Showing papers in "Asian Studies Review in 2014"
TL;DR: Most international relations (IR) research on the role of collective memory and representations of the past gives the impression that these primarily matter for states constrained internationally b... as discussed by the authors, but this is not the case.
Abstract: Most international relations (IR) research on the role of collective memory and representations of the past gives the impression that these primarily matter for states constrained internationally b...
75 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined how the British dealt with transgender colonial subjects and the implications for our understanding of colonial masculinities, focusing on the problematic presence of cross-dressing and performing hijras in public space.
Abstract: In the 1850s, the British “discovered” a community of transgender eunuch performers, the hijras, and legislated for their surveillance and control under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA) in 1871. This article examines how the British dealt with transgender colonial subjects and the implications for our understanding of colonial masculinities. In particular, I analyse colonial attempts to erase hijras as a visible socio-cultural category and gender identity in public space through the prohibition of their performances and feminine dress. This case study demonstrates, first, how masculinity intersected with a broad range of colonial projects, agendas and anxieties. Focusing on the problematic presence of cross-dressing and performing hijras in public space, I examine how colonial attempts to order public space and reinforce political borders dovetailed with discourses of masculinity, obscenity and contagion. Second, I argue that attempts to discipline masculinity and obscenity were uneven in practice,...
54 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors understand financialisation as the expansion of the frontier of financial accumulation and microfinance is shown to achieve this expansion by establishing credit-based linkages between owners and borrowers of capital, allowing surplus accumulation to take place via the credit relation.
Abstract: Microfinance does not reduce poverty, but it does successfully construct economic relations between owners of capital and borrowers of capital, allowing surpluses to accumulate through finance It does so by drawing on the agency of financialised civil society actors who facilitate financialisation by working around the state to build new markets in finance and other goods This article understands financialisation as the expansion of the frontier of financial accumulation Microfinance is shown to achieve this expansion by establishing credit-based linkages between owners and borrowers of capital, allowing surplus accumulation to take place via the credit relation Underlying this material relationship, there is also a level at which financialisation motivates and pressures civil society actors to bring microfinance to the poor By becoming financialised agents themselves, civil society organisations act as conduits for an expansion of financial markets and the construction of new market relation
54 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that Malaysia's low-skilled labour policy essentially vacillates between ensuring a continual supply of cheap labour and instigating crackdowns on undocumented migrants.
Abstract: :Malaysia was built on immigration and, like other labour-importing countries, acknowledges the case for temporary labour migration as a solution to labour shortages in the country. The government has endorsed guest worker programs that are typically short term, and that include a range of restrictions to regulate the movement of low-skilled foreign workers. Most exclude explicit reference to labour protections. The State’s low-skilled labour policy essentially vacillates between ensuring a continual supply of cheap labour and instigating crackdowns on undocumented migrants. Although the State originally imposed higher levies on skilled migrants, it has recently amended this policy and currently offers skilled migrants pathways to permanent residence and citizenship. Nevertheless, the sustained reliance on cheap labour and the way the policy is managed are preventing Malaysia from moving up the value chain. Additionally, the activities of labour brokers, disparities in the foreign labour levy syst...
47 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined women's experience of domestic violence within marriage in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia and found that women perceive that their expressions of agency, for instance in challenging men's authority, moral righteousness and adequacy as breadwinners, are the most common triggers for male violence.
Abstract: This paper examines women’s experience of domestic violence within marriage in Makassar, South Sulawesi. It analyses the meaning of marriage for men and women, the roles of men and women within marriage, shifts in marriage practices – particularly the shift from arranged to “love” marriage – and unequal gender positions within marriage. We discuss some salient issues in the “margins of marriage” in Indonesia: polygyny and constructions of masculinity that condone the practice of polygyny/affairs, and attitudes towards divorce, particularly for women. We then examine women’s perception of the causes and triggers of domestic violence as revealed by fieldwork data, using the lens of women’s agency. Our findings are that women perceive that their expressions of agency – for instance in challenging men’s authority, moral righteousness and adequacy as breadwinners – are the most common triggers for male violence within marriage. Finally, we discuss the difficulty for women of escaping domestic violenc...
43 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a critical and systematic political analysis of micro-finance schemes linking international, national and local development policy is presented, which substantiates the argument that micro finance schemes are a neoliberal development strategy, primarily advanced to realise a dual purpose: (1) financial sector liberalisation and commercialisation, while extending micro-inance as a means to "poverty reduction" and (2) the dampening and undermining of resistance to neoliberal development policies, by relying on the disciplinary potential of these schemes.
