International and Area Studies Commons^™

Agents, Principals, Or Something In Between? Bureaucrats And Policy Control In Thailand, Jacob Ricks

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

In the aftermath of the 2006 and 2014 Thai coups,observers declared the resurrection of the bureaucratic polity. Bureaucrats,though, remained influential even during the period of 1992-2006, when electedpoliticians were thought to command the Thai state. Bureaucratic involvement inpolitics poses a challenge for dominant political science theories ofpolitician-bureaucrat relationships, which draw heavily from principal-agentframeworks. I apply agency theory to Thailand, testing three differenthypotheses derived from the theory. Examining legislative productivity andcontrol over bureaucratic career trajectories, I find that elected politiciansincreasingly acted as principals of the Thai state from 1992 through 2006, andto a lesser degree from 2008 to 2013. Thai bureaucrats, …

When Packaged Food Pollutes Our Body And Earth: Plastic Packaged Food Consumption And Waste Disposal Practices In The Himalayas, Jared Marsh, Jessica Shalvey

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

The purpose of our field study project is to examine current waste disposal practices and food preferences in rural Himalayan agricultural communities and to communicate the results, as well as our own outside research, to the villagers in Sikkim. We hope to promote safe disposal practices of packaged plastic, to offer responsible alternatives to packaged waste disposal, and to encourage the consumption of organic, homegrown food for all ages to benefit both human and environmental well-being.

Remembering Forgotten Foods: A Collaborative Project, Azher Jaweed, Sophia Alhadeff, Claire Roberts, Avery Perkins

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Our final project aimed to validate indigenous knowledge and empower younger generations about their rich, organic farming practices while also debunking the stereotypes of American food culture. Additionally, we aimed to reverse the sense of inferiority about agricultural practices in Sikkim amongst young people. The first component will consist of a cooking activity focused around forgotten foods. The second part of the project compares the preparation process of two dishes– one made in Sikkim and the other from the United States. The first poster compares a traditional Himalayan dish with a typical American dish. The second compares the sourcing of …

Examining The Factors Shaping The Population Structure Of Thalassoma Bifasciatum In The Lemon Keys, Guna Yala, Panama, Nicole Stevens

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research question

What is the population structure of Thalassoma bifasciatum in the Lemon Keys, Guna Yala, Panama?

Research objective

To examine size class structure of Thalassoma bifasciatum and how its abundance and density vary in relation to factors such as substrate, species diversity and depth.

Sediment Deposition Within Two Thalassia Testudinum Seagrass Sites In Boca Del Drago, Bocas Del Toro Archipelago, Panamá, Alexander De Jesus

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Research Question

Does sediment deposition and composition differ between front and back areas of Thalassia testudinum seagrass beds within two sites on the coast of Boca del Drago, and do these two distinct sites have differences in relative seagrass density and above-ground biomass?

Research Objective

Understand how sediment deposition and sediment composition compare between front and back seagrass areas within two Thalassia testudinum seagrass meadows on the coast of Boca del Drago, and whether the density and above-ground biomass of seagrass identified in each of these two distinct sites also differs.

Defining The Issue: Social Movements' Framing Strategies In Neocolonial Senegal, Ezra M. Alltucker

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This study examined framing strategies of protest movements in Dakar Senegal, particularly those focused on issues of foreign exploitation. Two major groups were surveyed, FRAPP and Cos M23, with interview notes and transcripts forming the basis of frame analysis. The findings showed that Cos M23 utilized a narrow frame that focused on linking certain sets of behaviors to being a good citizen, while FRAPP created a larger discursive framework in which diagnostic, prognostic, and motivational framing strategies were present in order to both link France and western imperialism to issues as well as induce the general public to take actions …

Singapore Convention On Mediation, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The forthcoming Singapore Convention on Mediation will be the first UN Treaty named after Singapore. At the 51st Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on 26 June 2018, the final drafts of the Convention on the Enforcement of International Settlement Agreements and corresponding Model Law were approved. A resolution to name the Convention the “Singapore Mediation Convention” was also approved. This concludes three years of vigorous debate with participation by 85 member states and 35 international governmental and non-governmental organisations. Once finalised and adopted by UNCITRAL, the next step is for the UN General …

Belt And Road Initiative At The Historic Turn Of The 21st Century, Thanayod Lopattananont

Asian Review

No abstract provided.

