Pub Date : 2023-10-30DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2270585
Ying-ho Kwong, Mathew Y. H. Wong
AbstractThe existing literature on contentious politics has long centred on “state-challenging protests,” referring to resistance that denies state legitimacy. However, the implications of “state-engaging protests,” referring to protests that seek state assistance in what are essentially private disputes rather than challenging state legitimacy, have yet to be thoroughly explored. By analysing 2,364 protests in Macao, this study compares the trends and characteristics of protests from 2000 to 2021. The results indicate that state-challenging protests that targeted the Macao government exceeded state-engaging ones but state-engaging protests that targeted the mainland Chinese authorities exceeded state-challenging ones. The conclusion strongly supports the thesis that identity affiliation affects the type of protests: citizens with a strong local Macao identity tend to be involved more in state-engaging protests, seeking state assistance. However, citizens with a strong Chinese national identity tend to engage more in state-challenging protests to criticise the local government. These findings provide a useful comparative perspective on the causes of state-challenging and state-engaging protests.Key Words: ChinaidentityMacaostate-challenging protestsstate-engaging protests AcknowledgementsThe authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Asia and the journal’s anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and criticisms on earlier drafts of this article. All mistakes are the responsibility of the authors.Notes1 Protests saw another peak in 2020 with demands for subsidies by different sectors (such as the casino sector and tourism) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Macao did not have gathering restrictions, there were no restrictions on protest.2 The dependent variables are measured as categorical dummy variables (0/1), and therefore the models have the same number of observations. This approach takes full advantage of the data over splitting the sample into groups, which will also make the estimation unreliable for the categories with a small N.
{"title":"Protests in Macao Under Chinese Sovereignty: Against the State or for the State?","authors":"Ying-ho Kwong, Mathew Y. H. Wong","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2270585","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2270585","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractThe existing literature on contentious politics has long centred on “state-challenging protests,” referring to resistance that denies state legitimacy. However, the implications of “state-engaging protests,” referring to protests that seek state assistance in what are essentially private disputes rather than challenging state legitimacy, have yet to be thoroughly explored. By analysing 2,364 protests in Macao, this study compares the trends and characteristics of protests from 2000 to 2021. The results indicate that state-challenging protests that targeted the Macao government exceeded state-engaging ones but state-engaging protests that targeted the mainland Chinese authorities exceeded state-challenging ones. The conclusion strongly supports the thesis that identity affiliation affects the type of protests: citizens with a strong local Macao identity tend to be involved more in state-engaging protests, seeking state assistance. However, citizens with a strong Chinese national identity tend to engage more in state-challenging protests to criticise the local government. These findings provide a useful comparative perspective on the causes of state-challenging and state-engaging protests.Key Words: ChinaidentityMacaostate-challenging protestsstate-engaging protests AcknowledgementsThe authors are grateful to the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Contemporary Asia and the journal’s anonymous reviewers for their constructive feedback and criticisms on earlier drafts of this article. All mistakes are the responsibility of the authors.Notes1 Protests saw another peak in 2020 with demands for subsidies by different sectors (such as the casino sector and tourism) during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since Macao did not have gathering restrictions, there were no restrictions on protest.2 The dependent variables are measured as categorical dummy variables (0/1), and therefore the models have the same number of observations. This approach takes full advantage of the data over splitting the sample into groups, which will also make the estimation unreliable for the categories with a small N.","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"136067350","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-19DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2267062
Ying Xia
