Religious Resurgence, Authoritarianism, and “Ritual Governance”:BaciRituals, Village Meetings, and the Developmental State in Rural Laos

2014 ◽  
Vol 73 (4) ◽  
pp. 1059-1079 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarinda Singh
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
Development Project ◽  
The State ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
Major Development

Much productive scholarship across Asia has considered the links between religious resurgence and authoritarian governance. However, limitations persist in conceptualizations of state authority, which I examine in the literature on Southeast Asia. Noteworthy are the assumptions that central institutions are definitive of authoritarian states, and divides between study of the sacred and secular. I propose the notion of “ritual governance” to address these conceptual issues and illustrate this with an ethnographic case study from a major development project in Laos, the Nam Theun 2 hydropower scheme. I show how Lao government officials working with ethnic minority villagers used abaciritual and village meeting to combine a persuasive sense of unity with coercive use of hierarchy. Significantly, thebaciand other Buddhist rituals were suppressed by the early socialist state, but regained prominence with ideological shifts from socialism to modern developmentalism. This case study demonstrates the contemporary significance of state-sponsored ritual for development in Laos as well as the need for more nuanced conceptions of the state in discussions of religiosity and authoritarianism across Asia.

Food Security as Correlate of Interstate Conflict: A Case Study of the State of Qatar

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Farukh Mohammad Azad ◽  
Dr. Tim Frazier ◽  
Erik Wood
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Relevant Literature ◽  
The State ◽  
Interstate Conflict ◽  
Regulatory Agencies ◽  
Political Crisis ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods

The literature indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. However, few studies have investigated the effects that nonviolent interstate conflict has on food security in the Middle East. Evidence from this study, based in Qatar, indicates that conflict can result in food insecurity due to economic or political crisis. This research critically examines the lingering political and economic blockade of the State of Qatar and the extent to which this blockade has impacted food security of residents. The study employed a sequential mixed methods approach to gain better insight into the nature of food security in Qatar. A focused qualitative review of the relevant literature was followed by a quantitative analysis which revealed that there was no significant effect of interstate conflict on food security, while the economic and political blockade correlated significantly with food security. Three groups were sampled, including government officials, regulatory agencies, and food suppliers.

Culture of Development and Developmental Capacity of States

2015 ◽  
pp. 1-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Mustafa Erdoğdu
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
The State ◽  
Relative Autonomy ◽  
Developmental Capacity ◽  
Object Relationship

The main premise of this chapter is that state actions are crucial for economic development and those actions are partly shaped by the culture. Because some cultures are more conducive to development, it is engaged with the question: “Would it be possible to direct cultural change to serve economic development?” Since culture is a subject-object relationship, it might be possible to direct cultural change and consequently build up a developmental state. This chapter particularly focuses on the defining characteristics of a developmental state. In addition to the three characteristics recognized in the literature (relative autonomy, capacity, and embeddedness), four others are identified which are essential for a state to become developmental and remain so. These are: legitimacy of the state, integration of the society, socio-political stability, and motivation for economic development. The Korean developmental state is taken as a case study and investigated under this new light.

scholarly journals High capacity, low resilience: The ‘developmental’ state and military–bureaucratic authoritarianism in South Korea

2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olli Hellmann
Keyword(s):  
South Korea ◽  
State Capacity ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Developmental State ◽  
The State ◽  
Sufficient Condition ◽  
International Context ◽  
The Military ◽  
Infrastructural Power

This article argues that high levels of state capacity are not a sufficient condition for consolidating autocratic rule. Rather, whether non-democratic rulers can harness the infrastructural power of the state to implement strategies of regime stabilization depends on three crucial factors: the state’s social embedding; the international context; and the extent of elite cohesion. The paper develops this argument through a case study of the military–bureaucratic regime in South Korea (1961–1987), which – despite a high-capacity ‘developmental’ state at its disposal – failed to maintain high levels of resilience.

scholarly journals Disrupting the Growth Machine: Evidence from Hawai‘i

2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (2) ◽  
pp. 428-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Darrah-Okike
Keyword(s):  
Native Hawaiian ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
State Level ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Growth Machine ◽  
Regional Institutions ◽  
Preservation Law ◽  
Institutional Layering

For much of its modern history, growth machine dynamics in Hawai‘i prevailed on a regional scale. Strikingly, recent events suggest that the hegemony of Hawai‘i’s growth machine has been disrupted. This article offers an in-depth case study of a major luxury development project on the island of Hawai‘i where development interests were thwarted despite the support of growth interests and local government officials. I show how local protesters made use of state-level historic preservation law, Native Hawaiian burial protections, state-level agricultural boundaries, and frames and meanings of land promulgated by the Native Hawaiian movement. Viewing this stalled housing project as an extended case study reveals how regional institutions and flexible social movement frames can be leveraged to promote alternatives to growth machines. I also highlight how distinctive regional institutions—that have evolved over time through institutional layering—may be prompting growth machine disruption in Hawai‘i, an understudied tourism and real-estate dependent economy. Finally, the case study suggests specific ways that local mobilization interacts with global economic downturns to shape spatial outcomes.

