volume-19-number-4

Editor-in-Chief: Romeo B. Lee

From the Editor

Year: 2019, Volume 19 Number 4

Pages: 1–17 

This paper examined current and future tendencies in the evolution of the German-Chinese strategic partnership. Because of current events, both countries acted increasingly aligned. The central research question is: will the strategic partnership between China and Germany supersede the American-German alliance regarding political importance? A literature review and a media content analysis in a German context, focusing on the years from 2013 until 2018, showed that German scholars and publishers evaluated the direction and potential of the binational relations as (mostly) positive. As their judgment came from a short-term observation, Oswald Spengler’s culture-historical approach was applied, as it allowed embedding the evolution of the strategic partnership into a profound long-term perspective. Spengler’s work had been criticized by older scholars because of its macroscopic ambitions and Spengler’s political statements, but now experienced a renaissance because of its usefulness for explaining unexpected current developments. A survey, as a verification attempt, was conducted during the HES conference in Germany with attending scholars, which showed that many of them shared the criticism. The future foreign relations of Western powers, which were relevant in the context of this study, yielded higher than average approval rating. Spengler’s work was carefully applied to the topic and helped to arrive at negative results concerning the status of Germany’s and China’s future relations. These findings were opposed to the earlier ones from the literature review and media content analysis. Despite some aspects that Spengler predicted wrongly, his model turned out to be useful overall. The findings stated that the process of deeper Western integration and unification under American leadership would prevent a German-Chinese strategic partnership from arriving at a level of significance, which could seriously rival the status of Germany’s relations with America. This study demonstrated the importance of using a long-term prognostic model, as it could yield very different but more relevant results than a short-term observation. Spengler’s model helped to arrive at findings of major significance for the future of the Western world and its relations to China. 

Keywords: America, China, Germany, Spengler, strategic partnership, West 

Pages: 18–28

Undoubtedly, extremism is a current concern that has a negative impact on peace and sustainable society. Not much effort is made to identify the critical factors that contribute to individuals to become violent extremists. The aim of the study is to develop a valid and reliable instrument, the Risk Barometer to Measure Extremism Behaviour (RBMEB), to measure extremist behavior among early youth. The data collection process involved two phases comprising more than 800 early youth studying in schools and institutions of higher learning in Klang Valley, Malaysia. At the initial stage, the instrument had 19 domains with 151 items. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out, and this process reduced the RBMEB to 14 domains with 106 items. The Cronbach’s alpha on all 14 factors was between .650 and .912, indicating the soundness of the instrument. The RBMEB is believed to be the only validated and reliable instrument that indicates the risk barometer to measure extremism among early youth. Future research could apply this instrument as the basis for the construct of extremism, and it could be used to make comparisons with socio-demographic factors as well as identifying predictive factors of extremist behavior. 

Keywords: early youth, extremism, instrument development, risk barometer 

Pages: 29–43 

Few studies have dealt with small lakes in the Philippines, particularly aspects of their governance, which translate to information deficit on the status of administration of many lakes in the country. At the core of governance in any lake is its administrative agency, and in the eight crater lakes of San Pablo City, it is the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA). Under this context, this article examines the administrative performance of the LLDA on the eight small lakes (i.e., Sampaloc Lake, Bunot Lake, Palakpakin Lake, Calibato Lake, Mohicap Lake, Pandin Lake, Yambo Lake, and Tadlac Lake) of the Laguna de Bay Region. The study evaluates the agency using four criteria deemed fundamental in managing, conserving, and developing small lakes: (1) having an approved management and development plan (MDP); (2) regulating fish pens and cages; (3) implementing the shoreline easement; and (4) conducting maintenance activities. Using data from interviews, site observations, documents, reports, and other secondary sources, the study contends that the LLDA’s performance is ambivalent because its management of the small lakes can be characterized as slow and lacking in follow-through in the MDP issue; unsatisfactory in the regulation of aquastructure and shoreline easement; but decent in water quality monitoring, clean-up operations, and fingerlings dispersal. On the whole, the assessment exemplifies the inconsistent actions of the LLDA and underscores the long-term commitment and accountability of the agency in governing the crater lakes. 

Keywords: Bunot Lake, Calibato Lake, Governance, Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA), Mohicap Lake, Palakpakin Lake, Pandin Lake, Sampaloc Lake, Tadlac Lake, Yambo Lake 

Pages: 44–55 

The concept of intergovernmental relations (IGR) primarily focuses on the interactions among different levels and types of governments. With the proliferation of the concept of governance that calls for more actors in the public affairs arena, the traditional focus of IGR is challenged. The objectives of this article are to perform a fresh review of the concept of IGR and the practice of IGR research and to address contemporary challenges to them. We find that although the pervasive concept of governance has played an important role in IGR, it is confronted with a number of crucial questions, one of which is related to its inadequate consideration of democratic accountability and legitimacy. We further assess that in getting to questions of accountability and legitimacy of governance approaches, the IGR literature has inadequately considered the implications of organizational complexity typically found in governance arrangements. Applying theoretical and analytic lenses of organizational complexity, we offer two suggestions for the future of IGR to make it analytically more robust and better capable of answering questions regarding accountability and legitimacy dimensions of governance. First, we argue that the urban regions of the world should receive more attention as dynamic IGR laboratories from students of IGR. Second, we suggest that hybrid organizational analysis can be a powerful addition to the analytic toolbox of IGR to explore the impact of organizational complexity on governance arrangements. 