AbstractAlthough the Belt and Road Initiative presents growth opportunities for less developed regions, it also raises concerns about negative environmental impacts and sustainability. Despite proliferating academic interest in China’s efforts to green the Belt and Road Initiative, the engagement of non-governmental organisations in policymaking has been understudied. This research marks the first empirical effort to examine the interactions between environmental non-governmental organisations and the Chinese government under the banner of a green Belt and Road Initiative. It finds that non-governmental organisations have employed four strategies to engage with the state-led initiative – civil diplomacy, development partnership, service provision, and outside reform – and that development partners and service providers have been more active than the others in shaping China’s Belt and Road Initiative-related environmental policies. This article elucidates civil society actors’ opportunities and constraints in greening the Belt and Road Initiative and non-governmental organisations–government dynamics in a non-democratic context.Key Words: Belt and Road InitiativeChinaEnvironmental AdvocacyGlobalisation NGO–Government Relations AcknowledgementsThe author is very grateful to the many anonymous interviewees who candidly shared their opinions. The study has also benefited from the helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers. All remaining mistakes are my own.Notes1 The research that resulted in this article was approved by the University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee (No. EA210529).2 Several of the projects discussed in this article began prior to the BRI. However, many of them have now been incorporated into the BRI, either formally or into the rhetoric associated with the BRI.3 GDF is still considered a GONGO as the chairman is a retired high-level official and it is listed as a subsidiary of a state-run scientists’ association.4 The first regional chapter in Central Asia was launched in mid-2021 with support from government agencies and banks in Mongolia and Pakistan.5 Article 15 of the 1991 Civil Procedure Law provides that state entities, social organisations, and corporations may support the litigation filed by others against the infringement of the civil interests of the state, the collective, or individuals. In 2018, a revision of this law allowed the people’s procuratorates to support public interest litigation filed by social organisations.6 However, beyond organising two annual conferences, little progress seems to have been made by this network.7 Environmental public interest litigation was only legalised in China in 2015, through a revision to the Environmental Protection Law. Since then, about 30 environmental groups have brought cases to court, and all cases heard by a court have addressed domestic environmental issues.Additional informationFundingThe research is funded by the Early Career Scheme of the University Grants
{"title":"Environmental Advocacy in a Globalising China: Non-Governmental Organisation Engagement with the Green Belt and Road Initiative","authors":"Ying Xia","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2267062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2267062","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractAlthough the Belt and Road Initiative presents growth opportunities for less developed regions, it also raises concerns about negative environmental impacts and sustainability. Despite proliferating academic interest in China’s efforts to green the Belt and Road Initiative, the engagement of non-governmental organisations in policymaking has been understudied. This research marks the first empirical effort to examine the interactions between environmental non-governmental organisations and the Chinese government under the banner of a green Belt and Road Initiative. It finds that non-governmental organisations have employed four strategies to engage with the state-led initiative – civil diplomacy, development partnership, service provision, and outside reform – and that development partners and service providers have been more active than the others in shaping China’s Belt and Road Initiative-related environmental policies. This article elucidates civil society actors’ opportunities and constraints in greening the Belt and Road Initiative and non-governmental organisations–government dynamics in a non-democratic context.Key Words: Belt and Road InitiativeChinaEnvironmental AdvocacyGlobalisation NGO–Government Relations AcknowledgementsThe author is very grateful to the many anonymous interviewees who candidly shared their opinions. The study has also benefited from the helpful comments of the anonymous reviewers. All remaining mistakes are my own.Notes1 The research that resulted in this article was approved by the University of Hong Kong Human Research Ethics Committee (No. EA210529).2 Several of the projects discussed in this article began prior to the BRI. However, many of them have now been incorporated into the BRI, either formally or into the rhetoric associated with the BRI.3 GDF is still considered a GONGO as the chairman is a retired high-level official and