Search

Throughout human history, people have always produced waste, but during the last century, this has shown explosive growth. Globally, a combination of rising incomes, urbanization, the development of new, cheap materials, and changing lifestyles have driven the growth of products that were designed to be used for only limited periods of time producing a totally unprecedented amount and variety of waste. However, this development has not affected all people in similar ways. Waste has been a marker of unprecedented but unbalanced efficiency, wealth and power, and conflict. Five articles address waste as a function of conflicts in areas in various places in Europe and Asia. Collectively, these papers shed an unusual light on the twentieth century world through a collection of cases, in which conflicts have tended to exacerbate challenges of waste, either by increasing the quantity of weapons and their (often toxic) remains, or by creating contexts in which the confrontation with adversaries often relegated environmental, social and health-related consideration to the backstage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Plastic waste circularity is a priority at a global level. Sustainable development goals (SDGs) set the ways to go, and the circular economy principles underlined the 'green' strategies to be employed. However, in practice, there is still much to do, especially in developing countries, where open burning and open dumping still represent the common way of plastic waste disposal. This review aims to analyse current plastic waste circular approaches in low-middle income settings. Seven countries were selected based on the economic level and data availability from the authors, and analysed to collect and critically discuss the actions implemented at a city level. Examples of waste minimization and recycling strategies, selective collection systems and public campaigns are reported from Africa, Asia and Latin America. First, a background analysis related to physical and governance aspects of municipal solid waste management systems of the chosen settings was conducted. The assessment was focused on the treatment processes or minimization actions. Then, the applicability of the projects to achieve the SDGs was commented on. The outcomes of the research underline the need to: (1) scale up small-scale and pilot projects, (2) disseminate good practices in more low- to middle-income settings, (3) create synergies among international partners for further replications in cities. Urgent solutions to plastic waste pollution are needed. The review presented practical actions to be implemented now to boost plastic waste circularity in developing cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the nonlinear relationship between tourism and economic growth using a balanced sample of 58 countries in three continental samples (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) for the 2003–2017 period. First, we document an asymmetric threshold effect of tourism on economic growth. By utilizing an endogenous threshold regression model, we show that a single tourism threshold cutoff exists and that tourism receipts influence growth only till the threshold cutoff point in all three continental samples; however, this influence is nonexistent past the threshold point. Second, a quantile effect decomposition shows separate marginal effects for the tourism and economic growth relationship across the growth distribution. By using an unconditional quantile regression approach, we show that compared to their regional cohorts, slow- and medium-growth African countries, slow-growth Asian countries, and medium-growth Latin American countries exhibit substantially higher economic growth benefits from tourism. We explain these empirical observations and discuss their policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Immigrants have created better living standards by emigrating, and they also contribute to their homeland in one of two ways: by visiting as tourists or by sending remittances back home. In this paper, we examine the nexus between these two crucial channels: remittance inflows and emigrants' visits home. We model the emigrants' visits back home and show that remittances inflows per emigrant have a strong impact on emigrants' visits home. However, the relationship is mixed among different regions. For emigrants from Africa and Latin America and Asia, the remittances have a negative impact on home visits, indicating that emigrants send more money and skip visiting their homes subsequently. For emigrants from MENA, there is a significant positive impact of the remittance inflows on home visits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper breaks new ground by looking at the role played by merchant empires, such as the Dutch East India Company (VOC), in shaping European interactions with the non-Western world. It offers a critique of the English School's state-centric narrative of the expansion of international society by looking to how the VOC and its expansion in Asia influenced developments within Europe. As a non-state actor, the VOC developed networks of trade and power, which were intertwined with the Dutch struggle against Iberian hegemony. As this paper shows, the development of international law, sovereign equality and European international society needs to be understood as being constituted through these colonial encounters. Looking to the VOC as a merchant empire presents a more nuanced approach to the expansion narrative that recognises that states, empires and early modern companies developed in a co-evolutionary manner. This critical approach calls for the recognition of international society as an ongoing process formed by the contestation of hybrid cultures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Source separation plays a pivotal role in sustainable and integrated Municipal Solid Waste Management (MSWM) and in achieving a circular economy in Asia. However, it is still not an official practice, and many cities continue to utilise open dumping, involving receiving mixed waste without pre-treatment. This paper, therefore, examines the advantages of source separation of MSW and explores the main factors for success in the planning and implementation of official source separation programmes in cities in Asia. Analysis of the results for two case studies in India and Japan could be used to strengthen capacities of policymakers in designing and implementing official source separation systems to facilitate material recovery and achieve sustainable development in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identifying and explaining changes in the prehistoric material and social world is one of the greatest research interests in archaeology, palaeoclimate and environmental science. In the last two decades or so, a considerable number of studies have made significant contributions to the associated disciplines in eastern Asian archaeology. However, due to the more specialised scientific approaches and the rapid accumulation of new excavation materials, it becomes increasingly difficult for scholars to examine and correlate research outputs from different areas and achieve a holistic picture of the past. Using eastern Asian archaeology as an example, this Special Issue aims to break down the disciplinary boundaries and present the current research debate on how to correlate different climate, environmental and social changes and explain human past. One of the fundamental issues is the lack of adequate chronological resolution to order various archaeological events. To tackle this, a large number of radiocarbon dates, primarily derived from short- lived materials, are provided in the Special Issue. A great variety of changes in local environment, agricultural practice, animal husbandry, technologies, migration, demography and social organisations are revealed in the following papers but there are two profound drivers to all of these changes. One is the broad climate change since the start of the Holocene and the other is the communication between the West and the East. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calculating the consequences of global public bads such as climate change or pandemics helps uncover the scale, distribution and structure of their economic burdens. As violent conflict affects billions of people worldwide, whether directly or indirectly, this article sets out to estimate its global macro-economic repercussions. Using a novel methodology that accounts for multiple dimensions of war, the article finds that, in the absence of violent conflict since 1970, the level of global GDP in 2014 would have been, on average, 12% higher. When disaggregating these results by conflict type, civil conflicts are estimated to have been the costliest by far. Income growth is found to be altered up to four years following the end of a conflict, although the direction of this relationship depends on the intensity and type of conflict. Countries also suffer significantly from fighting in neighbouring countries, thereby showing the importance of mitigating spillovers rapidly. The largest absolute losses associated with violence emanate from Asia, while many high-income economies are found to benefit economically from participating in conflicts on foreign soil. This analysis thus shows that, despite some evidence of a faster post-conflict growth and possible benefits for external participants, violent conflict leads to net global losses that linger long after peace is achieved, reducing the peace dividend. The article concludes by discussing public policy options to strengthen the benefits of peace as a global public good. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the pattern of the upper level of the world city network of knowledge as published in a series of earlier papers. The authors' aim is to update the findings and relate to the general world city discussion. The article addresses how the structure of the world cities of knowledge network has changed since 2000 in favour of south-east Asian and south European cities. The authors use bibliometric data on the world's 100 largest cities measured in terms of research output. The article also discusses the concept of world cities as an understanding that many cities are global service centres.

This paper argues that the relentless logic of commodification has served to undermine a key element of the social cement of contemporary capitalism: home ownership. In addressing this issue, the paper explores the development of the post war ‘social project’ of home ownership with particular reference to mature home ownership societies such as the USA, Japan, Britain and Australia. The paper then outlines the new fault lines and fractures which have emerged in post-crisis home ownership systems and the way in which a more vigorous, financialised private landlordism has emerged from the debris of the subprime meltdown. A key argument is that in a new and more intensified process of housing commodification, the social project promise of home ownership for a previous generation has shifted to a promise of private landlordism for current generations. In summary, the social project of Keynesian-embedded liberalism has been undermined by the economic project of neoliberalism. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It is widely recognised that the 21st century is seeing a geopolitical shift in global power relations towards Asia, particularly China. This has led Australia to officially embrace Asia as its regional home. But the neoliberal economic logic underpinning this embrace leads to a narrowly transactional conception of Australia’s relationship to Asia, governed by an opportunity/threat dichotomy. By contrast, this article describes Sydney’s Chinatown today as an increasingly hybrid, porous and transnational space of uneven and mixed-up, embodied Asian-Australianness. Juxtaposing the dynamic on-the-ground reality of this contemporary Chinatown with government discourse on Australia’s relationship to Asia, as exemplified by the 2012 White Paper Australia in the Asian Century, illuminates that Australia is not yet at home in Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This Special Issue takes on a new cross-regional comparison between Southern Europe and East Asia in an attempt to identify ‘new politics’ of welfare state adjustments. Departing from the previous literature that overemphasized regional peculiarities of East Asian and Southern European welfare states, our Special Issue highlights family resemblances – among Italy, Japan, Korea and Spain. We argue that these four welfare states – often labelled as ‘familialist’ – share key common characteristics, which in turn experienced very similar policy problems in recent years. Interestingly, despite their initial similarities, these four countries have been trying to cope with new policy problems in different ways. In this process, some are clearly becoming less familialist. The main aim of this introductory article is to demonstrate the theoretical advantages based on the new cross-regional comparison. This article proceeds in three steps. First, it establishes the usefulness of the concept of family resemblances in our cross-regional comparison. Second, it presents a brief historical account of recent policy differences across the four countries going beyond familialism and shows that the existing theories fail to account for the new divergences. Third, it provides the overview of the Special Issue by explaining the research puzzles each paper tackles. We argue that these four welfare states, which are moving beyond familialism to varying degrees, represent heuristically helpful cases to explore the effects of both domestic and international political factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the issues on the restrained revolution of the newspaper industry in Asia. Press Foundation of Asia director Amitabha Chowdhury says that Asian newspaper is unable to maximize its revolution as it lack some powerful catalysts including lower newspaper price, market identification, and media design. It states that despite having press freedom, some constitutions in Asia are being suspended for emergency conditions; thus, shows press freedom to be on the hands of the government. It adds that the industry also faces economic problems such as finance for newsprint, modern equipment, and their own plants and the purchasing power of customers. It explores the conditions of newspaper industries in various Asian countries including Burma, Ceylon, and Philippines.

