Suchergebnisse

Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Concepts and theories -- Challenges of our time : environmental and social vulnerabilities : with Quek Ri An -- Understanding power in social organization -- Paradigms of development and their power dynamics -- Theorizing nature-society relationships -- Neoliberal paradox : connection through disconnection -- Case studies -- Development dynamics in the global south : from colonization to globalization -- Green revolution : transformation, optimism and reality -- Food and power : the mirage of the food aid regime -- Climate politics : power and development in mortgaging the planet -- Tipaimukh dam : triumph of development over the environment and popular voice -- Labelling tribal : state-power in forming and transforming identities -- A neoliberal knowledge/power/security regime after 9/11 : the case of "Muslim patient" -- Sustainable earth amid vulnerabilities -- Third world vulnerabilities : towards a double risk society -- Towards a sustainable earth? -- Notes -- References -- Index

Unmasking the neoliberal paradox, this book provides a robust conceptual and theoretical synthesis of development, power and the environment. With seven case studies on global challenges such as under-development, food regime, climate change, dam building, identity politics, and security vulnerability, the book offers a new framework of a ""double-risk"" society for the Global South. With apparent ecological and social limits to neoliberal globalization and development, the current levels of consumption are unsustainable, inequitable, and inaccessible to the majority of humans. Power

Shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh linking the European Union, the USA, and Japan exhibits several characteristics of a buyer-driven global commodity chain (GCC). The study shows that, along with the effects of local conditions, buyers' pressures transmitted through the GCC affect gender and employment relations in the lower segments of the chain. It has been found that the feminisation of the workforce in aquaculture is accompanied by the marginality of females, who receive lower wages and social prestige than their male counterparts, and who are mostly concentrated at the beginning and end of the local supply chain, with very limited access to other important nodes of the GCC. In addition to being flexible (part-time, temporary, casual), much of the employment in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture is also informal, without an employment contract or its associated rights. As there is an apparent gap between labour standards in private regulatory regimes and actual labour practices in the production and processing segments of the chain, the pressing question concerns how the structure of the commodity chain can allow companies to maintain the flexibility and low labour costs required for international competitiveness while ensuring more equitable and empowering labour market outcomes for workers.

Using an interdisciplinary approach, this book evaluates the complex nexus between climate change and regional food security in Asia Pacific. Feeding the planet puts a lot of stress on the environment. The fundamental challenges we are facing today include how to grow more from less in a sustainable manner; how to optimize the entire food value chain from field to fork to reduce the carbon footprint, protect the environment and support biological diversity, cause less water pollution and soil erosion, raise levels of nutrition, improve agricultural productivity, better the lives of rural populations and contribute to the growth of the world economy. With a robust multi-site study in Southeast Asia, Pacific Island Forum and South Asia, this book examines the regional initiatives on, the current state of, and the future prospects for mitigations and resilience regarding climate change and food security vis-à-vis other regions of the world. Md Saidul Islam is Associate Professor of Sociology and the Coordinator of the Environment and Sustainability Research Cluster in the School of Social Sciences (SSS) and Asian School of the Environment (ASE), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (NTU). Edson Kieu is Researcher at Singapore Management University, Singapore.

Regional organizations are central to effectively addressing the current and future impacts of climate change and food security issues. Climate change and food security issues can only be dealt with through extensive policies that adopt a multi-sector, multi-stakeholder approach. An examination of three regional organizations (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the Pacific Islands Forum, and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) can provide new insights into current climate change mitigation policies that will ensure food security for future generations. This opening chapter thus begins with the premise that regional organizations are optimally positioned to address climate change and food security issues while actively engaging global partners to reverse current trajectories. Although many regional organizations acknowledge that climate change and food security are of utmost importance, they face multifaceted obstacles that impede the region's ability to effectively cope with these problems. This chapter briefly reviews current initiatives undertaken by regional organizations such as ASEAN, PIF, and SAARC; analyses these initiatives according to five criteria, showing how regional cooperation may contribute to climate change and food security initiatives; and highlights impediments to the formulation of progressive policies in the future. It draws connections between the efficacy of policies and the politico-economic processes that impact the development, cooperation, and execution of regional policies. The remaining part of the chapter highlights methodology used in this book, organization of chapters, and implications of the book for the political economy of food and climate change in the age of vulnerability.