it is listed as a subsidiary of a state-run scientists’ association.4 The first regional chapter in Central Asia was launched in mid-2021 with support from government agencies and banks in Mongolia and Pakistan.5 Article 15 of the 1991 Civil Procedure Law provides that state entities, social organisations, and corporations may support the litigation filed by others against the infringement of the civil interests of the state, the collective, or individuals. In 2018, a revision of this law allowed the people’s procuratorates to support public interest litigation filed by social organisations.6 However, beyond organising two annual conferences, little progress seems to have been made by this network.7 Environmental public interest litigation was only legalised in China in 2015, through a revision to the Environmental Protection Law. Since then, about 30 environmental groups have brought cases to court, and all cases heard by a court have addressed domestic environmental issues.Additional informationFundingThe research is funded by the Early Career Scheme of the University Grants ","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135666895","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-10-13DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2260411
Robin Visser
{"title":"Probing Arts and Emergent Forms of LifeProbing Arts and Emergent Forms of Life. Michael M.J. Fischer. Durham: Duke University Press, 2023.","authors":"Robin Visser","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2260411","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2260411","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135858508","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-29DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2258131
Wichuta Teeratanabodee
AbstractBeyond its popular characterisation as an “anti-monarchy youth movement,” Thailand’s 2020–2021 pro-democracy movement brought together a diverse range of agendas, including feminism, poverty, and education reform along with shared political demands. This article explores these different agendas, their relationship to the protests, and their implications for the collective identity of democracy protestors. Drawing from 17 in-depth interviews with protestors, it was found that the protests were not only a platform to express political positions but also for pedagogical socialisation, where protestors learned about different social issues and the struggles of other protestors. These processes led them to understand authoritarianism and democracy with a structural lens, where in addition to authoritarian government and the monarchy, the protestors aim to uproot various institutions exercising practices or cultures resembling that of the authoritarian regime. Their understanding of democracy was similarly expansive, going beyond parliamentary politics to accommodate issues within their daily lived experience. The protestors retained a sense of solidarity by conceiving of democracy as necessarily entailing a diversity of views and subsequently disagreements and conflicts. The protestors’ structural approach means the 2020–2021 protests were unique and a novel development from previous protests in Thailand.Key Words: Authoritarianismcollective identitydemocracysocial movementsThailandThai politics AcknowledgementsI cannot thank the interviewees enough for sharing their stories, passion, and struggles. I am grateful to: Dr Kanokrat Lertchoosakul and Dr Michael Montesano for the conversation and guidance; Quah Say Jye for constructive feedback that helped improve the article; Jeerapat Prommongkol for the resources and contacts; and Woradon Yomjinda and Suchatkul Kempetch for feedback on an earlier draft. I thank participants at the workshops hosted by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and the Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars for their helpful comments. I also thank the Journal of Contemporary Asia’s anonymous reviewers and the editor Dr Kevin Hewison for their time, careful reading, and feedback.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Formed by at least the two largest political parties, this form of government is most often used during national emergencies, such as political deadlocks. One of its implications is that the government would secure greater power while the opposition would shrink (Blander and Kenig Citation2020).2 For details on social media and the protests, see Penchan (Citation2020) and Aim (Citation2021a).3 Isan refers to the northeast region of Thailand, whose people have a long history of being stereotyped and discriminated against as uneducated and poor due to the lack of access to resources and opportunities (Manushya Foundation Cita
