Disability, debilitation, and the digital economy: the case of the superapp Grab in the multicultural nation of Singapore

On the night of 10 April 2021, a minority race food delivery rider was involved in an accident which left him with brain injuries and needing immediate surgery. On 26 April, the family of the injured worker took to Facebook to raise funds for the medical bills. Singaporeans responded almost immediately to support the family; by 4 May, almost S$150,000 had been raised. In this chapter, we examine this incident, as well as a video campaign by Grab Singapore, to uncover the underpinning logics and impact the emergence of the superapp Grab has had on Singaporean society. While Grab has become a key means by which life is organized in Singapore, it does so amidst three concurrent trends: the pursuit of the digitization of Singapore society as a goal of the nation; the embrace of disability inclusion; and multiculturalism as the basic fundamental tenet of the Singaporean nation. Building on disability as a highly productive intersectional exemplar to advance new visions of social futures, we trace how Grab has advanced the inclusion of disabled people but also contributed to the debilitation of a separate group in society.