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Articles 661 - 690 of 794

Full-Text Articles in International and Area Studies

U.S.-Hong Kong Relations: Prospects For A Unique Partnership, Bates Gill, James T. H. Tang Jul 2007

U.S.-Hong Kong Relations: Prospects For A Unique Partnership, Bates Gill, James T. H. Tang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Hong Kong has survived turbulent economic, social and political changes in the past ten years since the former crown colony’s reversion to Chinese sovereignty. Following setbacks in the wake of the Asian financial crisis and the avian flu outbreak in 1997, the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, and several massive political demonstrations in recent years, Hong Kong’s economy has had a robust and steady rebound. Hong Kong has maintained its position as a leading business and financial hub in the Asia-Pacific region and for the world. It has continued to play a pivotal role in China’s …

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Political Dialogue And Human Rights In The Framework Of The Cotonou Agreement, Clara Portela Jul 2007

Political Dialogue And Human Rights In The Framework Of The Cotonou Agreement, Clara Portela

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present study analyses the use of the political instruments for the protection of Human Rights, democracy and the rule of law under the Partnership Agreement between the European Union (EU) and the African-Caribbean–Pacific (ACP) countries embedded in the Cotonou Agreement: the consultations under article 96, intensified and regular political dialogue. It briefly outlines the legal provisions of the revised treaty, reviews recent practice, and looks into the involvement of civil society and parliamentary bodies in the political dialogue.

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Tourism, Development And Poverty Reduction In Guizhou And Yunnan, John A. Donaldson Jun 2007

Tourism, Development And Poverty Reduction In Guizhou And Yunnan, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

How did the differing strategies adopted to develop tourism in Guizhou and Yunnan affect patterns of economic development and poverty reduction? The answer is paradoxical. Both provincial governments incorporated tourism as part of their overall development strategies, but their tourism sites were distributed and structured strikingly differently. In Yunnan, although tourism contributed to rapid economic growth, it did not reduce rural poverty as much as might be expected from a large rural-based industry. By contrast, Guizhou's relatively small-scale tourism industry, although not contributing significantly to growth, was distributed largely in poor areas and was structured to allow poor people to …

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Tianxia, Empire And The World: Soft Power And China’S Foreign Policy Discourse In The 21st Century, William A. Callahan May 2007

Tianxia, Empire And The World: Soft Power And China’S Foreign Policy Discourse In The 21st Century, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

China’s recent ‘charm offensive’ is captivating the world stage. Although there has been a thorough cataloguing of China’s soft power assets in terms of the effectiveness and limitations of the PRC’s public diplomacy, much less attention has been paid to how the normative aspect of China’s growing soft power will set the world agenda. This essay will examine the concept of ‘Tianxia’ to understand Chinese visions of world order. Tianxia is interesting both because it was key to the governance and self-understanding of three millennia of Chinese empire, and also because discussion of Tianxia is becoming popular again in the …

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Cultural Icons And Urban Development In Asia: Economic Imperative, National Identity, And Global City Status, Lily Kong May 2007

Cultural Icons And Urban Development In Asia: Economic Imperative, National Identity, And Global City Status, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Global cities are characterized by the multiplicity of flows that they are implicated in - flows of people, goods, services, ideas, and images. Yet, global cities do not derive their status only on the basis that they are networked nodes. They also require particular forms of cultural capital. Cities with global aspirations have thus increasingly recognized the need to accumulate cultural capital, for which one means is to create new urban spaces, in particular, new cultural urban spaces (e.g. grand theatres, museums, libraries). These often monumental structures are intended to support a vibrant cultural life, in order to attract and …

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Chinese Visions Of World Order: Tianxia, Empire And The World, William A. Callahan Mar 2007

Chinese Visions Of World Order: Tianxia, Empire And The World, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Lately there has been increasing interest among IR scholars in Chinese thought both as an alternative to Eurocentric IR and because the PRC as an emerging power will soon have the institutional power to promote its view of the world. Rather than look for suitable Chinese parallels to ‘international’, ‘security’ or other mainstream concepts, this paper will examine the concept of ‘Tianxia’ to understand Chinese visions of world order. Tianxia is interesting both because it was key to the governance and self-understanding of three millennia of Chinese empire, and also because discussion of Tianxia is becoming popular again in the …

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Romance And Sexual Initiation Among Unmarried Young People In Vietnam: A Multi-Method Approach, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan Mar 2007

