Thesis Notes #1

In a way, I have always kept fragment of notes in a physical notebook but my recent mindless throwing away of a notebook and misplacing my master thesis 'ideas book' tells me I better start putting up some notes here just in case.

Just to capture some thoughts -

Idea A:
In my opinion, youths in Singapore are very into 'doing' things, and with all this youth.sg things going on, it is no wonder that youths are given more and more avenues to channel their energies. I am not one to judge if it is a good or bad thing, but my concern is a question of how much of their concerns and energies get translated into meaningful youth participation that can have impact on national policies.

Sure, get them where 'they are' - street, hip-hop, dance, sauve fashion but has it occur to people that these are really our construction of our youths and keeping them in a consumer-kind of lifestyle that really is sold to them as a identities for them because the other alternatives are vested with actual power for them to do something with their lives and future?

Idea B:
Youths are 'doing' things in different channels - school, volunteerism, state-endorsed leadership programs for the bright potential leaders - they all try to bring up youths into a kind of idealised 'national identity' where there is a kind of equation - the more youths 'do', the more 'we' (govt perhaps) thing they will have a stronger sense of community (hopefully, national identity).

Maybe I should set out to test this - my original thought was to simply try to establish that a notion of emigration in youths does not translate into them not having a sense of identity to the nation, it does not mean they are going to abandon Singapore per sec. I think the emotive aspect to this whole notion is very important because it does affect an individual's notion of themselves located in a imagined community (i.e the nation). Schnapper (in Castle and Davidson, 2000) said something about a nation being something of a 'emotional community'.

Idea C:
So how do Singaporean youths make sense of a 'national identity' within themselves? They grew up singing songs like 'Count on me Singapore", or "This is Home" and they go through things like National Education in their Social Studies curriculum. If it is subconscious, I also want to investigate it. Sometimes, I get the feeling that it is so invisible, Singaporeans will be asking me why I even bother with this enquiry of mine.

Ideas D:
Different programs bring about different experiences for different youths. There are different types of collectiveness in our youths. TS suggested to me to compare those at the grassroots levels and those elite adolescents I want to compare (although the elite adolescent can also be found at the grassroots level) to uncover the notion of national identity, notions of emigration and how 'doing' programs actually can/may/not affect their notions of national identity and emigration.

Ideas E:
How will my research subjects change and evolve through this research journey with me? What is my extent of influence over them? Need to talk to young people to find out about this. There are also issues of power relation.

Ideas F:
How do I uncover the state construction of youth, national identity and youth participation and what the state make of this? Who do I interview? Hm...