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Abstracts for Issue no.2

Malaysian Technological Elite: Specifics of a Knowledge Society in a Developing Country

The Tao of Science and State in Post-Mao China: An Inquiry into their Interaction

Entrepreneurship Education within India’s Higher Education System

The Success of Korean Government’s ICT Policies and its Application for Vietnam

Inner City Revitalization in Beijing

Urban Renewal in a Fast Growing Metropolis: Case Study of Shanghai, China

Blurred Borders: Coastal Fisherfolk and Environmental Conflicts Between India and Sri Lanka

Community-Based Ecotourism Development in Northern Thailand

Collective Cambodian Memories of Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime

 
  Malaysian Technological Elite: Specifics of a Knowledge Society in a Developing Country

Czarina Saloma

There is a lack of understanding of the forms of knowledge and expertise in so-called developing societies such as Malaysia. This paper addresses this issue by suggesting a framework based on Schutz and Luckmann’s (1973) concept of social distribution of knowledge and Knorr Cetina’s (1999) notion of epistemic cultures for examining the Malaysian automotive and information technology industries. These industries are central to Malaysia’s agenda of becoming a knowledge society in the context of Vision 2020. Vital to these industries is a group of Malaysian professionals who possess knowledge and expertise (the “technological elite”). The technological elite includes, but is not limited to, engineers working for PROTON, as well as professionals working in the Multimedia Super Corridor. On the basis of professional biographies and narratives, this paper illuminates the context and culture of knowledge in Malaysia. Similarities in the principles that inform epistemic practices and relations within an “old” industry (i.e., automotive) and a “new” industry (i.e., ICT) support an argument for a broadening of the concept of knowledge society. This model of broadening recognizes the variety of forms and practices of knowledge in developing countries, particularly the importance of epistemic work characterized by the mixing of local knowledge with the global.

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The Tao of Science and State in Post-Mao China: An Inquiry into their Interaction

Varaprasad S. Dolla

The study addresses the nature of interaction between science and state in post-Mao China. The nature of interaction between them is largely dependent on the kind of role they play. Chinese science as an institution and a subsystem of society has played a significant role in initiating a process of change within the Chinese science system since 1978. The Chinese state, on the other hand, has been thoroughly preoccupied in using science for its developmental purposes during this period. But towards the end of the 1980s, both faced certain challenges as a result of the changes that have come about in their respective roles. Chinese science began to play two other roles, as a social force and a political force, in addition to its traditional role of promoting economic growth. The state has taken a tough stand vis-à-vis science which eventually redefined the kind of relations they have, thereafter leading to newer dynamics. The discussion on the interface between science and state in China is situated within two broad frameworks of state and society paradigm and development discourse.  This is to find out how effective science and state have been with regard to their roles in developmental processes and how comprehensive the development in China is. Two case studies, on Beijing and Shanghai, are done. One of the findings is that cooperation between science and state is indispensable not only for laying and strengthening the foundations of comprehensive development but also for effective functioning of science and state.

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  Entrepreneurship Education within India’s Higher Education System

Zhang Liyan

The history of entrepreneurship education (EE) within India’s higher education system can be traced back to the early 1960s. The government of India first felt the need for entrepreneurship development and it has decided to identify individuals from all sections/communities who have entrepreneurial talent, to motivate them and to train them for risk-bearing activities. A countrywide movement known as the Entrepreneurship Development Program (EDP) appeared around the same time, mainly designed for people with less education. Entrepreneurship education for the educated young people has a history of only several years. It has developed fast. Many centers for entrepreneurship have been set up and courses in entrepreneurship have been offered. Activities have been undertaken related to entrepreneurship education such as holding Business Plan Competition to incubate the students’ start-ups. Employment pressure makes EE in India’s higher education system necessary, but the cultural barriers and the difficulties in start-ups limit the development of EE. Entrepreneurship education is different from a typical business education since it must address the equivocal nature of business entry and must include activities related to establishing and running a start-up. This report studies the prospective of EE in India, its present situation, and the challenges it faces. Lessons could be shared between China and India.


 

 

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The Success of Korean Government’s ICT Policies and its Application for Vietnam

Nguyen Ky Anh

This paper briefly focuses on the question "What is the significance of the ICT policies for the Korean Economy?" It tries to show that the efficient and productive economic structure of the Korean economy is important to the Korean government’s ICT policies. It then points out what the Vietnamese government can learn from the Korean ICT policy framework.