Abstract: This article offers a critical and systematic political analysis of microfinance schemes linking international, national and local development policy. It substantiates the argument that microfinance schemes are a neoliberal development strategy, primarily advanced to realise a dual purpose: (1) financial sector liberalisation and commercialisation, while extending microfinance as a means to “poverty reduction”, and (2) the dampening and undermining of resistance to neoliberal development policies, by relying on the disciplinary potential of these schemes. I illustrate this argument through an examination of the politics of microfinance and development in Bangladesh, which includes analyses of policies prescribed by the World Bank (and also the CGAP). The analysis also draws out the implications (legal and institutional) for many NGOs who have been required to change their status to Microfinance Institutions (MFIs). Microfinance schemes are exemplary of (new) efforts to build markets in Asia in acc...
41 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the confluence of interests suggests a means for quickly closing the "development gap" through mobilising techno-managerial modalities designed to reduce barriers to capital entry and other institutional inefficiencies seen as inimical to investment.
Abstract: Multilateral development agencies have increasingly focused attention on underdeveloped countries in Asia as potential new sites for financial capital. Often referred to as “emerging markets”, these economies are seen as ripe for private sector investment and, at the same time, in need of foreign capital to support rapid industrialisation, modernisation and poverty reduction. For development agencies, this confluence of interests suggests a means for quickly closing the “development gap”, primarily through mobilising techno-managerial modalities designed to reduce barriers to capital entry and other institutional inefficiencies seen as inimical to investment. Thus development agencies now encourage the construction of “enabling environments” to support “market driven development” through processes of “financialisation”. Development, in this sense, is no longer state-led or state-centred, but rather financially driven and privately procured.As we highlight in this special issue, however, financiali...
38 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that while attention to the well-being of the left-behind is vital, there is an urgent need for a shift in focus from their vulnerability to their agency.
Abstract: :Concern has been growing recently in China about the well-being of children, women and the elderly “left behind” on the farm when family members leave the village in search of waged work. Increasingly, the left-behind are portrayed in academic and policy discourse as a “vulnerable group” of passive dependants, sidelined by modernisation and abandoned by their families. This paper challenges this discourse, arguing that while attention to the well-being of the left-behind is vital, there is an urgent need for a shift in focus from their vulnerability to their agency. The paper focuses on the agency of left-behind women between the ages of 50 and 80. It aims, first of all, to point the way toward an empirically richer understanding of the social construction of older women’s agency and well-being. The second aim of the paper is to suggest how different conceptualisations of “agency” and “older women” might contribute to more ethical and politically effective strategies for development and the impro...
36 citations
TL;DR: This article pointed out that the Press has confused a German word with the name of this eminent scholar (Dr.Gluck of Columbia University), which is a minor error that does not detract in the slightest from this important work that has done a great service in planting Grotius even more firmly in his historical context.
Abstract: Gluck of Columbia University). Of the three references included here, one points to a 2009 edited collection, but the other two link more mysteriously to primary sources from 1603. As someone who works in Japanese history, I can testify to Professor Gluck’s tremendous influence, but to suggest that it extends back to seventeenth-century letters is perhaps pushing things, and the Press has obviously confused a German word with the name of this eminent scholar. Such minor errors do not, however, detract in the slightest from this important work that has done a great service in planting Grotius even more firmly in his historical context.
30 citations
TL;DR: This paper explored singlehood as a contested space of ideals and practices, and presented the notion of ohitorisama as one model of contemporary female singlehood, which suggests divergence from the ideal, even if it is just an unavoidable temporary state.
Abstract: Postwar Japanese society has experienced significant demographic shifts. Of particular note are trends in marriage delay, increased divorce, increased rates of lifelong singlehood and an increased proportion of life spent unmarried. In this context, singlehood is increasingly experienced by women, for at least some period in their adult lives. Nonetheless, while greater numbers of Japanese are living as singles for a greater portion of their lives, marriage and childbearing remain key markers of contemporary Japanese womanhood. Living outside marriage – as a single, divorced or widowed person – suggests divergence from the ideal, even if it is just an unavoidable temporary state. This paper explores singlehood as a contested space of ideals and practices, and presents the notion of ohitorisama as one model of contemporary female singlehood.
