Showing papers in "Asia Pacific Viewpoint in 1999"

The geography of Philippine international labour migration fields

Abstract: International labour migration has increased in scale and scope during the past three decades. Concomitant, a copious body of work has examined the causes and consequences of these migratory systems. Missing, however, have been empirically-grounded studies of migration fields, linking migrant origins within a sending country with destinations. In part, this lack of detailed studies results from the paucity of geographically-sensitive data. Using special tabulations provided for the lead author, this paper is able to overcome these difficulties. Specifically, in this paper we document and empirically analyse, by sex, the spatial and occupation patterns of Philippine international labour migration. Findings suggest that female migrant workers, regardless of regional origin within the Philippines, tend to be more spatially and occupationally channellised than their male counterparts. Moreover, more peripheral locations throughout the Philippines indicate more highly channellised flows, suggesting the importance of both recruitment-related networks as well as social networks among migrants and their families.

Population mobility and the transformation of a village community in Northern Thailand

Abstract: The paper studies the role of population mobility in the transformation of the Mae Sa village community in Mae Rim District of Chiang Mai Province northern Thailand. Data for the analysis derive from an in-depth investigation in 1976-1977 and successive studies over the following 22 years including a substantial reinvestigation in 1995-1996. In these two decades the village has been transformed from a traditional agricultural community to a modern rural community with considerable employment outside the village and other links to the outside world. The paper discusses the complexity of the in- and out- migration process and the significance of the roles played by permanent and non-permanent migration in the transformation of the village resource base and social institutions. Special attention is given to social relations at the individual family and community levels with implications on the definition of movement for the people of Mae Sa. (authors)

Breaking out of the MIRAB mould: historical evidence from Norfolk Island

Abstract: The MIRAB model offers an explanation of the evolution and operation of some tiny Pacific island economies. Proponents of the model have argued that it describes an economic system that is durable and persistent. Using an historical approach, this paper explores whether and how an economy of the MIRAB type can break out of its structural mould without regressing to an earlier stage of development. After establishing that Norfolk Island possessed strong MIRAB characteristics from the end of World War II until the early 1960s, the paper analyses the tourism-dominated economic growth that erased these characteristics, or at least reduced them to insignificance. It concludes that the island has achieved a sustained break-out from the MIRAB mould, although not without incurring some social costs.

Information dissemination and communication in stakeholder participation: the Bohol-Cebu water supply project

Abstract: Development theories in the 1990s embrace a much more people-centred perspective than in previous decades. At the same time, foreign direct investment is increasingly being touted as a new form of development assistance, and transnational corporations as new aid agents. However, the ideology of the free market is incongruous with the people-centredness of contemporary development theory. The result is a polarisation between participatory development and market driven paradigms. This study introduced the models of instrumental and transformative participation and the way they influence information flow and communication. These models are used to examine a project proponent's and stakeholder's actions in a privatised development setting, using a Philippine case study. The case study is the Bohol- Cebu water supply project, a project of water capture, treatment, and transmission, linking the islands of Bohol and Cebu. Communication and information dissemination between the project proponent and stakeholders is viewed under the requirements of Philippine legislation for participation in development. The findings from this research suggest that the proponent tended to exclude or only partially include affected stakeholders in the development process. Sources of information were often nongovernmental organisations, the Church, and, in many instances, the media. The proponent's method of disseminating information was primarily to target the municipal or provincial government level, thus disenfranchising the'grass roots'.

Vakavanua, vakamatanitu: discourses of development in Fiji

Abstract: Discourses about development have contributed to profound socio-economic transformation in all parts of the world. This paper examines the development debate in Fiji with particular reference to two distinctive approaches: state-led developmentalism (vakamatanitū) and a discourse about custom-led development (vakavanua). Political and economic dimensions of these alternative discourses are reviewed with particular reference to land tenure systems in Fiji. Challenges to both vakamatanitū and vakavanua from an emerging literature on globalism will shift the focus of debate from ‘intentional’ to ‘immanent’ development in Fiji.

Illegal Indonesian labour movement from Lombok to Malaysia

Abstract: Indonesia is one of Asia's major sources of international contract labour. However little is known about the patterns, causes and consequences of this movement. The present paper sheds some light on one of the major flows of undocumented migration out of Indonesia, from the island of Lombok to Malaysia. The paper examines the process of movement and the causes underlying it. Attention is paid to the role of social networks in that movement, as well as some of the effects of the movement on the migrants themselves, their families and villages of origin.

