|
| |
|
Abstracts for Issue no.4
|
|
|
| |
|
| |
Rural Development through Rural Industrialization: Exploring the Chinese Experience
Sanjeev Kumar
China’s rural enterprises, widely known as Township and Village Enterprises (TVEs) have remarkably contributed to rural development and institutional transformation. The Chinese experience is an important area of investigation largely because the huge participation in rural industrialization by rural people resulted in a fairly diversified industrialization over a quarter century. The study analyses rural industrialization and rural development issues and investigate the issues from an interdisciplinary, mainly political economic perspectives. Empirical evidence for this study was collected in Shaanxi, Anhui and Zhejiang provinces in 2006 through structured questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The study mainly concentrates on the case study of the food processing sector which was selected on the basis of its importance for overall growth and development of the local economy as wells as its forward and backward linkages with agriculture.
The Chinese experience illustrates that rural industrialization has played a crucial role in (a) raising the income of rural people; (b) solving the unemployment problem of the countryside; (c) checking rural to urban migration; (d) supporting agriculture and social sector development and (f) transforming the socio-economic environment of the countryside.
The Chinese experience of dealing with poverty and raising the standard of living of people through development of TVEs has largely been successful and usefully provides lessons especially on employment generation, geographical location, innovation and on the important role of local government in developing countries including India where industrialization has not been adequately diversified.
Top
|
| |
|
| |
Exploring the ICT and Rural Poverty Reduction Link: Community Telecenters and Rural Livelihoods in Wu’an, China
Cheryll Ruth Soriano
Applying the ‘Rural Livelihoods’ framework of analysis, this study explores the link between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and rural poverty reduction by analyzing the role of community telecenters in enhancing the livelihood strategies of rural poor households. The ‘Rural Livelihoods’ framework argues that the capability of the poor to combine different livelihood strategies and resources, which allows them to become less vulnerable to shocks and risks, is pivotal in rural poverty reduction. At the same time, interventions that play a role in facilitating an increase in the poor’s livelihood assets and resources have a potential for reducing poverty. Using telecenters set up by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the China Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST) in selected rural villages in Wu’an, China as case study, the paper explores the direct and indirect role that telecenters play in facilitating the poor’s access to more livelihood resources and assets and in influencing the adoption of diverse livelihood strategies. Following an analysis of the strengths and shortcomings of particular telecenter deployment strategies in China, this paper also presents alternatives to and recommendations for the deployment of telecenters that aim to contribute to rural poverty reduction, which puts an emphasis on the value of needs, poverty and livelihoods analysis, an enabling policy environment, increased efforts to better target rural poor households, deployment of simple but appropriate technologies and communications media, and including ICTs within a package of developmental interventions.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Paradigms of Decentralization, Institutional Design & Poverty: Drinking Water in the Philippines
Satyajit Singh
This paper looks at the different paradigms of decentralization for drinking water supply in the Philippines and its effectiveness in poverty alleviation. As centralization and decentralization are not definitive concepts, but defining features, there are bound to be different pathways to decentralization. These different paradigms create different institutional arrangements that are situated in the specific ideological construct of the time and place of its creation. With a shift in paradigm, say from one that can be classified as deconcentration to another that can be called democratic devolution, there would be key changes in the institutional designs for natural resource management and service provision. These different institutional designs of decentralization have different outcomes in the common quest of poverty alleviation. Empirical evidence points out that while new institutions would come up for fresh projects, the existing programs and projects that were crafted from an earlier paradigm continue at the same time. If the paradigm change has moved forward on the decentralization axis, then the adoption of newer institutions would have a better outcome in poverty alleviation. This paper calls the attention of policy makers to address the concern of institutional transformation as one moves towards more progressive decentralization paradigms. The empirical evidence is provided from the Central Visayas Water and Sanitation Project from the province of Oriental Negros.
Top
|
| |
|
| |
Chinese civil society and the anatomy of the Wenzhou model
Hemant Kumar Adlakha
In nearly three decades since the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) started its reform and open-door policy in December 1978, China has been undergoing the most profound changes in its history. Mostly, these transformations are experimental nature. However, the experiments carried out thus far, have either resulted from the evolving state-society dynamics in the wake of ‘capitalist’ market mechanisms implemented in the name of so-called socialist commodity planned economy or are arising out of the inherently contradictory “top down” reform process. Arguably, the party-state in China has been compelled to seek refuge in the bourgeois-liberal notion of a civil society for ensuring effective governance. The problem is, in the absence of a well defined theoretical formulation, how can such an amorphous conception of civil society reshape state-society relations? Perhaps unaware of numerous theoretical contestations and diverse temporal and spatial challenges the notional term civil society has encountered ever since the concept re-entered the social sciences agenda during the Solidarity Movement in the early 1980s, the Chinese discourse on civil society, encouraged and inspired by the success of ‘capitalist’ Wenzhou has now ‘invented’ the notion of a ‘rural civil society’. Is ‘rural civil society’ a new theoretical intervention? Or, it is merely yet another reflection of ‘a civil society with Chinese characteristics’?
