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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences

Fields Of Individuals And Neoliberal Logics: Japanese Soccer Ideals And The 1990s Economic Crisis, Elise M. Edwards Sep 2015

Fields Of Individuals And Neoliberal Logics: Japanese Soccer Ideals And The 1990s Economic Crisis, Elise M. Edwards

Elise M. Edwards

This article explores the relationship between popular representations of soccer and the rise of neoliberal discourse celebrating a new individualism in Japan at the turn of the millennium, a time when the country experienced sharp economic decline and consequent economic restructuring. Examining dominant vocabularies and practices present in coaching discourse, on soccer fields, and in media portrayals of Japanese men’s and women’s professional leagues, the author argues that rather than a coincidental, coeval mirroring between two seemingly unrelated realms—sports and economic transformations—these relationships point to the positioning of soccer over the past 20 years in Japan as a site to …


Bodies In Motion: Contemplating Work, Leisure, And Late Capitalism In Japanese Fitness Clubs, Elise M. Edwards Sep 2015

Bodies In Motion: Contemplating Work, Leisure, And Late Capitalism In Japanese Fitness Clubs, Elise M. Edwards

Elise M. Edwards

Review article of: Laura Spielvogel. 2003. Working Out in Japan: Shaping the Female Body in Tokyo Fitness Clubs. Durham and London: Duke University Press.


Class 6 Proficiency In Afghanistan 2013: Outcomes Of A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Tom Lumley, Juliette Mendelovits, Rachel Stanyon, Ross Turner, Maurice Walker Jul 2015

Class 6 Proficiency In Afghanistan 2013: Outcomes Of A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Tom Lumley, Juliette Mendelovits, Rachel Stanyon, Ross Turner, Maurice Walker

Maurice Walker

In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan, engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) as a partner to support the development of a national learning assessment program in Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, the Learning Assessment unit of the Ministry of Education and ACER have collaborated to design and implement the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) program in Afghanistan. MTEG is designed as a long-term monitoring program with one focus on trends in achievement outcomes in single class levels over time, and another focus on the growth of achievement in cohorts throughout the school cycle, from Class 3 …


How Modern India Looks At Its Premodernity, Ananya Vajpeyi Jul 2015

How Modern India Looks At Its Premodernity, Ananya Vajpeyi

Ananya Vajpeyi

No abstract provided.


Realism And Pm Narendra Modi’S Foreign Policy: Identification Of Gaps, Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr. Jun 2015

Realism And Pm Narendra Modi’S Foreign Policy: Identification Of Gaps, Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr.

Vivek Kumar Srivastava Dr.

Indian PM Narendra Modi is a dynamic leader. There are several discussions on his foreign policy, most of these have not studied it with a realist perspective. The present paper uses realist theoretical framework to identify the gaps in foreign policy.


Contested Religious Space In Jakarta: Negotiating Politics, Capital And Ethnicity, Chang Yau Hoon May 2015

Contested Religious Space In Jakarta: Negotiating Politics, Capital And Ethnicity, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.


Getting Through The Hard Times Together? Chinese Workers And Unions Respond To The Economic Crisis, Eli D. Friedman Apr 2015

Getting Through The Hard Times Together? Chinese Workers And Unions Respond To The Economic Crisis, Eli D. Friedman

Eli D Friedman

How do post-socialist unions respond to market crisis? And what are the implications of this response for labor representation? Drawing on literature on post-socialist labor and union democracy, I argue that economic crisis affects not just labor – capital and labor – state relations, but also the relationship between union representatives and workers. Such a dynamic is highlighted by an empirical account of the divergent activities of workers and All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) unions in China following the economic crisis of 2008. While the union responded to mass unemployment with an administrative and policy-oriented strategy, workers took to …


Class 6 Proficiency In Afghanistan 2013: Outcomes Of A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Tom Lumley, Juliette Mendelovits, Rachel Stanyon, Ross Turner, Maurice Walker Mar 2015

Class 6 Proficiency In Afghanistan 2013: Outcomes Of A Learning Assessment Of Mathematical, Reading And Writing Literacy, Tom Lumley, Juliette Mendelovits, Rachel Stanyon, Ross Turner, Maurice Walker

Juliette Mendelovits

In 2012, the Ministry of Education, Afghanistan, engaged the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) as a partner to support the development of a national learning assessment program in Afghanistan. To achieve this goal, the Learning Assessment unit of the Ministry of Education and ACER have collaborated to design and implement the Monitoring Trends in Educational Growth (MTEG) program in Afghanistan. MTEG is designed as a long-term monitoring program with one focus on trends in achievement outcomes in single class levels over time, and another focus on the growth of achievement in cohorts throughout the school cycle, from Class 3 …


Evaluating Job Training In Two Chinese Cities, Benu Bidani, Chor-Ching Goh, Niels-Hugo Blunch, Christopher J. O'Leary Feb 2015

Evaluating Job Training In Two Chinese Cities, Benu Bidani, Chor-Ching Goh, Niels-Hugo Blunch, Christopher J. O'Leary