The extended producer responsibility (EPR) has been adopted in many countries throughout the world to give producers responsibility to manage their products until the post-consumer stage. On many occasions in developing countries, the system is mostly implemented for electronic waste. However, with the rising concern on the marine plastic issue, developing countries, including those in Asia, have started to apply EPR for package and container waste. In practice, developing countries show significant differences in their EPR implementation compared with developed ones due to contrasting conditions of several factors, including social, economic and technology. This article aims to explore the challenges of developing countries to apply EPR as well as determine possible measures to overcome the challenges. Results show that applying EPR system for plastic waste in developing countries faces many challenges, such as the existence of a market-based collection system of recyclables, high transportation cost, lack of waste collection services in rural areas, a limited number of facilities to manage certain types of plastic waste, insufficient pollution control and free riding and orphan products. The challenges, furthermore, can be minimised by differentiating the responsibility of producers, focusing on rural and remote areas, involving informal sectors, creating joint facilities in recycling parks, expanding waste management collection services, increasing the use of EPR and minimising free riding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on recent developments in ‘ideal-typical’ welfare analysis, including findings on East Asia, Eastern Central Europe and, for the first time, Latin America. The characteristics of a new ideal-typical welfare regime in large parts of Latin America are singled out, looking at key features of major welfare state systems. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The amount of e-waste is growing rapidly in developing countries, and the health and environmental problems resulting from poor management of this waste have become a concern for policy makers. In response to these challenges, a number of Asian developing countries have been inspired by policy developments in OECD countries, and have drafted legislations based on the principle of extended producer responsibility (EPR). However, the experiences from developed countries show that a successful implementation of EPR policies requires adequate institutions and sufficient administrative capacity. Even advanced countries are thus facing difficulties. This paper concludes from existing literature and from the authors’ own observations that there seems to be a mismatch between the typical policy responses to e-waste problems in developing Asia and the capacity for successful implementation of such policies. It also notes that the e-waste situation in developing Asian countries is further complicated by a number of additional factors, such as difficulties in identifying producers, import of used electronic products and e-waste (sometimes illegal), and the existence of a strong informal waste sector. Given these challenges, the authors conclude that comprehensive EPR policy schemes of the kind that have been implemented in some advanced countries are not likely to be effective. The paper therefore proposes an alternative phase-in approach whereby developing Asian countries are able to move gradually towards EPR systems. It argues that this approach would be more feasible, and discusses what could be the key building blocks of each implementation stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comprehensive and integrative view of East Asian monsoon evolution during the Holocene is still under debate, and additional high-resolution proxy records from climatically sensitive locations are requisite to solve this complex issue. In this paper, we present three well-dated mud/peat cores from a paleo-pingo depression in the Sanjiang Plain, a climatically sensitive region to monsoon variation, to reveal the paleoenvironmental history of the wetland and discuss the regional impacts from monsoon evolution. A paleolake developed in the study area before 5.5 ka BP, and a peatland initiated thereafter consequent upon the gradual shrinking of the paleolake. This transition lasted until 4.5 ka BP, when the paleolake changed entirely to a wetland. Considering the prevalent monsoon climate in the Sanjiang Plain, we suggest that the lake-to-wetland transition from 5.5 to 4.5 ka BP indicates a rapid decline of the East Asian summer monsoon in addition to autogenic basin infilling processes. Such a remarkable monsoon weakening event has been documented across northern China, and we associate this with ocean–atmosphere interactions throughout low-latitude regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides another look at the response of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) to insolation forcing and oceanic feedback during the Holocene, using a fully coupled general circulation ocean–atmosphere model forced by Earth’s orbital variations. The model results revealed a recurrent circumglobal teleconnection (CGT) pattern in the summertime (June–July–August) mid-latitude circulation of the Northern Hemisphere during the Holocene. The CGT index showed a decreasing trend before ~5 ka BP and a slight increasing trend afterwards, affected by the combined effects of summer insolation, Indian summer monsoon (ISM), North Atlantic and Indian Ocean–western Pacific Ocean sea surface temperature (SST). The CGT showed a close relationship with ASM precipitation and surface air temperature during the Holocene and, therefore, could act as a bridge linking the ASM to insolation, high-latitude forcing (North Atlantic SST), and low-latitude forcing (tropical Ocean SST). We emphasize that the mid-latitude atmospheric circulation has been a key factor for the evolution of the ASM during the Holocene. In addition, the CGT provides a viable explanation for the out-of-phase relationship in the moisture evolution but an in-phase relationship in the speleothem δ18O between arid central Asia and the ISM region during the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an analysis of the growth and diversification of international involvement