Nov 17, 2013

Academic articles in 2nd week of Nov 2013


Hello, it's time to see what new academic articles are in past week!



    • Tanaka, K. and Tsubota, K. (2013), Does Aid for Roads Attract Foreign or Domestic Firms? Evidence from Cambodia. The Developing Economies, 51: 388–401.
      doi: 10.1111/deve.12027

    Abstract
    Less developed countries have received substantial foreign aid for transport infrastructure, making its quantitative assessment important. To investigate the effect of aid for road infrastructure on the location of foreign and domestic firms, this study employs the first comprehensive census on all business establishments in Cambodia for 2011 and measures the geographical distribution of aid disbursements in roads. Estimating a negative binomial model, we find that aid disbursements in roads have little influence on the entry of foreign and domestic firms across communes. Compared with the aid effect, the location of firms is more strongly influenced by other determinants such as population size, electricity access, and labor supply.


    Summary:
    The global financial crisis originated in advanced economies, but had a major impact on emerging markets. The impact, however, was not uniform. Even in a relatively homogenous group of countries such as ASEAN-4 (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand), there were considerable differences both in terms of instantaneous impact of the crisis and in terms of output performance relative to trend. There are several main reasons for the divergence. First, trade shocks had a larger impact on more open economies (Malaysia and Thailand). Second, countercyclical fiscal stimulus in Indonesia and the Philippines was larger and was sustained longer. Third, idiosyncratic factors pushed output up in Indonesia and down in Thailand. Such factors include investment-friendly structural reforms and fortuitously timed election spending in Indonesia, as well as political instability and natural disasters in Thailand.



    Abstract
    This paper provides an account of how governments in the Asia and Pacific region have resorted in recent years to discrimination against foreign commercial interests. As in previous systemic economic crises, policymakers altered the mix of discriminatory policies employed. This time around governments of higher income economies in the region frequently softened the budget constraints of firms, offering a range of financial incentives that went beyond high-profile bank sector bailouts. Meanwhile, many developing countries in the Asia and Pacific region relied more on traditional forms of protectionism. The result is a more fragmented set of markets in the region than before the crisis.

    • Guillen-Royo, Monica, Laura Camfield, and Jackeline Velazco. "Universal and Local Reconciled: Exploring Satisfaction with Universal and Local Goals in Thailand and Bangladesh." Social Indicators Research: 1-19.DOI: 10.1007/s11205-012-0189-3

    Abstract
    The paper provides micro-level evidence of rising inequality in Thailand, using data from an intensive study of seven communities in Northeast and Southern Thailand. This inequality affects participants' material and subjective wellbeing, their aspirations, and the extent to which they feel these are realised. The paper argues that adaptation, expressed as reduced aspirations, could explain why the effect of material poverty on people's satisfaction with their lives is small. The reduction in attainment of aspirations linked to socio-economic status suggests that a small, but constant group of people are being excluded from a shift in the societal consensus over what constitutes a good life. © 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.

    • Jachowski, Nicholas RA, Michelle SY Quak, Daniel A. Friess, Decha Duangnamon, Edward L. Webb, and Alan D. Ziegler. "Mangrove biomass estimation in Southwest Thailand using machine learning." Applied Geography 45 (2013): 311-321.
      DOI: 10.1016/j.apgeog.2013.09.024

    Abstract
    Mangroves play a disproportionately large role in carbon sequestration relative to other tropical forest ecosystems. Accurate assessments of mangrove biomass at the site-scale are lacking, especially in mainland Southeast Asia. This study assessed tree biomass and species diversity within a 151ha mangrove ecosystem on the Andaman Coast of Thailand. High-resolution GeoEye-1 satellite imagery, medium resolution ASTER satellite elevation data, field-based tree measurements, published allometric biomass equations, and a suite of machine learning techniques were used to develop spatial models of mangrove biomass. Field measurements derived a whole-site tree density of 1313treesha-1, with Rhizophora spp. comprising 77.7% of the trees across forty-five 400m2 sample plots. A support vector machine regression model was found to be most accurate by cross-validation for predicting biomass at the site level. Model-estimated above-ground biomass was 250Mgha-1; below-ground root biomass was 95Mgha-1. Combined above-ground and below-ground biomass for the entire 151-ha stand was 345 (±72.5)Mgha-1, equivalent to 155 (±32.6)MgCha-1. Model evaluation shows the model had greatest prediction error at high biomass values, indicating a need for allometric equations determined over a larger range of tree sizes. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.

