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Full-Text Articles in International and Area Studies

The Imaginary And Epistemology Of Disaster Preparedness: The Case Of Japan's Nuclear Safety Failure, Hiro Saito Aug 2022

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 …


Substantive Representation Of Women In Asian Parliaments, Devin K. Joshi, Christian Echle Aug 2022

Substantive Representation Of Women In Asian Parliaments, Devin K. Joshi, Christian Echle

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Combining data from nearly 100 interviews with national parliamentarians from ten Asian countries, the contributors to this book analyze and evaluate the advancement of gender equality in Asia. As of the year 2022, no country in Asia has gender parity in its parliament. Meanwhile, the proportion of national-level women parliamentarians in Asia averages a mere 20%. What is more important than simple descriptive representation, however, is whether outcomes for women are improving. Rather than focusing on numerical representation, the chapters in this book focus on the substantive representation of women. In other words, what do women and men parliamentarians do …


Conclusion: Comparing Women's Representation In Asian Parliaments, Devin K. Joshi Aug 2022

Conclusion: Comparing Women's Representation In Asian Parliaments, Devin K. Joshi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This chapter explains important findings from this study while identifying common trends across Asia and the sub-regions of South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia. It examines to what degree Asian parliamentarians have prioritized substantive representation of women (SRW). It assesses whether SRW was a primary reason or motivation behind why members of parliament (MPs) entered politics in the first place and whether they viewed SRW as a pressing issue for their governments to address. MPs interviewed in this study expressed what they felt were the most important issues today that need government’s attention. MPs were asked whether they make …


The Imaginary And Epistemology Of Disaster Preparedness: The Case Of Japan's Nuclear Safety Failure, Hiro Saito Aug 2022

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 organizational 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 perspective 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 industrial transformation. Specifically, I illustrate how the …


Realising Contingent Religious Subjects Through Relational Spaces Of Missionary Encounter, Orlando Woods Aug 2022

Realising Contingent Religious Subjects Through Relational Spaces Of Missionary Encounter, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores the ways in which the religious subject can be a contingent position that is responsive to the broader socio-religious context within which it is expressed. These contingencies are acutely observed amongst short-term missionaries (STM), who seek out encounters with difference in pursuit of a more cosmopolitan subjectivity. Yet, whilst spaces of missionary encounter are inherently relational, the missions literature has tended to downplay the effects of relationality on the realisation of these subject positions. By focussing on the experiences of Singaporean missionaries working amongst Christian communities in Southeast Asia, I contribute a more nuanced and less predetermined …


From "Sea Turtles" To "Grassroots Ambassadors": The Chinese Politics Of Outbound Student Migration, Jiaqi M. Liu Jul 2022

From "Sea Turtles" To "Grassroots Ambassadors": The Chinese Politics Of Outbound Student Migration, Jiaqi M. Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

International student migration/mobility (ISM) has long come under the spotlight in migration and education studies. Previous research has focused primarily on inbound students in Western host countries, with much less attention on sending countries’ policies. Based on evidence from interviews, ethnography, and policy analysis in China, the world’s largest source country of student migrants, I argue that outbound student migration can be integrated into the home country’s broader diaspora politics to serve economic, governmental, and geopolitical policy objectives. These diverse, sometimes-clashing, interests are predicated upon China’s domestic politics and global positioning. To establish a conceptual bridge between ISM and diaspora …


Clocking Out: Nurses Refusing To Work In A Time Of Pandemic, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Michael Joseph S. Dino, Romeo Luis A. Macabasag Jul 2022

Clocking Out: Nurses Refusing To Work In A Time Of Pandemic, Yasmin Y. Ortiga, Michael Joseph S. Dino, Romeo Luis A. Macabasag

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social science research has long critiqued how professional ideals of public service can ignore chronic problems within the healthcare industry, placing unfair burden on the "heroism" of individual workers. Yet, fewer studies investigate how healthcare professionals actively negotiate such demands for service, amidst increasing workplace pressures and risks. This paper studies Filipino nurses' response to a government policy that banned them from working overseas in order to channel their labor to local hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on 51 in-depth interviews, we argue that nurses' willingness to serve in the Philippines' COVID-19 hospitals hinged on the point at which …