【摘要】泰国2020-2021年的民主运动除了被称为“反君主制青年运动”之外,还汇集了各种各样的议程,包括女权主义、贫困、教育改革以及共同的政治诉求。本文探讨了这些不同的议程,它们与抗议活动的关系,以及它们对民主抗议者集体认同的影响。根据对抗议者的17次深入访谈,我们发现抗议活动不仅是表达政治立场的平台,也是教学社会化的平台,抗议者在这里了解不同的社会问题和其他抗议者的斗争。这些过程使他们从结构的角度来理解威权主义和民主,除了威权政府和君主制,抗议者的目标是根除各种类似于威权政权的机构实践或文化。他们对民主的理解同样广泛,超越议会政治,适应日常生活经验中的问题。抗议者保留了一种团结的意识,他们认为民主必然包含各种不同的观点,并随之产生分歧和冲突。抗议者的结构性方法意味着2020-2021年的抗议活动是独特的,是泰国之前抗议活动的新发展。关键词:威权主义,集体认同,民主,社会运动,泰国,泰国政治承认我非常感谢受访者分享他们的故事,激情和斗争。我感谢Kanokrat lertchosakul博士和Michael Montesano博士的谈话和指导;Quah Say Jye的建设性反馈有助于改进文章;Jeerapat Prommongkol的资源和联系方式;以及Woradon Yomjinda和Suchatkul Kempetch对早期草案的反馈。我感谢出席由亚洲研究所、新加坡国立大学和东南亚大陆学者协会主办的研讨会的与会者提出的有益意见。我还要感谢《当代亚洲杂志》的匿名审稿人和编辑凯文·休伊森博士花时间、认真阅读和提供反馈。披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。注1这种形式的政府由至少两个最大的政党组成,最常用于国家紧急情况,如政治僵局。其影响之一是政府将获得更大的权力,而反对派将萎缩(Blander and Kenig Citation2020)有关社交媒体和抗议活动的详细信息,请参见Penchan (Citation2020)和Aim (Citation2021a)Isan指的是泰国东北部地区,由于缺乏资源和机会,该地区的人民长期以来被刻板印象和歧视为未受教育和贫穷(Manushya Foundation Citation2022)“调整心态”()指的是军政府使用的一种方案,要求批评人士到军营报到,并“说服”他们停止反国家宣传或政治运动(iLaw Citation2020b)。这种做法超出了传唤个人的范围,通过暗示所有活动人士都受到监视,对民间社会构成心理威胁。Veerapong (Citation2020)介绍了那些经历过该计划的人的故事SOTUS代表着资历、秩序、传统、团结和精神。这是一个经常用于大学迎新课程的系统,旨在让一年级学生与通常组织活动的高年级学生建立联系。众所周知,这些节目充满了父权制和虐待,包括责骂、强迫一年级新生喝酒、身体虐待和性虐待(The MATTER, 2020年10月24日)“傀儡”()是泰国政治话语中常用的一个术语,指的是权力依赖于另一个行动者并由另一个行动者指导的位置,如“傀儡政府”。一些受访者用“卒”()来指代同样的现象恶性循环是指由政变引发的民选文官政府和军事独裁之间的振荡(见Chai-Anan citation1982,1 - 5)Khana Rasadorn的牌匾是暹罗革命的纪念碑。这是一块黄铜色的圆形金属板,被放置在曼谷朱拉隆功国王骑马雕像底座和Suea Pa Court之间的地面上,Khana Rasadorn就是在这里宣布政府从绝对君主制向民主制转变的。原牌匾于2017年4月神秘消失(2019年6月23日,普拉查泰)受访者8提到了改变女性前缀的呼吁,目前这取决于一个人的婚姻状况,像男性一样使用单数前缀(受访者8,2022年2月23日)。
{"title":"Thailand’s 2020–2021 Pro-Democracy Protests: Diversity, Conflict, and Solidarity","authors":"Wichuta Teeratanabodee","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2258131","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2258131","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractBeyond its popular characterisation as an “anti-monarchy youth movement,” Thailand’s 2020–2021 pro-democracy movement brought together a diverse range of agendas, including feminism, poverty, and education reform along with shared political demands. This article explores these different agendas, their relationship to the protests, and their implications for the collective identity of democracy protestors. Drawing from 17 in-depth interviews with protestors, it was found that the protests were not only a platform to express political positions but also for pedagogical socialisation, where protestors learned about different social issues and the struggles of other protestors. These processes led them to understand authoritarianism and democracy with a structural lens, where in addition to authoritarian government and the monarchy, the protestors aim to uproot various institutions exercising practices or cultures resembling that of the authoritarian regime. Their understanding of democracy was similarly expansive, going beyond parliamentary politics to accommodate issues within their daily lived experience. The protestors retained a sense of solidarity by conceiving of democracy as necessarily entailing a diversity of views and subsequently disagreements and conflicts. The protestors’ structural approach means the 2020–2021 protests were unique and a novel development from previous protests in Thailand.Key Words: Authoritarianismcollective identitydemocracysocial movementsThailandThai politics AcknowledgementsI cannot thank the interviewees enough for sharing their stories, passion, and struggles. I am grateful to: Dr Kanokrat Lertchoosakul and Dr Michael Montesano for the conversation and guidance; Quah Say Jye for constructive feedback that helped improve the article; Jeerapat Prommongkol for the resources and contacts; and Woradon Yomjinda and Suchatkul Kempetch for feedback on an earlier draft. I thank participants at the workshops hosted by the Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, and the Association of Mainland Southeast Asia Scholars for their helpful comments. I also thank the Journal of Contemporary Asia’s anonymous reviewers and the editor Dr Kevin Hewison for their time, careful reading, and feedback.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 Formed by at least the two largest political parties, this form of government is most often used during national emergencies, such as political deadlocks. One of its implications is that the government would secure greater power while the opposition would shrink (Blander and Kenig Citation2020).2 For details on social media and the protests, see Penchan (Citation2020) and Aim (Citation2021a).3 Isan refers to the northeast region of Thailand, whose people have a long history of being stereotyped and discriminated against as uneducated and poor due to the lack of access to resources and opportunities (Manushya Foundation Cita","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135199080","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Asia has become the world’s largest beer-consuming region, and Southeast Asia sees the strongest growth in demand. While the Asian beer industry attracts investments from global and regional capital and is undergoing significant restructuring, there has been little academic attention to these transformations. In this article, the focus is on Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand to analyse how global