Climate change and food security issues are multi-faceted and transcend across national boundaries. Therefore, this paper begins with the premise that regional organizations are optimally positioned to address climate change and food security issues while actively engaging global partners to slow down or reverse current trajectories. However, the potential of regional organizations to play a central role in mitigating these vital concerns has not been realized. In this paper, we focus on three regional organizations—the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF), and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) and set out to investigate the multifaceted obstacles that impede regional organizations' ability to effectively cope with these problems. We qualitatively review the efficacy of policies and examine the connections between politico-economic processes that affect the development, cooperation, and execution of regional policies. In doing so, we review regional policies using five key criteria: (i) planning, (ii) implementation, (iii) cooperation, (iv) legal obligation and (v) international contribution. Our findings suggest that regional organizations face fundamental problems in the implementation of extensive policies due to the lack of cooperation and legal obligation between member nation-states that stems from fundamental prioritization of national development agendas over regional cooperation.

This article seeks to address the gap in representing micro-level civil society voices and contribute to literature on state-society relations in Singapore's environmental movement. Given the present constraints of state-NGO communication and cooperation, the state and NGOs negotiate the restrictions by grooming youths as agents of change. Through in-depth interviews, it explores how environmentalism is represented differently through various discourses by the social actors; state, NGOs and youths. By using eco-governmentality as a framework and through discursive analysis, we argue that state-society cooperation in environmentalism is hindered by lack of clear and effective communication channels, as well as expertise and knowledge barriers. In addition, investing in youths has led to an altered dynamic of state-society relations and a greater variety in discourses on environmental advocacy. Owing to the youths' capability for spreading social awareness and ideas, this is an area that requires open discussion in order to achieve better state-civil society cooperation.

"The Jamaat Question in Bangladesh addresses the complex intersection of global politics and local dynamics in Bangladesh, particularly in relation to Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami (Jamaat). With multidisciplinary insights and perspectives, the contributors to this volume provide an objective socio-historical analysis of Islam, politics and society in Bangladesh. Separating fact from fiction, they attempt to uncover the truth about Jamaat, the largest Islam-based political party in the country. Suppressed and marginalized by the BAL regime, Jamaat remains active in the social landscape of Bangladesh. What makes Jamaat so resilient against all odds? Can it peacefully coexist with rival political parties in a polarised nation such as Bangladesh? This book seeks to answer these crucial questions. An essential read for those interested in Bangladeshi politics and political Islam"--

Chapter 1. Islam and Democracy in South Asia: An Introduction -- Chapter 2. Framework: Religion, Secularism and Democracy -- Chapter 3. Data Collection and Analysis -- Chapter 4. Islam and Democracy: A philosophical debate -- Chapter 5. The Advent of Islam and Growth of Muslim Society in Bengal -- Chapter 6. The Advent of Islam and Growth of Muslim Society in Bengal -- Chapter 7. Political Islam in Pre-Independent Bangladesh: Puritanism, Muslim nationalism and ethno-nationalism -- Chapter 8. Piety and Politics: Secularization and Islamization in Bangladesh -- Chapter 9. Islam, Islamism, and democracy in Bangladesh -- Chapter 10: Islam Question in South Asia.

"One of the long-lasting impacts of neoliberal globalization is to subjugate our entire society to serve the market economy, resulting in a 'critical nexus' comprised of flexible and exploitative labor conditions, the reincarnation and reinforcement of gendered ideologies in the workplace, and a treadmill of environmental destruction. Fundamental obstacles to the global and local response to this unholy nexus include objective inequality between and within nations, subjective consequences of uneven development, and 'economism', in which solutions are framed in economic language and rules that ignore or marginalize social justice. Drawing on the social justice framework propounded by, among others, Amartya Sen, Md Saidul Islam and Md Ismail Hossain unpack this critical nexus, investigating how neoliberal flexible accumulation generates unique conditions, contradictions, and confrontations in labor, gender and environmental relations. They also examine whether and how a broader social justice can mitigate tensions and improve conditions"--Back cover