volume-13-number-2

Author: Romeo B. Lee

Year: 2013, Volume 13 Number 2

Pages: 1-23

Using panel data from 16 major states in India over 1972-73 to 2009-10, this paper examines the effect of human capital investment along with key socio-economic variables on fertility and poverty. The dynamic panel results confirm that the current poverty and fertility situation is well explained by the past periods poverty and fertility respectively. There exists a strong and significant impact of human capital investment on reduction of fertility and poverty; the joint dependence between poverty and fertility is empirically verified in our paper. Our findings do not support the inclusivity in respect of social development parameters except female literacy rate. It is observed that the inequality of human capital investment, healthcare and education spending across the major states over time is increasing. Unequal distribution and inadequate social sector spending generates differential decline of fertility and poverty in Indian states. Our development policy should be designed in such a way that can address the two vital issues (poverty and fertility) simultaneously for getting a desirable development outcome. This is because of endogeneity between poverty and fertility. This finding is expected to have some policy relevance in the context of future demographic dividend, inclusive growth, poverty reduction, and fertility regulation.

Keywords: human capital investment, poverty, fertility, social sector spending

Pages: 24-40

In today’s modern world, the decline of morality among our teenagers is very evident. Three main causes were pointed out in this study: mass media, peer pressure, and poor family involvement. With this, there is an urgent need for an effective evangelization, and this is the task of contextual theology, a kind of theologizing that adapts the context of our teens’ culture. The use of contextual theology enables religious educators to use an approach which is characterized by the process of engagement. This process aims to understand first the context, together with the kind of culture that they are immersed and the meaning of expressions that they utter. After engaging, the purification of this sad reality begins by highlighting and integrating the gospel values, which is the life-giving spirit of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Finally, this paper hopes to provide for future researchers a clearer perspective on how to make an effective approach in addressing this problem. This task is an ongoing endeavor not only for religious educators but also to those who are involve in the formation of our teens’ values. They can enhance and innovate the used theological techniques according to the signs of the times.

Keywords: contextual theology, evangelization, engagement, gospel values, moral decline

Pages: 41-62

Our study (in the area of sociology of science) examines how cosmopolitanism in three spheres of scientific engagement — networking, collaborating, and conferencing — influences total journal productivity (TOTAL) and productivity in high impact journals (HIJ; impact factor ≥ 4). We hypothesize that scientists who exhibit cosmopolitanism in these spheres of scientific engagement have higher HIJ and TOTAL publication counts. To test this hypothesis, we conducted face-to-face interviews with a sample of n=84 life scientists in doctoral granting institutions in Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan. We analyzed our data using a set of generalized linear models (i.e., an over-dispersed Poisson regression for HIJ and a negative binomial regression for TOTAL) with publication counts as the outcome variables, and measures of professional networking, research collaboration, and scientific conferencing as our main predictor variables. To increase the precision of our regression estimates, we incorporated variables pertaining to contextual and personal attributes as multivariate statistical controls. Our results indicate a positive association between HIJ productivity and proportion of foreign contacts, and no association between productivity and collaborations involving foreign participants. Although conference attendance in general is linked with increased productivity (HIJ and TOTAL), conference attendance abroad is not. These findings appear to suggest that the formal collaborative research group with its instrumental ties may not be conducive to productivity, but the informal professional network with its affective ties may be conducive; and having a cosmopolitan professional network is a strong predictor of productivity in high quality outlets.

Keywords: cosmopolitanism, professional networks, publication productivity, scientific conferences, research collaboration, East Asian scientists

Pages: 63-78

This paper is an attempt to show how Michel Foucault’s notion of governmentality can be used to illustrate the regulation of Muslim students while engaging in self-making in the context of the disciplinary field of a public high school. Using ethnographic data, this paper argues that Muslim students are not just passive subjects; rather, they are active agents in constituting their identities while simultaneously subjected to the power relations in the school. Towards the end of the paper, I propose certain policy recommendations that could address the problems generated by current specific form of rationality of government that normalizes Muslim students in public schools.