and regional lead firms adapt to changing competition and increasing demand in Southeast Asia. A combination of theorisations of variegated capitalism with embeddedness and symbolic value is used to explain firm strategies on accessing markets, managing risk and building stronger brands. This analysis demonstrates how regional and global production networks co-exist and interact, and how regional lead firms struggle to challenge global lead firms in accessing the Southeast Asian beer market. The findings show how regional and global capital to a limited extent dissociate from established networks when representing a reputational risk and illustrate how firms co-create the demand for beer. The analysis gives a strong account of the role of embeddedness for expanding market access, and how lead firms seek to strengthen their position through buying up local competition to profit from their established reputation, and territorial and societal embeddedness.
{"title":"Brewing the Global Shift: Variegated Capitalism, Firm Strategies, and the Restructuring of the Southeast Asian Beer Industry","authors":"Hege Merete Knutsen, Arve Hansen, Ulrikke Wethal, Manoj Potapohn","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2254774","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2254774","url":null,"abstract":"Asia has become the world’s largest beer-consuming region, and Southeast Asia sees the strongest growth in demand. While the Asian beer industry attracts investments from global and regional capital and is undergoing significant restructuring, there has been little academic attention to these transformations. In this article, the focus is on Vietnam, Myanmar, and Thailand to analyse how global and regional lead firms adapt to changing competition and increasing demand in Southeast Asia. A combination of theorisations of variegated capitalism with embeddedness and symbolic value is used to explain firm strategies on accessing markets, managing risk and building stronger brands. This analysis demonstrates how regional and global production networks co-exist and interact, and how regional lead firms struggle to challenge global lead firms in accessing the Southeast Asian beer market. The findings show how regional and global capital to a limited extent dissociate from established networks when representing a reputational risk and illustrate how firms co-create the demand for beer. The analysis gives a strong account of the role of embeddedness for expanding market access, and how lead firms seek to strengthen their position through buying up local competition to profit from their established reputation, and territorial and societal embeddedness.","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135060769","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-12DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2254784
Alice Beban
{"title":"Entrepreneurial Women in a Saturated Marketplace: How Gendered Power Shapes Experiences of Debt in Rural Cambodia","authors":"Alice Beban","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2254784","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2254784","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135878929","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2248602
Sunhyuk Kim, Chonghee Han
AbstractAbstractSouth Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987 was driven by social movements. The grand democracy coalition included the opposition party and various civic associations, including student groups, labour unions, and religious organisations. Civil society continued to pressure the post-transitional governments to dismantle authoritarian structures and remove undemocratic practices. Political authoritarianism in South Korea in 1961–1987 was inseparable from the developmental state that delivered the country’s impressive economic development. Government reform after the democratisation entailed the weakening, if not dismantling, of the developmental state, to make public governance and policymaking more transparent, responsive, and participatory. In this paper we examine government reform in South Korea, focusing on the first ten years following democratisation. The Roh Tae Woo government created the Administrative Reform Committee in 1988, and the Kim Young Sam government launched the Presidential Commission for Administrative Reform in 1993. Although both agencies engaged civilians in the reform process, it was the Ministry of Government Administration and the Ministry of Finance and Economy that dominated the designing and implementing of the reforms, which demonstrates that the introduction and implementation of collaborative governance in South Korea was state led. Comparative implications are drawn from the South Korean case.Key Words: collaborative governancedemocratisationdevelopmental stateGovernment reformSouth Korea Conflicts of InterestThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.Additional informationFundingThe authors did not receive support from any organisation for this article.
