Governing (Through) Affect: A Social Semiotic Perspective of Affective Governance in Singapore

Affective governance as multimodal discursive practice in Singapore’ COVID-19 vaccination video

“…Following the global trend toward affective politics exemplified by the UK Brexit vote, right-wing-populism in Europe (Krzyzanowski, 2020), and the Trump-led election (Breeze, 2019), the Singapore government has also gradually shifted to a more affective style of governing since the influence of market values has deepened a neoliberal political environment in which citizens are interpellated as consumer-like actors with socio-emotional needs, aspirations, and desires (Ng, 2019: 24). To win more support, the government has inclined to either present itself as more ‘human’, ‘relatable and empathetic’ to appeal to the citizens or affectively engage them for policy support (Yang, 2014a, 2014b; Yoshimizu, 2014).…”

“…To win more support, the government has inclined to either present itself as more 'human', 'relatable and empathetic' to appeal to the citizens or affectively engage them for policy support (Yang, 2014a(Yang, , 2014bYoshimizu, 2014). Thus, affect has become an important tool in political communication and persuasion in the Singapore government's rhetoric (Ng, 2019(Ng, , 2020Teo, 2021). By mobilizing certain emotions, social relations, experiences, and lifestyles, the government can obtain support and create affinity with the citizens for political purposes and thus generate public support (Mulderrig, 2018).…”

“…The use of affectivized politics to mobilize and govern citizens has also been documented in Singapore in recent years. Through multimodal discourse analysis, Ng (2019) examined how Singapore’s government discursively uses affective governance in its national education and skill policies to produce support and brand its policies. After analyzing the texts and visuals related to labor policies and university branding (e.g.…”

“…After analyzing the texts and visuals related to labor policies and university branding (e.g. websites, advertisements, annual reports), Ng (2019) argued that the citizens are represented as idealized neoliberal subjects who are emotionally and passionately driven by self-actualization and fulfillment in education, career, and lifestyle. This study concludes that by presenting Singapore’s government and political actors in a more emotionally attuned way – more empathetic, caring, humane, loving – the state has strategically downplayed the exploitative nature of neoliberal capitalism and its authoritarian governance and developed a discourse of collective/communitarian ethos to mobilize social relations and legitimize the policies for the sense of ‘the common good’ (p. 40).…”

“…Studies examining various national campaigns in Singapore, such as the ‘Keep Singapore Clean’ campaign (Teo, 2004), ‘Speak Mandarin’ campaign (Teo, 2005), and national courtesy campaign (Lazar, 2000; Yeo and Tupas, 2018) have demonstrated how national campaigns often appeal to Singaporeans’ collective identity. Far from serving a singular policy objective, public campaigns therefore could be seen as affectivized politics geared toward aligning the populace with the government’s political agenda (Ng, 2019). Second, examining governments’ utilization of social media communication in times of a global crisis contributes to a growing body of scholarship on the role of affective discourse within contemporary political communication and persuasion.…”