International and Area Studies Commons^™

Individual And Collective Diaspora Remittances In The Philippines And Korea: An Interpretation Of Narrative Identity, Communicative Action, And Recognition, Janice Gow Pettey

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

This study examines the practices of sending remittances from the United States to receivers in the Philippines, and collective and individual remittances supporting reunification of Korea with the intention of providing financial support for sustainable living and community projects. The research analyzes the narratives with reference to identity and culture of diaspora Filipinos and Koreans in the United States who are remitters and donors in the United States supporting humanitarian causes in North Korea.

Research Theory and Protocol

Through critical hermeneutic theory formulated by Paul Ricoeur (2005,1992,1991,1983) and Jürgen Habermas (1981,1987,1984) and the interpretive inquiry protocol developed by …

Stateless In The United States: Current Reality And A Future Prediction, Polly J. Price

Faculty Articles

Statelessness exists in the United States-a fact that should be of concern to advocates of strict immigration control as well as those who favor a more welcoming policy. The predominant reasons for statelessness include the presence of individuals who are unable to prove their nationality and the failure of their countries of origin to recognize them as citizens. Migrants with unclear nationality, already a problem for the United States, obstruct efforts to control immigration by the deportation of unauthorized aliens. These existing problems of national identity will increase exponentially if birthright citizenship in the United States is amended to exclude …

Sharing What Works Through South-South Cooperation: The Case Of The Risk Reduction Management Centre Replication Project, Rachel M. Cohn

Capstone Collection

The Risk Reduction Management Centre (RRMC) Replication Project, an initiative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), aims to take a Cuban best practice in disaster risk reduction and adapt it to the local context of five other Caribbean countries. This project differs from most development projects in that the individuals and institutions providing the assistance (in this case technical training and know-how) are themselves from a developing country (Cuba). This model, wherein developing countries provide resources, information, and training to other developing countries, is known as South-South Cooperation (SSC).

This capstone uses the case of the RRMC Replication Project …

The Minimum Wage, Decent Wages, And Time Sovereignty In The European Union, Kathleen A. Ragon

Student Publications

The minimum wage is a legally mandated relationship between money and time. Traditionally, studies of the minimum wage have focused on the money side of this relationship (e.g. how much do minimum wage workers earn) while ignoring its temporal aspects (e.g. how long someone has to work to receive a particular income). This is a significant oversight because it overlooks the temporal investments that minimum wage workers must make in order to achieve a specific sum of money (e.g. there is a significant temporal difference if a minimum wage worker can achieve an income above a poverty threshold by working …

Essays On Rethinking African Development: Contextual And Methodological Advances, Olumayokun Soremekun

2013

This research study sets out to provide analytical answers to the questions of African development and inequality. We examine various aspects of development from the issue of inequality among African countries to unravelling the synergies among the MDG goals and finally to investigating the progress if any that African countries have made towards attaining the MDG goals.

This research is broken down into three main studies: measuring inequality of opportunity, examining the synergies between the Millennium development goals at a particular point in time and lastly assessing the progress that has been made towards attaining the MDG goals in Africa. …

Sex Trafficking: The Influence Of Cultures, Socio-Economic Structures And Law & Order On Sex Trade In Asia, Saanya Dua

Political Science Theses and Capstones

Sex trafficking and prostitution are both matters of concern in today’s world. Trafficking of human beings is a global phenomenon and has been a topic of increased discussion and attention. It is believed that the sex trade industry is considered to be the fastest growing criminal industry in the world, currently it is second to drug trafficking in terms of profits through an illegal industry. Several initiatives have been made to prevent trafficking, through significant legislative and other actions provided to aid victims and those vulnerable in the world. However, the lack of systematic research is a big issue. Asia …

Water Governance In Bolivia: Policy Options For Pro-Poor Infrastructure Reform, Daniel M. Maxwell