Christopher J. O'Leary

Recent years have seen a surge in the evidence on the impacts of active labor market programs for numerous countries. However, little evidence has been presented on the effectiveness of such programs in China. Recent economic reforms, associated massive lay-offs, and accompanying public retraining programs make China fertile ground for rigorous impact evaluations. This study evaluates retraining programs for laid-off workers in the cities of Shenyang and Wuhan using a comparison group design. To our knowledge, this is the first evaluation of its kind in China. The evidence suggests that retraining helped workers find jobs in Wuhan, but had little …


Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad Jan 2015

Increasing Environmental Performance In A Context Of Low Governmental Enforcement: Evidence From China, Mary Alice Haddad

Mary Alice Haddad

How can activists and policy makers encourage better environmental behavior in a context of poor governmental enforcement? This article examines the case of the Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, a Chinese nonprofit organization, to show how a transparency-based platform can encourage brand-sensitive multinational corporations, their suppliers, their investors, local governments, and consumers to behave in more environmentally responsible ways, even in a context of low governmental enforcement. Using Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs as its model, this article argues that a transparency-based platform can serve an important coordinating function across multiple sectors, creating a mechanism through which market …


Political Values In Singapore: A Confucian Perspective, Vicente C. Reyes Jr Jan 2015

Political Values In Singapore: A Confucian Perspective, Vicente C. Reyes Jr

Dr. Vicente C Reyes Jr

In the ASEAN Charter, all member states are committed to common political values such as human rights, fundamental freedoms, democracy and the rule of law. These political values, as well as related political institutions and structures, are predominantly of Western origin. There is a need to recognize alternative models of organizing state and normative orders in Asia. One alternative is the political values that are derived and adapted from Asian philosophies. This paper critically discusses political values in Asia with a focus on the relevance of Confucius’ philosophy to the ASEAN political security community. The paper begins by examining the …


Mapping Chineseness On The Landscape Of Chinese Churches In Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon Jan 2015

Mapping Chineseness On The Landscape Of Chinese Churches In Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Chang Yau HOON

No abstract provided.


Pakistan, India And China In Afghanistan After Us Drawdown, Rabia Akhtar Dec 2014

Pakistan, India And China In Afghanistan After Us Drawdown, Rabia Akhtar

Rabia Akhtar, Ph.D.

No abstract provided.


Syllabus Inr 3061 (U01): Conflict, Security, And Peace In International Relations (Fall 2015), Lukas K. Danner Dec 2014

Syllabus Inr 3061 (U01): Conflict, Security, And Peace In International Relations (Fall 2015), Lukas K. Danner

Dr. Lukas K. Danner

War and peace are two intermittent outcomes of the continuous and dynamic nature of social interactions in world politics. In turn, these social events are connected by social conflicts that may, or may not degenerate into a crisis situation and war. Thus, this course will explore the genesis of social conflicts, their possible resolution, or their ultimate degeneration into crisis and war. Since the conflict-crisis-war cycle is born out and nurtured during times of “peace,” we will focus on that tract of time in order to understand the nature of social conflicts, the evolution into crisis, and the conditions for …


The Contemporary Ethnic Minority In China: An Introduction, Margaret Maurer-Fazio, Reza Hasmath Dec 2014

The Contemporary Ethnic Minority In China: An Introduction, Margaret Maurer-Fazio, Reza Hasmath

Reza Hasmath

This article introduces the historical context behind the practice of fixed ethnic identification currently employed in the People’s Republic of China. Notwithstanding the major problems to clearly delineate the boundaries of many ethnic groups in the Chinese context, the article contends there was a strong pragmatism for officially classifying ethnic minority groups rather than adopting the self-identification method used in many Western nations. Finally, the article poses the query whether ethnic minority status continues to hold a meaningful category of analysis in contemporary China.


(2015) "Changing Rural Markets In India: A Place Of Possibilities And Opportunities For Rural Development", Dr. Mohammad Muqeet Khan Dec 2014

(2015) "Changing Rural Markets In India: A Place Of Possibilities And Opportunities For Rural Development", Dr. Mohammad Muqeet Khan

Dr. Mohammad Muqeet Khan

No abstract provided.


Elders Leading The Way To Resilience, Emi Kiyota, Yasuhiro Tanaka, Margaret Arnold, Daniel P. Aldrich Dec 2014

Elders Leading The Way To Resilience, Emi Kiyota, Yasuhiro Tanaka, Margaret Arnold, Daniel P. Aldrich

Daniel P Aldrich

The theory of change behind this project draws on multiple constructs, including elder empowerment, ibasho, community bonding, social capital, and community resilience. 1. Empowering elders changes the way they feel about their role in their community 2. Creating the Ibasho Café (both physical and social infrastructures) with elders in a leadership role increases the community bonding among the members of all ages 3. A strong sense of community bonding increases the level of social network and community participation, enhancing the sense of belonging and trust, and developing reciprocity between neighbors 4. An enhanced sense of social capital strengthens the community’s …