27 citations
TL;DR: The authors investigates the conceptual overlaps between transnational return migration and immigration by drawing on a qualitative study of Mainland Chinese return migration from Canada and argues that reframing return migration as a distinct type of immigration draws attention to the citizenship vulnerabilities experienced by “middling” returnees who are not privy to the preferential treatment given to highly skilled returnees.
Abstract: :This paper investigates the conceptual overlaps between transnational return migration and immigration by drawing on a qualitative study of Mainland Chinese return migration from Canada. The paper argues that reframing return migration as a distinct type of immigration draws attention to the citizenship vulnerabilities experienced by “middling” returnees who are not privy to the preferential treatment given to highly skilled returnees. They come to be considered as “foreigners” in their homeland because they have naturalised elsewhere. The paper also explores the double diasporic identifications of Mainland Chinese returnees from Canada; it highlights the tensions and fissures manifested in secondary diasporas, particularly in light of China’s growing prominence in international business, foreign diplomacy and cultural exchanges. The paper suggests that social encounters that marginalise such migrants in Canada are reproduced in China. The returnees navigate such encounters by mobilising their tr...
TL;DR: This article examined how urban Malay-Muslim women negotiate these tensions in their consumption and interpretation of local popular culture and argued that these practices are in turn indicative of the interviewees' desire to be a part of a forward-looking Islamic modernity narrative and global community or ummah, and ultimately leave behind anxieties over Malay identity by choosing to construct their subjectivity in religious rather than eth...
Abstract: :Anxieties over the position of Malay identity have often spilled over into locally-produced popular materials. Such anxieties are reflected particularly in portrayals of Malay-Muslim womanhood. Malay-Muslim women are a significant target audience for these concerns, specifically in their assumedly natural roles as nurturers of a family unit. Despite this focus on Malay-Muslim women, however, theirs is a voice that is rarely heard as Malaysia advances towards an Islamic modernity. This article examines how urban Malay-Muslim women negotiate these tensions in their consumption and interpretation of local popular culture. Borrowing from Michel de Certeau’s framework on everyday resistance, this article argues that these practices are in turn indicative of the interviewees’ desire to be a part of a forward-looking Islamic modernity narrative and global community or ummah, and ultimately leave behind anxieties over Malay identity by choosing to construct their subjectivity in religious rather than eth...
TL;DR: This paper argued that although the nature, degree and extent of government intervention has varied from administration to administration, the basic stance of a developmental state has been retained while neoliberal and welfare policies have been used concurrently to further economic and social development.
Abstract: Scholars of political economy have been debating the role of the Korean state in the economic development of the country, as the characteristics of a developmental state, a neoliberal state and/or a welfare state have appeared simultaneously in the various governments’ policies since the 1990s. This paper argues that although the nature, degree and extent of government intervention has varied from administration to administration, the basic stance of a developmental state has been retained while neoliberal and welfare policies have been used concurrently to further economic and social development. This coexistence of contradictory approaches reflecting alternative market economic systems was the product of a combination of government policies that has for the past 20 years provided the Korean government with the ability to deploy flexible policy mixes in response to changes in the political and economic environment and to maximise the outcomes of developmental policies.
TL;DR: In the process of China's transition from a centrally-administered to a more market-oriented economy, financial services have played a very special role, but in a counter-intuitive way: what looks like Western market economics turns out to be a Leninist regulatory model as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Within the process of China’s transition from a centrally-administered to a more market-oriented economy, financial services have played a very special role, but in a counter-intuitive way: what looks like Western market economics turns out to be a Leninist regulatory model. Even as international financial service providers and regulatory communities are invited to play a role in the creation of a Chinese market in financial services, the Communist Party has strengthened its control of top personnel, the judiciary and the media. The reform of the central bank and the establishment of technically independent regulatory agencies seemed to have taken China down the path of OECD economies. The model of a very specific post-regulatory state with Chinese characteristics, however, has not fully incorporated the notion of private authority. Such an acceptance would pose a threat to the CCP monopoly on political power. The attempt to use only semi-private organisations to develop financial markets undermin...
TL;DR: The authors in this article pointed out that men's roles have not changed to the extent that women's have, with implications for the falling fertility rates across the region, and suggested a re-think of the environmental management of the region through policy change not only to help nature, but simply in the self-interest of Southeast Asia's people.
