Seascape shadows: Life in the ruins of the edible bird's nest harvest in northern Palawan, the Philippines

The intensifying extraction, privatization, and conservation of maritime spaces are transforming seascapes globally. Amidst rapid coastal change and the ambiguous reconfiguration of oceans as frontiers are coastal dwellers who occupy the shadows of these seascapes. In contrast to the capture of high-profile marine species, the harvest of the edible nests of balinsasayaw (swiftlet, Aerodramus fuciphagus) remains largely concealed at the interstitial spaces between land, coast, and sea. In the Philippines, harvesters known as busyador negotiate social relations, political networks, and karst systems to extract these lucrative nests. Despite the nest industry growing in value in Southeast Asia, we show how the busyador struggle in precarious social relations and spaces peripheral to coastal governance in northern Palawan Island. Building on the concept of ‘seascape assemblages’, we emphasize the importance of the less visible human-nonhuman relations that shape the nest harvest and trade. We trace the marginal social histories of the balinsasayaw by highlighting the precarious nature of the harvest, revealing how the busyador are subject to unfair working conditions, dispossession, and violence. We argue that as state actors and local elites reconfigure oceans as frontiers for development and conservation, struggles over labour and tenure rights, livelihood opportunities, and justice at sea are disregarded.

Social Networks, Mass Publics, and Democratic Politics

The study of social networks as they relate to mass political behavior has roots in foundational social scientific works (e.g., Lazarsfeld, et al. The People’s Choice: How the Voter Makes Up His Mind in a Presidential Campaign. New York: Duell, Sloan, and Pearce, 1944). Huckfeldt and Sprague ushered in the contemporary era of political networks research (e.g., “Networks in Context: The Social Flow of Political Information” in American Political Science Review 81.4 (1987): 1197–1216, and Citizens, Politics, and Social Communication: Information and Influence in an Election Campaign. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1995), picking up on the Columbia scholars’ early efforts to measure interpersonal influence and the consequences of group memberships in the United States. Drawing theoretical and conceptual distinctions between networks and contexts, Huckfeldt and Sprague popularized survey techniques for measuring individuals’ core discussion networks via name generators, and demonstrated relationships between individuals’ social networks and their opinions and perceptions. Subsequent works by these and other scholars have moved beyond community study designs, examining network effects in the areas of vote choice, attitude formation, and political participation. Major debates have focused on the extent to which individuals are exposed to disagreeable information via their social contacts (e.g., Mutz. Hearing the Other Side: Deliberative Versus Participatory Democracy. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press, 2006); questions about causality (e.g., McClurg, et al. “Discussion Networks” in The Oxford Handbook of Political Networks. New York: Oxford University Press, 2017); and the identification of mechanisms of influence (e.g., Sinclair. The Social Citizen: Peer Networks and Political Behavior. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2012). Scholars have studied the role of social networks in mass publics around the world (e.g., Gunther, et al. Voting in Old and New Democracies. New York: Routledge, 2016), and how family networks and processes of socialization shape political attitudes. Current work is documenting how factors like gender, personality, emotion, and geography facilitate or hinder social influence; how online and offline worlds intersect; and how scholars can better measure broader patterns of social exposure and interaction.

Network Monarchy as Euphoric Couplet

Since the publication of my article "Network monarchy and crises of legitimacy in Thailand" (Pacific Review, 2005), network monarchy has become an influential concept in the analysis of Thailand's politics. Though widely adopted, the argument has also spawned rival or complementary coinings, ranging from "autonomous political networks" (Joseph Harris) to "working towards the monarchy" (Serhat Uenaldi), and the "deep state" (Eugenie Mérieau), as well as the "parallel state" and the "monarchized military" (Paul Chambers and Napisa Waitoolkiat ). This article revisits the argument, elaborates on the meanings of the original term, and makes a case for network monarchy's continuing salience in the Tenth Reign.