Keywords: governmentality, identity, Muslim, Foucault, reproduction

Pages: 79-86

Although it constitutes a highly reliable predictor of successful suicide attempt, suicide ideation has received scant attention in terms of research and prevention in much of Asia. Given the high levels of burgeoning suicide cases among Asia’s youth populations, such as those in Japan and the Philippines, there is a need to seriously focus on the phenomenon of suicide ideation. If those young people who are seriously thinking about committing suicide are identified and given prompt interventions, the numbers of persons dying from suicide can be effectively reduced. This review article seeks to provide a research perspective on suicide ideation among university students in order to help guide the region’s research and interventions on youth suicide. Cross-sectional evidence from nine large-scale surveys on the prevalence and associated factors of suicide ideation among university students was reviewed. The surveys, which had sample sizes ranging from 1,181 to 16,000 and were selected either randomly or conveniently, were conducted in various countries. The surveys measured suicide ideation by asking university students a lone question/statement or two or more questions/statements. Some only had one specific time reference for their measure while one study had multiple time references. Suicide ideation only formed part of the range of mental health issues examined by the surveys. Considerable numbers of university student populations were reported to have thought about killing themselves. A variety of factors, ranging from socio-demographic characteristics to psychological/mental health conditions to social conditions, were identified as statistically significantly related with suicide ideation. This report elaborates on the details of the review evidence on prevalence and associated factors vis-à-vis other related research information, and in its final section, underscores major points that future research in Asia may consider.

Keywords: suicide ideation, suicide, university student population, review article, associated factors

Pages: 87-101

The study analyzes the impact of domestic political change on ethnic minorities through a case study of the ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. The study examines the major political developments and changes in Cambodia since the 1950s and their impact on the situation of the ethnic Vietnamese in the country. Anti-Vietnamese sentiments have not only been regularly displayed by the Cambodian elite but also reflected in the policies of the Cambodian authorities. The roots of these attitudes and their effects on policies are explored in the study. The domestic political discourse in Cambodia has displayed anti-Vietnamese rhetoric directed not only at Vietnam but also at the ethnic Vietnamese in Cambodia. The continuity and/or change in such discourse and its implications are explored in the study.

Keywords: Cambodia, ethnic Vietnamese, Vietnam, political change, ethnic minorities

Pages: 102-119

This study analyzes the impact of government reforms on the Japanese developmental state. In doing so, it examines the case of Japan’s financial liberalization after the 1997 Asian financial crisis and its effect on the bureaucratic power of the Ministry of Finance (MOF). The new politics that emerged in the 1990s provided the backdrop of the reform movement. Along with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), MOF had played a crucial role in Japan’s catch-up industrialization by directing capital to favored industries and protecting weak players. The paper contends that by removing policy instruments like preferential credit and bank supervision that allowed MOF to intervene in the financial sector, the reform affected both MOF’s intervening capacity and financial policy network which formed the structural basis of ‘money politics’ and institutional ‘stickiness’ of Japan’s developmental state. Even so, the reform was not sufficient to completely dismantle it.

Keywords: Japanese bureaucracy, government reform, developmental state, East Asia

Pages: 120-138

The concept of culture is arguably Anthropology’s most important contribution to the popular mind. It had become a staple in taking account of the human condition, both in private discourses and in the public sphere, notably in the various media. While popularization of knowledge and frameworks of an academic discipline should be desirable, anthropologists remain wary about reduction or outright misrepresentation in the transit of their ideas from the specialist to the lay. But the non-specialists who deploy the notion of culture are not of the same sensitivities. Independent filmmakers seem to be quite keener than others. Free of commercial considerations, indie films pose much promise in making good use of the cultural lens as they depict human condition with nuance and depth. This study attempts to verify that hunch by analyzing the films entered in the main competition of the Cinemalaya festival from 2005 to 2011. While all 64 films contained aspects of culture, 23 of them proved substantially cultural in their representations. More specifically, the sort of culture portrayed is in step with contemporary anthropological theorizing, that is notions lumped under the purview of the practice framework, wherein culture is held to be dynamic, historically embedded, and largely contingent on human agency. What can explain this hospitality of the indies to practice theory of culture is the fact that feature filmmaking is essentially story-telling, and stories thrives on conflict and change.

Keywords: culture, Filipino independent films, practice theory

Authors: Syamsuddin, MA and Azlinda Azman, Ph.D.

Research Brief

Year: 2013, Volume 13 Number 2
Pages: 139-143

Author: Reny Triwardani

Research Brief

Year: 2013, Volume 13 Number 2
Pages: 144-148

Author: Erwin S. Fernandez

Book Review

Year: 2013, Volume 13 Number 2
Pages: 149-150