Top |
| |
|
| |
Income Inequality in China and India: Structural Comparisons
Heng Quan
This paper systematically focuses on China’s and India’s income inequality in many dimensions and the structural differences between them. The main finding is that Indian urban inequality is much higher than that of China, although inequality in the latter is also growing very fast. The two nations’ rural inequality would be much similar basically, but the distribution of the inner-rural inequality is distinguished by some regional differences in the two nations. China’s rural-urban gaps are bigger than those in India. The two nations’ regional disparities have been increasing gradually and comparatively. China’s regional differences had been higher than those in India before 1990-1991, but India’s regional gap has been a speedily increasing since 1995 while China’s regional gap seemed to be declining in recent years. Some institutional factors (like Hukou) and the government’s policy bias play a bigger role in China’s inequality, while economic structures, unbalanced growth and poor education play a larger role in India’s inequality. Other social factors, such as caste, which affect social inequality, should not be neglected in India.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Landscape Knowledge in Cambodia: Notes Towards a Methodology
Lye Tuck Po
My original focus was on local environmental knowledge (hereafter LEK) in the context of landscape change. Countless studies confirm that LEK is complementary to global scientific knowledge and often surpasses it in holism and understanding of local environmental dynamics Applications of LEK (in conservation and development projects) tend to be underpinned by a romanticist or distorted notion of what that knowledge is. Scholars have argued that LEK is not really "traditional" in the sense of being "not modern". Local peoples tend to mix and match bodies of knowledge depending on context and use. They may be flexible, adaptable, and risk-averse and in their opportunism not concerned to preserve tradition as in a museum. Attempts to apply LEK in natural resource management may reduce its complexity by giving undue emphasis to bits of knowledge that just happen to be "sexy" when a community comes to the attention of planners or conservationists. None of this is an argument for rejecting LEK's relevance but, rather, for improvement of resource management models. Cambodia offers a challenge to this scenario.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Adaptations to Floods and Water-Related Disasters in the Huong River Basin in Thua Thien-Hue, Vietnam
Doracie B. Zoleta-Nantes
The geographical and climate characteristics of the province of Thua Thien-Hue in Central Viet Nam make the communes that are located along the Huong River Basin prone to typhoons, whirlwinds and flood disasters. The annual meteorological hazards and flood events bring about massive destruction of property and disruption of livelihood activities among the affected households in the region. This paper examines a number of environmental exploitation activities that lead to ecological degradation and intensify the flooding events in the Huong River Basin. It approximates the costs that are borne by the individual household members of the communes due to these annual flooding events. The paper documents an array of household initiatives and commune-based coping mechanisms that lessen the impacts of flood disasters and are resorted to by the different sector groups in the Huong River Basin in the province of Thua Thien-Hue, Viet Nam.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Assessment of Best Practice Community-based Mental Health Projects in Thailand
Loyd Brendan Norella
The delivery of mental health services from promotion to rehabilitation is important in the context of rapidly changing Asian societies. Health researches and responsive initiatives are in the forefront of addressing the challenge of providing “Mental Health for All”. To analyze how these are achieved in Thailand, a two-phase study was conducted comprising of a review of researches and an assessment of three best practice community-based mental health projects. 573 researches and 249 theses were accessed and evaluated. The community-based mental health projects of the Srithanya Hospital, Rajanukul Institute and Rajanagindra Institute were assessed through key informant interviews, focused group discussions, site visits and document analyses. The success factors identified for the projects were: (1.) their being government initiated and supported; (2.) presence of community champions; (3.) utilization of a “bottom-up” approach; (4) thorough needs assessment, planning, follow-up and evaluation; (5.) clarity of protocols and service delivery systems and (6.) emphasis on prevention and early intervention. Models based on these community mental health projects were derived to serve as templates for similar programs in the region. Further researches on initiatives targeting special populations, policy analysis and controlled intervention outcome are recommended.