Portraits as Symbols

Unpublished post-mortem cardinals’ inventories report a myriad of low-value cardinals’ portraits hanging in cardinals’ palaces in the late sixteenth century. Why, and how, did prelates select or acquire cardinals’ portraits? Portraits will be studied as a material trace of devotional affinities of Counter-Reformation cardinals and their socio-political networks. Examination of the role of such portraits sometimes reveals surprising professional and spiritual paragons that cardinals held before them. The values of portraits reported in inventories also pose tantalizing questions regarding a cardinal’s persona as a commodity. This essay also examines how such portraits were acquired, considering giftgiving practices of portraits among Vatican circles and the market for images of cardinals.

Land Acquisition, Markets and Political Networks: Evidence from the Indian Sundarbans

In recent times, land acquisitions in India for both public and private projects are facing stiff political resistance. Existing studies on land acquisition mostly focus on optimal compensation that would secure the consent of land owners. In this article, we argue that besides compensation, membership in different types of networks such as political parties and self-help groups might influence landowner consent. This could occur either because of pro-social concerns or access to better investment opportunities for the compensation amount. Using survey data from flood prone Indian Sundarbans, where the government sought to acquire land to construct embankments, we find evidence supportive of our hypothesis. The survey elicited reservation price response from land owners for a hypothetical land acquisition program. Our estimates show that land owners with self-help group members are more likely to have a higher ask price for agreeing to land sales. In contrast, controlling for length of party association, members of political networks are more likely to sell their land and have a lower reservation price than their non-political counterparts. Our results suggest that, rather than only increasing the compensation package, which is a stock of wealth, it is equally important to enhance the flow of income to ensure consensual land sales.

U.S. immigration and media bias surrounding the reporting of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) immigration policies

In 2012, President Barack Obama used his executive power to bypass Congress and unilaterally pass a controversial immigration policy called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and two years later its successor, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents immigration policy. This MRP explores whether a media slant is salient in the editorial reporting surrounding these policies from two major U.S. political networks‐‐ The FOX News Channel (FOX) and the Cable News Network (CNN). Previous academic research (Iyengar & Hahn, 2009; Stroud, 2007) has indicated that CNN’s audience tends to be left-leaning favoring the Democratic Party, while rightleaning conservative Republicans tune into FOX for their political information (Gil de Zúñiga, Correa and Valenzuela, 2012). Keeping this in consideration, would the political networks tailor its digital editorial content to mimic its audiences’ political preference? Borrowing from Benson and Wood’s (2015) media frames surrounding undocumented immigration, a framing analysis and a textual content analysis were employed on the digital editorial content published by FOX and CNN from July 2014 and February 2015. The findings revealed that both networks published messaging aligned with its audiences’ political affiliation. The FOX News Channel emphasized how undocumented immigrants were a problem for society and authorities and published content which contained anti‐Democrat rhetoric and was acutely critical of President Obama. Conversely, the framing analysis revealed the Cable News Network was more likely to accentuate the problems for immigrants and defend President Obama and his unilateral exercises of constitutional powers.

U.S. immigration and media bias surrounding the reporting of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) immigration policies

In 2012, President Barack Obama used his executive power to bypass Congress and unilaterally pass a controversial immigration policy called the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and two years later its successor, the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents immigration policy. This MRP explores whether a media slant is salient in the editorial reporting surrounding these policies from two major U.S. political networks‐‐ The FOX News Channel (FOX) and the Cable News Network (CNN). Previous academic research (Iyengar & Hahn, 2009; Stroud, 2007) has indicated that CNN’s audience tends to be left-leaning favoring the Democratic Party, while rightleaning conservative Republicans tune into FOX for their political information (Gil de Zúñiga, Correa and Valenzuela, 2012). Keeping this in consideration, would the political networks tailor its digital editorial content to mimic its audiences’ political preference? Borrowing from Benson and Wood’s (2015) media frames surrounding undocumented immigration, a framing analysis and a textual content analysis were employed on the digital editorial content published by FOX and CNN from July 2014 and February 2015. The findings revealed that both networks published messaging aligned with its audiences’ political affiliation. The FOX News Channel emphasized how undocumented immigrants were a problem for society and authorities and published content which contained anti‐Democrat rhetoric and was acutely critical of President Obama. Conversely, the framing analysis revealed the Cable News Network was more likely to accentuate the problems for immigrants and defend President Obama and his unilateral exercises of constitutional powers.