The Saint with Indra's Sword: Khruubaa Srivichai and Buddhist Millenarianism in Northern Thailand

2014 ◽  
Vol 56 (3) ◽  
pp. 681-713 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine Bowie
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
The State ◽  
Capital City ◽  
The Political ◽  
Northern Thailand ◽  
Present Evidence ◽  
Modern Context ◽  
A Charge ◽  
Social Causes

AbstractDespite a growing literature revealing the presence of millenarian movements in both Theravada and Mahayana Buddhist societies, scholars have been remarkably reluctant to consider the role of messianic beliefs in Buddhist societies. Khruubaa Srivichai (1878–1938) is the most famous monk of northern Thailand and is widely revered as atonbun, or saint. Althoughtonbunhas been depoliticized in the modern context, the term also refers to a savior who is an incarnation of the coming Maitreya Buddha. In 1920 Srivichai was sent under arrest to the capital city of Bangkok to face eight charges. This essay focuses on the charge that he claimed to possess the god Indra's sword. Although this charge has been widely ignored, it was in fact a charge of treason. In this essay, I argue that the treason charge should be understood within the context of Buddhist millenarianism. I note the saint/savior tropes in Srivichai's mytho-biography, describe the prevalence of millenarianism in the region, and detail the political economy of the decade of the 1910s prior to Srivichai's detention. I present evidence to show that the decade was characterized by famine, dislocation, disease, and other disasters of both natural and social causes. Such hardships would have been consistent with apocalyptic omens in the Buddhist repertoire portending the advent of Maitreya. Understanding Srivichai in this millenarian context helps to explain both the hopes of the populace and the fears of the state during that tumultuous decade.

scholarly journals The political economy of unfree labor and the state: An Indonesian case study

2020 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-78
Author(s):  
Benni Yusriza
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Role Of The State ◽  
Unfree Labor ◽  
Victim Protection ◽  
Trafficking Victims

Employing the concept of unfree labor, this article explores the role of the state in reinforcing victims’ vulnerability and shaping the political economy of trafficking practices. Based on a case study of trafficking victims in Benjina and Ambon, Maluku Province, Indonesia, I argue that Indonesian authorities’ intervention was driven not by humanitarian interest, nor by the concern for the protection of migrant workers’ rights, but rather by the intent to advance a political and economic agenda against the Thai fishing industry. Consequently, the intervention ignored the exploitative relations of production that underpinned the vulnerability of victims, despite being conducted in the name of victim-protection and improving livelihoods.

Political Stakeholder Theory: The State, Legitimacy, and the Ethics of Microfinance in Emerging Economies

2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tricia D. Olsen
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Stakeholder Theory ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
State Policies ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
State Legitimacy ◽  
Role Of The State

ABSTRACT:How does the state influence stakeholder legitimacy? And how does this process affect an industry’s ethical challenges? Stakeholder theory adopts a forward-looking perspective and seeks to understand how managers can address stakeholders’ claims to improve the firm’s ability to create value. Yet, existing work does not adequately address the role of the state in defining the stakeholder universe nor the implications this may have for subsequent ethical challenges managers face. This article develops a political stakeholder theory (political ST) by weaving together the political economy, stakeholder theory, and legitimacy literatures. Political ST shows how state policies influence stakeholder legitimacy and, in turn, affect an industry’s ethical challenges. This article integrates the concept of agonism to address the perennial tension between markets and states and its implications for firms and their managers. Political ST is then applied to the case of microfinance, followed by a discussion of the contributions of this approach.

The Political Economy of Cropping in Maoist and Dengist China: Hebei Province and Shulu County, 1949–90

1994 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 63-98 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc Blecher ◽  
Wang Shaoguang
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Rural Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Hebei Province ◽  
The Political ◽  
State Socialism ◽  
Central State ◽  
County Governments ◽  
Chinese State

Chinese state socialism has, for many years, politicized what crops the country's farmers plant. By doing so, it has transformed the agriculture radically and repeatedly. The state has adopted some strikingly different policy directions and modalities during both the Maoist and Dengist periods. Cleavages between the state and rural society have been opened, closed and re-opened more than once. The political importance and role of intermediate levels of the Chinese state – in particular, provincial and county governments – in affecting policy, mediating between society and the central state, and pursuing their own interests has long been sensed by scholars and Chinese politicians. But they remain largely unspecified.

Bio-Hegemony: The Political Economy of Agricultural Biotechnology in Argentina

2009 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 27-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
PETER NEWELL
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Latin America ◽  
Agricultural Biotechnology ◽  
Genetically Modified ◽  
The State ◽  
Global Politics ◽  
Gm Crops ◽  
The Political ◽  
The World

AbstractThis paper examines relations between the state and capital in Argentina with respect to agricultural biotechnology. Argentina is one of the world's leading exporters of genetically modified (GM) crops and is a key player in the global politics of biotechnology. Whereas in other parts of the world, including other countries in Latin America, active civil societies and some governments have rejected the technology, Argentina has adopted it as a central accumulation strategy. The desirability of this strategy has been secured in material, institutional and discursive arenas of power, producing a particular expression of ‘bio-hegemony’. Looking at the role of business in the political economy of agricultural biotechnology is revealing both of the extent and forms of corporate power and contributes to an understanding of hegemony in practice.

scholarly journals Labour Against Capitalism? Hegel’s Concept of Labour in Between Civil Society and the State

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 113-124
Author(s):  
Anders Bartonek
Keyword(s):  
Political Philosophy ◽  
Political Economy ◽  
Civil Society ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Destructive Potential

The concepts and phenomena of civil society, political economy and labour are ambivalent matters in Hegel’s political philosophy. They simultaneously contain productive and destructive potential in the realization of the political community. This article investigates Hegel’s concept of labour against the backdrop of his theory of civil society in order to bring forth the ambiguous role of labour in relation to the ’capitalism’ of civil society. According to Hegel, labour is both economically productive and the activity by which the society and its members can transcend the mere capitalistic dimensions of society. Labour can therefore simultaneously be understood as capitalistic and non-capitalistic in Hegel’s political philosophy. The cultivating dimensions of labour in Hegel’s theory offer a counterpart to the mere capitalistic forms of labour. Labour can therefore be used as a promising platform for the discussion of the relation between economy and culture and for the revitalization of capitalism critique.

Search for Integrated Technologies in the Activity of Libraries in the Modern Context

2013 ◽  
pp. 20-26
Author(s):  
Gennady L. Ruksha
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
Cultural Institutions ◽  
Krasnoyarsk Region ◽  
Modern Context

The article analyses the contradictions of the current functioning of socio-cultural institutions in the field of education, considers the place and the role of libraries in this process, describes the experience of the State Universal Scientific Library of Krasnoyarsk Region in organizing book-illustrative exhibitions, people's university, academic meetings.

Turbulent Property Rights

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hazel Gray
Keyword(s):  
Property Rights ◽  
Land Reform ◽  
High Growth ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
Land Markets ◽  
Export Agriculture ◽  
Key Sectors ◽  
Political Settlement

This chapter explores the role of the political settlement in shaping outcomes of land investments by analysing struggles in key sectors of the economy. Land reform during the socialist period had far-reaching implications for the political settlement. Reforms to land rights under liberalization involved strengthening land markets; however, the state continued to play a significant role. Corruption within formal land management systems became prevalent during the period of high growth. Vietnam experienced a rapid growth in export agriculture but, in contrast with stable property rights for smallholders, Tanzania’s efforts to encourage large land investments were less successful. Industrialization in both countries generated new forms of land struggles that were influenced by the different distributions of power between the state, existing landowners, and investors.

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