    • Lin, Kuo-Jung, Sheng-Ming Hsu, Ching-Cheng Chang, and Shih-Hsun Hsu. 2013. "The China syndrome? The impact of China’s growth on wage inequality in East Asian economies." Asia-Pacific Journal of Accounting & Economics no. 20 (4):385-404.
      doi: 10.1080/16081625.2012.762969.
    Abstract
    In this paper, the opening and rapid growth of China is examined for its effects on output, employment, GDP, social welfare, and wage inequality within major East Asian economies like Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Simulation results show a tendency toward rising relative real wages between skilled and unskilled workers. However, GDP and social welfare in major East Asian economies have tended to rise with China's openness and growth. Outputs of almost all non-agricultural industries but the moderately human capital (unskilled labor)-intensive manufacturing groups have declined. It seems that income effects from China's growth overpower factor substitution effects, so that a larger China has made all the other economies, and the agents within them, better off. On an elemental level, this stands to reason since China's expansion confers on the rest of the world a large term of trade gain. © 2013 © 2013 City University of Hong Kong and National Taiwan University.

    Abstract
    As a least developed country, the economy of Lao PDR has an agricultural base with a high percentage of poor people living in rural areas. Poverty eradication and rural development are at the center of the government's economic and social development policies. The Village Development Fund (VDF) has been used as an important strategy to increase access by the rural poor to financial capital. This paper reviews the development of the VDF in Champasak province, Lao PDR and assesses its operation and management, especially the structure, management rules, operation, and performance aspects, and is supported by interviews with the VDF management committees of two districts in the province. The results show that the VDF has expanded gradually over the past few years. The management was generally satisfactory. However, main problems encountered related to ethical issues and the good governance of management personnel. Through its policies, the VDF contributes to social development in the villages. This requires not only management skills and experience to optimize business and social goals, but also knowledge and understanding of the members to accept a flexible or relatively moderate rate of return on deposits. The non-performance of loans, as observed, was mostly caused by failures in crops or livestock raising. Hence, to sustain the VDF in Champasak province, it is important to widen the capacity development by increased campaigning on the basic knowledge of the principles and concepts among the members and on ethical development and good governance among the members of the management and advisory committees. To avoid non-performance of loans, it is essential to reduce the risks from investment in agricultural or non-agricultural activities. This requires more support from the public sector to ensure the efficiency and sustainability of the village development fund.


    Abstract
    In the past five years, Thailand has been beset by coup d'état, street violence, and most recently the devastating foods of 2011. Looming in the background is the failing health of the Thai monarch, that person who has been the most potent symbol of 20th century development for Thais. With these events has come increasing political paranoia. Since 2006, accusations of lèse-majesté have leapt nearly a thousand-fold, and royalist conspiracy theories draw links between all of Thailand's ills and the plots of sources of power. Dominic Boyer (2006) and Hoon Song (2010) see conspiracy theorizing as the questioning of hegemonic sources of knowledge rather than as alternative cosmologies. I draw connections between the problematizing of "truth" via conspiracy theory and Thai ideas of moral knowledge in the idiom of baaramii. Specifically, I see how conspiracy theories about the Thai monarch serve to question the idea of a truth which is self-evident. Many of the conspiracy theories which I discuss here are highly charged in Thailand. Such conspiracy theories have in the past been used to justify the killing or imprisonment of political dissidents and others simply caught in the middle. Yet here, I seek to stand aside from issues of social justice for the moment and focus instead upon how notions of conspiracy become constructed and what function they serve at present in Thai society. © 2013 by the Institute for Ethnographic Research (IFER) a part of the George Washington University. All rights reserved.