Romance And Sexual Initiation Among Unmarried Young People In Vietnam: A Multi-Method Approach, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Young men represent the highest proportion of sexually experienced unmarried population in Vietnam. Increasing levels of sexual activity, combined with reported low levels of knowledge about sex, HIV/AIDS, and STIs and an aversion to using contraceptives, suggest that they are ill-prepared to deal with Vietnam's emerging HIV epidemic. This study uses a multi-method approach to assess sexual activity and attitudes concerning romantic love among never-married men. I analyze the nationally representative Survey Assessment of Vietnamese Youth to examine patterns of emotional relationships and physical behaviors preceding young men's sexual initiation as well as determinants of premarital sex and an aversion …

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Marketing The Chinese Dream Home: Gated Communities And Representations Of The Good Life In (Post-)Socialist Shanghai, Choon-Piew Pow, Lily Kong Feb 2007

Marketing The Chinese Dream Home: Gated Communities And Representations Of The Good Life In (Post-)Socialist Shanghai, Choon-Piew Pow, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This paper examines the advertising themes and rhetoric that have been assembled in the place-marketing of Shanghai's newly built gated communities. We demonstrate how place-marketing strategies, in this case selling the Chinese dream home, draws upon specific landscape meanings and values that are embedded in Chinese/ Shanghainese history, even as symbolic and cultural capital from the contemporary scene also exert their influences. Collectively, these representations of the good life both reflect and reinforce the exclusivist housing aspirations and privatist visions of middle-class residents of gated communities in contemporary Shanghai. While advertisements do not always achieve the outcomes that property developers …

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Geography's Place In Higher Education In Singapore, Lily Kong Jan 2007

Geography's Place In Higher Education In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Unlike the other papers in this symposium, which deal with countries where there are large numbers of universities, and comparison can be made over time and across space of geography's place in higher education, this paper focuses on a country that was for a long time described as a 'one-university town': Singapore. What interesting story call there be when geography's presence in higher education is so circumscribed? In this paper, the author illustrates how geography's,fate in higher education in Singapore is closely bound up with developments in other parts of the world, not unlike the way in which the country's …

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Party Groups And Policy Positions In The European Parliament, Gall Mcelroy, Kenneth Benoit Jan 2007

Party Groups And Policy Positions In The European Parliament, Gall Mcelroy, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

As the legislative body of the European Union (EU), the European Parliament (EP) comprises 732 elected representatives from over 150 national political parties from 25 member states. At the EP level, these members are affiliated with seven major party groups representing distinct policy positions. Here we provide precise estimates of these policy positions based on expert surveys, in addition to characterizing the dimensionality of policy competition in the EP. Our results suggest not only that party groups have identifiable and differentiated positions on multiple issues of policy, but also that these positions group broadly into two orthogonal dimensions: one consisting …

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Nationalism, Civilization, And Transnational Relations: The Discourse Of Greater China, William A. Callahan Jan 2007

Nationalism, Civilization, And Transnational Relations: The Discourse Of Greater China, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This essay examines the interplay between nationalism and foreign policy in China—but with a twist. It seeks to loosen up analytical categories to expand from cultural nationalism to see how civilization constructs identity in national and transnational ways. It examines the limits of Chinese trans/nationalism according to the main Chinese expression of inside/outside—‘civilization/barbarism’—as it constructs Chinese nationalism and Greater China. The purpose is to both critically examine Chinese nationalism and to trace what our focus on the nation-state obscures: namely, transnational politics. Rather than recounting one master narrative of Chinese nationalism, the essay argues that civilization and barbarian define Greater …

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Changing Transitions To Adulthood In Vietnam's Remote Northern Uplands: A Focus On Ethnic Minority Youth And Their Families, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Hac Van Vinh, Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan Jan 2007

Changing Transitions To Adulthood In Vietnam's Remote Northern Uplands: A Focus On Ethnic Minority Youth And Their Families, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan, Hac Van Vinh, Nguyen Thi Phuong Lan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Vietnam’s rapid economic growth has provided young Vietnamese new opportunities unheard of in their parents’ generation. This is, however, not the case for ethnic minority youth. Many of them are among the poorest, least healthy, and least educated. Ethnic minorities, who tend to live in remote mountainous areas, account for 15 percent of Vietnam’s 84 million total population and, according to a recent estimate, 61 percent of them are poor. Evidence suggests that despite recent efforts of the Government of Vietnam in promoting poverty reduction in remote areas, a majority of ethnic minorities have not yet experienced positive change, contrary …