in urban planning and development in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Over the past decade, a multiplicity of mainly intra-Asian connections have emerged alongside the continued involvement of Western donor aid. The paper shows how various forms of international finance capital, development capital and local capital vie for influence amongst a loose assemblage of alliances and conflicts linking elements of the Cambodian government, international donors and Cambodian and intra-Asian private-sector actors. The paper highlights the on-going efforts of government–private-sector alliances to ‘world’ Phnom Penh and to assert a greater claim to its significance in the world. These desires are seen to have overridden plans produced in partnership with the development sector. Attention is drawn to the intra-Asian mobilities through which these processes operate and which, in doing so, contribute to the on-going unsettling of existing geographies of urban knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented which discusses the articles within the issue on topics including urban renewal, urban planning and urban growth throughout Asia.

This paper examines how growing conservatism among Muslims in Malaysia has been manifested in the architecture and urban design of Putrajaya, Malaysia’s new capital. Rather than drawing on vernacular design traditions or developing a design idiom that recognises a religiously and ethnically diverse population, the state has recently adopted a fantasy Middle Eastern style for secular national buildings in Putrajaya. In this paper, recent architectural change is examined as a manifestation of social, political and religious trends as well as a demonstration of how Putrajaya’s design can reinforce existing social hierarchies and legitimise the ideological agenda of the state. It is suggested that there are various reasons for the adoption of ‘High Islam’ that relate to broader transnational religious change, Malaysian identity politics and nation-building, and lingering influences of the colonial occupation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper examines three controversies that revolve around the Hong Kong government's efforts to privatise components of its property assets in the years following the Asian financial crisis in 1997. While the rolling back of welfare and privatisation of public goods are typical features of the 'neo-liberal turn', the consequences of and responses to these processes are highly contingent upon specific historical experience and social practices. By examining the narratives of different actors over the course of these controversies, this paper aims to elucidate the contradictions and mutual entanglements between the ideology of neo-liberalism and everyday discourse and how the contestation in each of the three cases worked to reshape and ultimately to preserve the existing regime of legitimation. It also illustrates how the long-running 'laissez-faire' principles of Hong Kong's colonial period have contributed to the ongoing absorption of political critique, thus exposing the limits of 'people power'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the increasingly significant role that English language teaching (ELT) is playing in Asian contexts, it is important to gain a better understanding of the use of English as a medium of intercultural communication in Asia. In doing so, ELT practices may be better able to adapt themselves to the intercultural communicative needs of local contexts. This paper argues that an essential element in fostering successful intercultural communication is developing cultural awareness as part of ELT pedagogy. To illustrate this, a case study of Thailand is presented examining English use, English teaching policy and practice, and local cultural attitudes towards ELT. This then leads to suggestions on how locally relevant intercultural communicative practices can form part of ELT classroom pedagogy in Thailand with the aim of developing learners' cultural awareness. It is argued that similar analyses may be applied to other Asian contexts, which may share features with the Thai context. This can lead to the development of teaching practices, which through engaging learners in intercultural reflection will result in English language users who are better able to manage intercultural communication through English. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a recent special issue of The Holocene, Miller et al. review the evidence for the spread of millet (Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica) across Eurasia. Among their arguments, they contend that millet cultivation came to Eurasian regions with hot, dry summers when irrigation was introduced, as part of a region-wide shift toward agricultural intensification in the first millennium BC. This hypothesis seems to align with the pattern of agricultural change observed in the Khorezm oasis, a Central Asian polity of the first millennium BC and first millennium AD. While we wholeheartedly accept this hypothesis for its explanatory value regarding trends across Eurasia, in this paper we nevertheless suggest that the introduction of millet to Central Asia needs further explication. Specifically, we seek to address the underlying assumption that this introduction was predicated upon centrally organized, state-level land development, increased sedentism, and the rise of Mesopotamian-style social complexity. We describe how millet cultivation in Khorezm was preceded by multi-resource strategies that included the cultivation of summer crops, and emphasize that this earlier history mattered significantly to the evolution of Khorezmian society and agriculture in the first millennium BC. In contrast to the imperial systems of West Asia, in Khorezm the introduction of complex irrigation works supported the expansion and greater stratification of pre-existing agropastoral lifeways, and helped to buttress the rise of nomadic elites within an agrarian zone. We believe the example of Khorezm is important because it helps to explain the emergence of integrated mobilesedentist societies in the first millennium AD in Central Asia as a result of agricultural change. It also provides cultural and historical context to the spread of millet