    Abstract
    The associations were investigated between the supervision of Muslim adolescents' behavior based on Islamic beliefs and the adolescents' behavior patterns, their area of residence, gender, age group, family status, education level, level of understanding of Islamic principles, level of upbringing under Islamic principles, participation in religious activities, and attendance at special Islamic study courses. Data were collected in the three southern border provinces of Thailand-namely, Pattani, Yala, and Naratiwat- from 2,160 Thai Muslim adolescents who were selected by means of a multi-stage sampling technique. The data were analyzed using chi-square tests, and odds ratios were established employing the EcStat statistical package. The results showed that the adolescents' patterns of behavior in conforming to Islamic society norms, their understanding level of Islamic principles, level of upbringing under Islamic principles, participation in religious activities, and participation in special Islamic study classes were significantly associated with the degree to which their behavior had been supervised based on Islamic principles. Adolescents who had been highly supervised were those with behavior patterns which closely conformed to Islamic society norms (6.71 times), adolescents with a high level of understanding of Islamic principles (3.16 times), adolescents with a high level upbringing under Islamic principles (3.03 times), adolescents who always participated in religious activities (1.43 times), and those who regularly took part in a special Islamic course (1.79 times).

    • Sakset, Amphorn, and Wenresti G. Gallardo. 2013. Socio-Economic Assessment and Fishers’ Perceptions of Fisheries Management in the Freshwater Fishing Area of the Pak Phanang River Basin (PPRB), Nakhon Si Thammarat Province, Thailand. KASETSART JOURNAL: SOCIAL SCIENCES 34 (2): 383 - 394, http://kasetsartjournal.ku.ac.th/kuj_files/2013/A1309020852084531.pdf (accessed Nov 17, 2013).

    Abstract
    Most government projects are implemented with little input and participation from the local people. The objective of this study was to assess the fishers' socio-economic status, their perceptions on the aquatic resources and fisheries management, and their recommendations for improvement of fisheries management in the freshwater fishing area of the Pak Phanang River basin (PPRB), Nakhon Si Thammarat province, southern Thailand. An in-depth semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 161 fishers' households. The findings of the study showed that most fishers had an annual income from fishing only (80%) that was below the poverty line. Based on the fishers' perceptions, the aquatic resources were declining due to the deterioration of water quality, increased aquatic weed growth, declining fish stock, and sometimes fish death which all affected their fishing income. The fishers were highly appreciative of the role of the Department of Fisheries and local government units in fisheries management but they had a negative perception of farmers who use chemicals in agriculture because these chemicals were washed into the river, causing fish deaths. They agreed with some activities and measures such as not fishing during the spawning season and in spawning grounds, and not using illegal gear, but they disagreed with some measures such as controlling the quantity of fish caught and ruling on the number of fishers and times for fishing because these would affect their fishing income. The fishers mainly recommended that they should be more involved in fisheries management, particularly in the planning and decision-making steps.

    • Yang, Shu-Yuan. "Envy, Desire, and Economic Engagement Among the Bugkalot (Ilongot) of Northern Luzon, Philippines." Research in Economic Anthropology 33 (2013): 199-225.
      DOI: 10.1108/S0190-1281(2013)0000033010

    Abstract
    Purpose: This chapter aims to understand how the Bugkalot, or the Ilongot, as they are known in the previous anthropological literature, engage with capitalism in ways that are deeply shaped by their indigenous idioms of personhood and emotion. Methodology/approach: Long-term intensive fieldwork including five weeks ofpilot visits to Bugkalot land in 2004 and 2005, and fifteen months of residence from 2006 to 2008. Findings: The development of capitalism in the Bugkalot area is closely linked with the arrival of extractive industry and the entry of Igorot, Ilocano, and Ifugao settlers. Settlers claim that they have played a centrally important role in developing and "uplifting" the Bugkalot, and that before their arrival the Bugkalot were uncivilized and didn't know how to plant (irrigated) rice and cash crops. However, the Bugkalot deny that they are at the receiving end of the settlers' tutelage. Rather, they perceive the acquisition of new knowledge and technology as initiated by themselves. Envy and desire are identified by the Bugkalot as the driving force behind their pursuit of a capitalist economy. While the continuing significance of emotional idioms is conducive to the reproduction of a traditional concept of personhood, in the Bugkalot's responses to capitalism a new notion of self also emerges. Originality/value of chapter: Different notions of personhood are intertwined with local ideas of kinship and economic rationality. The Bugkalot's attempt to counter the politics of development with their own interpretation of economic change highlights the importance of indigenous agency. © 2013 by Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

    • Chi, Do Quynh, and Di van den Broek. 2013. "Wildcat strikes: A catalyst for union reform in Vietnam?" Journal of Industrial Relations no. 55 (5):783-799.
      doi: 10.1177/0022185613491685.