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  Inner City Revitalization in Beijing

Shrawan Kumar Acharya

The present study deals with post reform urban revitalization in Beijing. Urban revitalization here basically refers to the large scale redevelopment of the hutongs and siheyuan in the four inner city districts of Dongcheng, Xicheng, Chongwen and Xuanwu in Beijing. The study attempts to contextualize revitalization initiatives after urban reforms took place in China in 1978. The study is primarily based on secondary sources, discussions with experts, field visits and discussions with respondents in various hutongs and siheyuan in Beijing.  The study highlights  China’s  high urban development. Urban incomes have increased and quality of life has improved, however, along with that conflicts have also increased as reflected in the revitalization of inner city areas. One of the major concerns is  the adverse effect on the historical and cultural heritage as seen in the hutongs and the siheyuan, of Beijing.  Besides the physical damage, the social cost of redevelopment has also emerged as a major issue. Forced evictions, jobs loss, community and family breakup, alienation between the old and young, low compensation, absence of property rights, weak grievance redress mechanism are the consequent problems. Of late, the municipal authorities and district authorities have shown increasing concern for the historical and cultural heritage of the city. They have come out with conservation and planning strategies, but these lack a holistic approach and hardly address the concerns of the large number of people who are affected by the large scale redevelopment project. Because of monetary gains in the large scale redevelopment projects, local authorities have not given much attention to alternative proposals such as small scale organic renewal or in situ up gradation projects which have been suggested by prominent planners and academics in the city.  Planning has been physical and techno centric. Multidisciplinary approaches to planning which  integrate physical, social, economic and cultural aspects are just starting to emerge. Problems have also emerged because the planning and governance system is yet to stabilize as urban institutions are still evolving and civil society institutions are still weak. There is no example in history to compare the ongoing changes in China. Change of such  magnitude in a relatively short time is bound to have aberrations. What is commendable is that unlike the former socialist states in Europe, the change has been managed in a better way and has not  caused  the society to fall into the abyss. The challenge lies in further improving the planning, management and conservation practices, making them more people centric, to reduce the existing and new aberrations in future.

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  Urban Renewal in a Fast Growing Metropolis: Case Study of Shanghai, China

Lim Poh Im

Shanghai is chosen as a model to study the subject of urban renewal, as it is a thriving metropolis embedded in rich history and a culturally significant setting.  Urban renewal has evolved from earlier priorities of purist restoration and social agenda towards more economically driven, systematic and regulated urban redevelopment strategy.  It has managed to resolve the acute housing shortages, increased per capita living space and uplifted the living conditions of many urban dwellers. Despite this, urban renewal faces vast challenges due to the increasing cost of investments, social disparities and disintegration, and the threat of losing the city’s cultural identity. With the aim of stimulating economic development, the government has taken on an entrepreneurial role away from its traditionally regulatory/administrative one, in an effort to attract investments into the city. Many new strategies in the form of new regulations, financial mechanisms, implementations and management structures have been set up to ensure the smooth running of the urban renewal process without compromising socio-cultural demands.

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  Blurred Borders: Coastal Fisherfolk and Environmental Conflicts Between India and Sri Lanka

Charu Gupta

This paper is about the tragic journeys and livelihood insecurities of coastal fisherfolk of India and Sri Lanka, who are arrested for having entered each other’s arenas. Sri Lanka and India share the water and resources of the Indian Ocean. They also have in common a long heritage of coastal fishing and maritime trading. However, in the last decade, there has been increasing conflict between the two countries over maritime boundaries and coastal resources. Hundreds of fisherfolk are being killed, injured, jailed and tortured, and are missing regularly, a fact that is hardly known. These fisherfolk are victims of defined and undefined borders in the seas, and increasing conflicts over renewable resources. This study presents and analyses the nature and reasons for these conflicts. It attempts to understand coastal conflicts from several overlapping but distinct reasons, including those from the point of view of the fisherfolk, security, border anxieties, and control over sea resources. The paper probes not the high moments of conflict, but everyday arenas of it, and in the process, concentrates on a dynamic interplay between ecology and conflict. It argues that there is a need to rethink questions of peace and security in the context of people, environment and resources.

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  Community-Based Ecotourism Development in Northern Thailand

Wang Jianping
 

Community-based Eco-tourism (CBET), as a kind of development option, has been shown to foster local development and conservation in developing countries, particularly in the rural areas. It has emerged as a mechanism for fostering locally based tourism operations, as opposed to those whose financial interests are often located away from the tourist destination.