Universities In And Beyond A Pandemic, Lily Kong, Sovan Patra Jul 2022

Universities In And Beyond A Pandemic, Lily Kong, Sovan Patra

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The impact of the COVID pandemic, and concomitant public health interventions, on university operations and finances is unprecedented in its scope and scale. This chapter provides, firstly, a panorama of the challenges of tertiary teaching and learning in a socially distanced world as well as of the fiscal impact of the pandemic on universities. Secondly, it is an experience-informed personal reflection on the lessons that university instructors, researchers, and leaders can learn from the events of the past year to be more effective in sub-optimal environments, both as individuals and as members of the larger society. Finally, it presents an …


Legitimizing Viewing Publics Through Nostalgia: The Mediated Tropicality Of Singapore's 'Kampong Spirit', John Lowe, George Wong Jun 2022

Legitimizing Viewing Publics Through Nostalgia: The Mediated Tropicality Of Singapore's 'Kampong Spirit', John Lowe, George Wong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Using two recent films-Long Long Time Ago and Diam Diam Era-this article analyses how Jack Neo communicates a sanitized nostalgia for the "kampong spirit" through his films, which calibrates willing acceptance of the Singapore government's authoritarian rule. In supporting the state's presentist historiography, the films of Jack Neo induce a depoliticization of unpleasant memories arising from the ruling party's unpopular housing and language policies of the past. The nostalgia mediated in both films is aligned towards an imaginary geography and mental map of a First World nation, which exhorts Singaporeans to disavow "the tropics" by nostalgizing the state's modernization efforts. …


Survival Politics: Regime Security And Alliance Institutionalization, Inwook Kim, Jackson Woods Jun 2022

Survival Politics: Regime Security And Alliance Institutionalization, Inwook Kim, Jackson Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

What determines states’ willingness to institutionalize alliances? Contrary to conventional emphasis on system-level conditions, we argue that states pay close attention to the domestic political consequences of institutionalizing alliances. This is particularly true for unequal allies. Client regimes are disproportionately sensitive to alliance design, as it affects patron allies’ ability to influence their military, distribute finance and arms, and legitimate preferred political groups. Two factors—power consolidation and political compatibility—determine whether the client views alliance institutionalization as complementary or conflictual with regime survival. The divergent alliance designs North and South Korea chose after the Korean War support our argument. An unresolved …


Between The Commons And The Cosmos: The Sacred Politics Of The Bri In Southeast Asia And Beyond, Orlando Woods Jun 2022

Between The Commons And The Cosmos: The Sacred Politics Of The Bri In Southeast Asia And Beyond, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper explores how political ecology can advance existing understandings of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and its effects, and how the BRI can contribute to recent shifts in the study of political ecology. It argues that the idea of infrastructural overlap can sensitize discourse to the ways in which the materializations of the BRI, as a series of infrastructural megaprojects, intersect with other infrastructural formations, such as the environment and religion. By focusing on the effects of the BRI on resource- dependent communities located between the ‘commons’ and the ‘cosmos’ we can appreciate the sense of existential crisis …


Singapore Elites Must Tackle Sustainability, Alwyn Lim, Kenneth T. Goh Jun 2022

Singapore Elites Must Tackle Sustainability, Alwyn Lim, Kenneth T. Goh

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In a commentary, SMU Associate Professor of Sociology Alwyn Lim and SMU Assistant Professor of Strategic Management (Education) and Academic Director of the SMU Business Families Institute Kenneth Goh discussed the extent elites extract value and whether they actually create value for society. They shared their views on how Singapore's elites can give back to society by taking the lead on sustainability.


Rural Revitalization In China: Towards Inclusive Geographies Of Ruralization, Ningning Chen, Lily Kong May 2022

Rural Revitalization In China: Towards Inclusive Geographies Of Ruralization, Ningning Chen, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This commentary welcomes Gillen et al.'s geographies of ruralization as an alternative to the urban-centered analysis of socio-spatial transformation in post-reform China. We offer three perspectives to further develop such alternative articulation by drawing on China's most recent geographical experiences of rural revitalization. The first is the ‘top-down’ process of rural revitalization launched by different levels of Chinese state agents and how this is divergent from local needs or embedded in bottom-up engagement. The second is the temporal dimension of ruralization highlighting how uses of the past are implicated in and legitimize the state agenda of rural revitalization. The third …


Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou Apr 2022

Wealth Accumulation By Hypogamy In Own And Parental Education In China, Cheng Cheng, Yang Zhou