The Management Strategy For Stateless Persons In Southeast Asia, Unchalee Srichomphu, Pitch Piyapramote

Asian Review

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has affirmed the fundamental rights of every person without taking nationality into consideration. However, significant populations world-wide are unable to exercise these rights. Thus, citizenship is a prerequisite to gaining one’s rights within the state. When individuals are unable to register or are rejected from registering as legal persons in the civil registration of any state on earth, this creates problems in terms of individual status certification and renders certain rights to be inaccessible. Although the Asian Intergovernmental Commission on Human Rights (AICHR) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), with …

Environmental Conservation In Bhutan: Organization And Policy

Asian Review

This article is about Bhutan's success in conserving natural resources and the environment through its organizational and public policy perspectives. At the same time, it analyses the weaknesses and strengths of Bhutan's policy and organizational management in environmental conservation. The integration of the sustainable development approach and the Mahayana Buddhism philosophy has led to the creation of the Gross National Happiness (GNH) which is an important concept that drives the Bhutan government to pay more attention to environmental protection. The close relationship between the Bhutanese and the environment is in accordance with the old beliefs and the influence of Buddhism …

International Mechanisms Towards The Rohingya Crisis, Hakim Pongtigor

Asian Review

The Rohingya crisis is extremely complex and will be very difficult to resolve if the only solution to the problem is up to the Myanmar Government alone and the Rohingya people. This is because the crisis involves gross violations of humanitarian principles. Resolving this conflict demands the participation of members of the international community as the violations fall within the realm of International Humanitarian Law (IHL), the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Responsibility to Protect (R2P). International mediation may also be required to resolve the conflict. The R2P seems to be an effective mechanism to …

Interpreting Contracts Under Singapore Law In International Arbitration — The Sequel, Darius Chan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Article 16(3) of the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration provides in relevant part that, “if the arbitral tribunal rules as a preliminary question that it has jurisdiction, any party may request … the court … to decide the matter”. One question that arises is, to the extent issues of evidence arise, what rules of evidence should the court apply when “decid[ing] the matter”? Does the Court apply national rules of evidence, or does the Court apply the same rules of evidence, if any, that the tribunal was obliged to apply? This thorny question reared its head recently in …

Government Intervention In Corporate Crises: An Asian Perspective, Augustine Pang, Paige Pei-Hua Tan

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Governments are expected to intervene in national crises like natural disasters (Rosenthal & Kouzmin, 1997). Less clear are corporate crises. In recent years, there have been several corporate crises in Asia where governments have intervened to restore confidence. The paper seeks to examine the roles and extent of Asian governmental intervention in corporate crises, particularly it examines the impact Asian governments – described as paternalistic (Shin & Sin, 2012) – have on corporate crises. Five high profile Asian corporate crises were analyzed through Winkler’s (1977) Theory of Corporatism. Impact was analyzed through Boin and ’t Hart’s (2010) nine crisis response …

Predictors And Outcomes Of Nurses’ Use Of Smartphones For Work Purposes, John Robert Bautista, Sonny Rosenthal, Trisha T.C. Lin, Yin Leng Theng

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

Recent studies have indicated that nurses use their smartphones for work purposes to enhance productivity. However, few theory-driven quantitative studies have examined factors associated with such use. This study aims to address this research gap by developing and testing a model based on the theory of planned behavior, organizational support theory, and IT consumerization theory. Hypothesis testing used structural equation modeling of survey data from 517 staff nurses employed in 19 tertiary-level general hospitals in the Philippines. Results showed that injunctive norm, descriptive norm, and perceived behavioral control were positively associated with intention to use smartphones for work purposes. Moreover, …

A Small Entrepreneurial City In Action: Policy Mobility, Urban Entrepreneurialism, And Politics Of Scale In Jiyuan, China, Shenjing He, Lingyue Li, Yong Zhang, Jun Wang

Research Collection College of Integrative Studies

This research details the mundane practices of policy mobility and entrepreneurial endeavour in Jiyuan in relation to the city's changing administrative position, and is one of the first attempts at understanding how entrepreneurial policies are mobilized, mutated and diffused in a small inland Chinese city. We interpret Jiyuan's evolving development strategies and trajectory through two interrelated conceptual lenses—policy mobility and urban entrepreneurialism—bridged by an analysis of the politics of scale. Over the past three decades, governance strategies in Jiyuan have evolved from policy imitation, during the germination of urban entrepreneurialism, to policy mutation and diffusion, under the amplification of entrepreneurialism, …

Enedina Manríquez, Enedina Manríquez

Coming to the Plains Oral Histories/ Llenando las Llanuras Historias Orales

Enedina Manríquez was born in Guanajuato, Mexico. Her family moved to the United States when Manríquez was ten months old. Manríquez and her family have lived in many places in the United States, moving to find work. They finally settled in Scottsbluff, Nebraska where her parents could work at a restaurant that Enedina’s uncle owned. Manríquez’s parents now own the restaurant. Manríquez is a part of DACA, which allows her to attend school and work in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. She discusses how being undocumented has impacted her life. Manríquez attended the University of Nebraska at Kearney …