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Trauma And Community: The Visual Politics Of Chinese Identity In Sino-Japanese Relations, William A. Callahan Jan 2007

Trauma And Community: The Visual Politics Of Chinese Identity In Sino-Japanese Relations, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

With the coming of industry to Europe and European empire to the world, individual bodies took on a new role to represent the modern body politic in international space. [...]the Boy Scouts was established as a way of safeguarding the fitness not just of specific boys against venereal disease, but of safeguarding the general fitness of British imperial rule that was 'threatened' by miscegenational temptations in the colonies.2 2. Rather than producing and distributing positive role models of Chinese patriots like the Boy Scouts, the National Humiliation Gymnastics primer uses basically the same image to construct the community of China …

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Globalization, The Developmental State, And The Politics Of Urban Growth In Korea: A Multilevel Analysis, Yooil Bae, Jefferey M. Sellers Jan 2007

Globalization, The Developmental State, And The Politics Of Urban Growth In Korea: A Multilevel Analysis, Yooil Bae, Jefferey M. Sellers

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article explores the politics of urban growth in a transitional society. Korea, which is experiencing rapid industrialization, urbanization and democratic transition exemplifies a set of conditions that may seem to favor the emergence of an urban growth politics and business-led growth coalition much like that found in urban areas at the time of industrialization, and still prevalent in much of the US and other western democracies today. Yet our multilevel case analyses show that the transformations in Korea as a late industrializer, late democratizer and late adopter of urban policy have helped to consolidate more restricted policies toward urban …

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Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima As National Trauma, Hiro Saito Dec 2006

Reiterated Commemoration: Hiroshima As National Trauma, Hiro Saito

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

This article examines historical transformations of Japanese collective memory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima by utilizing a theoretical framework that combines a model of reiterated problem solving and a theory of cultural trauma. I illustrate how the event of the nuclear fallout in March 1954 allowed actors to consolidate previously fragmented commemorative practices into a master frame to define the postwar Japanese identity in terms of transnational commemoration of "Hiroshima." I also show that nationalization of trauma of "Hiroshima" involved a shift from pity to sympathy in structures of feeling about the event. This historical study suggests that a …

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The Development Of Social And Cultural Geographies In Taiwan: Knowledge Production And Social Relevance, Hsin-Ling Wu, Sue-Ching Jou, Lily Kong Oct 2006

The Development Of Social And Cultural Geographies In Taiwan: Knowledge Production And Social Relevance, Hsin-Ling Wu, Sue-Ching Jou, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Social and cultural geographies have long occupied a marginal position in Taiwan's scholarship in the humanities and social sciences. Despite the influence of the so-called ‘cultural turn’ that has characterized much of Anglo-American scholarship since the 1990s (Barnett 1998), Taiwan's scholarship in the social sciences in general and human geography more specifically has remained relatively untouched by these intellectual currents till very recent years. This paper seeks to examine the social, intellectual and institutional contexts that explain this marginalization, and consider the possibilities for social and cultural geographies' emergence from marginality in Taiwan in the future. This possibility is considered …

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With The Grain Or Against The Grain? Energy Security And Chinese Foreign Policy In The Hu Jintao Era, James T. H. Tang Oct 2006

With The Grain Or Against The Grain? Energy Security And Chinese Foreign Policy In The Hu Jintao Era, James T. H. Tang

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Are China’s growing energy needs insatiable, and is a resource war between China and other major energy-consuming countries, such as the United States, inevitable? China’s pursuit of overseas energy resources to feed its fast-growing economy has given rise to observations that energy is now the driving force behind Chinese foreign policy and predictions that potential conflicts between China and other countries are likely to arise as China becomes more aggressive internationally in search of resources.

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Knowledges Of The Creative Economy: Towards A Relational Geography Of Diffusion And Adaptation In Asia, Lily Kong, Chris Gibson, Louisa-May Khoo, Anne-Louise Semple Aug 2006

Knowledges Of The Creative Economy: Towards A Relational Geography Of Diffusion And Adaptation In Asia, Lily Kong, Chris Gibson, Louisa-May Khoo, Anne-Louise Semple

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Recent dialogues in geography and the social sciences have reminded researchers of the extent to which academic and policy knowledges are socially and spatially embedded-that is, they circulate through formal and informal systems of publishing, exchange, commodification and cultural influence. Academic and policy knowledges are, in short, very much a part of the creative economy. In light of this, our paper surveys knowledges of the creative economy itself, as reflected in a geography of industry reports and government policy statements in selected Asian countries. Using a post-positivist framework adapted from diffusion theory, we critically interpret the circulation, mutation and adaptation …