This paper describes an action research initiative for the achievement of success and the responses to the challenges of community-based eco-tourism  in Northern Thailand.  The study hopes to reveal CBET’s potential for community development and environmental conservation. Based on two case studies and broad surveys in Northern Thailand, the paper aims to identify and analyze the success factors that influence the community-based ecotourism development and implementation to maximize its positive results. The solutions on how to deal with the weak points of CBET and some recommendations were also given.

In brief, to make CBET projects sustainable, it is necessary to have well-planned ecotourism ventures that prove their ability to support a financially viable and sustainable community-based resource management, sustaining capacity-building activities that support the CBET initiatives. The market of CBET needs to be explored effectively. All of those efforts can be made possible only through the development of extensive collaboration, networking, and partnership among all the related stakeholders.

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  Collective Cambodian Memories of Pol Pot Khmer Rouge Regime

Yoseph Yapi Taum

April 17, 1975 was Day Zero for Cambodia. Two thousand years of Khmer history were immediately meaningless. That was the time the Khmer Rouge (hereinafter referred to as the KR) regime forces marched unopposed into central Phnom Penh. Within hours, they began to implement their barbarous plan for a utopian Communist society. The KR attempted to completely transform Cambodia overnight by organizing the country into farming cooperatives, demanding total devotion to the state, and wiping out any remnants of the old regime. That meant shutting off all contact with the outside world, eliminating loyalty to friends or family, emptying the cities, eliminating the Buddhist religion, and creating a fearsome central authority, the "Angkar," that punished any deviation with torture and death. The main purpose of this research is to investigate collective Cambodian memories of the atrocities of Pol Pot’s KR regime. My objective is to observe a variety of Cambodian collective memories around the core question of how and why the society constructs its dark past in selective ways. My task is to discover the strategies used by the state and community in remembering their dark past.

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  Balancing Defining the Frontiers of Identity Language and Religion in Bangladesh

Smruti S. Pattanaik

The question of identity is a social issue but behind its construction there are potent political forces at work. These forces seek to conceptualize and articulate socio-political grievances of a ‘community’ and convert these grievances into a political tool, which forms the basis of a separate nation state. Therefore, the issue of identity is the most volatile subject in multi-ethnic states. In a multicultural and plural state, the state-hegemonisation and definition of national identity inevitably creates fissiparous tendencies where the nature of the state often fails to take diversity into account. In the context of the creation of Pakistan and given the history of partition, the state hegemony in crafting a ‘nation’ was an effort to translate the ideological inspiration behind the state formation. At the same time, the Hindu dominated Congress opposition created a sort of insecurity regarding the viability of the nation-state. Therefore, the state in its over-zealous attempt to promote and protect an Islamic identity, the basis on which the state was founded, played the role of an ultimate arbitrator of the identity question. The problem with such an overarching authority of the state that defined the existence of ‘self’ within the geographical parameter, persisted in conceiving a political identity that defined the citizenship and gave him an identity and a sense of belongingness to the territory. In the process, the state advanced “Islam” as the core of the national identity. In this context, Urdu became the defining factor of being a ‘Muslim’ in the new state of Pakistan. Bengalis, the majority community of Pakistan contested this identity of the state. The state addressed the issue but not before providing deep foundational inspiration to the future Bangladesh state.

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  Defining New Domains: The Identities of Indonesian Returned Overseas Chinese

Setefanus Suprajitno

This article presents findings from research conducted among the Hmong in the Wenshan area of Yunnan Province in Southwestern China. I have attempted a basic ethnography on the construction of Hmong ethnic identity by exploring their myths, legends, rituals, songs and proverbs. With no written language to record the past, these forms of culture have been constructed and reproduced from generation to generation in Hmong society. In their long historical encounter with the Chinese majority, including state power and sinicization processes, the Hmong have attempted in different ways to construct, maintain and reproduce their ethnic identity, in order not to be absorbed by the mainstream culture. Nevertheless, beyond everyday practices in Hmong life are the inevitable effects of the long historical relationship between the Hmong and the Chinese. Simple forms of everyday practice, the visible face of contemporary Hmong identity, stem from shared descent.

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  Historical Connections: The Kinship Systems of the Mulao in China and the Laotian in Laos

Huang Xingqiu

This paper is based on the data collected from the Da village, a Mulao village in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, China and the Don village, a Laotian village in Champassac province, Laos. After comparing the kin terms and the type of kinship system of the Mulao with those of the Laotian at the two field sites, it was found that there are only two kinship terms in the two ethnic groups which are similar to each other in phonics.  The two similar kin terms delegate the same persons in the kinship system. In their kin terms structure, there is one important characteristic. It is that one’s father and mother all address their sibling’s children as their children’s children’s kin terms. These similarities indicate the historical connection of the two ethnics.