{"title":"The Origins of Collaborative Governance in South Korea: An Analysis of the First Ten Years After Democratisation","authors":"Sunhyuk Kim, Chonghee Han","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2248602","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2248602","url":null,"abstract":"AbstractAbstractSouth Korea’s transition to democracy in 1987 was driven by social movements. The grand democracy coalition included the opposition party and various civic associations, including student groups, labour unions, and religious organisations. Civil society continued to pressure the post-transitional governments to dismantle authoritarian structures and remove undemocratic practices. Political authoritarianism in South Korea in 1961–1987 was inseparable from the developmental state that delivered the country’s impressive economic development. Government reform after the democratisation entailed the weakening, if not dismantling, of the developmental state, to make public governance and policymaking more transparent, responsive, and participatory. In this paper we examine government reform in South Korea, focusing on the first ten years following democratisation. The Roh Tae Woo government created the Administrative Reform Committee in 1988, and the Kim Young Sam government launched the Presidential Commission for Administrative Reform in 1993. Although both agencies engaged civilians in the reform process, it was the Ministry of Government Administration and the Ministry of Finance and Economy that dominated the designing and implementing of the reforms, which demonstrates that the introduction and implementation of collaborative governance in South Korea was state led. Comparative implications are drawn from the South Korean case.Key Words: collaborative governancedemocratisationdevelopmental stateGovernment reformSouth Korea Conflicts of InterestThe authors have no conflicts of interest to declare that are relevant to the content of this article.Additional informationFundingThe authors did not receive support from any organisation for this article.","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135980959","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2252429
Khorapin Phuaphansawat
Zombies have always represented sharp criticisms of state and capital. From their roots in slavery in the Caribbean colonies to George Romero’s zombie films, which can be read as criticisms of racism and consumerism, this article proposes that zombies have embodied both the “mindless” labourer deprived of soul and forced to work eternally as well as the fetishised consumer in a capitalist world. By the end of the first decade of the current century, zombies began to appear in films which were neither Hollywood-style nor, indeed, American at all. This article argues that these non-American zombie films portray the zombie apocalypse as a crisis of contemporary global capitalism. It will closely examine four international zombie films, Backpacker (Thailand, 2009), Seoul Station (South Korea, 2016), Cargo (Australia, 2017), and Little Monsters (Australia, 2019). The zombies in these international films reveal several aspects of capitalism such as illegal migration, the precariat or disposable workers, and the ecological crisis. Moreover, these films also reflect the way out of the zombie/capitalist dystopia which touches upon not only revolutionary but also indigenous and generational politics.
