This study looks at the social and economic status, family and workforce roles, and quality of life of women in the rural sectors of monsoonal and equatorial Asia, from Pakistan to Japan, where life often is characterized by unemployment, underemployment, and poverty.

By 2100, more than 80 per cent of the world’s population is expected to live in Afrasia (Africa and Asia). This book draws lessons from history, provides a new cognitive map of the world, and discusses multiple challenges global citizens will face in the age of Afrasia, an emerging macro-region.The centre of gravity of the world is shifting. Whether the world can manage a soft landing into sustainable equilibrium depends on the nature of the dialogue people in Africa and Asia will ...

The world is not as mobile or as interconnected as we like to think. As Harm de Blij argues in The Power of Place, in crucial ways--from the uneven distribution of natural resources to the unequal availability of opportunity--geography continues to hold billions of people in its grip. We are all born into natural and cultural environments that shape what we become, individually and collectively. From our "mother tongue" to our father's faith, from medical risks to natural hazards,...

Helen James considers security in Myanmar/Burma. She uses the ideas put forward in the United Nations Development Programme's 1994 report, of human, as opposed to state and security, going on to argue that freedom from want, and freedom from fear (of the regime) are in fact mutually supportive ideas, and that the security of the people and the security of the state are in fact in a symbiotic relationship with each other.Presenting new and significant information of the security con...

Dr. Goh Keng Swee's extensive career as a public servant was dynamic as well as distinguished, in many ways decisively instrumental in the making of the Republic of Singapore. This distinctive collection of essays attempts an assessment of the long-term influence and significance of Dr. Goh's major contributions.Envisaged as a companion volume to Goh Keng Swee: A Public Career Remembered, this volume brings together an exceptional team of Singaporean scholars whose interdisciplinary expert...

This theoretically innovative anthology investigates the problematic linkages between conserving cultural heritage, maintaining cultural diversity, defining and establishing cultural citizenship, and enforcing human rights.It is the first publication to address the notions of cultural diversity, cultural heritage and human rights in one volume. Heritage provides the basis of humanity’s rich cultural diversity. While there is a considerable literature dealing separately with cultura...

Migration is at the heart of Asian history. For centuries migrants have tracked the routes and seas of their ancestors - merchants, pilgrims, soldiers and sailors - along the Silk Road and across the Indian Ocean and the China Sea. Over the last 150 years, however, migration within Asia and beyond has been greater than at any other time in history. Sunil S. Amrith's engaging and deeply informative book crosses a vast terrain, from the Middle East to India and China, tracing the history of ...

The first concerted critical examination of the uses and abuses of indigenous knowledge. The contributors focus on a series of interrelated issues in their interrogation of indigenous knowledge and its specific applications within the localised contexts of particular Asian societies and regional cultures. In particular they explore the problems of translation and mistranslation in the local-global transference of traditional practices and representations of resources.

Many developing countries pursue policies of rapid industrialization in order to achieve faster economic growth. Some policies cause displacement forcing many individuals to take up a fight against the state. Interestingly some of these dissenting individuals are more successful in organizing their protests than others. In this book, Ashok Swain demonstrates how displaced people mobilize to protest with the help of their social networks. Studying protests against large industrial and devel...

On 9 August 2015, Singapore celebrated its 50th year of national independence, a milestone for the nation as it has overcome major economic, social, cultural and political challenges in a short period of time. Whilst this was a celebratory event to acknowledge the role of the People’s Action Party (PAP) government, it was also marked by national remembrance as founding Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew died in March 2015.This book critically reflects on Singapore’s 50 years of independen...

Human Rights and the Third World: Issues and Discourses deals with the controversial questions on the universalistic notions of human rights. It finds Third World perspectives on human rights and seeks to open up a discursive space in the human rights discourse to address unresolved questions, citing issues and problems from different countries in the Third World: 1. Whether alternative perspectives should be taken as the standard for human rights in the Third World countries?2. Sho...

Since the fall of the Suharto regime, forces pressing for regional autonomy have strengthened in Indonesia, with some people arguing that the country is in danger of disintegrating. This book examines a range of issues connected with decentralization and regional autonomy in Indonesia, especially focusing on various local contexts. The multiple issues that are dealt with in this volume include: ethnic revival and violence; corruption, collusion and nepotism; the complexities of administrat...