    Abstract
    During the past decade, Vietnam has transitioned from a highly regulated and authoritarian system to a more market-oriented economy. During this period, Vietnam has also experienced unprecedented levels of industrial action. Informal wildcat strikes, as well as high labour turnover and absenteeism, were most apparent in foreign firms within specific provinces. This article examines the impact of wildcat strikes on reform within Vietnamese trade unions. It suggests that the strikes posed significant challenges for Vietnamese trade unions to be more democratic. However, union subordination to the Communist Party and managerially dependent enterprise unions remained a major obstacle to fundamental trade union reform. © Australian Labour and Employment Relations Association (ALERA), SAGE Publications Ltd, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and Washington DC.

    • Nygaard-Christensen, Maj. "Negotiating Indonesia: Political Genealogies of Timorese Democracy." The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology 14, no. 5 (2013): 423-437.
      DOI: 10.1080/14442213.2013.834958

    Abstract
    This article provides an examination of ambivalent negotiations of Indonesia in independent Timor-Leste. Post-independence engagements with and longings for Indonesia have rarely been treated in analyses of Timor-Leste. The article takes as its starting point the inscription of difference between Indonesia and what was then known as East Timor during the resistance years, before moving on to analyse how Indonesian discourses and imaginaries of politics and democracy came to acquire new meaning in the context of Timorese democratic politics and political crisis. It is suggested that Indonesia remains an influential but ambivalent reference point in the independent nation. It is the shadow from which Timor-Leste's nascent democracy is constantly required to distance itself and, simultaneously, an object of longing. Hence, Indonesia figures as an ambivalent model of modernity and of potent state power that inspires political visions of improved futures. © 2013 © 2013 The Australian National University.

    • Coxhead, Ian, and Diep Phan. "Princelings and Paupers? State Employment and the Distribution of Human Capital Investments Among Households in Viet Nam." Asian Development Review 30, no. 2 (2013): 26-48.
      DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.04.001

    Abstract
    In this paper, we examine changes in wage structure and wage premia during Vietnam's transition from command to market economy. Relative to other work in this literature, our paper is unique in that we identify the policies that lead to such changes. By examining skill premium trends along the two dimensions of particular importance to the transition-state or non-state firms, and traded or non-traded industries-we are able to separate the contribution of external liberalization to wage growth and rising skill premia from that of domestic labor market reforms, and to examine potential interactions between the two types of reform. The results point to the high cost of incomplete reform in Vietnam. Capital market segmentation creates a two-track market for skills, in which state sector workers earn high salaries while non-state workers face lower demand and lower compensation. Growth is reduced directly by diminished allocative efficiency and reduced incentives to acquire education, and indirectly by higher wage inequality and rents for workers with access to state jobs. © 2013 Association for Comparative Economic Studies.

    • Dang, Anh Duc. "How Foreign Direct Investment Promote Institutional Quality: Evidence from Vietnam." Journal of Comparative Economics (2013).
      DOI: 10.1016/j.jce.2013.05.010

    Abstract
    Using a unique dataset from a provincial competitiveness survey and the rising foreign direct investment (FDI) from joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), I find that variations in economic institutions across the provinces of Vietnam are associated with the flow of foreign investment. To overcome endogeneity problems, I use the minimum distance from each province to a main economic centre as an instrument for foreign investment inflows. The instrumental variable approach shows that the direction of influence is from greater foreign investment to better institutions. These results hold after controlling for various additional covariates, and are also robust to various alternative measures of institutions. I also find that foreign direct investment has greater short-term impacts on institutional quality in the northern provinces. © 2013 Association for Comparative Economic Studies.

    • Slater, Dan, and Erica Simmons. 2013. "Coping by Colluding: Political Uncertainty and Promiscuous Powersharing in Indonesia and Bolivia." Comparative Political Studies no. 46 (11):1366-1393.
      doi: 10.1177/0010414012453447.