Expert Group Knowledge Triggers

2022 ◽  
pp. 565-583
Author(s):  
Hanna Dreyer ◽  
Gerald Robin Bown ◽  
Martin George Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Development Project ◽  
Group Knowledge ◽  
Verbal Exchanges

Specialised knowledge is a key component of success in an organisational context that resides in the expertise of the organisation's personnel. To explore this situation, an ethnographic case study was chosen in which data was collected from a software development project. Extempore verbal exchanges occur through the interplay of project team members in weekly meetings, as the software was tested, analyzed, and altered in accordance with the customer's needs. Utilizing tacit knowledge from the project members as well as the group, new tacit knowledge surfaces and spirals, which allows it to build over time. Five extempore triggers surfaced during the research generated through explicit stimuli, allowing project members to share and create new knowledge. Through the use of ideas developed by Husserl and Heidegger, this study has cast some light on verbal exchanges that, through their interjection, allow significant learning to take place. The theoretical development places these learning triggers in an interpretive framework, which can add value to other software development projects.

Global Environmental Encounters in Southwest China: Fleeting Intersections and “Transnational Work”

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (2) ◽  
pp. 427-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J. Hathaway
Keyword(s):  
International Development ◽  
Yunnan Province ◽  
Southwest China ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Global Environmental ◽  
Social Engagements ◽  
Development Agendas ◽  
Critical Literature

This paper engages with the critical literature on development through a study of transnational environmentalism in China. Within the last decade, international development efforts have become increasingly important in shaping China's encounters with global sensibilities, funds, and projects. The author builds on scholarship that approaches China as a transnational entity and examines the emerging politics of the environment in China. Based on an ethnographic case study of a conservation and development project in Yunnan Province, the paper argues against conceptions that international development agendas can be unilaterally imposed. Rather, it suggests that in order to gain traction, agendas require a variety of agents. These agents create convergences through forms of “transnational work,” by and through particular social engagements. Finally, this paper reveals how such convergences remain tenuous and fleeting, and can be quickly dissolved when one side or another changes its orientation.

scholarly journals CCOUC Ethnic Minority Health Project: A Case Study for Health EDRM Initiatives to Improve Disaster Preparedness in a Rural Chinese Population

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 5322
Author(s):  
Kevin K. C. Hung ◽  
Makiko K. MacDermot ◽  
Emily Y. Y. Chan ◽  
Sida Liu ◽  
Zhe Huang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Management ◽  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Minority Health ◽  
Disaster Preparedness ◽  
Disaster Risk ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Disaster Risk Management ◽  
Health Project ◽  
Education Interventions

Disasters disproportionately impact poor and marginalised populations due to greater vulnerability induced by various risk determinants, such as compromised living conditions, language barriers, and limited resources for disaster risk management. Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health EDRM) emphasises a people- and community-centred approach for building stronger capacities in communities and countries since community members are often the first responders to health emergencies and should be central to effective risk management. A key action for promoting community disaster preparedness is the provision of Health EDRM education interventions. The Ethnic Minority Health Project (EHMP) has provided community-based Health EDRM education interventions in 16 ethnic minority-based villages in remote areas of China since 2009. It aims to enhance community disaster preparedness and resilience by improving health-risk literacy and self-help capacity at the individual and household levels. This case study outlines the first EHMP project in an ethnic minority-based community (Ma’an Qiao Village) in Sichuan Province, China. It highlights the key elements for planning and managing such a project and is a good demonstration of an effective Health EDRM workforce development project in rural communities. This report concludes with five recommendations for setting up a sustainable and effective Health EDRM education intervention in similar contexts.

scholarly journals Expert Group Knowledge Triggers

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-17
Author(s):  
Hanna Dreyer ◽  
Gerald Robin Bown ◽  
Martin George Wynn
Keyword(s):  
Software Development ◽  
Tacit Knowledge ◽  
Development Project ◽  
Theoretical Development ◽  
Ethnographic Case Study ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Software Development Project ◽  
Group Knowledge ◽  
Verbal Exchanges

Specialised knowledge is a key component of success in an organisational context that resides in the expertise of the organisation's personnel. To explore this situation, an ethnographic case study was chosen in which data was collected from a software development project. Extempore verbal exchanges occur through the interplay of project team members in weekly meetings, as the software was tested, analyzed, and altered in accordance with the customer's needs. Utilizing tacit knowledge from the project members as well as the group, new tacit knowledge surfaces and spirals, which allows it to build over time. Five extempore triggers surfaced during the research generated through explicit stimuli, allowing project members to share and create new knowledge. Through the use of ideas developed by Husserl and Heidegger, this study has cast some light on verbal exchanges that, through their interjection, allow significant learning to take place. The theoretical development places these learning triggers in an interpretive framework, which can add value to other software development projects.

scholarly journals The Myth of a Centralised Socialist State in Vietnam: What Kind of a Myth?

2017 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 119-143
Author(s):  
Martin Gainsborough
Keyword(s):  
Empirical Data ◽  
Central Body ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Central State ◽  
Socialist State ◽  
Political Interests ◽  
Societal Actors

Through a case study of Vietnam, the article explores the view that there is a tendency to overstate the degree to which there is a coherent central body, namely the state, directing the country. Exploring this myth, it argues that there is a tendency to reify the state, even in writing which is attentive to localism and the diversity of societal actors at play in Vietnamese political life. The article argues that the myth of the central state endures because there are domestic and foreign political interests that depend on it. However, more fundamentally, the myth endures because of the power of the state to colonise our minds such that even when the empirical data does not fit with the idea of the state, we make it fit. The article's findings have implications for the study of politics far beyond the Vietnamese case.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document