Abstract: moving to live with their families in the city. This internal migration of older women contributes unpaid domestic and child-rearing labour to families, so younger women can remain in paid employment. This example illustrates that men’s roles have not changed to the extent that women’s have, with implications for the falling fertility rates across the region. International migration has received more scholarly attention than internal migration, yet migration within countries involves far greater numbers. Hugo further explores this important topic, but in places his chapter appears slightly dated. He refers to the efforts by Southeast Asian governments to relocate people to more rural or remote areas of their countries, such as Indonesia’s transmigration scheme. Hugo correctly notes the reduction in importance of this scheme in recent years, but does this through reference to a Leinbach article from 1989. While Hugo employs a common modern approach in defining migration to include permanent, temporary and circular movement, Van Landingham and Fu define it narrowly as a permanent change of residence. A tighter editorial hand was needed here. In other places the book could have benefited from a comparative approach. The section on marriage shows great variation across the region. The median age for women in Cambodia to marry remains steady at around 20, while it is 27 in Singapore. It is to be expected that countries that are so economically different would differ in this regard. It would have been useful to the reader to show how Singapore compared to Luxembourg, how Cambodia compared to Rwanda – how unusual these societies are, or how much their social structure is reflective of their level of economic development. Overall, however, this volume is well researched and reflects thorough analysis of the topics. It provides students with a solid introduction to many issues that are vital to the region. For other readers, there are many thought-provoking sections, especially the chapter by Curran and Derman on the population–environment dynamic. As well as the standard consideration of our impact on the natural world, this chapter suggests that environmental degradation is negatively impacting the population as a result of pollution, natural disasters (including rising sea levels) and disease vectors. This suggests a re-think of the environmental management of the region through policy change, not only to help nature, but simply in the self-interest of Southeast Asia’s people.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors focus on four different male groups in an effort to understand how transport motorisation influenced their sense of masculinity in the early 20th century in the Philippines.
Abstract: :Early twentieth-century Manila saw the motorisation of its urban transport system. This was a significant transformation not only because of the technological changes it brought about but more importantly because of its role in shaping the highly gendered discourse of colonial modernity. Motorised vehicles, like the streetcar and the automobile, were trumpeted as masculine and modern machines by America’s civilising mission. This colonial discourse was continuously shaped and subverted by a collision of masculinities coming from different directions. This essay will focus on four different male groups in an effort to understand how transport motorisation influenced their sense of masculinity. White American colonisers imagined themselves as modern men destined to bring civilisation to the colony through technology. The native elites used the coloniser as their model by appropriating the symbols of masculine modernity. While the male workers of the modern transport sector gained knowledge of and a...
TL;DR: The edited volume by Herold and Marolt as discussed by the authors is an avant-garde piece that urges researchers to go beyond the resistance vs control paradigm when studying China and the Internet.
Abstract: This edited volume by Herold and Marolt is an avant-garde piece that urges researchers to go beyond the resistance vs control paradigm when studying China and the Internet (see Zhang and Chib, in p...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the role of the state as an entrepreneurial state in the construction of these markets, focusing on institutional innovation in three mechanisms of state-led market infrastructure: national or local credit rating agencies, mortgage corporations and bond pricing agencies.
Abstract: Bond markets have expanded rapidly in emerging East Asian economies in recent years. Asian policymakers have played a pivotal role in this development. This process presents an interesting challenge to the developmental state literature associated with bank-based financial systems. We argue that it is best to understand the role of the state as an entrepreneurial state in the construction of these markets, focusing on institutional innovation in three mechanisms of state-led market infrastructure: national or local credit rating agencies, mortgage corporations and bond pricing agencies. National credit rating agencies rate the creditworthiness of debt in local currency. Mortgage corporations create markets in securitised housing loans. Bond pricing agencies put a value on illiquid debt instruments to enable mark-to-market portfolio management. Together, these three mechanisms constitute the core determinants of the market (demand for creditworthy products, supply of tradeable assets, and the fixin...
TL;DR: In this article, a policy diffusion framework is used to investigate the international and domestic origins of Vietnam's nascent VC policies, and how they became part of the agenda of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) as credit-based, rather than equity-based solutions.