    Abstract
    Democracy forces political elites to compete for power in elections, but it also often presses them to share power after the electoral dust has settled. At times these powersharing arrangements prove so encompassing as to make a mockery of putative partisan differences, and even to wipe out political opposition entirely by bringing every significant party into a "party cartel." Such promiscuous powersharing arrangements undermine representation by loosening parties' commitments to their core constituents, and threaten accountability by limiting voters' capacity to remove parties from power via the ballot box. In the otherwise deeply disparate cases of Indonesia and Bolivia, the origins of promiscuous powersharing can be traced to similar periods of high political uncertainty surrounding crisis-wracked transitions to democracy. Party elites coped with the uncertainties of transition and crisis by sharing executive power across the country's most salient political cleavages. These arrangements forged an elitist equilibrium grounded in informal norms and networks, allowing collusive democracy to outlast the uncertain crisis conditions in which it was forged. Yet they have ultimately proven self-undermining by triggering distinctive popular backlashes, returning both countries to the political uncertainty that promiscuous powersharing was initially intended to alleviate. © The Author(s) 2012.

    • Biziouras, Nikolaos. "The political economy of ethnic mobilisation: comparing the emergence, consolidation, and radicalisation of ethnic parties in post-colonial Sri Lanka and Malaysia." Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 51, no. 4 (2013): 479-502.
      DOI: 10.1080/14662043.2013.841002

    Abstract
    The paper focuses on the emergence, consolidation and radicalisation of ethnic parties in Sri Lanka and Malaysia. It finds that the degree of inter-ethnic violence is a function of their pattern of mass ethnic mobilisation. More specifically, ethnic parties will resort to mass violence and spark intra-state ethnic conflict when ethnic group leaders rely on critical masses of ethnic group supporters whose economic well-being, in turn, depends on controlling the state in order to allocate material resources to themselves. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

    • Turgo, Nelson. "‘Here, we don't just trade goods, we also “sell” people's lives’: Sari‐sari stores as nodes of partial surveillance in a Philippine fishing community." Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography 34, no. 3 (2013): 373-389.
      DOI: 10.1111/sjtg.12033

    Abstract
    Home-based neighbourhood stores (locally known in the Philippines as sari-sari stores) are a ubiquitous feature of most Philippine communities. They are small to medium-size trade stores not unlike convenience stores in the West where people buy goods in small quantities. In the Philippines, these stores play a vital role in providing everyday economic sustenance to low-income communities. But more than an economic hub, sari-sari stores also function as a social hub that connects people and acts as eyes and ears of the community through the people who make use of their services. In a sense, sari-sari stores are the community's 'myopticon' where people's day-to-day dealings with everyone in the community and its environs are reported and discursively brought under the gaze of the 'entire community'. Being myopticon as opposed to Foucault's panopticon, surveillance in sari-sari stores is partial, non-hierarchicalized and could be resisted by people in the community. Nonetheless, regardless of the 'myoptic' features of sari-sari stores, their presence in the community 'interpellates' everyone's daily existence and instantiates a discursive space from which a structure of informal social control is enacted among community members. Sari-sari stores then are an important reminder of how our built environment is also about contestation and negotiation of everyday life as we make use of space and as the architectonics of space both constrain and empower our manoeuvring in places. © 2013 Department of Geography, National University of Singapore and Wiley Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

    • Firestone, Bernard J. "Failed Mediation: U Thant, the Johnson Administration, and the Vietnam War." Diplomatic History (2013).
      DOI: 10.1093/dh/dht046

    Abstract
    U.N. Secretary General U. Thant (1961–1971), a vocal and persistent critic of the American war effort in Vietnam, attempted, with little success, to initiate negotiations to end the war. His efforts included public calls for negotiating formats that would include all the parties to the conflict, such as a reconvening of the Geneva Conference, and behind-the-scenes diplomacy to produce direct negotiations between the United States and North Vietnam. This article argues that Thant’s failure to serve as a mediator had less to do with his own skills as a diplomat than they had to do with the Johnson administration’s determination to achieve a military solution to the war. In this regard, the results of Thant’s efforts were little different from those of other would-be mediators who also tried and failed to initiate negotiations.

