volume-14-number-2

Cuba and Vietnam, as survivors of the Cold War entered the post-Soviet Era with a myriad of economic woes. These eventually served as incentives for these countries to implement economic reforms that bolstered not only their economic performance, but also the survival of their respective states. However, due to variations in the dynamics of elite competition in these cases, their respective reform programs differed in consistency and their outputs differed in attributes. This is especially true for Cuba and Vietnam wherein the former, initiating market reform programs as early as 1970, experienced two policy reversals during the 80s and the 90s. The latter on the other hand started market oriented reforms on 1981, experienced a failed reversal attempt on 1985 before implementing the Doi Moi reform program of 1986. For this reason, this paper posits the question of what will account for the distinctions (Consistency and Outcome) in the market oriented reform programs of Cuba and Vietnam. Because these cases were sandwiched between pressures coming from economic crises and the legacies of their respective revolutions, this paper contends that the answer lies in the structures that have determined the outcome of elite competition. Thus, this paper argues that the structure of elite competition—that is, the distribution of power that reveals itself through policy legitimation—has de ned the consistency and characteristics of market oriented reforms within socialist countries in transition.

Keywords: Cuba, Market Reforms, elite competition, Vietnam, socialist countries in transition, policy legitimacy

As the financial crisis of 2008-9 has continued to affect the global economy, many wonder whether the proposed solutions contribute to a more stable financial system as well as to better human behaviour. While the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission (FCIC) Report (2011) identified the factors essential to explaining the causes of the financial crisis as having included credit and housing bubbles, nontraditional mortgages, credit ratings and securitization, financial institutions concentrated correlated risk, leverage and liquidity risk, contagion risk, shock and panic, failure in virtue has also been very patent in the crisis, foremost of them being: excessive leverage and imprudent risk-taking, failure in fiduciary duties and in stewardship, as well as greed, lack of moderation, and fraud. The lens of virtue theory is, thus, necessary to analyze and explore the financial crisis’ origins and remedies. There exist ways of measuring such virtuousness or lack thereof among managers and nance industry participants, one of them being the creation of a virtue ethics scale. This paper presents the results of a survey of 141 Philippine managers, which sought to elicit from the respondents which of the virtues listed they considered desirable traits. The major responses were: (1) Honesty and competence, (2) Kind-heartedness, (3) Self-confidence, (4) Innovativeness, (5) Ambition, and (6) Security. The study’s results can give practitioners an idea of the virtues or character traits that employees in Philippine companies expect or find desirable in their superiors. In addition, they can inform the crisis debate from a virtue theory perspective.

Keywords: Virtue Ethics, Character, Financial Crisis, Prudential Regulation, Corporate Governance

Under the 1990 Immigration Control Act, nikkeijin or descendants of Japanese nationals who were born in foreign countries were granted limited rights to reside and work in Japan. Notwithstanding the contradictions of the policy framework, nikkeijin migration remains dynamic and robust. Impelled by socio-economic and cultural factors, Filipino nikkeijin have demonstrated an enduring cycle of migration, indicating socio-economic and cultural embeddedness within the host society. Thus, this paper discussed how Filipino nikkeijin acquired their nikkei recognition, initiated the migration process, and sustained massive ow despite Japan’s problematic immigration policies. Exploring the notion of Tsuda’s (1999) “structural embeddedness,” the paper highlights the role of generation upgrading and transnational practices in sustaining migration. Using the narratives of 60 third-generation nikkeijin workers in Aichi Prefecture, I argued that the paradox of immigration politics remained systemic and detrimental to social integration. Notably, the in ux of “opportunity” nikkeijin migrants from the Philippines needs further attention as this movement offers potential remedies to Japan’s demographic problems. It is therefore necessary to scrutinize the “disconnect” between the policy framework and actual migration trends, and the socio-cultural and political landscape that determine the pattern of nikkeijin mobility between Japan and the Philippines.

Keywords: Filipino nikkeijin, migration, migrant motivation, labor migration

This study compares the child-rearing goals of women in Taiwan and in Taiwanese immigrant women’s countries of origin. The logit regression results clearly show distinct cultural variations in child-rearing goals in different countries, even when differences in socio-economic status are considered. Despite their complex historical links, Chinese women do not appear to be more similar to Taiwanese women than are Indonesian, or Vietnamese women in terms of child- rearing goals. These findings have implications for the socio-economic policies of the Taiwanese government and effective communication and instruction in schools. In addition, the findings also have implications for Asian countries affected by marriage immigration and emigration.

Keywords: Child-rearing goals, Migrants, World values survey, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Taiwan, Vietnam

Educational news stories are likely to provide teacher education students with opportunities to understand the educational situation in the real world. However, in the case of Taiwan, most of local newspapers present negative coverage that may induce teacher education students to generate pessimistic opinions and further negatively affect the formation of their beliefs regarding the nature of education. This study determines the effects of reading educational news stories by teacher education students on their beliefs regarding education after controlling for factors like pre-existing beliefs and perceptions of news story credibility. An experimental research method with a two-group pretest-posttest design, consisting of positive and negative newsgroups, is applied. Sixteen news stories, in print and video, were selected and assessed as positive/negative materials. News credibility scale and teacher education student belief questionnaires were the main research measurements. Eighty participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. Analytical results reveal the negative effects of negative educational news stories on teacher education students’ beliefs regarding education. This study concludes that reading positive news stories did not significantly strengthen the beliefs of teacher education students, while negative news significantly worsened the beliefs of Taiwanese teacher education students regarding education.

Keywords: Education news, teacher education students; teacher education student beliefs, media effects

Sociological imagination is an open invitation to theorize from the stories we tell about ourselves and others. More than self-expression, the sociological ethos of auto/biographical narration is to extend the reality of a solipsistic and exclusive existence into a common and public experience. In order to achieve this, the narrator must convert biographies into scribed realities. The narrating process, however, has unique epistemic anchorage (memory-based) and stylistic requirement (literary) that encage lived lives in a fictional genre, giving this mode of writing a unique interpretive lens that projects new visions of the social. Consequently for theorizing purposes, auto/biographies are meaning-claims that should no longer be read exclusively in terms of their dramatic and documentary values, but more in terms of their theoretical affordances. This paper explores the implications and utility of fictionalized auto/biographical narratives in expanding the ambit of sociological theorizing.

Keywords: auto/biography, narrative fiction, meaning claims, imaginative truth, social theory, literary

Whereas the theme of this essay consists of a summary comparison and evaluation of the contents of social studies in Thai, Indonesian, and Philippine schools, it centers on the Philippine curriculum in order to identify the principles underlying the general perception of things social that seem to hold in the former two nation-states, too. As it appears that said contents obscure rather than clarify social life, the predominant imagination remains rooted in the practice of everyday life, and so the question is asked whether Thai and Indonesian nationalistic indoctrination leads to a clearer picture of wider society and a relatively higher degree of identification with the nation and its past. The evidence that it does, is not convincing, and so social life remains a nebulous sphere. In order to clarify it, certain didactic strategies are recommended, such as tracing the becoming of the respective nation-states. In such tying up of the past and the present, the evolution of and the continuities in basic social organisation and world view can be visualised while stimulating the social imagination.

Keywords: Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, values education, social studies, official nationalism, approach to history