Abstract: Vietnam’s venture capital (VC) industry took shape in the late 1990s during a period of exceptional economic growth in the country and the development of its high-technology sector. High growth rates and technological advances have typically coincided with both strong VC market activity and state support of equity financing. This, however, has not been the case in Vietnam. In this article a policy diffusion framework is used to investigate the international and domestic origins of Vietnam’s nascent VC policies, and how they became part of the agenda of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) as credit-based, rather than equity-based, solutions. The article argues that Vietnam’s heterodox approach to VC policy results from both external forces from donors and from domestic factors. In particular, Vietnamese policymakers have a preference for credit-based SME financing solutions and Vietnam’s official development assistance providers diffuse expertise on loans, not equity investments, to the Socialist ...
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider the ways in which Malaysia has tried to develop automotive production through promoting a nationally owned car producer, Proton, and to carve out some policy space to continue a degree of protection whilst also liberalising its trade regime.
Abstract: :This paper considers the ways in which Malaysia has tried to develop automotive production through promoting a nationally owned car producer, Proton, and to carve out some “policy space” to continue a degree of protection whilst also liberalising its trade regime. We show that protection has not yet succeeded in making Proton and its many vendors internationally competitive, and why Malaysia has found that it has to secure the cooperation of a major automotive multinational to upgrade and to achieve export success.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider regional-level trends in Asian resource politics by examining the causes, content and implications of the resource security strategies deployed by the consumer governments in Northeast Asia, and argue that growing resource security concerns, combined with a process of competitive policy emulation, have seen the Chinese, Japanese and Korean governments each adopt mercantilist resource security policies.
Abstract: :Soaring prices for minerals and energy are posing a major threat to the resource security of economies in Asia. As a result, many regional governments have launched new resource security strategies in the last few years. Most recent attention to resource security in Asia has focused on debating whether the Chinese government’s resource policies are mercantilist or liberal. This China-focused debate is too narrow to fully capture the nature of resource politics in Northeast Asia, since the governments of Japan and Korea have also recently launched their own resource security strategies. This paper considers regional-level trends in Asian resource politics by examining the causes, content and implications of the resource security strategies deployed by the consumer governments in Northeast Asia. It argues that growing resource security concerns, combined with a process of competitive policy emulation, have seen the Chinese, Japanese and Korean governments each adopt mercantilist resource security s...
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of Burmese Karen refugees residing in refugee camps in Thailand is presented, which examines how relations between a host government and international relief agencies are shaped by the issues of security and economy and how these issues consequently affect the livelihoods of refugees.
Abstract: :This article is a case study of Burmese Karen refugees residing in refugee camps in Thailand. It examines how the relations between a host government and international relief agencies are shaped by the issues of security and economy and how these issues consequently affect the livelihoods of refugees. The study divides the history of Karen refugees into three periods: 1984 to 1995, 1995 to 2005, and 2005 to 2011. The influences on the government’s attitude toward refugees and toward the international relief agencies are identified for each period and the modes of the refugees’ livelihood are examined. The study contends that the host government’s concerns about security and economy are key factors shaping the government’s refugee policies, relations between the government and international relief agencies, and the mode of refugees’ pursuit of a livelihood. When security issues are dominant, the attitude of the government toward international relief agencies is negative and consequently the refuge...
TL;DR: The issue of Asian Studies Review as discussed by the authors includes a themed section that addresses agency in relation to women's everyday lives and experiences in Asia and four papers follow this Introduction: Siti Aisyah a...
Abstract: This issue of Asian Studies Review includes a themed section that addresses agency in relation to women’s everyday lives and experiences in Asia. Four papers follow this Introduction: Siti Aisyah a...
TL;DR: The authors argue that constitutional patriotism is alive and well in Malaysia and that it stands as a counterpoint to the trend of desecularisation, partly as a response to the concatenation of Islamisation and the discourse of Malay ethnic hegemony.
Abstract: This paper aims to account for the resurgent interest in the protections provided in the Malaysian Federal Constitution and to understand the rights-based language used by Malaysian civil society actors over the past few years. Observers of Malaysian politics have concluded that since the 1980s the country has been “taking the long march to desecularisation” (Kessler, 2008). I argue, however, that Habermas’ notion of “constitutional patriotism” is alive and well in Malaysia and that it stands as a counterpoint to the trend of desecularisation. Constitutional patriotism is in fact growing, partly as a response to the concatenation of Islamisation and the discourse of Malay ethnic hegemony (ketuanan Melayu) which perpetuates identity boundaries between Malays and non-Malays and between Muslims and non-Muslims.Using discourse analysis to examine blogs and media reports, this paper illustrates that conscientious individuals and civil society invoke the discourse of citizenship and constitutional right...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that contemporary independent documentary filmmaking in China has been used as a tool by Chinese citizens to intervene in the public sphere and to provoke social change and propose to look at the phenomenon of Chinese video activism under the umbrella of alternative media.
