Regional Sociology Commons^™

Looking East, Looking West: Penang As A Knowledge Hub, Solvay Gerke, Hans-Dieter Evers

Hans-Dieter Evers

Penang has always been a focal point, absorbing nowledge (and popular culture) from civilizations to the East and West. In modern Penang the pattern of cultural contacts has changed over time. Research institutes and universities in Penang cooperate with foreign partners to produce research papers and reports. Based on an analysis of joint research output, the changing international position of Penang as an emerging research hub will be analysed. The paper will show that international cooperation has increased considerably between 1970 and 2010, but that there has also been a remarkable shift from European, Australian and American partners to East …

Les Musulmans : Un Cauchemar Ou Une Force Pour L’Europe ?, Hichem Karoui, Arno Tausch

Hichem Karoui

This is a comparative study related to European and Global Islam, based on documented- social- anthropological analysis, and quantitative data from the European Social Survey and the World Values Survey. Can we really say that Islam is not faulty as for the exclusion of European Muslims? Or is it only biased European policies toward Islam? How can we explain the radicalization of some European Muslims?

Utilizing The Past To Shape The Future: The Rehabilitation Of Child Soldiers In Darfur, Michael K. Marriott

Michael K Marriott

Child soldiering, an unfortunate reality of war, has become increasingly common in modern warfare. With world attention focused on the genocide taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan, issues regarding the use of child soldiers in the conflict have come to light. By providing an overview of the use of child soldiers both globally and in Sudan, discussing the relevant legal norms theoretically governing the country and providing a case study on Sierra Leone, this paper ultimately provides an analysis and proposed framework for comprehensive programs that could be put into action after cessation of hostilities in an attempt …

The Maritime Potential Of Asean Economies, Hans-Dieter Evers, Mhd Azhari-Karim

Hans-Dieter Evers

Countries may utilize a long coastline in relation to their landmass as a resource to develop their maritime conomy. This paper argues that ASEAN countries differ in utilizing their maritime potential. As a basis for further comparative studies the Center for Policy Research and International Studies (CenPRIS) in Penang developed a set of indicators to measure the maritime potential of nations, the state of their maritime industries, and the degree to which the maritime potential has actually been utilized. Using the CenPRIS Ocean Index (COI) shows that Brunei and the Philippines have underutilized their maritime potentials, whereas Singapore and Thailand …

Bloomsbury Cyber Junction (Bcj), Nechells

Hugh Thompson

No abstract provided.

Against The State Governance, Governance From Below & Governing Through Terrorism: Analytically Investigating The Technologies Of Power Within The Terrorist Arsenal., Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

Terrorism as a violent and destabilizing act performed by terrorists, meaning loyal followers of political or religious agendas who hold resent and animosity toward a certain authority/ government (Lin, Liou, & Wu, 2007, pg. 149), will be explored and analyzed through the utilization of the governmentality perspective. For the purposes of this paper terrorism governance will refer to the governance/ control/ influence exerted by terrorists and terrorism. The focus of this explorative and analysis paper will be to identify diverse terrorism oriented technologies of governance, and analyze the ways in which these technologies enable terrorist to exert governance both indirectly …

Summary: Israeli- Palestinian Ethnic Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

The Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict will continue to escalate throughout both the short term and long term world future. The current and future animosity between both ethnic groups can be attributed to (a) history based accounts and religious tensions, (b) polarizing ideologies held by both sides, and (c) middle eastern resentment toward the Jewish state of Israel. History based accounts will refer to both biased historical accounts and factual historical events that have contributed to the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict. Concepts such as ethnicity, nationalism, ideology, Palestinians, Israeli’s, Arabs, and religion will be conceptualized in the research paper.

Israeli- Palestinian Ethnic Conflict, Allen Gnanam

Allen Gnanam

This research paper discusses the historical, religious, and ideological factors linked to the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict, and how these factors have contributed to middle eastern resentment toward the Jewish State of Israeli. The Modernist Theory, Perceptual Framework, and he Domestic Framework have been applied to the analysis of the Israeli- Palestinian ethnic conflict, in order to demonstrate the intensity of the above factors and their provocative role in the conflict. Other provocative issues that are discussed in this paper include territorial wars, ethnic nationalism, the competition for natural resources, the biased dissemination of historical text through educational institutions, and …

Conducting Ethnography In China, Leung-Sea, Lucia Siu

Prof. SIU Leung-sea, Lucia

Conducting ethnography in modern China can be highly fruitful, yet there are special-care items that seldom appear in methodology literature. Drawn from the author’s fieldwork in China’s futures markets in 2005, the first part of this paper discusses a list of practical items that ethnographers are likely to face: field access, the organizational culture of public and quasi-public institutions, obtaining trust, the scenarios of gifts and banquets, reliability of statistical data, politically sensitive areas, and personal safety.

The second part is a reflection on standpoint issues, namely Orientalism and nationalism. Ethnographers usually face tensions that arise from their roles, as …