{"title":"Zombie Apocalypse and the Crisis of Global Capitalism: Class, Precarious Work, and Environment","authors":"Khorapin Phuaphansawat","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2252429","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2252429","url":null,"abstract":"Zombies have always represented sharp criticisms of state and capital. From their roots in slavery in the Caribbean colonies to George Romero’s zombie films, which can be read as criticisms of racism and consumerism, this article proposes that zombies have embodied both the “mindless” labourer deprived of soul and forced to work eternally as well as the fetishised consumer in a capitalist world. By the end of the first decade of the current century, zombies began to appear in films which were neither Hollywood-style nor, indeed, American at all. This article argues that these non-American zombie films portray the zombie apocalypse as a crisis of contemporary global capitalism. It will closely examine four international zombie films, Backpacker (Thailand, 2009), Seoul Station (South Korea, 2016), Cargo (Australia, 2017), and Little Monsters (Australia, 2019). The zombies in these international films reveal several aspects of capitalism such as illegal migration, the precariat or disposable workers, and the ecological crisis. Moreover, these films also reflect the way out of the zombie/capitalist dystopia which touches upon not only revolutionary but also indigenous and generational politics.","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135980970","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2246207
Anh-Susann Pham Thi
AbstractAbstractScholars of Vietnam have studied different forms of labour resistance such as wildcat strikes, petitions, complaints, work stoppages, and boycotts, with which workers demand higher wages and pensions, overall better working conditions, and the implementation of workers’ rights. This article pays attention to the small, yet not negligible group of dissident labour activists, who are subjected to much harsher state repression compared to labour resistance in and around the workplace. This article asks: What makes dissident labour activism a (real or perceived) threat to the state? A common and widely accepted explanation refers to the nature of the demands of dissidents, which includes independent trade unions, democratisation, and regime change. This article digs deeper and finds that dissident labour activists function as agents of an emerging epistemological third space, which permits the revitalisation of hidden knowledges about labour rights, the reclamation of the silenced idea of independent trade unions and the co-existence of critique of the status quo and imagination of an alternative future, which together threaten to endanger the Communist Party of Vietnam’s political legitimacy and, by implication, capital utilisation.Key Words: Dissidentsepistemological third spaceindependent labour activismprotestsocial movementsVietnam AcknowledgementsI thank Edmund Malesky, Angie Ngoc Tran, Jörg Wischermann, and Adam Fforde for reading and providing useful comments on earlier versions of this article. I also thank the Southeast Asia Research Group (SEAREG) for inviting me to present my ideas on dissident labour activism at the SEAREG conference in December 2021 at Emory University.