Sociology Commons^™

Nationalist Sentiments And The Multinational Enterprise: Insights From Organizational Sociology, Jesper Edman, Ilya R. P. Cuypers, Gokhan Ertug, Ruth V. Aguilera

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

International business scholars have recognized the impact of political and economic nationalism on the multinational enterprise (MNE). We complement these approaches by highlighting the sociological manifestations of nationalism and their implications for the MNE. We argue that nationalist sentiments, i.e. widely-shared assumptions of superiority over other nations and cultures, constitute an under-researched but critical element in international business (IB). Drawing insights from organizational sociology, we elucidate how nationalist sentiments manifest in the MNE’s external and internal environment. Specifically, we suggest that nationalist sentiments accentuate national institutional logics, generate status-based categorizations of foreign and domestic firms, and heighten emphasis on national …

State Institutions In Northeast Thailand: Lao Ethnics And The Thai Identity, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this last chapter on state representation, we focus on a case where there has been an absence of demands. In Northeast Thailand, the large ethnic Lao population has not demanded cultural concessions from the state. In fact, not only have the demands been absent, but most people in the region see themselves as Thai (the broader national identity) or Isan (a moniker meaning “northeast”)—as opposed to ethnically Lao. The absence of the Lao identity has less to do with the absence of civic associations from the bottom up than with the absence of political representation from the top down. …

Age And Ideology: The Emergence Of New Political Cleavages In Thailand’S 2566 (2023) Election, Napon Jatusripitak, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Move Forward Party’s victory in Thailand’s 14 May 2566 (2023 CE) election surprised most observers, defying widespread predictions of a Pheu Thai win. Departing from traditional vote-mobilization strategies, Move Forward’s campaign focused largely on social media and broad calls for political reform while eschewing the vote-canvassing networks and economic policy promises that had delivered victory after victory for Pheu Thai. Does Move Forward’s win indicate changes in Thai voting behaviour? Relying on data from an original survey collected the week before and the week after the election, as well as observations from fieldwork, we identify two political cleavages that …

From Guo To Tianxia: Linking Two Daoist Theories Of International Relations, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines the international relations theory (IRT) of Daoism, one of Asia’s long-standing traditions to have theorized international politics. Drawing upon Laozi’s Dao De Jing, this study elucidates two Daoist IR theories. First, Laozi provides a state-focused guo-based IRT for conducting foreign policy and managing inter-state relations with emphasis on yielding and softness to overcome violence and domination. Second, Laozi offers a Utopian and globalist tianxia-centered IRT based on following the Dao whereby inter-state rivalry is dissolved in favor of peaceful planetary governance in harmony with the natural rhythms of the cosmos. Whereas previous scholarship often concentrates on only …

The Imaginary And Epistemology Of Disaster Preparedness: The Case Of Japan's Nuclear Safety Failure, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Fukushima nuclear disaster was profoundly a man-made one, resulting from the organiza-tional failure of nuclear emergency preparedness. To fully understand the cause of this disaster, I propose to extend an organizational perspective on disasters into a macro-institutional perspec-tive on disaster preparedness. To this end, I borrow from science and technology studies the concepts of "sociotechnical imaginary" and "civic epistemology" to probe the deepest layers of meaning-making constitutive of disaster preparedness. I then apply these concepts to the history of nuclear energy in postwar Japan that was centered on the developmental state pursuing in-dustrial transformation. Specifically, I illustrate how the …

Nonprofits As Socially Responsible Actors: Neoliberalism, Institutional Structures, And Empowerment In The United Nations Global Compact, Alwyn Lim

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations have become prominent participants in a global organizational responsibility movement. This trend of nonprofit responsibility is puzzling because nonprofits are presumably already dedicated to the pursuit of collective well-being objectives. This article examines the nonprofit responsibility movement from a cultural perspective, whereby broader cultural changes at the level of international organizations have constructed nonprofit entities as empowered and socially responsible actors. Using the case of the United Nations Global Compact, a global framework for corporate social responsibility, the author shows how (1) the construction of cultural meanings of autonomy and decentralization in the neoliberal context, (2) …

Learning From The Bats: Cooperation A Fundamental Sustainability Principle, Juan Humberto Young

Perspectives@SMU

Most scientists agree that COVID-19 was transmitted to humans from bats. In an ironic twist, their social behaviour could help us solve many of our collective problems

What A Delay In Singapore’S Political Succession Portends, Tan K. B. Eugene

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Law Eugene Tan discussed what a delay in Singapore’s political succession arising from the COVID-19 crisis might portend and explained the impact of such a move.

