Not Explosive
Weekly column written for the Singapore Unbound newsletter. Sign up here . Can migrant workers in Singapore, most of whom work in the construction and shipping industries, be considered "subalterns"? The Italian Marxist philosopher Antonio Gramsci first coined the term to identify social groups marginalized and excluded from the socio-economic institutions of society in order to deny their political voice. Then the term "subaltern" entered postcolonial theory to denote a colonized people, who are regarded by their colonizers as essentially different from themselves, and thus, inferior. To think about migrant workers in Singapore as "subalterns" is to consider not only how they have been proleterianized by their work in Singapore, despite the high educational levels of many of these workers, but also how they have been made over into an image of the Other, the Lesser. Conversely, it is also to think of Singapore not only as a capitalist but also as a neo...