Digital Commons Network^™

From Precarious Labor To Precarious Economy? Planning For Precarity In Singapore's Creative Economy, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The important place of the oftentimes "hidden" independent worker, or freelancer, has been acknowledged in developed countries where the creative economy has grown. These creative workers do not belong to the traditional employment set-up organized around firms. Instead, they move from portfolio to portfolio, assignment to assignment, interspersing corporation-based jobs with periods of self employment. Their work offers freedom, independence and creative space, but has also been characterized as precarious, because the securities of old working patterns no longer hold. While governments in many countries and cities have become attracted to the potential of the creative economy, those that have …

Cosmopolitan Nation-Building: The Institutional Contradiction And Politics Of Postwar Japanese Education, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The education system has been a quintessential state apparatus of nation-building since the emergence of the modern nation-state; however, recent comparative studies demonstrate the growing presence of cosmopolitanism in education policies and school curricula around the world. This trend indicates that the education system now operates according to two different institutional logics, nationalism and cosmopolitanism. To understand how the education system negotiates the potential contradiction between nationalism and cosmopolitanism, in this paper, I analyze the case of postwar Japanese education. Theoretically, I synthesize studies of institutional logics and social movements: while the former shed light on a contradiction between different …

The Implications Of Water Insecurity For Fragile And Failing States: The Case Of Pakistan, Jennifer Norins

Graduate Masters Theses

As we become more firmly established in the 21st century, the international system faces a number of increasingly more difficult challenges that pose threats to global security and human progress. Among these challenges, water scarcity and failing states have each received prominent attention in both the academic and policy realms. Water serves a number of critical purposes for human survival and socio-economic activity. The threat of water scarcity is becoming increasingly salient and the capacity of states to ensure water security, and other securities which water security supports, is being tested. Fragile and failing states also occupy significant space in …

Democratic Nationalistic Privilege And The Exclusion Of Europe's "Gypsy", Eli E. Roth

Senior Honors Projects

Europe is the world’s best example of a group of countries offering similar levels of political freedom, tolerance, and economic prosperity and security. Following the fall of Communism, Europe began to outpace the rest of the planet on aggregated indicators of development, and, according to Freedomhouse.org, only two of the world’s forty seven “not free” countries, Belarus and Russia, can be found on this continent. The Roma, frequently mislabeled as “Gypsies,” are among the few troubled populations residing in Europe. In the comprehensive 2006 Final Report on the Human Rights Situation of the Roma in Europe, one Romani man describes …

Book Reviews, Dick Jonsson, Bizeck Jube Phiri, Gear M. Kajoba, Obrian Ndhlovu

Zambia Social Science Journal

Reviews of:

Why Africa is Poor – and what Africans can do about it. By Greg Mills;

Living the End of Empire: Politics and Society in Late Colonial Zambia. Edited by Jan-Bart Gewald, Marja Hinfelaar and Giacomo Macola;

Left Behind: Rural Zambia in the Third Republic. By Jeremy Gould;

Gender Budgeting as a Tool for Poverty Reduction. By The African Capacity Building Foundation. African Capacity Building Foundation

Tackling Poverty By Ethiopians Or Globalization Wave: A Book Review, Asayehgn Desta

Collected Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Sovereign Wealth Funds: Global And Domestic Implications Of The Rise Of A New Major Player In International Finance, Michelle Sollod

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The subject of petrodollar recycling has frequently captured the interest of academics, politicians and the media. Specifically, the issue typically boils down to one central question: where exactly are the petrodollars—revenue earned from the sale of oil—flowing? According to traditional scholars like Bernard Mommer and Terry Lynn Karl the recurring argument is that in oil-exporting nations, oil revenues are channeled directly into the hands of a few government officials resulting in corruption, inequality and economic decay.

However, the main limitation of this traditional argument is that it tends to focus solely on the dynamics between the national level and local …

Women’S Rights To Contraception And Abortion In Chile And Spain, Erin Kosalwat Elzo

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Abstract

Women’s reproductive rights, particularly the rights to contraceptives and abortions, have been a contentious issue that often divides people into different political spectrums. The objective of this research was to examine women’s rights to contraception and abortion inChileandSpain. The majority of the population in these two countries is Roman Catholic (94% inSpainand 70% inChile). Both countries ratified the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) as well as signed the Optional Protocol to the CEDAW. This research was based on an extensive review of literature that involved documents from government and non-government …

China And The New Asia: Policy Recommendations, Tasha N. Haug

Senior Honors Theses

The People’s Republic of China is an indispensable political and economic force in Asia. With the majority of the United States’ foreign economic interests invested in the Asia-Pacific region, the leading role that China is taking is a major concern. The Asia-Pacific region is strategically important to the US. How US policy makers craft foreign policy toward Asia has a direct impact on US involvement in the region. Unless the US becomes more invested in Asia, develops a comprehensive understanding of China’s role in the region, and proactively pursue strategic relationships, US influence in Asian affairs will become a thing …

Ka’Aba Under Communism: Muslim, Regional, And Clan Identity In Soviet Literature Of The Caucasus And Central Asia, Kate Pickering '11

Honor Scholar Theses

No abstract provided.