De Mestizas A Indígenas: Reindigenization As A Political Strategy In Ecuador, Pamela X. Pareja

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The 1990s were a period of intense socio-economic upheaval in Ecuador, in part due to the numerous protests that would come to be known as the Levantamiento Indígena. Notoriously disenfranchised since the bloody conquest of the Americas, peoples of various Indigenous nationalities that reside within Ecuador fought for the constitutional recognition of the nation as both plurinational and multicultural, in order to secure intercultural public policies that would affect patterns of agrarian distribution, indigenous education, health, and overall representation. The prominence of the Indigenous movement and the revalorization of the Indigenous identity throughout Ecuador became an attractive vehicle for which …

Indigenous Tribes In The Brazilian Amazon: Finding A Balance Between Sustainability And Economic Development, Bernadette R. O'Donnell

Honors College Theses

The number of isolated indigenous tribes in Brazil is dropping due to a multitude of factors, including resource extraction. If these factors continue, there will be further reduction of the population of indigenous tribes which causes the loss of culture of the world’s oldest societies. This research establishes the roles that the Brazilian government, NGOs, and the international community should play to preserve indigenous tribes. The research question is: How can Brazil sustain isolated indigenous tribes in the Amazon without compromising its own economic development? The research method is the modified Delphi method which results in a consensus of experts …

From Fact To Fiction: The Wuxia Experience And The Wushu Practice, Kadien S. Hill

Honors College Theses

Since its beginnings in China, martial arts have intrigued people with its mastery over mind and body, from the Shaolin monk practices of hand-to-hand combat and body conditioning to folktales of martial heroes with their mastery of swordplay and their almost superhuman-like fighting abilities. Martial arts have fascinated and astonished people in China for centuries, and since their introduction to the West they have captivated other cultures the world over. Their intrigue has caused them to penetrate entertainment circles through novelization early on. Chinese classics such as Water Margin and The Seven Heroes and the Five Gallants solidified martial arts …

Availability And Use Of Magnesium Sulphate At Health Care Facilities In Two Selected Districts Of North Karnataka, India., Geetanjali Katageri, Umesh Charantimath, Anjali Joshi, Marianne Vidler, Umesh Ramadurg, Sumedha Sharma, Sheshidhar Bannale, Beth A. Payne, Sangamesh Rakaraddi, Chandrashekhar Karadiguddi, Geetanjali Mungarwadi, Avinash Kavi, Diane Sawchuck, Richard Derman, Shivaprasad Goudar, Ashalata Mallapur, Mrutyunjaya Bellad, Laura A. Magee, Rahat Qureshi, Peter Von Dadelszen

Global Health Articles

BACKGROUND: Pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are major causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. Magnesium sulphate is accepted as the anticonvulsant of choice in these conditions and is present on the WHO essential medicines list and the Indian National List of Essential Medicines, 2015. Despite this, magnesium sulphate is not widely used in India for pre-eclampsia and eclampsia. In addition to other factors, lack of availability may be a reason for sub-optimal usage. This study was undertaken to assess the availability and use of magnesium sulphate at public and private health care facilities in two districts of North Karnataka, India.

METHODS: A …

Trends And Determinants Of Stillbirth In Developing Countries: Results From The Global Network's Population-Based Birth Registry., Sarah Saleem, Shiyam Sunder Tikmani, Elizabeth M. Mcclure, Janet L. Moore, Syed Iqbal Azam, Sangappa M. Dhaded, Shivaprasad S. Goudar, Ana Garces, Lester Figueroa, Irene Marete, Constance Tenge, Fabian Esamai, Archana B. Patel, Sumera Aziz Ali, Farnaz Naqvi, Musaku Mwenchanya, Elwyn Chomba, Waldemar A. Carlo, Richard Derman, Patricia L. Hibberd, Sherri Bucher, Edward A. Liechty, Nancy Krebs, K. Michael Hambidge, Dennis D. Wallace, Marion Koso-Thomas, Menachem Miodovnik, Robert L. Goldenberg

Global Health Articles

BACKGROUND: Stillbirth rates remain high, especially in low and middle-income countries, where rates are 25 per 1000, ten-fold higher than in high-income countries. The United Nations' Every Newborn Action Plan has set a goal of 12 stillbirths per 1000 births by 2030 for all countries.

