Sites of infrastructure,apprenticeship and possibilities for self: Locating Indonesia's missing women in representative politics

Women are under-represented in Indonesian legislatures, and those women who are elected are disproportionately from ‘elite’ backgrounds. This research sought to understand the conditions for women to succeed in politics in conditions of patriarchy and clientelist politics. Research in North Sumatera, Indonesia, revealed that many women did not make the conscious decision not to enter politics, but rather found that they had not established the required preconditions earlier enough in life. Patriarchal social norms and a transactional political culture frustrate women's ability to acquire these conditions, yet they are also subject to change. Interviews with women elected representatives and women who had never contested an election revealed three sites that are critical to women either acquiring the preconditions to contest elections, or frustrating that pathway: the household, the ‘community’ and religious/ethnic associations. We demonstrate how women's actions in these sites transform the conditions to make them more conducive to women's political participation.     

Urban evictions,public housing and the gendered rationalisation of kampung life in Jakarta

The dispossession of urban communities across class and racial lines is a global phenomenon linked to the expansion of international investment in the development of ‘exemplary’ city space. However, city evictions are also historically informed and gendered processes which are continuous with past colonial and postcolonial urban rationalisation projects. Drawing on testimonies of women evictees in Jakarta, as well as interviews with public housing managers, this article details the gendered nature of the rationalisation of urban life in the context of a contemporary evictions regime. We argue that the rationalisation of urban space serves to sharpen the gender order by placing material constraints on women's roles, limiting their economic activities and defining them as hygiene‐responsible housewives. Further, and in turn, the limited provision of ‘rusunawa’ public housing, which we show to be a gendered spatial and social transition informed by state doctrine on the family, provides the state with justification for dispossession itself. Finally, women's everyday acts of refusal and resistance show not only that kampung forms of social life continue to be preserved in Jakarta, but also that rationalisation itself is a negotiated and contingent process.     

Overcoming barriers: Myanmar's recent elections and women's political participation

Myanmar's 2015 elections have been credited with bringing about a myriad of changes within the country. Much has been written about the changing political climate within Myanmar. One topic which has not yet been discussed adequately, however, is the role of Burmese women in these recent elections. This paper seeks to examine women's political participation in Myanmar's recent move towards democratisation. Using rates of female candidacies in Burmese elections, comparing these figures with rates of female participation in other Southeast Asian countries, and ethnographic research with the Burmese voting public, this paper will contribute to the sparse scholarship regarding the role of women in new democracies and regime transitions. This paper finds that beliefs about traditional gender roles, rooted in traditional Buddhism, still shape the way both men and women in Myanmar view women's political participation. While women are better represented in Myanmar's government than they were in the past, this paper suggests that measures such as quotas or reserved seats based on gender may be the best way to increase Burmese women's political representation in the future.     

Cross‐border ‘Traffic’: Stories of dangerous victims,pure whores and HIV/AIDS in the experiences of mainland female sex workers in Hong Kong

Abstract: In recent years, dramatically increasing numbers of mainland Chinese women have entered Hong Kong to engage in sexual labour. Public discourses on the threat of HIV/AIDS increasingly locate these women's bodies as sites of danger, colluding with pre‐existing imaginations of mainland rural women as ignorant, desperate and deceptive in representing these women's penetration of Hong Kong's border as a primary means of infection of the Hong Kong body. Drawing on state, media and popular representations, and the narratives of female sex workers themselves, this paper examines the interwoven bio‐medical, gendered, sexual and cross‐border relationships that intersect in the experiences of mainland Chinese sex workers in Hong Kong. I argue that while images of disease and danger have been used to regulate these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers challenge these images by drawing on other popular stereotypes of mainland women as pure, feminine and traditional. Although images of the related but still ‘other’ figure of the mainland Chinese woman are powerful mechanisms for the regulation of these women's bodies, mainland female sex workers skilfully use inherent tensions in those images in resisting that control and in struggling to achieve their own personal and economic goals.     

Creating community‐based indicators of gender equity: A methodology

It appears that an almost unquestioned development pathway for achieving gender equity and women's empowerment has taken centre stage in mainstream development. This pathway focuses on economic outcomes that are assumed to be achieved by increasing women's access to material things, including cash income, loans, physical assets, and to markets. Gender equity indicators, which measure progress towards these outcomes, cannot escape reinforcing them. We argue that far from being neutral, indicators are embedded in political and ideological agendas that serve as guides to the appropriate conduct of those whose performance or behaviour is being measured. Drawing on participatory feminist, diverse economies and strengths based approaches, we outline a research methodology for developing community‐based indicators that recognises women's and men's participation and relationships in all spheres of life, including the ‘non‐economic’. If indicators are grounded in local meanings and realities, we propose that community members can use them to identify aspirational goals for gender equity, and measure progress towards these goals.     

