IPS Update Issue June 2018

Does the price of food differ from Sengkang to Ang Mo Kio? If so, by how much? These were some of the questions that IPS Social Lab aimed to address through the Makan Index, an indicator of relative hawker food prices across different neighbourhoods in Singapore.

(IPS Policy Brief )
By Dr Justin Lee

Singapore is heading towards slower growth, an ageing society and higher structural unemployment. To limit rising public social spending, we urgently need to tap and develop our community resources. IPS Research Fellow Dr Justin Lee suggests that Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs) need to take on new responsibilities of leadership and collective mobilisation that have been left to the government. Government can also help to create opportunities for the people sector to do more.

By Dr Leong Chan-Hoong

“Inequality has a geographic dimension – even for a small and densely populated place like Singapore. Ignore geography and we miss important drivers of inequality and lose opportunities to mitigate them,” observes Head of IPS Social Lab Dr Leong Chan-Hoong. He offers suggestions on how we can foster meaningful interactions between people of different social classes, in order to mitigate the challenges linked to economic disparities between and within neighbourhoods.

The Disability Community Network (DCN) is a ground-up initiative comprising voluntary welfare organisations, non-profit organisations, civil society groups and individuals, that aims to make sense of, represent and act on needs and gaps in the disability sector. The first roundtable of the DCN discussed the continued challenges faced by persons with disabilities to achieve long-term employment, and new initiatives and ideas by the community to promote a more enabling environment for their aspirations.

Sure, you know your Rochor Centre and Tanjong Pagar Railway Station. But are you game enough to take this very challenging IPS Quiz on ten important but not very well-known heritage sites in Singapore? The top three scorers will receive three volumes of their choice from our Singapore Chronicles series. Look out for our soon-to-be published IPS Social Lab Study on Perceptions of Singapore’s Built Heritage and Landmarks, where we engaged residents from all walks of life on 90 heritage sites in Singapore.