CMC Senior Theses

As the case with most countries across Latin America, unprecedented migration to urban areas has strained city infrastructure systems. More particularly, the region faces a pressing crisis of water security, where rapid urbanization has outpaced water sector development. This thesis addresses the water infrastructure reform in El Alto and La Paz, Bolivia, focusing on strategies to better promote water access for the peri-urban poor. The research investigates the level of progressivity of water service expansion and pricing regimes: in other words, does the present model of water distribution positively improve the lives of the poorest groups? By investigating these social …

Soldiers Of Science--Agents Of Culture: American Archaeologists In The Office Of Strategic Services (Oss), Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

"Scientificity" and appeals to political independence are invaluable tools when institutions such as the American School of Classical Studies at Athens attempt to maintain professional autonomy. Nonetheless, the cooperation of scientists and scholars with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), among them archaeologists affiliated with the American School, suggests a constitutive affinity between political and cultural leadership. This relationship is here mapped in historical terms, while, at the same time, sociological categorizations of knowledge and its employment are used in order to situate archaeologists in their broader social and political context and to evaluate their work not merely as agents …

Grounding The International Norm On Women, Peace And Security: The Role Of Domestic Norm Entrepreneurs And The Challenges Ahead, Ma. Lourdes Veneracion-Rallonza

Political Science Department Faculty Publications

One of the gaps in the study of international norms is the process by which they are institutionalized and accepted at the national level. As the international norm negotiates its way through various national (and even grassroots) levels, a point of inquiry would be how domestic norm entrepreneurs have enabled its localization. This study looks at the narrative of a loose network of peace and women’s human rights groups that worked together to localize United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 1325 on women, peace and security in the Philippines. Specifically, it reviews how the network evolved to become a domestic …

Towards Aid Effectiveness : Contested Theories And Concepts : A Case Study Of Ghana’S Community–Based Rural Development Project, Kwadwo Adusei-Asante

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The discussion of aid effectiveness continues to gain prominence in international development policy discourse and analysis. However, the question of why aid seems to be ineffective is far more complicated and remains largely unanswered. While the notions that aid drives donors’ interests and creates dependency are still relevant, this thesis confronts the problem, by examining the issues that influenced the operationalisation and effectiveness of aid programs in the context of Ghana’s Community-Based Rural Development Project (CBRDP) (2005-2011). By arguing that aid dependency and “aid as a concept” are different, the thesis makes the most basic assumption that ‘aid’ is not …

The Predicament Of The Greek Diaspora: Economic Crisis, Immigrant Radicalism And Greek-American Ethnic Identity, Despina Lalaki

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

A Study Of Corruption, Foreign Aid, And Economic Growth, Amanda Deerfield

Theses and Dissertations--Public Policy and Administration

Foreign aid donors increasingly demand that aid is used efficiently and effectively. This study examines the effect of corruption levels, measured by the Corruption Perceptions Index, within a recipient country on the levels of economic growth. A growing literature outlines the mechanisms through which corruption impedes economic growth and is summarized within. Additionally, as longevity gains may result from foreign aid but are not captured in economic growth, this study computes a variable called the Life Quality Indicator (LQI) that combines such gains with economic growth and examines corruption’s effect on LQI growth. As any windfall, foreign aid has been …

Can We Say More Now? A Closer Look At Online Public Opinion Change In China, Ran Duan

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

This study examined the pattern of online public opinion change in China by investigating the top one hit blog and its following commentaries of every day from July 2009 to March 2012 on a famous Chinese website, and then discussed potential factors that affected the formation of online public opinion. The extent of freedom of online public opinion during this period presented regular fluctuations. Whether criticisms were registered by commentators was influenced by four factors. First and most important, the negative tone of bloggers increased criticism and the positive tone decreased criticism, which shows that the news that flows from …

Population Pressure And Family Planning In The Case Of Sub Saharan Africa's Demographic Transition, Jessica T. Ysunza

Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

Associative Duties And Immigration, Javier S. Hidalgo

Jepson School of Leadership Studies articles, book chapters and other publications