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Objective: This study examines how household wealth accumulation varies by different types of hypogamy on the basis of couples' own and parental education. Background: Educational hypogamy (wives having more education than their husbands) is increasingly relevant in many societies, given the reversal of the gender gap in education. Prior research has studied how marital sorting on couples' own education shapes their individual earnings trajectories. Few have examined the implications of marital sorting on parental education for family-level economic well-being. Method: Using data from the 2010–2018 China Family Panel Studies and multilevel growth curve models, this study examined how household wealth …


Class(Ify)Ing Christianity In Singapore: Tracing The Interlinked Spaces Of Privilege And Position, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Apr 2022

Class(Ify)Ing Christianity In Singapore: Tracing The Interlinked Spaces Of Privilege And Position, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how two facets of identity – religion and class – are performed, (re)produced and negotiated within the spaces of the Christian school, home and church in Singapore. We show how the social structuring of one space can inform and influence the structuring of another. Spaces of Christianity in Singapore tend to be mutually reinforcing, strengthening the linkages between religion and class, and in particular reifying the position of Christianity as a religion of the privileged classes. However, the ways in which Christian spaces are reified can become problematic when space is in fact shared with less privileged …


Aestheticized Temples, Rationalized Affects: Sacred Modernities And The Micro-Regulation Of Hinduism In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong Apr 2022

Aestheticized Temples, Rationalized Affects: Sacred Modernities And The Micro-Regulation Of Hinduism In Singapore, Orlando Woods, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper develops the idea of “sacred modernities” to explore how the state- led regulation of religion shapes religious communities and religious subjects therein. Sacred modernities define the ways in which sacredness is understood and engaged with under conditions of secular modernity, and in particular, how sacredness is experienced within a context of micro-regulated religious space. We illustrate these ideas through an empirical examination of how Singapore’s Hindu community engages with the idea of sacredness in and through the temple. By contrasting the experiences of Singaporean and non-Singaporean Hindus, we argue that Singapore’s temples offer an aestheticized experience of the …


Important To Me And My Society: How Culture Influences The Roles Of Personal Values And Perceived Group Values In Environmental Engagements Via Collectivistic Orientation, Tengjiao Huang, Angela K. Y. Leung, Kimin Eom, Kam Pong Tam Apr 2022

Important To Me And My Society: How Culture Influences The Roles Of Personal Values And Perceived Group Values In Environmental Engagements Via Collectivistic Orientation, Tengjiao Huang, Angela K. Y. Leung, Kimin Eom, Kam Pong Tam

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Despite extensive works examining the influence of personal values on environmental engagements, scarce research has examined the influence of group values that are perceived as important in the society. To address this lacuna and recent calls for more cross-cultural environmental research, we investigated whether and how culture, via collectivistic orientation, influences the roles of personal values and perceived group values, namely egoistic and biospheric values, in motivating environmental engagements in a Western (the U.S.; N = 469) and an Asian (Singapore; N = 410) country. To highlight a few findings, the study showed that personal values and perceived group values …


Information Trust And Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Middle-Aged And Older Adults In Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis Approach, Micah Tan, Paulin Tay Straughan, Grace Cheong Mar 2022

Information Trust And Covid-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Amongst Middle-Aged And Older Adults In Singapore: A Latent Class Analysis Approach, Micah Tan, Paulin Tay Straughan, Grace Cheong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Rationale: COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy presents significant challenges for public health. Objective: Vaccine hesitancy among middle-aged and older adults has been a significant barrier in Singapore’s battle against COVID-19. We hypothesize that the trust middle-aged and older adults place in various sources of information influences vaccine hesitancy, and that distinct typologies of trust can be identified to better inform targeted health communication efforts. Method: Data from a nationally representative panel survey of Singaporeans aged 56–75 (N = 6094) was utilized. Modules fielded in August and November 2020, and June 2021 were analyzed, assessing social networks, trust in sources of information, and …


The Resilience Of Diversified Clusters: Reconfiguring Commodity Networks In Rural China During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang Mar 2022

The Resilience Of Diversified Clusters: Reconfiguring Commodity Networks In Rural China During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Zhanping Hu, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

We conceptualize typical rural communities in China as diversified economic clusters. In normal times, economic actors in these communities rarely cooperate with each other, but are integrated into separate commodity chains. These “diversified clusters”, however, show resilience and flexibility when an external shock—the COVID-19 pandemic—disrupts the spatial connections throughout the existing commodity chains. In this study, we use primary field data collected from one typical rural community in Northern China to show how economic diversity, aided by social networks and space-shrinking technologies, allowed for the vertical commodity chains to be reconfigured temporarily into localized horizontal commodity networks to cope with …


Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd And Settler Colonialism In India, Onur Ulas Ince Feb 2022

Deprovincializing Racial Capitalism: John Crawfurd And Settler Colonialism In India, Onur Ulas Ince

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent literature on racial capitalism has overwhelmingly focused on the Atlantic settler-slave formation, sidelining the history of European imperialism in Asia. This article addresses this blind spot by recovering the aborted project of British settler colonialism in India through the writings of its most prominent advocate, John Crawfurd. It is argued that Crawfurd’s vision of a liberal empire in India rejected slavery and indigenous dispossession yet remained deeply racialized in its conception of capital, labor, and value. Crawfurd elaborated a “capital theory of race,” which derived racial categories from a civilizational spectrum keyed to the capitalist organization of production. His …


Older Adults' Perceptions Of Government Handling Of Covid-19: Predictors Of Protective Behaviors From Lockdown To Post-Lockdown, Savannah Kiah Hui Siew, Jonathan Louis Chia, Rathi Mahendran, Junhong Yu Feb 2022

Older Adults' Perceptions Of Government Handling Of Covid-19: Predictors Of Protective Behaviors From Lockdown To Post-Lockdown, Savannah Kiah Hui Siew, Jonathan Louis Chia, Rathi Mahendran, Junhong Yu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Background: Distrust, and more broadly, public perception of government's handling of a crisis, has been a widely studied topic within health crisis research and suggests that these perceptions are significantly associated with the behavior of its citizens. Purpose: To understand which aspects of the public's perception of government handling of the COVID-19 pandemic predicted engagement of protective behaviors among older adults, who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19.Methods: Participants were recruited from an ongoing biopsychosocial study on aging amongst community-dwelling older adults. There were two rounds of data collection, during the national lockdown and post-lockdown. The average length of follow-up …


Building Productivism In Rural China: The Case Of Residential Restructuring In Chengdu, Qian Forrest Zhang Feb 2022

Building Productivism In Rural China: The Case Of Residential Restructuring In Chengdu, Qian Forrest Zhang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper theorizes the rural restructuring in China today as a transition towards productivism – characterized by both a productivist agricultural regime and productivist rural spaces. The rise of the productivist agricultural regime has spearheaded this transition for two decades; now the residential restructuring programs implemented under various policy schemes are also producing spaces of productivism in the new concentrated settlements. This paper, employing Halfacree’s three-fold conceptual model of rural space and using the empirical case of residential restructuring in Chengdu, offers the first full analysis of the rise of productivism in all three facets of rural space. It demonstrates …


Producing Industrial Pigs In Southwestern China: The Rise Of Contract Farming As A Coevolutionary Process, Forrest Qian Zhang, Hongping Zeng Jan 2022

Producing Industrial Pigs In Southwestern China: The Rise Of Contract Farming As A Coevolutionary Process, Forrest Qian Zhang, Hongping Zeng

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The literature on contract farming (CF) has to date focused on how outside capital uses CF to vertically integrate non-capitalist producers into agro-industrial value chains. We argue that in places where multiple dynamics of capitalist growth co-exist, CF relationships can also emerge between different types of capitalist producers that are already in capitalist production using other organizational forms. In this situation, the well-studied drivers that fuel the spread of CF become less consequential; the emergence of CF is instead more contingent on the complex interactions between producers and the specific conditions and events in the local environment. We conceptualize the …


China Rising, 2000-2010, William A. Callahan Jan 2022

China Rising, 2000-2010, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.


When Diaspora Politics Meet Global Ambitions: Diaspora Institutions Amid China's Geopolitical Transformations, Jiaqi M. Liu Jan 2022

When Diaspora Politics Meet Global Ambitions: Diaspora Institutions Amid China's Geopolitical Transformations, Jiaqi M. Liu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Through a case study of China, one of the largest emigration states and a rising global power, this article probes how a homeland state envisions diaspora politics amid geopolitical transformations. Drawing on historical, policy, and interview data, I argue that China's changing positioning toward Chinese emigrants, triggered by the state's geopolitical vicissitudes, has reshaped and repurposed diaspora institutions. I find that since the 2010s, China's diaspora policies have shifted away from soliciting diasporic support for domestic economic growth and national unification and toward liaising externally with migrants to expand Chinese soft power abroad. In consequence, diaspora institutions with more extensive …