Top
|
| |
|
| |
Life After Migration: Returned Indonesian Women Migrant Workers in Central and East Java
Maria Corazon C. Rodolfo
It is at the family and local community where the benefits of Indonesian international labor migration have been most dramatically felt. Over the past three decades, Indonesian women have been migrating autonomously as main economic providers. The impact of Indonesian female labor migration on families and communities of origin is not limited to benefits gained from their remittances. Migration is a pro-active agent of socio-cultural change. It reshapes gender, family roles and relations. Their eventual return requires reworking traditional relationships with their families and communities. Returned migrants bring in new ideas, attitudes and behavior brought about by their exposure to other ways of life. This paper presents findings gathered from field observations, in-depth interviews and Focus Group Discussions in communities in Central and East Java provinces--two of the leading areas of origin of migrant workers. Changes concerning the returnees, their families and communities were observed. In retrospect, the returnees’ level of preparedness prior to departure, their living and working conditions, challenges met, and support network in countries of employment are presented to gain a better understanding of these changes. Initial recommendations pertinent to Law No. 39 that seeks to regulate Indonesian labor migration and protect migrant workers are presented.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Effects of Globalisation in Plural Societies: A Case Study of Indonesia
Shankari Sundararaman
This paper looks at the effects of Globalisation on plural societies, with Indonesia as a case study. The article is in four sections: the first is the introduction; the second looks at the inter-linkages between the processes of globalisation and the development of sub-national or separatist identities; the third and fourth sections, the core of the paper, look at four case studies that have been divided into vertical and horizontal cases, namely, Aceh and Papua, Riau and Malukku respectively. Three arguments are put forward: one is that all these regions discussed as cases have a distinct sense of their own history versus the history of the Indonesian state, which brings into question the distinctness of how their integration into Indonesia occurred. Second, it also identifies the developmentalist agenda of the Indonesian government under the New Order which followed a policy of resource centralisation and deepened the divide between the centre and the peripheries. Third, it looks at the current status of each of these cases and concludes by looking at the shift that is taking place in Indonesia.
Top |
| |
|
| |
Embodied Voice and Violence: Women, Subjective Experience and Agency in the
Narratives of Partition
Furrukh Khan
The primary focus of my research is on the oral narratives of women from the Indian subcontinent who have survived the Partition of India in 1947. This project has multiple objectives; the most important being the acknowledgment of the presence of these women during the momentous events of the Partition. This research project gives an importance to their narratives in an event in the history of the subcontinent that has been dominated by the 'official' history or history of those (men) who lead various political parties. Another core objective of this project is to use this research with one that I have already worked on in Pakistan, that is, interviewing women survivors of the Partition
Top |
| |
|
| |
Towards Confidence Building: Sino-Mongolian Relations in the Post-Cold War Era
Sharad K.Soni
During the Cold War period, China remained concerned with the erstwhile Soviet Union and, therefore, the disintegration of the USSR played a decisive role in the improvementof China’s external environment, both in terms of its neighbourhood and securing a favourable balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region. Consequently, changes in the geostrategic environment surrounding China’s northern neighbour Mongolia, coupled with the open door policies of both China and Mongolia, set the tone for the improvement of their hitherto strained bilateral and multilateral ties. The scope of this study is limited to the post-Cold War period, i.e., post-1990 period, during which Sino-Mongolian relations witnessed a marked shift from mistrust and hostilities to confidence building in matters of bilateral and multilateral concerns. It is in this context that this paper analyses the new developments in the Chinese policy towards its neighbours or what it describes as the “periphery” countries and its implications for Mongolia, particularly in the political and economic spheres. The role played by the Chinese frontier provinces like Inner Mongolia in the development of Sino-Mongolian relations has also been highlighted. While pointing to the major obstacles and future trends in the Sino-Mongolian relations, the paper concludes, among other things, that Beijing’s regional policy as applied to its relations with Mongolia seems to be advantageous, both economically as well as strategically, to strengthen China’s growing role as an Asian power.
Top
|
| |
|
| |
Performing Shakespeare in Colonial Southeast Asia
Judy Celine Ick
This paper investigates the vagaries of Shakespearean performances in British Malaya and the American Philippines in the early twentieth century. An important part of the English school curriculum in both colonial territories, performances of Shakespearean plays were staged primarily as an aid to pedagogy. The nature of performance, however, releases the Shakespearean text from the constraints of colonial pedagogy into the realm of creative and potentially critical engagement. This paper focuses on those engagements by looking at school-based productions in context of local cultures that ironically highlight their departures from colonial cultures even as they attempt to enact them. Finally, it glances at Shakespearean adaptations by the cultures at large, specifically at the Malay bangsawan, to further illustrate the uncontainable dynamics of colonial cultural production.
Top |
| |
|
| |
The Signification of Naga in Thai Architectural And Sculptural Ornaments
Phan Anh Tu
The Nak (Phaya Nak or Naga) in Thai architectural and sculptural ornaments are an associational achievement between the indigenous serpent cult of mainland Southeast Asia and the Naga of Indian religions in ancient times. It seems that the vestiges of the indigenous serpent cult, however, still exist at present even if only in Thai folklore. The Thais have been strongly influenced by Theravada Buddhism so the indigenous serpent worship ritual is not separate from the worship of Buddha.
Top |
| |
|
| |
|
|
|
|