Ann Veeck, Nate Coe

International Faculty Researchers

Rapidly changing food consumption patterns in China has for the last 15 years captured the attention of Western Michigan University international researcher and marketing professor Dr. Ann Veeck. In nearly annual trips to China, Veeck examines how these patterns are changing parallel to the expansion of the Chinese economy and how marketing efforts affect consumers' lives in both positive and negative ways.

Ann Veeck's website

The Crisis Of Unity In The 21st Century: The Unrealized Dream Of Pan-Africanism In Cameroon, Araba Sapara-Grant

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The following is an analysis of how the sentiments of pan-Africanism, a notion formulated in the early 20th century, have failed to proliferate in Cameroonian society. As a concept based in the social, economic, and political solidarity of the African continent, the pan-African movement has often been a point of reference for intellectuals searching for a solution to the problems Africa currently faces, some of which include lack of political agency and stagnating economic growth. The beliefs promoted by pan-Africanists is that by joining together the collective potentials of all African people, the continent can become a global force, leaving …

Sac Outreach Bulletin 2011, The South Asia Center

Newsletters from the South Asia Center

No abstract provided.

Claiming Manaslu: The Agency Of A Rural Community In Nepal’S Developing Mountain Tourism Industry, Sierra Gladfelter

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Due to the commoditization of Everest‟s summit and road construction around Annapurna, adventure tourists drawn to Nepal for wilderness and „authentic‟ village experiences are increasingly seeking more remote destinations like the Manaslu Circuit, which only opened to trekkers in 1991. The trekkers and mountaineers who travel such routes play a crucial role in ushering in the development of remote regions and reshaping the face of previously isolated villages. As agencies, nonprofits and community organizations design and market these alternative treks with the noble goal of alleviating poverty in rural Nepal, there is often a disconnect between those promoting the destination …

Validating The Culture Of Agriculture: Farmers Groups And Organic Agriculture Mitigating Rural To Urban Migration In Bhutan, Emma Dosch

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Agricultural occupations make up the largest proportion of Bhutan’s workforce. Over the past two decades the occupation has shrunk from 90% to 65% of Bhutan’s employment. The younger generation of Bhutan’s rural population is seeking livelihood opportunities in urban areas, leaving farms with labor shortages. The movement may compromise the identity and sustainability of Bhutan’s rural population and undermine the nation’s goals of Gross National Happiness (GNH) directed policy. Initiatives to retain and legitimize agricultural livelihoods are emerging inside and outside of government policy. Existing efforts are models of ways to reconnect educated individuals with the needs and values of …

Building Houses, Making Homes: The Experiencing Of Returning To Post-War Sanski Most, Claire Griffith

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Over half of Bosnia’s population was displaced by the war from 1992-1995. One of the political objectives of the war was the separating of Bosnia’s ethnically intermixed population into homogenous spaces. This was achieved through ethnic cleansing of communities. Broadening the discussion of ethnic cleansing, authors, such as Gearoid O Tuathail and Carl Cahlman, have analyzed ethnic cleansing, as it occurred in Bosnia, within the framework of ‘domicide,’ or the ““he intentional exercise of violence to destroy a particular type of spatiality: homes. It is ‘the deliberate killing of home’” (O Tuathail and Dahlman, 244). Assuming ‘domicide’ rather than just …

Cabul Or Afghanistan: The Seat Of The Anglo-Russian Question (1878), Phil Robinson

Digitized Afghanistan Materials in English from the Arthur Paul Afghanistan Collection

Anglo-Russian question, Afghanistan, the country, the Ameer and the Afghans.

A pamphlet of facts about the country, with a map of the country showing routes of advance and passes, from the Russian lines beyond the Oxus to the Persian Gulf.

Factors Of Environmental Sustainability For Africa, Asia, And Latin America, Jacob Converse

Political Science Theses and Capstones

This study incorporates and analyzes several theories in regards to what causes countries to perform in an environmentally sustainable manner. This has been and is becoming an increasingly important and debated topic due to the ever increasing interest and concern about global environmental challenges. This issue has been examined through a variety of different lenses including economic, socio-political, and geographical perspectives and they have an assortment of results. One such existing finding suggests that the best way to improve a country’s environmental sustainability is to first focus on improving the gross domestic product which will eventually allow changes to take …

Rising Asian Powers And Changing Global Governance, Ann Florini

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

International Relations (IR) scholarship is directly in the path of two simultaneous tidal waves. The first is the rise of China and India in the traditional IR terms of military and economic power. The second is the expanding nature of what IR scholarship needs to address, as global integration transforms the nature of the issues to be addressed and numerous trends expand the number and types of relevant actors. Neither theory nor practice is yet coping well with the profound implications of these fundamental changes. Investigating what kind of a world order might emerge from these two simultaneous tsunamis will …

Berglund And Porter-Szücs' "Christianity And Modernity In Europe" - Book Review, James R. Payton Jr.