Rural Land Dispossession In China And India, Joel Andreas, Sunila Kale, Michael Levien, Forrest Q. Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The twelve articles in this special issue feature the work of scholars studying the dispossession of rural land in China and India. Each offers new insights about the extent and patterns of dispossession, the complex dynamics driving it, the consequences for farmers, as well as the factors shaping resistance or compliance. Although each article treats developments within one country, the collection helps uncover features common to rural land dispossession in China and India, and illuminates differences that shape the processes of dispossession in each country. Comparison of the two countries helps us to not only understand the future implications of …

Making Ethnic Tourism Good For The Poor, Jean Junying Lor, Shelly Kwa, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How can ethnic tourism alleviate rural poverty? Due to the difficulty of simultaneously expanding tourism while promoting pro-poor tourism, most villages traverse one of two developmental pathways: 1) ensuring an inclusive structure before expanding, or 2) expanding before building an inclusive structure. This study compares four comparable cases in Southwestern China to understand the politics behind the decision to choose different pathways, and the impact each pathways has on local residents. While the first pathway requires a careful balance to maintain a pro-poor structure as tourism volume expands, the second pathway presents apparently insurmountable barriers to poverty reduction due to …

Conceptualizing And Measuring Women’S Political Leadership: From Presence To Balance, Devin K. Joshi, Ryan Goehrung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article conceptualizes an innovative understanding and measurement of women's political leadership, theoretically justifies its application, and analyzes contemporary variation in its patterns through comparative case studies. In recent years, scholars of comparative government have studied with great interest the election of female prime ministers and presidents (e.g., Derichs and Thompson 2013; Jalalzai 2013) and cross-national variation in female members of parliaments (MPs) and cabinets (e.g., Bauer and Tremblay 2011; Paxton and Hughes 2017; Suraj, Scherpereel, and Adams 2014). Yet, when it comes to regions beyond Europe and the Americas, comparative empirical analysis of women's political leadership (WPL) across national-level …

Conceptualizing And Measuring Women’S Political Leadership: From Presence To Balance, Devin K. Joshi, Ryan Goehrung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article conceptualizes an innovative understanding and measurement of women's political leadership, theoretically justifies its application, and analyzes contemporary variation in its patterns through comparative case studies. In recent years, scholars of comparative government have studied with great interest the election of female prime ministers and presidents (e.g., Derichs and Thompson 2013; Jalalzai 2013) and cross-national variation in female members of parliaments (MPs) and cabinets (e.g., Bauer and Tremblay 2011; Paxton and Hughes 2017; Suraj, Scherpereel, and Adams 2014). Yet, when it comes to regions beyond Europe and the Americas, comparative empirical analysis of women's political leadership (WPL) across national-level …

Judgments Of Interpersonal Warmth Predict Class-Based Differences In Political Candidate Support, Jacinth J. X. Tan, Michael W. Kraus

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present research examines how warmth communications shape classbased patterns of political candidate support. Drawing on theory and evidence that lower-class individuals are more attuned to others, we predicted that, relative to upper-class individuals, they will modulate their trust and support in response to communications of warmth generated by and about political figures. In Experiment 1, lower-class compared to upper-class participants reported less trust and support for a political candidate who communicated his warmth in a campaign video, while no class differences emerged when he communicated competence or hostility to an opponent instead. In Experiment 2, lower-class compared to upper-class …

New Forms Of Political Activism In Indonesia: Redefining The Nexus Between Electoral And Movement Politics, Dirk Tomsa, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article argues that new personality-centric movements have redefined the nexus between activism and electoral politics in Indonesia. It illustrates how these movements have challenged the role of political parties and consultants in electoral campaigning, and how their growing prominence may affect the future trajectory of Indonesian politics.