This paper evaluates an argument for immigration restrictions that appeals to the costs that immigration imposes on the citizens of a recipient state. According to this argument, citizens have associative duties to protect each other’s interests, immigration can damage these interests in certain cases, and the associative duties between compatriots justify immigration restrictions in these cases. Call this: the partiality argument for immigration restrictions. I argue that the partiality argument is unsound. Immigration restrictions violate negative duties to refrain from interfering with people’s liberties and these duties silence compatriots’ associative duties to one another. Furthermore, I argue that compatriots lack …

Comparing Local Models Of Agrarian Transition In China, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The development of markets and the penetration of capital into agriculture have started the agrarian transition in rural China, which is transforming smallholding, household-based agriculture into various forms of capitalistic production. This again raises in a new historical and social context the long-debated question in the agrarian transition literature: Can family farms survive the onslaught of capitalist agriculture based on wage labor and what shapes the confrontation between family farms and agro-capital? I argue that it is the local political economy—rather than some natural obstacles in agriculture to the penetration of capitalism—that shapes this confrontation and gives rise to a …

Quick And Dirty: Some Psychosocial Costs Associated With The Dark Triad In Three Countries, Peter K. Jonason, Norman P. Li, Anna Z. Czarna

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The current study provides the first examination of the relationship between life history indicators and the Dark Triad traits in an international sample drawn from the U.S. (n = 264), Singapore (n = 185), and Poland (n = 177). In all three samples, the Dark Triad traits were associated with psychosocial costs, although there were more links in the Singaporean and Polish samples than in the American sample. In the U.S., the quality of one’s romantic relationships and psychopathy were negatively correlated. Narcissism was higher in the Polish and American samples than in the Singaporean sample. Men scored higher than …

International Conventions And The Failure Of A Transnational Approach To Controlling Asian Crime Business, Mark Findlay, Nafis Hanif

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The paper argues that without a realistic understanding of criminal enterprise located against the commercial forces shaping contemporary Asian market contexts, then domestic, bi-lateral, regional and international control initiatives are not only likely to fail in their regulatory objectives, but the premises on which they are constructed may heighten the market conditions for crime business profitability.The international convention-based approach to regulating transnational and organized crime is the framework from which a critique of non-market centred law enforcement control concentrations is developed. This critique reveals the transposition of flawed normative control considerations from domestic to supra-national control contexts, and shows how …

Women's Mobilization In Latin America: A Case Study Of Venezuela, Brianna Russell

Master's Theses

Abstract

I examine the following elements in regards to women’s mobilization in Latin America and Venezuela from the late 1950s to the present: (a) the influence of the state and economy on times when women mobilized (b) class division within the movement (c) women’s demands during different time periods (d) the ways in which women were successful in working towards gender equality. This thesis reviews the literature on women’s mobilization in Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. I find that women mobilized across class lines with the masses to end dictatorships. Women demobilized during transitions to …

Between Facebook And Boas: Kichwa Indigenous Identity In Alto Napo And Challenges To Multiculturalism In Ecuador, Anna Maria Fernandez-Marti

Master's Theses

This qualitative study examines contemporary Kichwa indigenous identity formation in the Alto Napo region of Ecuador through Bourdieu’s concept of symbolic capital. Following an extended-case method, I analyze the articulation of indigenousness (as an idealized expression of tradition) vis-à-vis the power relationships of the actors involved in such process. A combination between participant observation, daily field notes and twelve tape-recorded interviews during a two-month research allowed me to deconstruct essentialist portrayals and stereotypes of Kichwa indigenous peoples in Alto Napo, and confirm that their identity is hybrid, multiple and shifting. A comparative analysis between urban and rural social dynamics in …

Why Eu Work-Family Reconciliation Policies Fail In Italy: A Feminist Legal Analysis, Chrystal Orozco

Master's Theses

Following the establishment of the European Parental Leave Directive (96/34/EC), the female employment rate in Italy is still ranked the third lowest in the European Union (EU) and Italian women continue to do twice as much household work as Italian men. Parents, especially women, struggle to find a balance between professional work and their family lives in a society that encourages the traditional gendered roles of the housewife and the breadwinner. The following study is a theoretical analysis of the Parental Leave Directive and the potential domestic influences that may prevent Italy from progressing socially towards gender equality. This study …