Reconciliation or exclusion? Integrating indigenous and non-indigenous land management concepts for Australia's Native Title era. by Elspeth Young

Abstract: tag=1 data=Reconciliation or exclusion? Integrating indigenous and non-indigenous land management concepts for Australia's Native Title era. by Elspeth Young tag=2 data=Young, Elspeth tag=3 data=Asia Pacific Viewpoint tag=4 data=40 tag=5 data=2 tag=6 data=August 1999 tag=7 data=159-171. tag=8 data=ABORIGINAL LAND CLAIMS tag=9 data=INDIGENOUS LAND OWNERSHIP%LAND MANAGEMENT%AUSTRALIA%COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT%ASIA PACIFIC%MABO%WIK%PAPUA NEW GUINEA%CENTRAL AUSTRALIA%ULURU KATA TJUTA%KAKADU NATIONAL PARKS%YALPIRAKINU[MT ALLAN]%TANAMI DESERT%ABORIGINAL LAND FUND COMMISSION%ABORIGINAL LAND RIGHTS [NT] ACT%ARRUNGE%PULARDI%YUENDUMU%GARDEN BORE%RUGENDYKE%CENTRAL LAND COUNCIL%CSIRO%ABORIGINAL FREEHOLD TITLE tag=10 data=The 'paper argues that the adaptations of land use practised by indigenous people, who have converted their land tenure from pastoral leasehold to Aboriginal freehold land, suggest that such reconcilation is possible and practical.s a bibliography. tag=13 data=V/F

Reconciliation or exclusion? Integrating indigenous and non‐indigenous land management concepts for Australia’s Native Title era

Abstract: Indigenous and non-indigenous concepts of land ownership and use are fundamental elements in Australian debate on the implications of Native Title for development. However these approaches are not necessarily incompatible but can be reconciled. Drawing on evidence from the central Australian rangelands, this paper argues that the adaptations of land use practised by indigenous people, who have converted their land tenure from pastoral leasehold to Aboriginal freehold land, suggest that such reconciliation is possible and practical. Provision of appropriate support tools, such as participatory extension for improved land management, or community land management planning, strengthen the integration of indigenous and non-indigenous land management approaches. Successful integration will be essential for the management of Australia’s rangelands under Native Title.

Metropolitan expansion and the growth of female migration to Jakarta

Abstract: This paper examines patterns of migration in Jakarta City based on the 1995 Intercensal Survey (SUPAS) Data. It shows the emergence of female in-migration in response to the shift of economic activities in the city from manufacturing industries to services and finance sectors. The study also documents migration from Jakarta, the core of Jabotabek (Jakarta Metropolitan Area) to the fringe areas, which reflects the physical as well as socio-economical restructuring of this Metropolitan Area.

Mobility in Melanesia: bigman bilong circulation

Abstract: Murray Chapman's reputation as a researcher on population movement in Melanesia is enormous – in the parlance of Melanesians, he is undoubtedly a ‘bigman bilong circulation’. This paper traces Chapman's journey into Melanesian mobility and outlines some of the major contributions he has made to our understanding of population movement in what was known until the late 1980s as the ‘Third World’. The journey begins with Chapman's own recollections of intellectual challenges he faced at the University of Auckland as a graduate student writing a thesis in 1960 and then as a Junior Lecturer in Social Sciences at the Victoria University of Wellington. The debates between Cumberland and Buchanan about the nature of geography were to have a profound influence on Chapman – he was to become a severe critic of attempts to impose a ‘western’ logic and way of thinking on processes which were at the heart of the livelihoods of peoples who had very different belief and value systems. This paper does not contain a critique of Chapman's arguments and findings; its purpose is to celebrate those contributions which have come into print so far from a geographer who has really tried to ‘make geography matter’ in the discourses about population movement and development.