Keywords: central-local relations, hybrid organization, intergovernmental relations, multilevel governance, urban governance 

Pages: 56–65 

In this study, Bacchi and Benan’s (2016) framework is used to analyze the story of Vice Mayor Fely of Tubajon, Dinagat Islands. Her story is looked into to serve as a platform where the habits, practices, and situations in connection to structures and power relations in the political arena in her municipality and the province are brought to the fore to be in dialogue with a few critical questions. Some of these questions include: (a) Why do women politicians find it difficult to land a political position? and (b) Should women politicians be forced to carve political identities when their male counterparts are not expected to do the same? In framing the story of Vice Mayor Fely following the post-structuralist perspective, this qualitative case study presents these insights: (a) her humble beginnings is reflective of the peripheral space of women in relation to seats of power and influence, (b) her unique entry point as church volunteer points to the variety of paths for future women leaders in contrast to homogenous routes of women and men belonging to traditional political families, and (c) her story questions pervasive habits in traditional politics such as having a sense of entitlement to political positions. 

Keywords: Dinagat Islands, post-structuralist analysis, woman politician 

Pages: 66–77 

In Thailand, business success has been a focal topic of systematic explanatory studies, but the contextual success of the country’s mobile phone store franchises, in particular, has received only scant research attention. Given the critical role of the mobile phone sector in the growth of the communication market in Thailand, the mobile phone store franchises’ success is relevant for research as it is practical for the market, especially for both new and current franchisees. This report discusses a structural equation modeling of factors affecting the success of the mobile phone store franchises in Thailand. Surveyed were 1,666 mobile phone store franchises from across the country, from which 600 franchisees were recruited and interviewed using a self-accomplished questionnaire. All of the hypothesized direct and indirect effects on the franchise success of the franchise’s organizational features, corporate environment, and management and operation, the franchisor- franchisee relationship, and the brand-franchisee equity are confirmed. Overall, 58% of the variance in the franchise success and 43% of the variance in the brand-franchisee equity can be attributed to the factors examined in the structural equation modeling developed in this study. 

Keywords: brand-franchisee equity, corporate environment, franchise success, franchisor-franchisee relationship, management and operation, organizational features 

Pages: 78–86 

As the world has become increasingly more connected, the nature of humanitarian problems has also become transnational. To confront them, as a consequence, international cooperation is inevitably needed. In particular, the ongoing Rohingya crisis is the latest example that showcases the state-centered model of ASEAN (or the Southeast Asian) model of regional cooperation that has failed in the area of humanitarian management. Furthermore, it suggests that ASEAN has abandoned the very purpose of its existence as it was conceived in its founding document, the Bangkok Declaration. Against this background, this paper argues that the region’s failure cannot be separated from the region’s rigid understanding of the notion of state sovereignty. Analytically speaking, this paper claims that the current conservative interpretation has significantly contributed to the dampening of the supposedly liberating nature of ASEAN. Thus, it is fair that this requires a healthy dose of a more progressive direction in the region’s interpretation of within ASEAN. Moreover, this paper suggests that, should the region take a more progressive turn in its understanding of humanitarianism, it is highly plausible to transform the (conservative) Bangkok Declaration itself as starting point that necessitates “a primary responsibility” among its member states with regard to the advancement and protection of human values in the region and beyond. Given the current worldwide race among the nations to the bottom of ultra-nativism, this could be a fresh start for the region, and ASEAN in particular, to emerge as a leading champion of humanity. 

Keywords: global south, governance, humanitarianism, regionalism, sovereignty

Pages: 87–99 

Educational technology plays an increasingly significant part in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching and learning process. The interactive whiteboard (IWB) can be effectively used by language teachers to enhance the effectiveness of their curriculum and instruction. This study explored the beliefs of Taiwanese elementary school teachers regarding the use of IWBs when teaching EFL. It also explored possible advantages and difficulties they might face during their use of the IWB. This study adopted the mix-designed method, including quantitative and qualitative methods. To achieve this aim, this study was conducted with a sample of 74 EFL teachers teaching in various elementary schools (Grades 3 to 6) in Central Taiwan. The quantitative findings of this study indicated that there were no significant differences between various levels of educational background (Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree) of elementary school EFL teachers’ beliefs to IWB use in the classroom setting. Overall, the results also showed that there were significant differences based on the various lengths of teaching experience of elementary school EFL teachers’ affecting their beliefs toward IWB use, including instructional effects of IWB use, motivational effects of IWB use, the usability of IWBs, and frequency of IWB use. In addition, the qualitative results have shown some of the advantages and difficulties of using IWBs. The advantages included enhanced teaching efficacy, excellent teaching demonstration tools, better stimulation of students’ learning motivation, better environmental protection, and energy-saving. On the other hand, the difficulties that teachers faced included difficulties using IWB hardware and software. 

Keywords: EFL classroom, interactive whiteboard, teachers’ advantages, teachers’ beliefs, teachers’ difficulties