Re-Evaluating Peacebuilding In The Democratic Republic Of Congo: A Case Study In Dongo, Wilita Sanguma

Master's Theses

Re-evaluating Peacebuilding in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A case study in Dongo

The Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo) is a country rich with natural resources centered in the heart of Africa. Since the colonial era, the country has seen more bloodshed than peace and development. From 1996 to 2003, Congo experienced the worst conflict since World War II, with over six million people dead. Despite having the largest United Nations peacekeeping troops present; Congo continues to be plagued by violence. This research thesis argues that the international community failed to promote a lasting peace in Congo because the international …

Egyptian Civil Society (Transnational Vs. Local): The Distinction Between Theory And Practice, Jeremiah Davis

Master's Theses

Abstract:

The strength and dominance of political society, rather than the weaknesses of civil society, is arguably one of the primary reasons for massive civil uprising in Egypt led by independent, unaffiliated members of society. In many cases it appears that civil society was behind the Egyptian Revolution, although is this the case? Did the Revolution happen in spite of civil society? Just as the state can be a roadblock to development and democratization, civil society may also be detrimental to society’s growth. In this thesis, the development and civil society community is analyzed to discover the functions of CSOs …

Oil, Power, And Discourse: How Chevron Evaded Its Dues To The Indigenous Communities Of The Ecuadorian Amazon, Kine Norland

Master's Theses

Abstract

The principal objectives of this thesis were to shed lights on the backside of oil and to question the great power of big corporations. I researched why Chevron refused to acknowledge its legal obligation to remedy the complex problems it has caused in the Ecuadorian Rainforest. The catastrophes the indigenous communities have been facing are about to change as a result of grass root mobilization against Chevron. By the use of observations, discourse analysis of the media, and the use of theories from Michel Foucault, I was able to explain how Chevron has managed to escape from the terrible …

Educating For A Common Collective : Pedagogies Of Sharing And Caring, Anita Rampal

South South Forum 南南論壇

Declaring an ‘educational arms race’ with India and China, President Obama warned his country against ‘unilateral disarmament’ with budget cuts, because ‘countries that out-educate us today will out-compete us tomorrow.’ Militaristic jingoism leads to new terms such as ‘out-think’ and ‘out-educate’, reflecting a crassly competitive commodification of knowledge. This is contrary to the spirit of transformative education, which looks at education to reduce inequalities, to ensure sustainable development and to address social justice for all through collective action. Despite the Jomtien World Declaration on ‘Education For All’ with an ‘expanded vision’ - for the empowerment of children, youth and adults …

未来的维度 = The Dimension Of The Future, Jinhua Dai

South South Forum 南南論壇

在本论文中，笔者集中讨论21世纪语境中的“未来”作为一个议题及其参数。对于笔者说来，未来议题，不关乎时间，不是乌托邦的别称。“未来”之为议题的提出，针对着没有未来，即“末日”。笔者的问题是：资本主义的末日是否人类的末日？或者，如何避免资本主义的末日成为人类的末日？未来议题同时是关于革命及共产主义的再思考。

The focus of this paper is on “the future” as a subject of concern, and the parameters within which it is broached in the context of the 21^st century. For the writer, the question of “the future” is not really a temporal one, neither is it another name for utopia. Rather, it is moved by apprehensions of the disappearance of time altogether, that is, the looming of doom. My question is: is the end of capitalism the end of humanity? Or rather, how to avoid the fall of capitalism to bring about the fall of humanity, a question …

Political Process And Land Reform In Nepal = 尼泊尔的土地改革与政治过程, Arjun Kumar Karki

South South Forum 南南論壇

Landlessness and political struggles in Nepal are deeply inter-related. Landlessness in Nepal is rooted in a long history of feudal land governance, political inertia and nepotism. Furthermore, the skewed landownership patterns practiced were deepened by a deeply discriminatory and strictly hierarchical society that excluded women, ethnic minorities and tribal groups, especially, those of lower castes and classes. Due to this prevailing exclusion and discrimination, the call for land reform as a rallying cry has long been used by politicians as a tool for political mobilization and for garnering support in Nepal. However, despite several political developments and repeated political commitments, …