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The Sociality Of Cultural Industries: Hong Kong's Cultural Policy And Film Industry, Lily Kong Aug 2006

The Sociality Of Cultural Industries: Hong Kong's Cultural Policy And Film Industry, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this article, I explore the sociality of cultural industries by analyzing the film industry in Hong Kong. In particular, the social networks and relationships at multiple scales – across national boundaries, within local settings and on production sets – are examined, revealing their critical role in contributing to the health of the film industry. The risks faced at various steps of the production, marketing and distribution process are ameliorated by trust relations, built up through time between social actors in spontaneous ways. While Hong Kong cultural policy in part seeks to create the social and spatial contexts within which …

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History, Identity, And Security: Producing And Consuming Nationalism In China, William A. Callahan Aug 2006

History, Identity, And Security: Producing And Consuming Nationalism In China, William A. Callahan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Chinese nationalism has ignited much debate among academics and the general public in both China and the West. Rather than search for the true core of Chinese nationalism, this essay will examine the curious custom of National Humiliation Day as an oblique entry into the politics of identity. The nation is not simply a question of people or territory, the author contends, but of time: the national time scripted by events such as National Humiliation Day. By comparing the differing practices of the holiday as it was celebrated in the early twentieth century and is observed in the early twenty-first …

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The Political Economy Of Poverty Reduction: A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Provinces, John A. Donaldson Aug 2006

The Political Economy Of Poverty Reduction: A Comparative Study Of Two Chinese Provinces, John A. Donaldson

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Is growth good for the poor? In theory, yes. As one influential report on China’s “War on Poverty” suggested, ”Obviously robust economic growth helps reduce poverty, as long as the gains are reasonably distributed” (Rozelle et al. 2000). In practice as well, growth is often a crucial ingredient in the poverty reduction recipe. While this relationship is well founded, important exceptions present themselves – some areas grow, but poverty persists; the economies of other areas remain apparently stagnant, yet poverty diminishes. These exceptions, if studied, will not only illuminate further the causal relationship between these two concepts, but also provide …

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Temporal Dynamics Of The Urban Heat Island Of Singapore, Winston T. L. Chow, Matthias Roth Jul 2006

Temporal Dynamics Of The Urban Heat Island Of Singapore, Winston T. L. Chow, Matthias Roth

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The temporal variability of the canopy‐level urban heat island (UHI) of Singapore is examined for different temporal scales on the basis of observations during a 1‐year period. Temperature data obtained from different urban areas (commercial, Central Business District (CBD), high‐rise and low‐rise housing) are compared with ‘rural’ reference data and analysed with respect to meteorological variables and differences in land use. The results indicate that the peak UHI magnitude occurs 3–4 h (>6 h) after sunset in the commercial area, (at other urban sites). Higher UHI intensities generally occur during the southwest monsoon period of May–August, with a maximum …

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'A Hundred Flowers Bloom': The Re-Emergence Of The Chinese Press In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon Jul 2006

'A Hundred Flowers Bloom': The Re-Emergence Of The Chinese Press In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

During the whole 32 years of Suharto’s regime (1966–98), Chinese publications and the use of Chinese language in public were officially banned in Indonesia. As a result, printed matter in Chinese characters that entered Indonesia was classified as ‘prohibited imports’ (Heryanto 1999: 327). This prohibition came to an end after the fall of Suharto, as part of the process of democratization and Reformasi. The post-Suharto era of Reformasi is thus celebrated for the dramatic revival of the freedom of the press and media in Indonesia and many previously banned as well as new publications have emerged since Suharto’s fall. The …

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Assimilation, Multiculturalism, Hybridity: The Dilemmas Of Ethnic Chinese In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon Jun 2006

Assimilation, Multiculturalism, Hybridity: The Dilemmas Of Ethnic Chinese In Post-Suharto Indonesia, Chang Yau Hoon

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The dominant discourse in accommodating the ethnic Chinese in Indonesia during Suharto's regime was one of assimilation, which forcefully aimed to absorb this minority into the national body. However, continuous official discrimination towards the Chinese placed them in a paradoxical position that made them an easy target of racial and class hostility. The May 1998 anti-Chinese riots proved the failure of the assmilationist policy. The process of democratization has given rise to a proliferation of identity politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. The policy of multiculturalism has been endorsed by Indonesia's current power holders as a preferred approach to rebuilding the nation, …