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1 In June 2020, a new independent group, the Vietnamese Independent Union (VIU, Nghiep doan doc lap Viet Nam) formed largely in response to the ratification of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the EU–Vietnam Free Trade Agreement (EVFTA) agreements. According to statements on its website, the group advocates for the establishment of “free unions in different industries.” The VIU declares that it is willing to “travel with the [official] Vietnamese General Confederation of Labour (VGCL) as a supplementing force to protect the employees, guarantee their full interests as the fellows in other member states of CPTPP and EVFTA” (VNunion.org 2021 VNunion.org. 2021. “Nghiep Doan Doc Lap Viet Nam” [Vietnam Independent Trade Union]. VNU Official Website. Accessed January 20, 2022. https://vnunion.org/thong-cao/thong-cao-ve-viec-thanh-lap-nghiep-doan-doc-lap-viet-nam-/144-799-1854.nddl. [Google Scholar]). According to Buckley (2020a Buckley, J. 2020a. “Vietnam Prepares to Begin a New Chapter in Labour Organizing.” China Labour Bulletin. Accessed November 1, 2021. https://clb.org.hk/content/vietnam-prepares-begin-new-chapter-labour
越南的学者研究了不同形式的劳工抵抗,如自发罢工、请愿、投诉、停工和抵制,工人要求更高的工资和养老金,总体上更好的工作条件,以及工人权利的实施。这篇文章关注的是一小群持不同政见的劳工活动人士,他们受到的国家镇压要比在工作场所内外的劳工抵抗者严厉得多。本文提出的问题是:是什么让持不同政见的劳工行动主义对国家构成(真实的或感知的)威胁?一个普遍且被广泛接受的解释是指持不同政见者要求的性质,包括独立的工会、民主化和政权更迭。本文深入挖掘并发现持不同意见的劳工活动家作为新兴认识论第三空间的代理人,它允许关于劳工权利的隐藏知识的复兴,独立工会的沉默思想的复兴以及对现状的批评和对替代未来的想象的共存,这些共同威胁着越南共产党的政治合法性,并暗示着资本利用。关键字:持不同意见者;认识论第三空间;独立劳工活动;抗议社会运动;越南感谢埃德蒙·马拉斯基,Angie Ngoc Tran, Jörg Wischermann和亚当·福特阅读本文早期版本并提供有用的评论。我还要感谢东南亚研究小组(SEAREG)邀请我在2021年12月在埃默里大学举行的SEAREG会议上介绍我对持不同政见的劳工行动主义的看法。披露声明作者未报告潜在的利益冲突。注1 2020年6月,一个新的独立组织——越南独立联盟(VIU, Nghiep doan doc lap vietnam)成立,主要是为了响应批准《全面与进步跨太平洋伙伴关系协定》(CPTPP)和《欧盟-越南自由贸易协定》(EVFTA)。根据其网站上的声明,该组织主张建立“不同行业的自由工会”。VIU宣布,它愿意“与(官方)越南劳动总联合会(VGCL)一起旅行,作为保护员工的补充力量,保障他们与CPTPP和EVFTA其他成员国的伙伴一样的全部利益”(VNunion.org 2021 VNunion.org)。2021. “越南独立工会”[越南独立工会]。VNU官方网站。于2022年1月20日生效。https://vnunion.org/thong - cao/thong - cao - ve - viec thanh圈- nghiep doan - doc -圈-越南-南- /144 - 799 - 1854. - nddl。谷歌学者)。根据巴克利(2020a)。“越南准备开启劳工组织的新篇章。”中国劳工通讯。于2021年11月1日生效。https://clb.org.hk/content/vietnam-prepares-begin-new-chapter-labour-organizing。[Google Scholar]),该大学对与VGCL建立“建设性关系”持开放态度。对执行委员会的描述没有提供有关成员的进一步细节或信息,但提到该组织的运营顾问阮阮平夫人曾是越南人民军中校,是前越南驻华大使阮仲荣少将的女儿。2021. “越南独立工会”[越南独立工会]。VNU官方网站。于2022年1月20日生效。https://vnunion.org/thong - cao/thong - cao - ve - viec thanh圈- nghiep doan - doc -圈-越南-南- /144 - 799 - 1854. - nddl。谷歌学者)。然而,这个群体在很大程度上仍然是未知的,其潜在影响和真正的动机仍有待观察野猫罢工是指那些不是由工会组织的罢工。Anner, M. 2015。全球供应链中的工人抵抗:自发罢工、国际协议和跨国运动。国际劳动研究杂志7(1-2):17-34。[Google Scholar], 27)强调,尽管自发罢工是成功的短期行动,可以“快速解决问题”,但它们必然是重复的,因为工人们被要求“努力一次又一次地罢工,以满足基本需求”。“3《第98号公约》涉及组织和集体谈判的权利,《第105号公约》批准废除强迫劳动,《第87号公约》同意工人有权建立独立的组织政府坚持认为,“公民社会”或“公民社会组织”等术语不应出现在协议草案中。2019年11月,18个国际民间社会组织致信欧盟议会,呼吁推迟签署自贸协定,直到越南释放所有政治犯并允许新闻自由。(德国之声,2020年1月17日Clarke, Lee和Chi (2007 Clarke, S., C.) 李,和D. Chi. 2007。从权利到利益:越南劳资关系的挑战。劳动关系学报,49(4):545-568。[Crossref], [Web of Science®],[Google Scholar], 566]指出,对劳工法缺乏了解,也是工作场所工会官员和管理人员存在的一个问题。
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Pub Date : 2023-09-11DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2023.2252427
Luke Stephens
{"title":"Contentious Acts in Controlled Spaces: A Protest Event Analysis of Singaporean Demonstrations","authors":"Luke Stephens","doi":"10.1080/00472336.2023.2252427","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2023.2252427","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":47420,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Contemporary Asia","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2023-09-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135981866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}