Agrarian Reform And Rural Reconstruction In The Philippines = 菲律宾土地改革与农村重建, Isagani R. Serrano

South South Forum 南南論壇

Agrarian reform is at the heart of rural reconstruction and both are essential to achieving sustainable development. It includes not only land redistribution but also empowerment of peasants as key actors in building the rural economy. Land is not only an asset to be owned and accessed but also as a natural resource with multiple uses for both economic development and protection of ecosystems. Land ownership has hitherto been a centerpiece question in Philippine development, indeed, in nation building. Land monopoly on one side and landlessness on the other have defined to a large extent the history and political economy …

梁漱溟乡村建设中心的当代实践 = Introduction Of Liang Shuming Rural Reconstruction Center, Lanying Zhang

South South Forum 南南論壇

梁漱溟乡村建设的核心思想是人的建设和社会的重建。在过去的20年里，一批年轻人在梁漱溟等先人思想的感召下，面对全球化带来的一些列社会问题的挑战，全身心地投入到乡村重建的工作中，从90年支持农民的维权行动，发展到2000年开展综合的新农村建设，坚持不懈地直到今天的生态文明建设的工作。梁漱溟乡村建设中心一直积极地参与到这些工作中，尤其是在组织大学生支农调研维权，到支持农民合作组织来建设农村的自治组织，通过社区支持农业来建构城市和农村互相支持的平台等方面发挥了重要的作用。

在多年的实践中，梁漱溟乡村建设中心意识到要实现乡村建设的目标是需要一个长期的努力过程，尤其是在培养人才，进而形成内生的自我解决社会问题的力量。在这个过程中，如何协助参与这个过程的人群的学习，不仅是我们自己，还有我们的合作伙伴-农民，作为主体能够意识到自身所处的小乡村的命运与大社会变革的关系，进而转化为主动型维护自身阶层利益的能力，是非常重要的，也是我们目前所面对的巨大挑战。

Liang Shuming’s core philosophy for rural reconstruction is human reconstruction and social reconstruction. In the past 20 years, a group of people, who believe the philosophy of rural reconstruction, have taken the challenges of globalization through supporting farmers’ legal appeal to protect their rights in the 1990s, supporting government’ new socialist rural reconstruction program in 2000s, and further to build ecological civilization in the society in 2010s. Liang Shuming Rural Reconstruction Center has actively participated in these three phases and has played key roles in the process of college students’ re-education by organizing rural research for farmers’ right …

当代乡村建设的实践与反思, Jiaen Pan, Xiaohui Yan

South South Forum 南南論壇

跳出生态看生态——以中国当代乡村建设实践为例 (潘家恩)

日益“时尚化”的生态议题绝不是少数人制造出来的末日预言，它是真实发生在我们身边的普遍现实，同时也是当代乡村建设的重要工作内容与面向，更是乡村建设结合其它工作进行深入思考的独特角度。所以，乡村建设必须直接回应生态与可持续议题，但需要结合以更广阔的整体视野。本文结合笔者所参与的三组当代乡村建设实际案例展开分析，希望将其放回具体和历史的脉络中，结合以经济、文化、政治等多种面向，尝试指出：生态有问题，不只是生态问题！乡村生态的改善之道自然不可就事论事。

As opposed to being an apocalyptic prophecy advocated by a small group of people, the increasingly “fashionable” ecological issues are not only popular realities happening in our daily life, but also important tasks and aspects of Contemporary Rural Reconstruction and a unique perspective for reflection in amalgamating discussions in Rural Reconstruction with other related tasks and disciplines. Therefore Rural Reconstruction must respond directly to the issues of Ecology and Sustainability but in doing so, requires the incorporation of a broader and more integrative and holistic vision. This paper analyses three of the case studies of Contemporary Rural …