Abstract: :This article argues that contemporary independent documentary filmmaking in China has been used as a tool by Chinese citizens to intervene in the public sphere and to provoke social change. I therefore propose to look at the phenomenon of Chinese video activism under the umbrella of alternative media. In particular, I take into consideration the “rhizomatic” media approach, which focuses on the interaction of alternative media with authority, the market and civil society. The case studies I present consist of several documentary projects completed between 2004 and 2010 that opened up spaces of dialogue between filmmakers and local authority, mass media and civil society. The paper claims that documentary films have an impact on audiences, whose members are consequently motivated to engage in discussion and action. I argue that activist video-making in China is reshaping the identity of urban citizens: through filmmaking, urban citizens claim their right to access information and demonstrate their...
TL;DR: In this article, a path-dependence theory was used to explain why the Kim Jong-un regime is determined to uphold the established policies and ideologies of its predecessor, and why the old policies and ideology are intimately bound up with the political processes of the present regime.
Abstract: :Soon after the death of Kim Jong-il on 17 December 2011, his youngest and previously least-known son, Kim Jong-un, was declared the next leader of North Korea. At least for now, it seems clear that the Kim Jong-un regime is determined to uphold the established policies and ideologies of its predecessor. The present study attempts to explain why that is the case using path-dependence theory. Obviously, the old policies and ideologies are intimately bound up with the political processes of the present regime. North Korea’s unique monolithic system, comprising the Juche ideology and the military-first policy, which was constructed during the Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il regimes, has exerted a comprehensive influence on the country’s political and socioeconomic development processes for decades, and it is clear that the existing policy and the institutional framework based on it wield a powerful influence on the current political processes. This greatly restricts the autonomy and the range of choices ...
TL;DR: This paper reviewed three recent publications that demonstrate that masculinity has been crucial to ideologies and techniques of rule in colonial, national and globalised contexts and, as such, needs to be placed at the centre of analyses of empire, nation and globalisation.
Abstract: Masculinity as an analytical concept has received limited attention in historical and cultural studies of Asia, and particularly of South and Southeast Asia. Only a small number of works produced in South and Southeast Asian studies address the historical construction and evolution of masculinities in the regions and even fewer offer in-depth inquiries into the extent to which historical forms of masculinity governed social relations. The specific dynamics of the relationship between ideologies and the ways that manhood is interpreted, experienced and performed in daily life in the past and in present times remain underexplored. This essay reviews three recent publications that demonstrate that masculinity has been crucial to ideologies and techniques of rule in colonial, national and globalised contexts and, as such, needs to be placed at the centre of analyses of empire, nation and globalisation. It directs attention to promising areas for future comparative research on masculinities in Asia.
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a welcome addition to the depressingly small corpus of literature available to university students taking an interest in Central Asia, and their lecturers delivering relev...
Abstract: This introductory text is a welcome addition to the depressingly small corpus of literature available to university students taking an interest in Central Asia, and their lecturers delivering relev...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a case study of a Chipko-inspired seed conservation movement, the Beej Bachao Andolan (Save the Seeds Movement, BBA), which has attempted to sustain Gandhian and ecological values in the region by promoting ecologically sensitive, bottom-up village development.
Abstract: During the 1970s, the Chipko movement mobilised popular opposition to commercial forestry in the Indian Himalaya. Today, the legacy of this movement remains contentious. For some, it was a successful environmental movement, which led to the protection of natural resources. For others, it has stalled development in the region, preventing the creation of much-needed employment opportunities. This article engages with this contentious legacy and evaluates the ongoing relevance of Chipko in the region. It does this by presenting a case study of a Chipko-inspired seed conservation movement, the Beej Bachao Andolan (Save the Seeds Movement, BBA), which has attempted to sustain Gandhian and ecological values in the region by promoting ecologically sensitive, bottom-up village development. While BBA has been effective in mobilising people against threats to subsistence agriculture, local people remain ambivalent about aspects of its core message, which are not seen to offer solutions to growing local chal...