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Since 2000, Gawad Kalinga (GK) has emerged as a prominent player in promoting diaspora-driven strategies for social and economic development in the Philippines. GK has its roots as the social ministry of a Catholic lay organization that started by providing housing and youth programmes for the urban poor, but in recent years, it has moved towards a more secular model of fostering social entrepreneurship. Nevertheless, a distinctly moral imperative still underpins GK's work, both in soliciting donations and volunteerism, and in selecting and supporting its development beneficiaries. A significant portion of GK's funds, and volunteer labour, comes from the Filipino diaspora. This paper raises questions concerning the model of social and economic development that GK represents. In particular, we examine the drawbacks of private charitable involvement in the execution of state responsibilities such as social housing and poverty alleviation; and we ask what forms of moral subjectivity are created and populated in this model of development and how does it select, socialize and discipline beneficiaries? More broadly, this paper argues that the GK case addresses some of the promises and pitfalls of diaspora-driven development visions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that we may learn much about mainstream doctrines and practices of governance from watching what happens when they engage with international development issues. Cambodia is an illuminating example. Despite apparent material, organizational and intellectual superiority, Western engagement with poor countries often fails: Cambodia points us towards possible explanations as to why. The paper suggests that the lack of success in development intervention has had much to do with patterns visible in Western policy and governance doctrines: a desire to base the organization of interventions on cause--effect principles; an associated reckless application of imagined generic cause--effect relationships with little robust empirical foundation; and associated tendencies towards sectarianism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the context of mineral extraction in South East Asia, the rural poor are generally portrayed as victims of large, invading corporatized mining enterprises. However, this paper argues that local villagers have also shown considerable agency in taking advantage of the mineral resource boom by diversifying their livelihoods to include informal mining. In South East Asia, the growth of informal mining has occurred within the overall process of agrarian transition. This paper focuses on a mineral-rich valley in southern Laos to highlight the location-specific nature of such transitions. The valley's environmental transformation has both caused and accompanied a modification in the peasant ways of life, and the recent entry of transnational mining companies and the growing market price of tin have fundamentally altered the relationships of the peasants with place, while at the same time encouraging them to claim mineral resource rights in ways that are not accommodated in conventional mining legislation. To conclude, the paper notes the multiple interpretations and contradictions of the increasing mineral dependence among Lao peasants in a rapidly changing world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burma's first well known welfare plan was entitled Pyidawtha or Happy Land, and it was launched in 1952. In vernacular terms, the literal meaning of Pyidawtha is 'Prosperous Royal Country'. The government's attempt to sustain tradition and culture and to instil modern aspirations in its citizens was reflected in its choice of the word Pyidawtha. The Plan failed and its implications still overshadow the development framework of Burma. This paper discusses how the country's major decisions, including whether or not to join the Commonwealth, have been influenced by language; how the term and concept of 'development' were conceived; how the Burmese translation was coined to attract public support; and how the detailed planning was presented to the masses by the government. The paper also discusses the concerns and anxieties of the democratic government led by U Nu in introducing Burma's first major development plan to a war-torn and bitterly divided country, and why it eventually failed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses a case study of the H...ôi An-Da Nang corridor in Qu...ang Nam province, Vi...êt Nam, to examine some of the pressures that whale worship - a traditional cultural practice of coastal fishing communities in central and southern Vi...êt Nam - has faced since the Đ...ôi M...ói reforms of 1986. Whale temples, the physical manifestation of the veneration of the whale as an ancestor of fishers, are coming under increasing pressure as tourism development displaces coastal communities from the shores and as the younger generations turn their back on the sea as a source of livelihood. The paper seeks to draw attention to a locally important manifestation of intangible cultural heritage, the existence of which is threatened even before the country's first tentative efforts at cultural heritage conservation come into full swing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]