The gender agenda: NGOs and capitalist relations in highland Cambodia

Cambodia’s mountainous northeastern province of Ratanakiri, which only twenty years ago was home to mainly indigenous minority groups largely focused on subsistence production, has undergone rapid ecological, social, and economic transformation. Deforestation and land alienation in the context of large-scale plantation agriculture, land speculation, and smallholder cash cropping have led to concerns that indigenous communities are being alienated from their land and not benefitting from economic changes. This has resulted in a significant number of NGO and government programs that attempt to protect and “empower” indigenous people, particularly women. This article examines a one-year research project which explored the relationship between indigenous women and land change in two indigenous villages. It discusses how indigenous women as well as Khmer and landless Cham immigrants have dealt with the commoditization of land and labor. It focuses on the differentiated way capitalist relations have pushed men, women, landless laborers, and increasingly wealthy landowners on increasingly divergent life trajectories. Compelled by donors to focus on gender and indigenous women as an object of governance, the NGO that directed this project struggled to keep up with the realities of capitalist relations on the ground.     

Australian Cinema Studies: How the Subject Is Taught in Australian Universities

Since the mid-1970s, the subject Australian Cinema, and its various synonyms and neologisms, has been studied in humanities, social sciences and the arts in Australian higher education, and research in the field has played an important role in informing the critical approaches underpinning curriculum. Yet to date there is limited insight into the types of subjects offered, approaches to curriculum and syllabus, and their alignment with research. This article maps Australian cinema studies in higher education at an undergraduate level, and provides insight into common curriculum and syllabus models. Findings are drawn from an online survey of university course handbooks, content and thematic analysis of study guides and weekly syllabus, and correspondence with coordinators. Twenty-seven universities offered subjects with a dominant Australian cinema focus. Australian cinema studies is firmly embedded in national cinema curriculum, and three common curriculum models include the following: (1) a historical chronology of Australian cinema, (2) a text-dominant approach organised around the weekly study of a key film and (3) an approach predominately structured around Australian cinema discourses and critical theory. Despite the increasing importance of transnational approaches to Australian screen in research, transnationalism rarely functions as a dominant organising logic for curriculum in its own right.     

民族学专业期刊的学术资源构成及其影响力分析——以《贵州民族研究》(1995～2005)为例

本文通过对《贵州民族研究》1995~2005年载文量变化、论文选题分布、载文作者统计和论文被引用情况等作统计分析,来探讨该民族学专业期刊的学术资源构成特点及其学术影响力。     

对苗族传统体育文化的分析研究

苗族传统体育,根据内容和形式的不同可分为:竞技类、娱乐类、配合节庆习俗类。具有娱乐性、审美性、传统性等特征,在未来的发展中,本文就如何规范苗族传统体育竞技,如何保持民族特色等问题进行了研究与论述。笔者认为上述问题是当前苗族传统体育中较为重要的问题,在此与大家共同切磋。     

The International Monetary Fund: A review of the recent evidence

A review of recent quantitative studies on the International Monetary Fund reveals that much of the conventional wisdom is incorrect. Recent studies have demonstrated a new degree of methodological rigor, have drawn more heavily upon insights from political science, and have asked a number of new questions. We review studies of participation in IMF programs, design of IMF conditionality, implementation and enforcement of IMF conditions, conventional program effects and catalytic effects. At every stage, we find substantial evidence of the influence of major IMF shareholders, of the Fund’s own organizational imperatives, and of domestic politics within borrowing countries. We conclude that very little is known with certainty about the effects of IMF lending, but that a great deal has been learned about the mechanics of IMF programs that will have to be taken into account in order to obtain unbiased estimates of those effects.

The post-development impasse and the state in India

After discussing the various points of departure suggested by scholars of development, this paper argues that, in the context of India, one way out of the post-development impasse lies in shifting the focus from development politics to the workings of the developmental state on the ground, and to change the methodological vantage point to ethnography. It is suggested that this change in approach would provide fresh insights into the workings of the developmental state and into the process of development in India.     

Strengthening Canadian Law Enforcement and Academic Partnerships in the Area of Online Child Sexual Exploitation: The Identification of Shared Research Directions

This article outlines the law enforcement response to online child sexual exploitation and identifies two key areas of research that would benefit from an academic focus—the link between online and offline child sexual exploitation offending, and the psychological health and wellness of online child sexual exploitation investigation employees. While there are several areas in need of research, these two areas demonstrate a unique opportunity for collaborative work. Also highlighted is a joint international research partnership among law enforcement, practitioners and academia that demonstrates the benefits of linking academic research interests with the practical needs of law enforcement. Last, are several suggestions for operationally relevant collaborative research in this area. Such opportunities bring together various areas of expertise, which will advance our understanding of the needs of victims, and improve victim support services.     

Forced Migration Studies: Could We Agree Just to 'Date'?

This essay questions the soundness of a scholarly shift awayfrom ‘refugee studies’ in favour of ‘forcedmigration studies’. It contends, first, that subsumingrefugee studies into the broader framework of forced migrationstudies may result in a failure to take account of the specificityof the refugee's circumstances which are defined not just bymovement to avoid the risk of harm, but by underlying socialdisfranchisement coupled with the unqualified ability of theinternational community to respond to their needs. Second, itargues that forced ‘migration’ (rather than, forexample, forced ‘migrant’) studies encourages afocus on a phenomenon rather than on the personal predicaments,needs, challenges, and rights of refugees themselves. It maythus contribute to a lack of criticality in relation to policieswhich subordinate refugee autonomy to the pursuit of more systemicconcerns. The first concern is illustrated by reference to theemergence of the ‘internally displaced persons’category, the second by reference to the determination to findand mandate ‘durable solutions’ to forced migration,including to the movement of refugees.     

Determinants of Firm‐Level Lobbying and Government Responsiveness in Agricultural Biotechnology in China

Understanding what stimulates agribusiness firms to lobby the government and what makes the government responsive to lobbying are the two issues that have been discussed extensively in the debates concerning determinants of biotechnology policy. This paper examines the factors influencing agribusiness firms' lobbying and government response using econometric modeling on a new data set of 160 leading agribusiness firms in the food, feed, chemical, and seed industries in China. The results show that approximately 10% of agribusiness firms lobbied the government about biotechnology policy and regulations and over half of those that lobbied received a verbal or written acknowledgment from government agencies. Seed and feed companies are more likely to engage in lobbying than chemical companies. Owning GM patents not only has a positive impact on firms' lobbying activities, but firms with these patents are more likely to receive a government response to their lobbying efforts. The experience of selling GM products does not significantly influence lobbying activities or response from the government.     

Is Everything Compatible? A Feminist Critique of Hearn’s Composite Approach to Men and Masculinity

ABSTRACT

Since its emergence in the late 1980s, research on men and masculinity has expanded considerably into an established area at the intersection of sociology, gender studies and related disciplines. There is now a wealth of empirical research but the theoretical debates have largely centred on Connell’s notion of hegemonic masculinity. This article focuses instead on the theoretical contribution of Jeff Hearn, arguably one of the central figures within critical studies on men and masculinities over the last few decades. The article identifies the main tenets of Hearn’s theoretical writing and tracks its development over time, and offers a critical discussion of Hearn’s theoretical position. The critique focuses on ambiguous treatments of central concepts and argues that tensions between perspectives such as materialist analysis, queer theory and intersectionality are not fully acknowledged in Hearn’s work.