A Harbour In The Country, A City In The Sea: Infrastructural Conduits, Territorial Inversions And The Slippages Of Sovereignty In Sino-Sri Lankan Development Narratives, Orlando Woods Jan 2022

A Harbour In The Country, A City In The Sea: Infrastructural Conduits, Territorial Inversions And The Slippages Of Sovereignty In Sino-Sri Lankan Development Narratives, Orlando Woods

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper adopts infrastructure as a lens through which new understandings of the inter-relationships between territory and sovereignty can be advanced. It argues that inverting the terrestrial assumption of territory can lead to “slippages” of sovereignty in which territorial sovereignty is indirectly claimed through the assertion of governance rights. For the purposes of this paper, I explore these inversions through the reclaiming of land from the ocean, and the removal of land by the ocean. Drawing on ethnographic research exploring the effects of China-backed infrastructure megaprojects in Sri Lanka, these territorial inversions are explored, respectively, through the Port City Colombo …


The (De)Territorialised Appeal Of International Schools In China: Forging Brands, Boundaries And Inter-Belonging In Segregated Urban Space, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods, Hong Zhu Jan 2022

The (De)Territorialised Appeal Of International Schools In China: Forging Brands, Boundaries And Inter-Belonging In Segregated Urban Space, Lily Kong, Orlando Woods, Hong Zhu

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper considers how the (de)territorialised appeal of international schools in China can reflect, enforce and expand pre-existing patterns of urban segregation. Whilst exploration of the effects of educational marketplaces on urban environments has become a focus of scholarly research, the recent expansion in the supply of, and demand for, international education has caused these effects to become more nuanced. As (de)territorialised entities, international schools can cause multiple forms of spatial and psycho-social distinction and (dis)association to become intertwined, the effects of which start from the school and radiate out from there. International schools can therefore cause segregation to become …


The Pandemic As Political Opportunity: Jokowi’S Indonesia In The Time Of Covid-19, Charlotte Setijadi Dec 2021

The Pandemic As Political Opportunity: Jokowi’S Indonesia In The Time Of Covid-19, Charlotte Setijadi

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In mid-2021, the Delta strain of the Covid-19 virus caused a second wave of transmissions and deaths in Indonesia at a scale much greater than what was seen in 2020. In this paper, I examine what the Indonesian government’s handling of the Covid crisis in 2021 reveals about the priorities of President Joko Widodo (Jokowi), as well as his political agenda and attitude towards the country’s democracy, as he strives to cement his legacy. I argue that, while devastating, the Covid-19 pandemic has given Jokowi the opportunity to push through long-planned economic and political reforms. Furthermore, I contend that, under …


The Sacred And Profane Of Japan’S Nuclear Safety Myth: On The Cultural Logic Of Framing And Overflowing, Hiro Saito Dec 2021

The Sacred And Profane Of Japan’S Nuclear Safety Myth: On The Cultural Logic Of Framing And Overflowing, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Any policy requires a ‘frame’ and, by the same token, entails an ‘overflow’, externalizing a certain part of the world as irrelevant. This mundane business of policy framing and overflowing became an urgent matter of concern in Japan in March 2011, as the Fukushima nuclear disaster exposed how the existing frame of nuclear safety had permitted the fatal overflow of severe accident management. In fact, despite the creation of the new regulatory agency in September 2012, the post-Fukushima frame of nuclear safety continued to externalize off-site evacuation planning – a key component of severe accident management – until March 2015. …


The Challenges Faced By University Educators In Singapore When Referring Students To Counsellors: An Instrumental Case Study, Poh Yaip, Steven Ng, Yee Lin Chung Nov 2021

The Challenges Faced By University Educators In Singapore When Referring Students To Counsellors: An Instrumental Case Study, Poh Yaip, Steven Ng, Yee Lin Chung

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This study examines the difficulties faced by two university professors working in a public, autonomous university in Singapore, when referring students to counselling services. Educators typically observe how students interact and behave in class, and may refer students to counselling services. However, there is little research into how educators experience and view this role, particularly in higher education in Asia. Two university professors who had referred students to their university’s counselling centre took part in semi-structured interviews for the study. From these interviews, the study revealed educators can face a range of challenges in their referral role, such as lack …