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Showing papers in "Sojourn in 2000"



Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: In this article, a watershed management conflict between the lowlanders and highlanders in Chomthong has revealed various aspects of the politics of people versus nature conservation and showed that the control by the dominant power could never be absolute.
Abstract: The current conflict over watershed management between the lowlanders and highlanders in Chomthong has unveiled various aspects of the politics of people versus nature conservation. What is important is that the conflict has exposed the shifting and inconsistent views of the Thai state towards the peripheral areas and its people. Thus on the one hand the official discourse on "watershed" was appropriated by the urban middle-class conservationists and lowlanders to legitimize their control of highland resources to the exclusion of the highland minorities. The two groups also used ethnic differences to justify their control over the highland resources. On the other hand the conflict also showed that the control by the dominant power could never be absolute. Highlanders responded to the "watershed regime" by redefining watershed integrity adapting to the state conservation pressure and seeking and forming alliances with other groups. (authors)

43 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: This paper looks at the failures and attainments of ritual reforms, and the various local dynamics of negotiating and restructuring ritual space and practices in different periods of recent Vietnamese history.
Abstract: Before the revolution swept through the villages of Northern Vietnam, the village communal house (dinh) was the centre of male-dominated power and the place where the status hierarchy of village society was ritually reproduced. With the advent of the revolution, the dinh became a major target of socialist ritual reform aimed at building a new egalitarian and just society. This paper looks at the failures and attainments of ritual reforms, and the various local dynamics of negotiating and restructuring ritual space and practices in different periods of recent Vietnamese history.

18 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the ways and means by which Indonesian workers, the largest group among the foreigners, overcame their accommodation problem and identified two types of settlements, that is, illegal ones in the squatter areas and legal ones, which are largely in Malay Reservation Areas.
Abstract: For over two decades, until the economic crisis in mid-1997, Malaysia's rapid economic growth attracted an influx of foreign labour, mostly from Indonesia, Bangladesh, and the Philippines. In 1997 the number of registered workers was estimated at 1 .2 million and undocumented ones at approximately 800,000. The influx created various problems, of which housing is one of the most serious, especially in the Kelang Valley. This paper examines the ways and means by which Indonesian workers, the largest group among the foreigners, overcame their accommodation problem. Two types of settlements are identified, that is, illegal ones in the squatter areas and legal ones, which are largely in Malay Reservation Areas. The settlements, which signify Indonesians' success in finding a foothold in Malaysia, today have become a base for more in-migration. Malaysia's economic performance, since the implementation of the New

14 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: In Singapore's Little India, food has been commercialized as a public good of consumption, integral of a broadly defined ethnic Indian identity and representation, and the outcome of this process of accommodating change has produced a new breed of cityscape in a systematically identified zone of increasingly cosmopolitan Singapore.
Abstract: Food is not culturally neutral but strongly associated with identity, prestige, social place, and symbolic meanings. In Singapore's Little India, food has been commercialized as a public good of consumption, integral of a broadly defined ethnic Indian identity and representation. Over the years, within the spatial setting of Little India, the ethnic Indian cuisine has been adapted for rapid change in new environments. These include the impacts of the government's policy to use it to promote multiculturalism, the Urban Redevelopment Authority's earmarking of Little India as a conservation area in 1 989, and the Singapore Tourism Board's campaign to attract international tourists. For restaurant operators, it is the pragmatic business adaptation and cuisine hybridization that is most essential for survival. Consequently, the outcome of this process of accommodating change has produced a new breed of cityscape in a systematically identified zone of the increasingly cosmopolitan Singapore. Food has an array of representations that make it far from being culturally neutral, even though it may appear otherwise. It is strongly associated with identity, prestige, social place, and symbolic meanings (Narayan 1997, p. 161). Frequently, food possesses inherent characteristics that are a habitually accumulated outcome of a long social process. As a social and cultural product, food can thus be domesticated as ethnic cuisine through which representation is established and fully inscribed with ethnicity (Chua and Rajah 1996). Hence, when food is represented symbolically as part of the cultural traits of an ethnic community, it carries a collectivized identity. Nevertheless, food being a basic commodity for public consumption,

8 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Oct 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: In this article, a critical appraisal of contemporary approaches to promoting small-scale, rural, non-farm production in Thailand is presented, based on field research in some nineteen provinces in the period leading up to and following Thailand's financial crisis.
Abstract: This paper presents a critical appraisal of contemporary approaches to promoting small-scale, rural, non-farm production in Thailand. The state has introduced what are, for the Thai government, innovative new programmes. Non-governmental organizations, which have only recently accepted that promoting production for the market is a legitimate endeavour, now also have a range of programmes. However, differences in approach exist, and are embodied in debates about the operational definition of thurakit chumchon, "community business", a term used to denote development programmes that promote economic growth with equity. Moreover, programmes and projects that seemed almost irrelevant during Thailand's boom years have suddenly been given a new lease of life as funds have been devoted to expanding them to create work for the ranks of the newly unemployed. Unfortunately, however, the majority of projects are still undermined by persistent misleading assumptions about the nature of rural society. This paper is based on field research in some nineteen provinces in the period leading up to and following Thailand's financial crisis.

4 citations




Journal Article
01 Oct 2000-Sojourn

2 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 Apr 2000-Sojourn
TL;DR: Researchers, policy-makers, and employers can contribute towards reducing the tensions between internationalization and family togetherness.
Abstract: There are tensions between Singapores economic strategy of internationalization and the emphasis on family life. Frequent travelers unaccompanied expatriates and their families experience these tensions. The frequent or extended absences of frequent travelers and expatriates make it difficult for them to fulfill their family roles and obligations and may lead to estrangement from their families. Families who are left behind may face role conflict and role strain but actually draw closer in their efforts to cope with the absence of their absent members. Researchers policy-makers and employers can contribute towards reducing the tensions between internationalization and family togetherness. (authors)

2 citations