Reframing well-being: Lessons from Aotearoa New Zealand's first wave COVID-19 response

Well-being is increasingly being promoted and used to describe social progress. However, tension exists between framings that focus on enhancing individual well-being (living well) and societal or collective framings of well-being (living well together). Well-being is central to Aotearoa New Zealand's COVID-19 response and recovery. The COVID-19 pandemic reopened debates about what kind of society people want to live in. Our research explored the ‘shared typical’ or commonality of experiences of the first wave of COVID-19 response in Aotearoa New Zealand. Semi-structured interviews provided insights into a wide range of concerns participants faced and what that meant for their well-being and the well-being of Aotearoa New Zealand. We found that well-being is both multidimensional and hierarchical, and while people talked about their own well-being, it was often in the context of broader social well-being. These findings support research showing that well-being is relational. We suggest that Indigenous models of well-being are well placed to inform policy strategies enabling holistic well-being, but this needs to be done in ways that pair Indigenous and Western knowledge, rather than integrating or assimilating this knowledge into Western science approaches.     

Cultural discernment as an ethics framework: An Indigenous Fijian approach

The praxis of an Indigenous Fijian researcher who is both an insider/outsider offers some valuable lessons for ethnographic work. This paper introduces ‘cultural discernment’ as a concept used to ensure that the research process is culturally ethical within the research setting. An insider will always require a sense of cultural discernment, recognising that actions taken have implications that are critical and remain with the researcher for life. The paper contextualises the concept of cultural discernment in relation to Fijian epistemology. Although there are risks within any research project with regard to ethics processes and the conduct of research, this paper will illustrate how Western paradigms associated with ‘expert knowledge’ and the ‘lay knowledges’ of an Indigenous population group produce competing understandings about ethical practice. The paper draws on a doctoral research project exploring the cultural conceptualisation of health and well‐being, conducted in Fiji and New Zealand. The research process and steps carried out in this study ensured those actions were culturally appropriate and ethically sound from an Indigenous Fijian perspective.     

What can the experiences of rural women in Solomon Islands teach us about innovation in aquatic food systems?

In Solomon Islands, women's groups play an important role in promoting socially inclusive development and women's empowerment. In this paper, we summarise the experiences of a 5-year participatory action research partnership to enhance rural livelihood activities based on aquatic foods. The women's savings groups that participated in this research identified solar-powered freezers as an innovation suitable to their skills and environment. The 12 freezers we used in our partnership to pilot this innovation had tangible benefits. More than 700 unique users accessed the freezers, 3900 kg of fish was stored and over USD6,000 was saved in total; however, accumulation of savings varied greatly between groups. The women's groups demonstrated that operating solar-powered freezers can be financially viable, and the innovation integrated well with their livelihood activities. This conclusion provides an alternative to dominant development narratives, which tend to focus on building large-scale infrastructure, and often exclude women. Existing marketing skills and cooperation were strengths on which the women built. Poor-quality technology was the biggest impediment to success. Solving this basic problem should be a priority for any future cold-storage initiative.     

Women in community-involved tourism enterprises: Experiences in the Philippines

The tourism industry has long been recognised for supporting women in achieving economic empowerment and social freedom through entrepreneurial and employment opportunities. Widely recognised as a women-dominated sector, tourism is deemed to be a facilitator of women's development following the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the existing literature suggests, women's involvement in tourism activities supports local economic growth and development, while facilitating social transformation that enables them to create their own identities. Despite these achievements, several studies noted the persisting issues women face in participating in tourism. With the goal of contributing to existing discourses, this paper aims to analyse their experiences in community entrepreneurship by examining several community-involved tourism enterprises in the Philippines. The findings of this study reveal that women have been largely involved in tourism activities in that country, yet their experiences working in these enterprises vary. The opportunities and challenges identified in this study can serve as a springboard for further analysis of the experience of women working in the Philippine tourism industry.     