    • Wee, Janet CN, and Alton YK Chua. "The peculiarities of knowledge management processes in SMEs: the case of Singapore." Journal of Knowledge Management 17, no. 6 (2013): 958-972.
      DOI: 10.1108/JKM-04-2013-0163

    Abstract
    Purpose: The objectives of this study are two-fold. The first is to examine the peculiarities of KM processes that are unique in SMEs from three perspectives, namely knowledge creation, knowledge sharing and knowledge reuse. Secondly, to identify enablers and impediments of these KM processes that influence the competitiveness of SMEs. Design/methodology/approach: The study adopted a case study approach involving 21 participants comprising management staff and front-line employees from four Singaporean SMEs. Findings: The SME owner, rather than the employees, was found to be the key source and creator of knowledge and the sole driver of the KM processes. In SMEs, knowledge creation takes the form of innovative customized solutions to meet customers' needs; knowledge sharing occurs through cross functionality, overlapping roles, and facilitated by close physical proximity in open workspaces; and knowledge reuse is often made tacitly, where common knowledge is prevalently embedded within the KM processes of SMEs. The enablers of knowledge creation process rested largely on the owner's innovativeness, creativity and ability to acquire knowledge of the industry. Knowledge sharing processes are enabled by the awareness of roles, mutual respect and the level of trust among employees within the SME while knowledge reuse is fostered by close proximity of employees and the willingness and openness of the owner to impart his knowledge. The lack of the above enablement factors mentioned will hinder these KM processes. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited by the fact that data was collected from four SMEs in Singapore. Furthermore, only a small sample of staff from these SMEs was interviewed. Hence the findings need to be interpreted in light of such a scope. Practical implications: For SMEs, this research provides perspectives on the factors influencing KM processes, in particular, the importance of the owners' knowledge and leadership, the flexibility and adaptability of the organization, and open culture to enable the capitalization of its knowledge assets to survive and stay competitive. For practitioners, this paper reinforces the importance of the management owners' innovativeness, initiatives and support, and the level of social interaction and high level of trusts among employees in the SMEs to as enablers to effective KM processes in SMEs. Originality/value: To deepen on-going knowledge management research on SMEs, this paper provides insights and rich context to the distinctness of KM processes in SMEs. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.


    Abstract
    This article explores the connection of class dynamics to the moral agency of sex workers and their clients. It revisits the analyses of several contemporary feminist theorists, placing these analyses in dialogue with a recent ethnographic study of the sex work industry in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. In light of this comparative analysis, it is argued that accurate understanding and assessment of the moral agency of sex workers and their clients requires attunement to the complex and evolving class dynamics within which each is situated. Thus, while traditional frameworks for approaching this subject are useful, they are ultimately inadequate. © 2013 Journal of International Women's Studies.

    • Field, Nigel P., Sophear Muong, and Vannavuth Sochanvimean. "Parental Styles in the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma Stemming From the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia." American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 83, no. 4 (2013): 483-494.
      DOI: 10.1111/ajop.12057

    Abstract
    The impact of parental styles in intergenerational transmission of trauma among mothers who survived the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, in power from 1975 to 1979, and their teenaged children was examined in 2 studies. In Study 1, 46 Cambodian female high school students and their mothers were recruited. Each daughter completed anxiety and depression measures as well as assessment of her mother's role-reversing, overprotective, and rejecting parental styles, whereas the mothers completed measures of their trauma exposure during the Khmer Rouge regime and PTSD symptoms. In support of trauma transmission, the mother's PTSD symptoms were predictive of her daughter's anxiety. Moreover, the mother's role-reversing parental style was shown to mediate the relationship between her own and her daughter's symptoms. In support of their generalizability, the results were replicated in Study 2 in a Cambodian-American refugee sample comparing 15 mental health treatment-seeking mothers and their teenaged children with 17 nontreatment-seeking mother-child pairs. The implications of the findings within the larger literature on intergenerational trauma transmission stemming from genocide are discussed. © 2013 American Orthopsychiatric Association.