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  Living Culture and Typo-morphology of Vernacular-Traditional houses in Kerala

Indah Widiastuti

Kerala traditional-vernacular houses are refined models of tropical architecture developed within Western Ghats enclave in the southernmost part of the west coast of India. The architecture, so distinct from the mainstream of high traditional Indian architectures, suggests the existence of hidden indigenous tradition. This architecture shares much commonality with Southeast Asian architecture. Commonalities in environmental characteristics with Southeast Asia, the history of maritime trading exchanges with the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and East Asia since ancient times, and European colonialism in the 16th century may have been factors that enhance this eclectic blending. This paper includes a typo-morphological map of the indigenous-traditional-classical style observed in the typology of architecture. It will deal with the grand residential architecture of the nalukettu or courtyard house, the I-shaped rectangular hall and buildings (Ekasala), the wretched primitive huts, colonial villa houses and various types of commoner houses. The typo-morphological map firstly suggests morphological relations among the different architectural types regardless of the social and cultural divisions. Secondly, it promotes Kerala’s traditional-vernacular architecture as a case of eclectic multi-cultural architecture.

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  Renewal of Sino Indian Artistic Discourse: The Journey of an Artist

Amitava Bhattacharya

The necessity of this project grew from a painter’s prolonged experiment in ‘Black and White’ to find a more synchronic visual parlance. This brought me to the South East Asian and Chinese traditions of ink-brush expression. Their rhythmic and pulsating vibrancy, spatial interplay and inherent abstract elements, and precision of visual means had influenced me primarily. In a particular stage of the working process, this project will allow me to renew an artistic phenomenon, to explore its validity and breadth during a few decades in colonial India when at least a generation of artists and scholars had initiated an eclectic artistic search in South East Asian art. This analysis demands 1) a survey of specific key points of eclectic interactions between my artist antecedents and China; 2) a list of reasons for the evolution of the ink brush (shui mo huar) tradition in modern China, 3) an explanation of the extension of this genre in contrast to Chinese official socialistic realistic painting and its banal traditional painting (Guo huar), and  4)  an exploration of new trends and their dynamic relations with the changing socio-economic backdrop caused by the influx of western contemporary artistic thoughts and practices. As a painter, I wanted to incorporate the findings of the journey--interactions, and collaborations--in my own work system. In addition, the journey will prompt me to investigate the possibilities of an exchange of ideas and exhibition of the works of young artists from the two countries.

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  Transculturating Bodies: Politics of Identity of Contemporary Dance in China

Helly Minarti

Borrowing the concept of ‘transculturation’ of Fernando Ortiz (via Taylor and Rogers), this report establishes an account of modern/contemporary dance in post socialist Chinese society, positioning the transformative process of the art not on the base of ‘resistance’ or ‘opposition’ or the conflict between hegemony and counter-hegemony, but liberating it from the pitfall of locking cultures into binaries such as West/East, tradition/modernity, et cetera. Instead, Ortiz’s transculturation denominates the transformative process undergone by a society in the acquisition of foreign cultural material – the loss or displacement of a society’s culture due to the acquisition or imposition of foreign material, and the fusion of the indigenous and the foreign to create a new, original cultural product and identity. Focus is set on reading the dance corpus of Chinese choreographers whose works demonstrate and outline what I call ‘transculturating bodies,’ an innovative process that transforms the amalgam of ‘global’ contents of the arts (dance) not into a cultural transplantation or imitation, but into a new, original creation.

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  Dance and Theatre Organizations in Indonesia and the Management of Space for the Performing Arts

Suon Bun Rith

Both Indonesia and Cambodia have extensive histories in the performing arts.  Their traditions are different, but they share similarities that are closely linked in traditional stories, types of dance, and theater.  Both nations have faced political situations that made it difficult for art forms to survive.  Through exchanges with Indonesian artists, dance and theater organizations, key aspects of their success were brought out, especially those applicable to Cambodia’s context.  I examined models of arts management, management of art space, and the government’s role in supporting artistic expression. I lived among artists to see how their lives might be different or similar to the lives of struggling artists in my homeland witnessed what they believed to be their most important and serious concerns.  This experience helped me see the complex issues related to how individual artists, arts organizations, and government agencies see the arts as a valuable treasure for the whole nation and work together in making the arts grow.  This value, when seen on a larger scale, makes civil society stronger and can help people build identities and promote national harmony based on the connected communities of the arts.

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