cultivation in the first millennium BC, suggesting that this phenomenon had significantly different implications for societies across Eurasia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For well over a century, scholars from across the social and biological sciences have been trying to understand the origins and spread of agriculture. This debate is often intertwined with discussions of climate change and human environmental impact. Over the past decade, this debate has spread into Central Eurasia, from western China to Ukraine and southern Russia to Turkmenistan, a part of the world often thought to have been largely dominated by pastoralists. A growing interest in the prehistory of Central Eurasia has spurred a new chapter in the origins of agriculture debate; archaeobotanical research is showing how important farming practices in this region were in regard to the spread of crops across the Old World. While early people living in Central Eurasia played an influential role in shaping human history, there is still limited understanding of the trajectories of social evolution among these populations. In March 2015, 30 leading scholars from around the globe came together in Berlin, Germany, to discuss the introduction and intensification of agriculture in Central Eurasia and adjacent regions. At the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin (Deutsches Archäologisches Institut, DAI), these scholars presented novel data on topics covering East, South, and Central Asia, spanning a wide realm of methodological approaches. The present special edition volume deals with a selection of the papers given at this conference, and it marks a significant step toward recognizing the contribution of Central Eurasian populations in the spread and development of agricultural systems over the course of the Holocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent years have seen increased academic attention in urban studies on the flows of city artefacts and images. Conceptualised as ‘immutable mobiles’, the Macao Pavilion and its associated objects on show at Shanghai Expo 2010 are examined for the ways they encouraged and regulated uniformed flows of people and city images. Specifically, these immutable mobiles projected Macao’s lofty dreams of paradoxical affinity to and difference from mainland China—the city is a steadfast Special Administrative Region of China, but the immigration flow of Chinese citizens has been tightly regulated. This paper unpacks the ways in which urban actants articulate and perform such contradictory imaginings of the (im)mobilities of this post-colonial territory. Accordingly, it provides a basis for further study of post-colonial conditions in Macao, and adds to post-colonial research on mobilities in and of Chinese urban spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article discusses the context of foreign news in the U.S. and in Asian countries. It says that there are many complaints in the influences of the media in the third world countries, in which cultural imperialism and one-way traffic are attached to the flow of information. It mentions that foreign media content's usage is expected to a cause an extinction of cultural traditions. It states that the U.S. succeeded in obtaining the position as the birthplace of the mass communications research. It adds that the amount of Asian newspapers' foreign coverage is based partly on the ties between the individual nation and the superpowers.

Healthcare waste encompasses a significant quantity of hazardous substances. Poor healthcare waste management can result in serious environmental and human health risks. Asian developing countries are densely populated, and some are highly resource constrained. These countries commonly fail to practice appropriate healthcare waste management. Moreover, facilities in these countries extensively lack proper waste segregation, collection, safe storage, transportation, and disposal. This mini-review recapitulates key issues of healthcare waste management confronting Asian developing countries. Regulations, legislation, and policies are found to be recent, and their implementation varies from one another. Variation in waste generation rate is common. Contradictory methods of waste measurement used by researchers leave these variations questionable. The absence of waste management training programmes roots ignorance among staff and handlers, which leads to unsafe waste handling and causes different health risks. Unsafe and illegal recycling of hazardous waste is a threat to human health, also landfilling is often confused with open dumping, causing environmental damage. Outdated incineration plants need to be replaced with autoclaving, steam sterilisation, and comparatively reasonable new practice of pyrolysis to avoid the emission of toxic gases. The significance of proper healthcare waste management cannot be ignored, especially in Asian developing countries; substantial improvements are required in order to protect the environment and human health from serious risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The use of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash for road-base construction is an accepted practice in Europe and Asia, and of growing interest in the US. It is common practice to cure bottom ash by stockpiling it for several weeks before using it in this application. The curing process exposes the bottom ash to atmospheric carbon dioxide, which promotes carbonation, lowering its pH (making it less alkaline), and making many heavy metals less soluble. While this process makes bottom ash a more environmentally acceptable material, it takes time and requires additional handling. This article investigates a concept to facilitate carbonation of bottom ash in its compacted state, potentially eliminating the stockpile curing process. It is demonstrated here that blending a small amount of organic material with bottom ash will accelerate carbonation and lower pH in compacted samples by providing a carbon source for bacteria to produce carbon dioxide. Different quantities of biosolids (1%, 2%, 3%, and 5% by mass) were added to compacted bottom ash samples to examine the effect of organic materials on carbonation, and results were compared with a compacted control bottom ash sample. The pH of the control bottom ash sample decreased from 12.07 to 9.78 after 63 days, while the pH of the sample containing 5% biosolids decreased from 11.70 to 9.74 in only 7 days and to 8.18 after 63 days. Physical testing was conducted to examine suitability for beneficial use. The results indicate that bottom ash containing less than 3% biosolids met minimum bearing strength requirements for road base. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aiwha Ong and Nancy Chen’s anthology Asian Biotech (Duke, 2010) wonderfully and incisively captures the initial results of a period of intense investment throughout much of Northeast, South and Southeast Asia in the most recent two to three decades in the emerging biosciences, grouping its collection of papers according to broad thematic clusters. Documenting a series of diverse, changing practices with respect to the use of bodies and human tissues in clinical trials, the related establishment of blood and tissue storage facilities, and even cutting-edge efforts to work with HESC technologies, the volume offers a comprehensive view of a rapidly emerging field in a part of the world that has only recently begun to appear as a major contributor to global techno-scientific activity, with state actors frequently leading the mobilization efforts. Juxtaposed against this thematic content, this review seeks to place the volume in conversation with a longer history, especially existing work in the history of the life sciences, which has until now been dominated by accounts of laboratories primarily based in the West. Rich with implications for a changing ethical practice driven by material changes in medical and scientific practice, Asian Biotech initiates any number of debates to open up a new field of inquiry. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In many land-scarce Asian cities, planning agencies have sought to reduce space for the dead to release land for the living, encouraging conversion from burial to cremation over several decades. This has caused secular principles privileging efficient land use to conflict with symbolic values invested in burial spaces. Over time, not only has cremation become more accepted, even columbaria have become overcrowded, and new forms of burials (sea and woodland burials) have emerged. As burial methods change, so too do commemorative rituals, including new on-line and mobile phone rituals. This paper traces the ways in which physical spaces for the dead in several east Asian cities have diminished and changed over time, the growth of virtual space for them, the accompanying discourses that influence these dynamics and the new rituals that emerge concomitantly with the contraction of land space. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Indonesia is building a child protection system where primary preventions aim to support families and intervention is based on community-based care options rather than the current reliance on institutional care. Social work has been identified as the lead profession in this structural change. This requires social work to be better recognized as a profession in Indonesian society. This article outlines exploratory research in establishing a role for social work in child protection in Indonesia. Key learning outlines the need for global collaboration and the need for an indigenous Indonesian approach to the identity of social work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. The aim of this paper is to assess the effects of premenstrual symptoms on quality of life as measured by the impact symptoms have on women's activities of daily life (ADL). Study design. Cross-sectional survey. Population-based, face-to-face interview with 1202 women aged 15-49 years recruited by random sampling in cities of Hong Kong, Pakistan and Thailand. Main outcome measures. Checklist of 23 premenstrual symptoms, sociodemographic and lifestyle variables, ADL: overall impact of premenstrual symptoms on ADL and impact on each of six ADL areas. Regression analysis measured the impact of premenstrual symptoms and sociodemographic factors on ADL. Results. Premenstrual physical and mental symptom domains had similar negative effects on ADL. Seventy-four percent of women were not affected or minimally affected in ADL, 17% had a clinically significant effect on ADL and 9% were severely affected in ADL. ADL were predominantly affected by premenstrual symptom severity. Oral contraceptive pill users and women living in Pakistan reported less impact on ADL, while married women report more impact of symptoms on ADL. Conclusions. The severity of premenstrual symptoms was found to have a significant impact on ADLs with the type of activity affected, reflecting how women predominantly spend their time in the different cultures studied [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective. This paper aims to explore women's experiences of premenstrual symptoms in three Asian countries and the factors affecting the prevalence of these symptoms. Study design. Cross-sectional survey. A sample of 1202 women aged 15-49 years were recruited by random sampling in Hong Kong, Pakistan and Thailand. Main outcome measures. The interviewer used a questionnaire with a checklist of 23 premenstrual symptoms, sociodemographic and lifestyle variables. Results. The most prevalent symptoms were joint, muscle and back pain, cramps, abdominal pain and breast tenderness. The severity of symptoms was directly proportional to duration (months affected) (R = 0.85). Significant effects on symptom duration, severity, index of age (linear and quadratic effects), educational level and parity were found by multiple regression. There were also differences between countries for certain symptoms. Conclusions. Physical symptoms are an important component of premenstrual syndromes. These have been shown to be psychobiological in nature. Further analysis will examine the impact on the quality of life and the relationship with existing classificatory systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of catchment-scale stream rehabilitation programmes in many parts of the world marks a shift from the application of reach-based engineering principles towards an adoption of ecosystem-centred, adaptive and participatory