METHODS: From a population-based pregnancy outcome registry, including data from 2010 to 2016 from two sites each in Africa (Zambia and Kenya) and India (Nagpur and Belagavi), as well as sites in Pakistan and Guatemala, we evaluated the stillbirth rates and rates of annual decline as well as risk factors for 427,111 births of which …

Overcoming Challenges To Dissemination And Implementation Of Research Findings In Under-Resourced Countries., Richard Derman, Frances J. Jaeger

Global Health Articles

Louis Pasteur once commented on the happiness that a scientist finds when, besides making a discovery, study results find practical application. Where health status is poor and resources are limited, finding such applications is a necessity, not merely a joy.Dissemination, or the distribution of new knowledge gained through research, is essential to the ethical conduct of research. Further, when research is designed to improve health, dissemination is critical to the development of evidence-based medicine and the adoption of evidence-supported interventions and improved practice patterns within specific settings. When dissemination is lacking, research may be considered a waste of resources and …

The Resource Curse: A Look Into The Implications Of An Abundance Of Natural Resources In The Democratic Republic Of Congo, Erin Nichols

Scholarly Horizons: University of Minnesota, Morris Undergraduate Journal

This paper’s purpose was to look at why the Democratic Republic of the Congo faces consistent economic and political instability despite having an abundance of natural resources. The goal was to connect the economic instability and overall downfall of the Congolese government with the notion of the resource curse which focuses on the concept that countries who have an abundance of natural resources tend to have less economic growth and experience more conflict. This has been done by examining the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s past of colonization as well as its current issues such as conflicts within and near …

Measuring Women's Empowerment In Sub-Saharan Africa: Exploratory And Confirmatory Factor Analyses Of The Demographic And Health Surveys, Ibitola O. Asaolu, Halimatou Alaofè, Jayleen K. L. Gunn, Akosua K. Adu, Amanda J. Monroy, John E. Ehiri, Mary H. Hayden, Kacey C. Ernst

Epidemiology and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

Background: Women's status and empowerment influence health, nutrition, and socioeconomic status of women and their children. Despite its benefits, however, research on women's empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is limited in scope and geography. Empowerment is variably defined and data for comparison across regions is often limited. The objective of the current study was to identify domains of empowerment from a widely available data source, Demographic and Health Surveys, across multiple regions in SSA.

Methods: Demographic and Health Surveys from nineteen countries representing four African regions were used for the analysis. A total of 26 indicators across different dimensions (economic, …

International Energy Geopolitics, Bert Chapman

Libraries Faculty and Staff Presentations

Overview of international energy geopolitical trends. Emphasizes the importance of the Persian Gulf, South China Sea, East China Sea, Russia, and the Arctic to U.S. and international economic and strategic developments. Stresses the continuing importance of fossil fuels in domestic and international energy consumption, the variety of energy sources being used by various global regions, the potential for military conflict over access to natural resources, and how emerging energy leaders will determine global energy, environmental, and international security developments.

Review Of Religion And Nationalism In Southeast Asia, Michael S. Barr

Reviews

It is a sign of how much the field of social sciences has changed that a new book interrogating the linkages and relationships between religion and nationalism sits in a crowded field. A couple of decades ago, scholars like Peter van der Veer and Mark Jeurgensmeyer had the religious part of the field to themselves, even as historians and other area studies scholars shook their heads, wondering at this blind spot in international relations scholarship. Even more recently it was still fashionable to look forward to the death of nations and nationalism at the hands of regionalism, globalization, and cosmopolitanism.

Session 1 : Common As Alternative For The Future (Ii) : Community Revolutionary Subject And Social Transformation, David Barkin

South South Forum 南南論壇

On Day 5 (17 June 2018), in the session of “Common as Alternative for the Future (II)”, David BARKIN (Metropolitan Autonomous University, Mexico) delivered a lecture on Community Revolutionary Subject and Social Transformation.

The video is produced by Global University for Sustainability, 2018.

Session 1 : Common As Alternative For The Future (I) : Towards An Ubuntu World : New Discourses On The Upsurge Of The Commons And Visions Of The Future, Manoranjan Mohanty

South South Forum 南南論壇

On Day 4 (16 June 2018), in the session of “Common as Alternative for the Future (I)”, Manoranjan MOHANTY (Council for Social Development, India) delivered a lecture on Towards an Ubuntu World.

The video is produced by Global University for Sustainability, 2018.

Session 1 : Common As Alternative For The Future (I) : The Uncommon Commons, Lisa Rofel

South South Forum 南南論壇

On Day 4 (16 June 2018), in the session of “Common as Alternative for the Future (I)”, Lisa ROFEL (University of California, Santa Cruz, USA) delivered a lecture on The Uncommon Commons.

The video is produced by Global University for Sustainability, 2018.

Session 1 : Community Governance And Participatory Democracy : Community, Government, Systems, Gilberto López Y Rivas

South South Forum 南南論壇

On Day 3 (15 June 2018), in the session of “Community Governance and Participatory Democracy”, Gilberto LOPEZ Y RIVAS (National Institute of Anthropology and History, Mexico) delivered a lecture on Community, Government, Systems.

The video is produced by Global University for Sustainability, 2018.