Liberty And The Challenge Of Diversity, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Those who favor liberty face a dilemma arising out of human diversity.While some groups of people will place a high value on liberty, others mayconsider it a lesser good or may value it scarcely at all. Preserving a free society by forcing everyone to value liberty runs against the spirit of freedom;but leaving those groups who do not care for liberty to live in that way alsodiminishes liberty, if in a different way. In the end the dilemma has to beresolved in favor of tolerating even those who do not care for liberty andthreaten to undermine it.

A Resilient Society For A Global Singapore, Arnoud Cyriel Leo De Meyer

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

I was intrigued by the theme of this conference about the social futures of Singapore. I believe that Singapore is at a tipping point of thinking about its future. This is not because it was Singapore’s 50 years of independence last year and we are now looking at the next 50 years. It is simply because Singapore has become a very mature and rich society. It probably has to start thinking in a very different way about its future. I had, at other occasions, mentioned my belief that Singapore’s resilience will be one of the key requirements for it to …

Community Engagement As A Form Of Participatory Governance, Ijlal Naqvi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The Singapore government increasingly conducts a wide-rangingvariety of community engagement, which involve some degree ofpublic participation in government decision-making. These range fromOur Singapore Conversation, a wide-ranging discussion of whatSingaporeans want for their future, to the Colour Your Busescampaign in which citizens could vote on whether public buses shouldbe red or green. While these engagement processes typically informand consult, or occasionally involve deliberation and co-creation, theyrarely — if ever — empower citizens to make consequential decisionsin the manner of Archon Fung and Erik Olin Wright’s concept ofEmpowered Participatory Governance (2003).

The Global Impact Of Changes In Us Trade Policy, Jagdish Sheth

Asian Management Insights

Heralded as the next big economic partnership, the Trans-Pacifi c Partnership (TPP) received a setback when U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the pact on his very fi rst day of assuming offi ce. The withdrawal indicated an underlying current of changing global trends, and the American agenda of shifting focus from building trade relations to creating a gateway for foreign investments.

A Syrian In Trump’S America, Singapore Management University

Perspectives@SMU

How a Syrian family dealt with war, travel bans, and reuniting in turbulent times

Taking Action For Social Change, Singapore Management University

Research@SMU: Connecting the Dots

Research at the SMU Lien Centre for Social Innovation is helping to better understand and respond to the needs of vulnerable communities in Singapore.

See the papers:

• Elderly population in Singapore: Understanding social, physical and financial needs
• Single-parent families in Singapore: Understanding the challenges of finances, housing and time poverty
• People with physical disabilities in Singapore: Understanding disabling factors in caregiving, education, employment and finances
• A handbook on inequality, poverty and unmet social needs in Singapore

The Cultural Pragmatics Of Political Apology, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent decades, research on ‘political apology’, wherein the state apologizes to victims of its past wrongs, has multiplied, as redress movements based on human rights have proliferated around the world. Since most of this research has been conducted by political philosophers, however, analyses of political apologies tend to adopt formal and normative perspectives. To propose an alternative, empirically-grounded approach, in this paper, I develop the ‘cultural pragmatics’ of political apology. To this end, I first conceptualize political apology as a social performance aimed to ‘re-fuse’ an impaired relationship between the perpetrator state and the victim individual. This conceptual move …

’A Beautiful Bridge’: Chinese Indonesian Associations, Social Capital And Strategic Identification In A New Era Of China Indonesia Relations, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In Indonesia, Chinese voluntary associations took on a new level of importance after the fall of Suharto’s New Order regime in 1998 that ushered in a revival of Chinese identity politics. At the same time, Sino-Indonesian relations are blossoming, and the rise of China as a global power means that Indonesia can only benefit from stronger ties with China in the future. In this new atmosphere of cooperation, I argue that Chinese Indonesian individuals and voluntary organizations play a crucial function as trade and cultural intermediaries. Drawing on both empirical and qualitative fieldwork data, in this paper, I examine how …

The Realpolitik Of Nuclear Risk: When Political Expediency Trumps Technical Democracy, Hiro Saito, Sang-Hyoun Pahk

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In recent years, a growing number of researchers in science and technology studies have begun to examine the relationship between science and politics. Specifically, they focus on citizen participation in highly technical policy problems and explore the possibility of a technical democracy that avoids pitfalls of technocracy. This focus, however, downplays a possibly more serious obstacle to technical democracy than technocracy, namely, realpolitik. Based on ethnographic and textual data on citizen–government interactions in the aftermath of the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster, we first show how citizens mobilised radiation detectors and counter-experts to force the Japanese government to admit scientific uncertainty …