approaches to river management. From a biophysical viewpoint, this represents recognition of the importance of the inherent geodiversity of aquatic ecosystems and the benefits that are gained through enhancing natural recovery mechanisms. As this approach to river management matures, it is important that its key elements and assumptions are subjected to critical appraisal. In this paper, the main features of contemporary catchment-wide programmes are examined through a review of pertinent literature and through examination of various case studies from North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Emerging challenges and tensions include those of generating an authentic and functional biophysical vision at the catchment scale, of developing a proactive adaptive management approach, of achieving genuine community participation and of integrating biophysical and social factors in a transdisciplinary framework. Issues of scale, natural variability and complexity must be addressed in meeting these challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses research from the field of international business to investigate when a multinational corporation's threat to leave a country is likely to have substance. Some multinationals have broad flexibility to relocate. Others do not. Customer expectations, transportation costs and organisational factors may limit their flexibility. The challenge for trade unions in high wage countries like Australia is to be able to assess these factors and judge whether threats to ‘move to Asia’ are viable. Often they are not. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Following a description of the changing roles of library and information professionals, this paper will cover the issues of the What? and How? of education and training courses for such professionals, and the developments of distance learning programmes and virtual learning environments. Finally, case studies based on the author's experiences in education and training programmes in Wales, Slovakia and in the Asia-Pacific region will be described. Such courses are examples of attempts to ensure that today's library and information professionals are well prepared to meet the challenges of the future.

South-East Asian minority groups are becoming an increasingly visible element within the Australian social fabric, due to greater Asian immigration and the Indochinese refugee situation. Consequently, they are becoming increasingly significant client groups, demonstrating patterns of need and seeking help which challenge many traditional assumptions about social work intervention and counselling. Counselors in Australia working with Asians and in particular with Indochinese refugees, are in the process of developing an alternative set of skills, methods and values to assist them to intervene effectively with a fairly distinctive client group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seasonality in tourism brings about difficulties for consumers, business operators and the settings in which they operate. Existing tourism seasonality literature focuses on European and North American cold climate examples, thus limiting the applicability to Asian and tropical settings. The objective of this paper is to develop a comprehensive approach to defining all types of seasonality in Asian tourism. This task is addressed by examining monthly arrivals at five key Asian destinations and the four top Chinese tourist areas. From the resulting 285 patterns of visitor movements, six types of pattern were identified in Asian tourism: the 'rolling hills', the 'plain', the 'single-peak mountain', the 'multi-peak mountains', the 'basin' and the 'plateau'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates the impacts of avian flu on global and Asian tourism using panel data procedures. Both static and dynamic fixed effects panel data models are adopted to estimate the impacts of this infectious disease. The empirical results from static and dynamic fixed effects panel data models are consistent and indicate that the number of affected poultry outbreaks has significant impacts on the international tourism of global and Asian affected countries. The high mortality rate among humans, the potential of a global flu pandemic and some media frenzy with hype and speculation might adversely affect the images of these infected destinations as a safe tourist destination. Moreover, it was found that the average damage to Asian tourism was more serious, which might have been induced by an ineffective suppression in numerous Asian infected countries. In addition, Asia was the earliest affected region and the area infected most seriously by avian flu, both in humans and in poultry. Since the potential risks and damage arising from avian flu and the subsequent pandemic influenza are much greater than for previous diseases, the need to take necessary precautions in the event of an outbreak of avian flu and pandemic influenza warrants further attention and action in modelling and managing international tourism demand and risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outlines the tradition of scholarly communication in four East and Southeast Asian countries. Compares the similarities and differences in history and current conditions of research and publication practices in China, Japan, Korea, and Myanmar. Highlights challenges brought up by the advances of information and communication technologies. By analyzing existing imbalances in the development, the paper evaluates various solutions implemented or proposed by these countries. It discovers that each country has its own characteristics of scholarly communication, making the world diverse and colorful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Social Work is the property of Sage Publications, Ltd. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Southern Europe and East Asia are two distinct groups of nations which share a number of striking family resemblances warranting a close investigation. Such resemblances form a relatively coherent set best captured through the concepts of familialism and familial welfare state. A cross-regional comparison of Italy, Japan, Spain and Korea leads to interesting results in both descriptive and explanatory terms, highlighting the role played by culture and religion as well as by the compressed modernization which characterized the four countries during the 20th century. The comparative exercise of this Special Issue offers a significant contribution to the wider field of welfare research. It reshuffles the cards of the traditional ‘world of welfare capitalism’ debate, shows the significance of region-level (as opposed to nation-level) variables and invites a specification of temporal arguments in institutional transformations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to articulate the concepts of familialism and defamilialization as well as their indicators to assess whether and how welfare states, or regimes, differ not only in the degree to which they are defamilialized but also in the specific familialism form. In other words, it assesses whether family responsibility in a given area (and its gender dimension) is only assumed without public policy support or, on the contrary, whether it is actively enforced by laws or supported by income transfers and time allocation. The same diversification also exists for the opposite concept, defamilialization, which may happen through positive, direct or indirect policy interventions or because of the lack of such interventions, encouraging recourse to the market. The article shows that when considering these distinctions in the analyses, the profiles of countries that are usually generically described as ‘familialistic welfare states’, such as Italy and Spain in Europe or Japan and Korea in East Asia, and their similarities and differences partly differ from those that emerge when considering only a simplified familialism – defamilialization dichotomy, in so far both familialism and defamilialization may occur, and be combined, through distinct means, offering, therefore, also different options. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discusses the challenges in providing access to science and technological information for libraries in Asia. Views on the knowledge gap among nations; Response of libraries to economic crisis; Problems posed by the lack of organized access.

This article focuses on an emerging ecclesiology in the Roman Catholic Church in Asia, as presented by its Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conference (FABC). The central theological reflection of the FABC with regard to women’s status during the last several decades offers a new way of being church in which women are able to participate in leadership roles. The article also discusses the Asian bishops’ recognition of women’s exclusion as a crisis in church structure. This recognition was located in a struggle for new transformation in the church with a hope that the church will become the witness to the good news in which women’s dignity and roles deserve to be recognized and promoted. Significantly, ecumenism among Asian women has motivated Catholic women to engage in ecclesial and theological reflections from Asian women’s perspectives. Ecumenical activities have also helped Catholic women raise their stronger voices within the male-dominated structure of the Roman Catholic Church. Parallel to the bishops’ efforts, therefore, women’s rising voices awakened the Asian bishops’ awareness of women’s potential, viewing the inclusion of women in the church’s structure as an imperative. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents a critical analysis of the Hungarian government’s ‘Asian’ political discourse. It argues that in the wake of the economic recession, Hungary became more radical in its turn towards Asia, promoting a discourse that goes beyond economic relations and touches on sentiments of national identity and belonging. Via a discourse-historical analysis of three interrelated discursive events, the article shows how economic, cultural and racial discourses are reinforcing one another in building on the myth of cultural and racial affinity with Inner Asia and the Far East. This process is similar to the Eurasianist discourse in Russia and other ex-Soviet republics, and may have serious social and geopolitical repercussions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the authors of this introduction, home is not always or only sweet home. For us, it is constructed with contradictions, ruptures and anxieties. Indeed, the world never fails to present us with ‘real’ people with ‘real’ issues of home. After ‘rescuing’ the idea of home from its two assumed arch-enemies ‘mobility’ and ‘urbanization’, we will proceed to formulate our appeal to reconceptualize ‘home’ and explicate why and how to do so. We have cited instances from Hong Kong, Beijing and Asia at large, not only because the empirical core of this special issue is on Asia, but, more fundamentally, also because we want to take issue with the Eurocentric bias in the debates on home hitherto. We conclude by making a modest plea – or more accurately, to configure various trajectories of thinking on ‘home’ into a plea – to bracket home as (making) place, (not) belonging and (flexible) citizenship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The strong presence of migrant workers and the emergence of transnational mixed families from the region in Singapore and other Asian capital cities is one of the undercurrents of inter-Asia globalization. The term ‘inter-Asian globalization’ here refers to various forms and daily realities of transnational exchanges within the region, as Southeast Asian workers migrate following the flow of capital, meet other workers in the region, make families, and find and make their home. Contrasting the perspectives of middle-class mixed Filipino-Indonesian families of professionals residing in Singapore and returning female migrant domestic workers, this article reflects on the meaning of home, citizenship and sense of belonging in a time of heightened mobility. The article contends that, while Asian globalization creates the context for making ‘in-transit’ hybrid cultural homes, the migrant’s cosmopolitan experience still hinges precariously on their status, gender and class in the hierarchy created by capital, and the interests and politics of sending and host countries concerning citizenship, economic development and space-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]