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Policy Competition In The 2002 French Legislative And Presidential Elections, Michael Laver, Kenneth Benoit, Nicolas Sauger Jun 2006

Policy Competition In The 2002 French Legislative And Presidential Elections, Michael Laver, Kenneth Benoit, Nicolas Sauger

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The French two-round system of presidential elections forces candidates to choose strategies designed to maximize their votes in two different, potentially conflicting strategic contexts: a first round contest between many candidates, and a second round between (typically) a left- and a right-oriented candidate. Following a constitutional change in 2000, furthermore, presidential elections are synchronized with legislative elections, more tightly linking presidential candidates to the policy platforms of the parties they represent. This article examines the consequences of policy positioning by presidential candidates, measuring, comparing and assessing positioning in the legislative elections and in the first and second presidential election rounds. …

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Religion And Spaces Of Technology: Constructing And Contesting Nation, Transnation, And Place, Lily Kong May 2006

Religion And Spaces Of Technology: Constructing And Contesting Nation, Transnation, And Place, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, I focus on one particular technological development that has come to influence religious practice in significant ways-religious broadcasting. Whereas computer-mediated communications now garner growing research attention, I have chosen to remember the influence of the older technology of broadcasting for its continued influence on myriad lives. In bringing this focus to bear on another major phenomenon, that of trans nationalism, I have come to understand how religious broadcasting does not contribute in a straightforward, linear fashion to perpetuating transnational identities and communities, but is instead implicated in the assertion of the national in the face of transnational …

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Impact Of War And Military Service On Income Inequality In Northern Vietnam, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan Mar 2006

Impact Of War And Military Service On Income Inequality In Northern Vietnam, Bussarawan Teerawichitchainan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

During the 1940s-1970s Vietnam experienced nearly continuous wars. Military service was almost a rite of passage for young men growing up during these decades. Evidence indicates that families during wartime viewed military service as a locus for upward mobility, as the socialist regime promised veterans various incentives, including educational benefits, employment preference, and Communist Party membership. While this series of wars over the span of three decades has left a profound imprint on the early life course trajectories of men in Vietnam, there is surprisingly little research detailing the long-term consequences of military service. Based on the Vietnam Longitudinal Survey, …

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Music And Moral Geographies: Constructions Of "Nation" And Identity In Singapore, Lily Kong Feb 2006

Music And Moral Geographies: Constructions Of "Nation" And Identity In Singapore, Lily Kong

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In this paper, I attempt to pull together sociological and geographical perspectives in the study of music to understand the ways in which pop and rock music are socio-cultural products with political and moral meanings and implications. I examine state engineering of moral panics, focusing on a case study of pop and rock music in post-independence Singapore. Such engineering is aimed at political and ideological ends, in particular, "nation"- building outcomes. In engineering moral panics through both discursive and legislative acts, the contours of a moral geography are delineated at various spatial scales. First, at the scale of the national …

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Hungary: Holding Back The Tiers, Kenneth Benoit Feb 2006

Hungary: Holding Back The Tiers, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

Hungary has a particularly complicated electoral system: a type of mixed system that incorporates three tiers of seat allocation, the use of a proportional allocation formula, and the allocation of a number of seats by a two-round system in single-member constituencies. Examination of the strategic incentives facing parties explains some surprising outcomes, such as the majoritarian impact on the party system and the possibility of the second strongest party in votes becoming the strongest in seats. Despite its complexity and alleged shortcomings, it is unlikely to be abandoned; it serves the interests of the largest parties, and these effectively wield …

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Hungary: Protection Of Ethnic Minorities And Institutional Balance, Anna Gwiazda, Kenneth Benoit Jan 2006

Hungary: Protection Of Ethnic Minorities And Institutional Balance, Anna Gwiazda, Kenneth Benoit

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

United in support for the EU constitution, the Hungarians none the less remember the past dismemberment of their country, as a result of which a significant number of Hungarian minorities live in neighboring countries. Hence, it was not surprising that the Hungarian government’s position at the IGC 2003–4 focused on the protection of minority rights, although institutional balance was also important. The only “exclusive” Hungarian proposal of the “protection of ethnic and national minorities” was supported by both the socialists and the opposition Fidesz–Hungarian Civic Party. Hungary joined the European Union on 1 May 2004. EU membership had been a …

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