Zainul Abidin Rasheed [Malaysia, Minister Of State For Foreign Affairs], Zainul Abidin Rasheed

Digital Narratives of Asia

Former editor of Berita Harian, who rose to become head of Mendaki, and then Senior Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Zainul Abidin Rasheed, tells DNA how his experiences during the 1964 racial riots had shaped his political views. He recalls how Lee Kuan Yew retracted from closing down Nanyang University, and Mr Goh Chok Tong's consensual style that welcomes the contributions of the Association of Muslim Professionals.

Education As The Weakest Institutional Link In Japan's Nuclear Regulation, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Debates over the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Disaster pointed to a set of institutional and organizational failures in Japan’s nuclear regulation as a primary cause of the disaster. While the Japanese government has implemented reforms to strengthen nuclear regulation, I argue that these reforms have largely left out the education system as a key institution that produces and distributes expertise necessary for nuclear regulation. First, the Japanese education system has traditionally produced only a small number of experts in the fields related to nuclear regulation, aligned top-ranked experts with the pro-nuclear government, and weakened the civil society’s capacity to mobilize counter-experts. …

State Intervention And Agrarian Transition, Weigang Gong, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

本文试图延续农业政治经济学领域有关南亚、东南亚农业转型的研究传统，侧重于从国家干预的视角解释当前中国农业转型的逻辑。国家干预塑造农业转型的具体形态发生在税费改革前后农业治理体系转型的大背景下，农业治理转型表现为政府与市场的边界、国家与农民的关系以及农业治理的组织费用发生重大变化，这使得以项目化为表现形式、以农业现代化为政策目标的国家干预行为与分散的、数量众多的小农户打交道时治理成本高昂，农业管理部门越来越倾向于通过扶持龙头企业、种粮大户、家庭农场、合作社等规模经营主体以降低政策执行成本，故而规模经营主体成为国家农业政策的接应主体和政策具体执行的代理人。这个代理人的培育过程，正是中国农业转型的推进过程。

Lucky To Be Singaporean, Ee-Ing Ong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Op-ed about being Singaporean, in our historic 2015 elections.

"In the midst of our historic elections, I would like to remind Singaporeans that there remains a wider world out there. That our concerns about CPF money, high housing prices, rising income inequality, foreign workers, transportation woes, and the AHPETC saga, while important, are nonetheless First World problems. We have the luxury of arguing about them because we don’t have to worry about the fundamental problems of survival. Literally.

Thus, as we consider what we would like our country to look like in the coming years, I suggest that we first …

State Political Identity And Meta-Governance: Comparative Analysis Of Governance Modes In Vegetable Retail In Urban China, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

A government's political identity is a key factor in meta-governance; it powerfully shapes a government's policy aims and implementation preferences at the most abstract level and forms a stable governance mode. Dissonance between a pre-existing governance mode and the government's evolved political identity will lead to governance failures and pose political challenges to the government. In the case of vegetable retail in Shanghai, the neoliberal developmental state transformed the hierarchical governance into market governance; but as it evolves into a corporatist welfare state, market imperfections come to be perceived as governance failures, and the government responds by reintroducing hierarchical measures.

Fidel Valdez Ramos [Philippines, President], Fidel Valdez Ramos

Digital Narratives of Asia

Fidel V Ramos was the 12th President of the Philippines. As Director-General of the Integrated National Police and Acting Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, he rose up against the dictatorship of President Ferdinand Marcos, to lead the military in the People Power Revolution of 1986. He tells DNA why he decided to stand up to his second cousin, what led him to run for the presidency and the thinking behind one of the key achievements of his term - the peace agreement with the MNLF.

Dominic Puthucheary [Malaysia, Member Of Parliament, Founder Barisan Sosialis], Dominic Puthucheary

Digital Narratives of Asia

Founder Vice-President, Barisan Sosialis, and former Malaysian Member of Parliament for Nibong Tebal, Dominic Puthucheary, recalls how he was inducted into politics, then trade union movement during the anti-colonial era. He presented his retrospective views on Mr Lee Kuan Yew, and the failure of the Left movement in the Cold War realities.