International Graduate Student Conference [Working Papers]

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    The people behind the press : building social capital in new media ecologies
    (Honolulu, HI: East-West Center, 2013) Fox, Steve J.
    The aim of this article is to introduce an original framework in which new media ecologies can be understood to develop. Specifically, it examines the unique, world-leading online ecology of South Korea, to suggest how new forms of democratic process and social organisation can be emulated elsewhere. The discussion identifies and analyses several policy and cultural factors to distil three encompassing variables that comprise a framework for understanding the Korean situation, and the application of new technologies: structure, ethos and activity. Ultimately, it is a framework that may be used to investigate social organisation mechanisms that may potentiate news media's role in democratic society. This concept of social organisation is constructed around the notion of social capital and theorised as an infrastructure for new news media models. In the outcome, it is argued that news media could themselves become civic socialization mechanisms that encourage a more active and engaged citizenry, reflecting social capital's strong relationship with political participation, and thus a continuing foundational role for journalism in democracy.
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    Effects of pension payments on savings in the Philippines
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2006) Lavado, Rouselle F.
    This paper attempts to provide some empirical evidence on the effects of social security on savings mobilization of households. While it has been empirically established in developed countries that pension system has important effects on savings, no important study has been established yet in the Philippines. Following Feldstein's model, consumption and savings function using a household survey data was estimated. This study aims to contribute to the pension literature by using the Kaplan-Meier duration model to estimate survival probabilities. The findings indicate that there is a negative effect of pension on household savings. The Social Security System and the Government Service Insurance System are viewed by current contributors as future wealth and thus, they tend to consume more now and save less than they would have if there were no pension.
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    Fiscal consequences of Asian crisis
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2004) Tolosa, Guillermo
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    Colonial construction of Malayness : the influence of population size and composition
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2006) Sagoo, Kiran
    Malaysia's present population of 26 million is ethnically classified under the categories of "Bumiputera," "Chinese," "Indian," and "Others." These ethnic classifications of "Malay," "Chinese," "Indian," and "Others" mask the diversities of ethnicities within each category. Using census categories as a tool for analysis, this paper focuses on the creation of the category of "Malays and Other Natives of the Archipelago" which first appeared in the 1891 Straits Settlements census and the various ethnicities it compassed that have influenced the boundaries of Malayness today. It focuses on migrants from the Dutch East Indies who were classified under the category of "Malays and other Natives of the Archipelago," and demonstrates that the absolute and relative population size of these communities and the Malay population in relation to other communities, was a major factor which determined their inclusion into the above category which laid down the boundaries of Malayness.
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    Dance for development : Uyghur women in the Chinese diaspora creating self-empowerment through dance
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2006) Smith, Kristie N.
    Socio-economic development in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) has significantly impacted Uyghur culture. Proponents of the Chinese Western Development initiatives claim improved quality of life and technological advancements, while critics cite that Han in-migration and assimilation has resulted in acculturation of Uyghur identity. As performing arts, especially dance, are essential components of Uyghur culture, Uyghur women employ dance as a reaction to reaffirm cultural identity. Through dance, women send messages of cultural survival, enabling them to negotiate positions of power for themselves. Their negotiation through dance has resulted in a unique form of self-empowerment, cultural revival and pride. This paper analyzes the dialectics of the dance revealed through interviews conducted with Uyghur women in the diaspora. These accounts illustrate Uyghur analysis of development processes while also providing a stage from which they reaffirm their cultural distinctiveness.
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    From "Power to the People" to "Civil Empowerment" -- The Making of Neoliberal Governmentality in Grassroots Movements for the Urban Poor in South Korea
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2005) Cho, Mun Young
    This paper examines how grassroots movements for the urban poor in South Korea have been transformed in the context of neoliberalism. It is based on fieldwork (September 1999 April 2001) in Nangok, which was one of the most well-known shantytowns in Seoul. How and why have grassroots groups came to abandon their dream of "Power to the People" and reconciled themselves with their antagonistic counterparts such as the state and welfare bodies? "The making of neoliberal governmentality," i.e., the process in which grassroots movements for the urban poor have reconfigured the movements' relationship with the state and the poor while embodying and contesting the technologies of neoliberal government, is examined through the fluctuating relationship between "welfare" and the movement. Neoliberal technologies include the extension of market rationality, the emphasis of responsible autonomy and empowerment, and the relocation of the "will to govern" of the state which Foucaultian studies have generally indicated. Rather than essentializing them as characteristics of neoliberal governmentality, however, the focus is on how grassroots activists have woven historically specific tapestry of these characteristics in the process that their memory of long-term movements intersect with the changing praxis of political economy.
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    Sovereignty, internationalism, and the Chinese in-between
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2004) Erie, Matthew
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    A short review on Pyongyang's foreign-policymaking process
    (Honolulu: East-West Center, 2005) Choi, Yong Sub
    Much research and analysis has been conducted to efficiently cope with North Korea since the first nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsular in the early 1990s. However, they paid little attention to North Korea's foreign policy-making process which can be conducive to unravel the mechanism of Pyongyang's brinkmanship. To explain Pyongyang's foreign policy-making process, a number of subjects are dealt with in this paper. First, organizations involved in North Korea's foreign policy are examined to show that the ministry of foreign affairs is the most powerful institution, but its autonomy is highly constrained. Here the role of the department of organization and direction is critical; the head of the department is Kim Jong Il himself and its far-reaching branches supervise and direct every meaningful political activity carried out in North Korea. Second, there are three approaches to the foreign policy-making process of North Korea: "expediency of Kim Jong Il," "top down," and "bottom up." In the first case, Kim makes direct phone calls and/or visits to relevant officials, and necessary measures are taken by his instructions on the spot. In the second case, Kim presents his ideas as policy agenda and officials of the ministry of foreign affairs set concrete measures for implementation of Kim's ideas and, after Kim's review, the ideas are conveyed as "guidelines" or "teachings" of the supreme leader. The third case begins with ideas provided by officials of the ministry, and then they are reviewed and proceed through the layers of bureaucracy in the ministry. After Kim's review, it becomes a policy and will be implemented at different levels. As Kim Jong Il controls all the approaches directly or indirectly, he can be referred to as the de facto sole policy maker of foreign affairs. Third, G. T. Allison's organization model can explain a number of distinctive features of the North Korean foreign policy-making process. In particular, the repertoires and procedures of the organization are closely directed by "the party's ten principles to establish the unitary system," "the party's covenant," and "the directions of the party." In diplomatic crisis, this delays the speed of response because they are primarily made for domestic stability and maintenance of dictatorship. The foreign policy-making process reflects the degree of dictatorship in North Korea. As long as the firm dictatorship by Kim Jong Il continues, provocative and rigid behaviors in the international arena will go on. By the same token, we cannot anticipate a progressive and flexible North Korean on the international stage, other than Kim Jong Il himself.
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