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Beyer's "Recovering Solidarity: Lessons From Poland's Unfinished Revolution" - Book Review, John T. Pawlikowski

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

No abstract provided.

Dinamika Politik Ekonomi Dalam Masalah-Masalah Lingkungan, Fransisca Sse Seda

Masyarakat: Jurnal Sosiologi

No abstract provided.

Liminal City, Rian Dundon

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

He says he’s lost his city and his society. We drive past a group of demonstrators protesting land seizures. He points out the scene and the gaggle of police cruisers nearby and grins in English “this is Chi-na”, emphasizing the play-on-words between “Chi” and “Chai” (chai, or 拆 being Chinese for “dismantle” or “demolish”). He sees the city’s recent prosperity through a filter of isolation, exclusion, and greed. Tells me how the doors are all closed. How peoples’ sense of self worth is determined by the number of contacts in their cell phones. How they are drifting further …

Dalian’S Past, Dalian’S Present, Part 1, Meg Rithmire

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Where is Dalian, the city that has just made its way into international headlines due to largescale demonstrations in its central square? Ask this question in China and “Dongbei” is the one word answer you are likely to get. And you can’t argue with it. The term means simply “Northeast”—with the first character the same one that’s in the song “Dongfang Hong” (The East is Red) and the second the same one that’s in Beijing (literally: Northern Capital)—and on a map of the country, Dalian is right up there in the right hand corner (the red dot on the image …

Berita Spring 2011, Derek Heng

Berita

Table of Contents

Chair’s Address .…...2

Editor’s Foreword...3

Members’ Updates...4

Announcements ...6

The State of Malaysian Studies in Germany...7

Whither Identity Politics: The Rise of Multi-Ethnic Opposition in Malaysia...9

Singapore Revs up for Elections...13

Methodology and Fieldwork: A Guide to Research Fieldwork in Kelantan …..16

Microhistory, Legal Records and Minorities in Singapore and Malaysia .…..21

What China Can Teach Us About Tucson, Peter Vernezze

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

From 2006-2008, I served as a Peace Corps volunteer in China, teaching oral English at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu. During this time, I drew on my previous life experience as a philosophy professor to hold a regular philosophical discussion group with Chinese undergraduates. Twice a month we met for ninety minutes to debate the status of truth, the meaning of life, and the reality of fate, among other topics. I believe their deliberations on timeless topics contain a very timely message for America today in the wake of January’s tragedy in Tuscon.

China’S Water Challenges: A Quick Q & A With Environmental Historian Kenneth Pomeranz, Jeffrey Wasserstrom

China Beat Blog: Archive 2008-2012

Ken Pomeranz, Kate Merkel-Hess and I had various reasons for launching this blog at the start of 2008. One thing that led us to start the venture, at a time when Kate was the only one of us with any blogging experience, was simply a sense that some of the things that we were saying to one another over lunch and in the hallways at UC Irvine might be of interest to people in other places who were working on, living in, or just curious about China. As much as the venture has developed since then (adding new contributors continually, …

Exploring Leadership Through International Education: Civic Learning Through Study Abroad In Uganda, Adam Weinberg, Rebecca Hovey, Carol Bellamy

Lewis Global Studies Center Staff Publications

Leadership education in the 21st century cannot ignore the global risks, opportunities and realities of our interconnected world; so too international education cannot avoid its responsibility to provide the knowledge and vision needed to resolve critical issues we will face as a global community. We argue that a model of international education is needed which acknowledges the diverse global community in which institutions are based and learning takes place. In linking leadership and international education, we propose an alternative approach to both based on recognition, reciprocity and responsibility toward others.

The Ister: Between The Documentary And Heidegger’S Lecture Course Politics, Geographies, And Rivers, Babette Babich

Articles and Chapters in Academic Book Collections

The Ister, the 2004 documentary by the Australian scholars and videographers, David Barison, a political theorist, and Daniel Ross, a philosopher, appeals to Martin Heidegger’s 1942 lecture course, Hölderlins Hymne «Der Ister»and the video takes us «backward» as the river flows: beginning from the Danube’s delta where it ends in the sea and «journeying» with it to its source in the Alps.

the value of the Barison/Ross documentary for both political theory and philosophy is its illustration of the technological incursions or assaults on the river itself, that is to say: its representation of the ‘uses’ and hence …

Caring Work: Opening A Space Of Possibility For Exploring Transnational Feminist Solidarity Between Privileged And Marginalized Women, Beverly Romero Natividad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Neoliberalism, through its emphasis on personal responsibility and individual freedom in accelerating economic development globally, has only pushed women further into the margin of society. Structural adjustment programs (SAPs), which impose state budget cuts on healthcare and welfare programs, particularly have kept poor women and women of color in poverty and generally, have exploited women's labor. However, in this age of neoliberalism, women's solidarity becomes more significant. Because neoliberalism is founded on individualism, its downfall rests on alliance-building. Against this backdrop, I explore the possibility of fostering transnational feminist solidarity between privileged and marginalized women engaged in formal caring work. …