Of social construction, politics and biology: population geographies in the Pacific

Abstract: Sustained challenges by third world, black and feminist scholars have unsettled the established agenda of the social sciences in the 1990s. Unfortunately, population geographies in the Pacific have failed to engage with these debates. By avoiding the metaphysical challenges posed by contemporary theoretical debates, often by people from previously marginalised groups, population geographies have failed to provide the spark necessary for the dynamic expansion of ideas. However, an analysis of population geographies in the Pacific, almost all of which are mobility studies, reveals important contributions for advancing a more critical population geography. This paper begins with a critical review of population geography in general then looks more specifically at population geographies, mostly mobility studies, in the Pacific. It advances the argument that the humanist geographers Chapman and Bonnemaison have made critical contributions in reconceptualising population mobility. Further advances would benefit from an engagement with feminist geography and post-structural discourse analysis.

R. Gerard Ward: quintessential Pacific geographer

Abstract: In December 1998 Professor R. Gerard Ward retired after 27 years as Professor of Geography in the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at the Australian National University. Ward’s contributions to his discipline, the social sciences, and the discourses about development in the Pacific region have been very considerable. This paper reviews some of the achievements of one of the twentieth century’s eminent Pacific geographers. After establishing his academic roots in the Department of Geography at the University of Auckland in the 1950s, we outline the major clusters of his writing on land use and land tenure, population dynamics and urbanisation, Pacific history and prehistory, Pacific development issues, informal markets, transport systems and tele-cost worlds. The paper concludes with an assessment of three unusual features of Ward’s writing: the breadth of his interests, the range of scales he felt comfortable working at, and the innovative nature of ideas introduced into debates about Pacific development. A comprehensive list of Ward’s publications is attached to this paper.

Prostitutes and their environment in Narayanganj, Bangladesh

Abstract: Society in Bangladesh has specific gender roles with strong values and norms in which women are controlled and protected by men. Certain deviations degrade the women socially and trap them into prostitution. This paper investigates the situation of prostitutes in Bangladesh through analysis of the environment at their place of origin that instigated them into the present situation. The paper describes the present environment of the prostitutes in Narayanganj, identifies their spatial connectivity through determining their activity space and sphere of influence and makes some brief remarks about the old age situation of these prostitutes.

Pessimism and pragmatism: agricultural trade liberalisation from the perspective of South Korean farmers

Abstract: Based on a survey sample of 483 farm households in three provinces of the Republic of Korea, we report on the perspectives of full-time farmers regarding trade liberalisation, its effects on their lives, and the future of small-scale farming. The report includes opinions obtained from interviews and the results of 27 Likert scale items in our field survey conducted in 1997. As the Korean govern- ment seeks to comply with GATT regulations by reducing a wide range of farm supports and opening the domestic markets, farm families have borne the brunt of the policy changes. Rising costs, declining returns, massive amounts of debt, and draconian land use regulations have left farmers frustrated and discouraged. Results indicate that specific concerns frequently vary by location. There is optimism in areas with diversified farm operations, and the greatest pessimism in locations dependent on food grains and fruits - domestically important crops which already are being imported in increasing volumes.

Poetry and Pacific Studies: notes from the field

Abstract: After many years at the University of the South Pacific (where this paper was written), William Clarke is currently a Visiting Fellow in Resource Management in the Asia-Pacific Project at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, The Australian National University, Canberra. Following a brief review of the place of oral poetry and song in Pacific Island societies, aspects of contemporary life are examined through the words of present-day Pacific poets. Topics examined include tourism, land issues, cultural identity and authenticity, the place of women in Pacific societies, corruption, environmental issues, population growth and urbanisation. A central theme of the discussion is that the poetic voice can heighten our attention towards and understandings of people’s lives and feelings.

Tauponui a Tia: an interpretation of Maori landscape and land tenure

Abstract: In the mid-1950s Professor R. Gerard Ward carried out his first significant research project as a graduate student in the ‘Taupo country’– a diverse volcanic landscape with a rich Maori history in the central North Island of New Zealand. This paper traces my own ‘journeys’ into the Taupo country and my association with the complexities of both historical and contemporary understandings and realities of Maori land tenure. I use several specific examples, and draw on a variety of experiences to argue that the ‘Taupo country’ cannot be understood without an appreciation of the enduring Maori values which still permeate society and land tenure in New Zealand’s ‘volcanic desert’ landscape. Despite legislative efforts to impose on Maori a title system derived from British property law, and all the subsequent pressures to assimilate, enduring Maori values intertwined with ancestry and identity cannot be ignored either in reconstructions of the history or in current planning for the future of the Taupo region.