Asia Research Briefs
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10315/31579
Asia Research Briefs provide short summaries of research by YCAR Associates. Their purpose is to share insights from academic research that are otherwise not widely circulated. They are directed, in particular, to journalists, policy analysts, community leaders and interested members of the public.
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Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Diaspora Geopolitics (Tamils in Canada)(2021-01) Hyndman, Jennifer; Amarasingam, Amarnath; Naganathan, GayathriJennifer Hyndman (Social Science and Geography, York University), Amarnath Amarasingam (Religion, Queen’s University) and Gayathri Naganathan (Surgery, University of Toronto) examine how the state can often frame diaspora political engagement in terms of violent nationalisms, extremism and threat. Focusing on the Tamil community in Canada, the researchers propose a different view of diaspora nationalisms as transnational, influenced by democratic liberalism, and an expression of and related geopolitics shaped “from below,” within the exiled diaspora.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , On the Margins of Urban South Korea: Core Location as Method and Praxis(2020-12) Hae, LaamLaam Hae (Politics) discusses her newly released co-edited volume, On the Margins of Urban South Korea: Core Location as Method and Praxis (University of Toronto Press, 2019). This book is the outcome of long-term collaborations among scholars trained in different disciplines, such as geography, anthropology, urban planning and politics. Through rich and illuminating case studies, they interrogate how multiple layers of geopolitical and geo-economic powers in East Asia are embodied and contested in different core locations in South Korea.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Gendered World of Issei Women and Men in Japanese Hawai‘i, 1880s–1910s(2020-11) Takai, YukariYukari Takai (History) examines the marriage and divorce practices among Japanese issei women and men in Hawai‘i from the 1880s to the 1910s. She focuses on three practices that are difficult to capture and previously little-studied: temporary marriage or karifūfu, wife sale and wife brokerage. Through her research she seeks to shed further light on the mailability of marriage practices among issei women and men in Hawai‘i and the power and limitation of the Japanese state, in collaboration with the American state, to impose its gender ideals.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Can Facebook Usher in Political Inclusion for Afghan Women?(2020-10) Nader, ZahraZahra Nader (Doctoral Student, Graduate Programme in Gender, Feminist and Women’s Studies) investigates whether the use of the Facebook platform is helping Afghan women to create an alternative public space where they can engage in politics and be heard by their government.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , New Directions in Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia(2020-09) Vandergeest, PeterThis work examines neoliberalizing changes in environmental governance and argues that the implications for local resource users cannot be simply read off of how these projects are designed, but need to be understood in relation to local actions as well.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , The (Un)Making of the Working Class in Karachi (Pakistan), 1980s–2010s(2020-08) Mallick, AyyazAyyaz Mallick (Environmental Studies) summarizes his dissertation which aimed to understand the decline of Karachi, Pakistan’s vibrant labour movement and the proliferation of exclusivist ethnic politics in the post-1970s era. He mobilizes Marxist dialectics to delve into the polarized contemporary theoretico-political debates that pit “class” against “identity politics,” “Marxism” against “post-colonialism,” and “universal politics/emancipation” against “particularistic demands.”Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Understanding Trends in Authoritarian Populism by Examining the Crackdown on the Cambodian Free Press(2020) Beban, Alice; Schoenberger, Laura; Lamb, VanessaExamining trends in authoritarian populism by examining the crackdown on the Cambodian free press. The study focuses on Cambodia’s crackdown on the free press in the lead up to their national election in 2017 in order to repress opposition. The work draws attention to the various scales and spaces in which authoritarianism is produced, enacted and imagined.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Digitizing Ration Cards: Curbing Corruption or Securing Food Security for All?(2020) Dandurand, GuillaumeExamining India’s attempts to reduce bureaucratic corruption within the systems used to distribute food rations to poor households across the country through the digitization of ration cards.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , The 2017 Housing Occupation in the Philippines: A Counter-Project for Livable Homes and an Alternative Lifeworld(2020) Dizon, Hazel M.On 8 March 2017, in what would become known as ‘Occupy Bulacan,’ the urban poor group KADAMAY and thousands of its organized members from different cities and towns occupied 5,300 idled government-built socialized housing units in Bulacan, a province immediately north of the Philippine capital of Manila.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , International Higher Education and Social Stratification: Education Migration Narratives of Chinese International Students in Toronto(2020) Pang, GuanglongThe People’s Republic of China (PRC) is experiencing studying abroad fever. The pursuit of international higher education (IHE) is no longer just for knowledge acquisition but has taken on a new significance for the middle class who aim to move out geographically to move up socio-economically.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , The Social Life of Flooding in Jakarta(2020) Kusno, AbidinThe issues around flooding have increasingly received attention in a variety of fields, and Jakarta has been a primary case study. Jakartans, at different times and under different circumstances, make sense of flooding and assign “agency” to human activity, nature, the supernatural and infrastructure.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Planning for the Management of Indian Wetland Regions(2019) Kumar, SanilIndia's Kerala is facing a shortage in its total agricultural production. The share of rice production from Kuttanad region is around 30% of the state’s total production. This research paves the way for the preparation of a wetland planning and management framework that can work as the schedule for the protection and management of wetland regions in India. The method of analysis relies on system dynamics technique, which can be modelled on the local requirements. This research into the wetland system presents a clear portrayal of the various interrelated subsystems that affect the system’s growth. Secondly, the model is adaptable for both national and international conditions with replacements of criteria related to contextual necessities. It is also a critical study for the rehabilitation and resettlement strategies in the post-flood scenario in Kerala.Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Understanding Knowledge Culture of Late Imperial China(2018) Lianbin, DaiItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Languages of Wisdom: Multi-lingual Poetry in the Guru Granth Sahib(2018-05-08) Kaur, AmardeepItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , International Education: An Untapped Archive of Canadian Nation Formation(2017-12-18) CHATTERJEE, SOMAItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Desire, Happiness and the Global Economy: Transnational Marriage Abandonment in India(2017-08-12) Yalamarty, HarshitaItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , Item type: Item , Access status: Open Access , The Socio-ecological Implications of US Food Aid in the South Korean “Miracleâ€�(2016-07-19) Gibson, KyleItem type: Item , Access status: Open Access , How Canada contributed to China’s remarkable transformation through university partnerships and knowledge diplomacy(2016-01-01) Hayhoe, Ruth; Pan, Julia; Zha, Qiang