When The Music’s Over – Contact Tracing Apps: Solution or Snake Oil?

Few things in the COVID-verse have been as polarising as contact tracing apps. Gamechangers, or solutions in search of a problem? Centralized or decentralized? Complementary to human contact tracers, or substitutes? In this session of When The Music’s we bring together: Sutawan Chanprasert, founder of DigitalReach Asia, has been analysing apps in Asia including Singapore’s[…]

When The Music’s Over – Access, Affordability, and Inclusion

Our last session on vulnerable populations focused on gig workers, migrants, and people on the margins, as well as the crisis conditions in which preexisting inequalities are amplified. Building on the themes of barriers, this session will highlight issues of access, affordability and other factors that promote inclusion. This conversation took place on Zoom on May[…]

When The Music’s Over – Economic and Social Vulnerabilities

We move from our launch event on journalism and health communication, to a session on economic and social vulnerabilities, the particular risks for informal workers and migrant labour, and the perils of welfare measures not reaching those on the margins. We’ll look at access and education barriers, as well as normative and infrastructural challenges. You can access[…]

The bio-surveillance state: an emerging new normal in Asia

When economic activity gradually resumed in China in mid-February, Chinese residents returned to a “new normal” under a strict surveillance infrastructure. They have their temperatures taken and personal information logged as they enter office buildings, residential communities and large commercial venues. And their freedom of movement depends on an app called Health Code (健康码), which[…]