    • Bajpai, Rochana, and Graham K. Brown. "From ideas to hegemony: ideational change and affirmative action policy in Malaysia, 1955–2010." Journal of Political Ideologies 18, no. 3 (2013): 257-280.
      DOI: 10.1080/13569317.2013.831582

    Abstract
    This article proposes a new approach to hegemony, recast as a tool to capture the power of ideas at the systemic level. Hegemony is conceptualized as a condition in which a set of ideas is accepted by political actors with conflicting interests and as the outcome of a process of discursive interaction. Three types of ideational contestation are distinguished-confrontation, configuration and consistency: hegemony emerges as contestation shifts between these forms. This approach is elaborated through an analysis of key affirmative action policy debates in Malaysia between 1955 and 2010. We show that hegemony depends in part upon the content of ideas; that once ideas become hegemonic they are less liable to radical change; and that ideational hegemony constrains not just 'subaltern' groups but also powerful actors. In Malaysia we show the establishment of a hegemonic set of ideas effectively 'locked in' dominant elites, even as they sought to change affirmative action policy. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

    • Buehler, Michael. "Subnational Islamization through Secular Parties: Comparing Shari'a Politics in Two Indonesian Provinces." Comparative Politics 46, no. 1 (2013): 63-82.
      DOI: 10.5129/001041513807709347

    Abstract
    The Arab Spring has reinvigorated debate about the impact of Islamist groups on policymaking, particularly the adoption and implementation of Islamic law (shari'a), in democratizing, Muslim-majority countries. Most studies emphasize the causal primacy of Islamist parties in shari'a policymaking. Yet, determining policy agendas is almost never under the absolute control of one group. This is especially true for democratizing, Muslim-majority countries where decades of authoritarian rule have allowed secular elites to become deeply entrenched in state institutions. Field research in Indonesia shows that shari'a policymaking is politically mediated between secular elites and a broad range of Islamist forces situated both inside and outside the formal political arena. © 2013 Publishing Technology.

    • Parnini, Syeda Naushin. "The Crisis of the Rohingya as a Muslim Minority in Myanmar and Bilateral Relations with Bangladesh." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 33, no. 2 (2013): 281-297.
      DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2013.826453

    Abstract
    The Muslim Rohingya crisis has been disrupting the bilateral relations between Myanmar and Bangladesh since the late 1970s. This paper explores the crisis of Rohingya as a Muslim minority in Myanmar and their forced migration to Bangladesh where they took refuge causing disputes between Bangladesh and Myanmar in this regard. The Rohingya problem is seen as composed of various clusters of past and present human rights violations in Myanmar which has caused their forced migration to neighboring countries like Bangladesh contributing to non-traditional security crisis in the bilateral relations between Myanmar and Bangladesh. This study analyzes the local and international responses to manage and resolve the Rohingya problems as well. For understanding the nature of this problem, the forced migration of the Rohingya to Bangladesh and its internationalization process are also singled out. In addition, the approach proposed seeks to integrate developmental and humanitarian factors into the total picture of the Rohingya refugee problems within the framework of non-traditional security crisis. Bilateral negotiations between Bangladesh and Myanmar as well as democratization in Myanmar accelerated by the concerted efforts of the local and international communities can eventually bring about a durable solution to the Rohingya problems in Bangladesh-Myanmar relations. © 2013 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs.

    • Kipgen, Nehginpao. "Conflict in Rakhine State in Myanmar: Rohingya Muslims' Conundrum." Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs 33, no. 2 (2013): 298-310.
      DOI: 10.1080/13602004.2013.810117

    Abstract
    The simmering tension between Rakhine Buddhists and Rohingya Muslims in Western Myanmar escalated in 2012 to a violent conflict, first in June and erupted again in October of that year. The violence led to the loss of over a hundred lives, destruction of thousands of homes and displacement of thousands of people. The central government intervened to end the bloodshed but tension continues to linger. The article argues that despite the government's plan to undertake several programs to address the ramifications of the 2012 violence and its attempt to prevent the violence from happening again, the remedial measures are unlikely to sustain without any political solution. Consociational democracy, where elites form a stable democratic government in a fragmented society, is suggested to address the conundrum. However, before consociational model can be adopted, the status of Rohingyas needs to be studied and addressed constitutionally. And eligible individuals should be entitled to full citizenship rights like any other Myanmar citizens. For that to happen, Rakhines and Rohingyas should be willing to compromise on their differences by recognizing and respecting each other's identity and culture. More importantly, the Myanmar government and the general public must be ready to embrace the Rohingya population if any genuine reconciliation is to be realized. © 2013 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs.

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