This article investigates the embodied experiences of “exceptionality” of casino resort employees in Singapore. Working in Singapore’s newly-opened mega-casino resorts, migrant and local employees claim a sense of agency over their own professionalism, mobilities, and moralities. Actively equipping themselves with expertise, knowledge, experiences, and certain moral attitudes, casino employees practice a particular kind of “self-fashioning” suited for the global labor market. The “self-fashioning” is oriented towards becoming “exceptional,” in the sense that casino employees are encouraged to be highly skilled, well connected, globally mobile, and keenly self-disciplined. However, the more casino employees are conditioned by codes of “exceptionality,” the more vulnerable they are when faced with career insecurities, future uncertainties, and moral dilemmas. This article argues that the self-fashioning of casino employees can be both empowering and suppressing. While waged employees are eager to participate in the flexible labor market, they are also held captive by the regime of exceptionality.

中文翻译：

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自我塑造的特殊性：新加坡赌场度假村的灵活员工

本文调查了新加坡赌场度假村员工的“特殊”体验。在新加坡新开张的大型赌场度假村工作，移民和本地员工声称对自己的专业精神、流动性和道德有一种代理感。赌场员工积极装备自己的专长、知识、经验和某些道德态度，实践一种适合全球劳动力市场的特殊“自我塑造”。“自我塑造”的目标是成为“杰出的”，即鼓励赌场员工成为高技能、人脉广泛、全球流动和敏锐自律的员工。然而，赌场员工越受“例外”准则的约束，他们在面临职业不安全感、未来不确定性、和道德困境。本文认为，赌场员工的自我塑造既可以赋予权力，也可以抑制。虽然有薪雇员渴望参与灵活的劳动力市场，但他们也受到特殊制度的束缚。