Female transnational migration,religion and subjectivity: The case of Indonesian domestic workers

Drawing on an analysis of in‐depth interviews with returned migrant women from East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia, this paper considers the links between migration, religious beliefs and subjectivity. Low‐skilled migrant women, including domestic workers, have often been represented as marginalised. This paper argues that in the context of migration, women constantly move through trajectories of power using religion as a spiritual resource. Against the commonly patriarchal characteristics of their religion and community, the women employ cognitive strategies to face challenges in migration. In each stage of their transnational migration, the women's experiences reveal the multitude of ways in which they continue to invest in their beliefs through everyday practices, rituals and networking. These experiences highlight the women's strategies in accessing different forms of power. This study demonstrates the significance of focusing on these women's experiences, including their everyday religious practices and their shifting sense of self, as a way of broadening the conceptual basis of our understanding of female migration.     

From Sabang to Merauke: Nationalist secession movements in Indonesia

Abstract: Popular movements in Aceh and Papua seeking separation from Indonesia must be understood in the context of earlier nationalist movements in history, including Indonesia's own movement for independence from the Netherlands. Movements in Aceh and Papua have built a sense of identity, considering themselves to be ‘notion‐states’ even if they are not yet nation‐states. This process parallels Indonesian identity formation in the early twentieth century. Aceh originally combined local, Indonesian and Islamic identities, but intrusion by central government institutions sparked a defensive nationalist reaction, which was stimulated further by uneven economic development and by repressive tactics by the centre. Papua was incorporated into Indonesia by means that led local people to believe they had been denied their right to self‐determination, spurring a historical sense of grievance and a collective identity of shared suffering much like that in Aceh. By the end of Sukarno's Guided Democracy and Suharto's New Order, both territories had passed a point of no return in their nationalism. Repressive tactics have failed to contain aspirations for independence; a new approach based on dialogue is needed.     

Local autonomy,national policy and global imperatives: sex work and HIV/AIDS in Cebu City,Philippines

This paper contributes to cultural critiques of AIDS prevention policies through examining debates about mandatory HIV blood screening for women in Cebu City’s sex industry during 1993. These debates were inspired by the Department of Health’s national policy to eliminate mandatory blood screening on the grounds that it was expensive and ineffectual in slowing the spread of HIV. While the rhetoric of the debate was influenced by the emerging ‘global discourse’ on HIV/AIDS and human rights, the debate itself was always about local perceptions of women in the sex industry and Cebu’s administrative autonomy. This paper highlights how various socio-spatial scales helped to constitute Cebu’s response to mandatory testing, while at the same time reproducing an exclusionary discourse which silenced the voices of women in Cebu’s sex industry.     

Mobility in Melanesia: bigman bilong circulation

Murray Chapman's reputation as a researcher on population movement in Melanesia is enormous – in the parlance of Melanesians, he is undoubtedly a ‘bigman bilong circulation’. This paper traces Chapman's journey into Melanesian mobility and outlines some of the major contributions he has made to our understanding of population movement in what was known until the late 1980s as the ‘Third World’. The journey begins with Chapman's own recollections of intellectual challenges he faced at the University of Auckland as a graduate student writing a thesis in 1960 and then as a Junior Lecturer in Social Sciences at the Victoria University of Wellington. The debates between Cumberland and Buchanan about the nature of geography were to have a profound influence on Chapman – he was to become a severe critic of attempts to impose a ‘western’ logic and way of thinking on processes which were at the heart of the livelihoods of peoples who had very different belief and value systems. This paper does not contain a critique of Chapman's arguments and findings; its purpose is to celebrate those contributions which have come into print so far from a geographer who has really tried to ‘make geography matter’ in the discourses about population movement and development.     

Population

The 1990s can be characterised as the decade of migration as far as New Zealand's 20th century population history is concerned. There was the largest decennial net migration gain this century, the largest annual net migration gain since 1875, the largest decennial numerical increase in population since the 1960s, and the largest influx of immigrants from countries in northeast Asia on record. This was a decade when migration flows both in and out of the country attracted considerable public and political comment. In the mid‐1990s it was the ‘Asian invasion’ that was the key migration‐related political issue; in the late 1990s it was the ‘Kiwi exodus’, especially to Australia, that was attracting attention both in New Zealand and Australia. A ‘blip’ in birth rates in the early 1990s also attracted considerable attention from demographers and policy analysts – a short‐lived increase associated with irregularities in New Zealand's population structure as well as the changing patterns of fertility evident in later child bearing. The decade also saw some significant changes in the ethnic composition of the population, as well as debates about socio‐economic ‘gaps’ between some of the major ethnic components.     

Impact of resistant melon cultivars on Sphaerotheca fuliginea

Effects of the resistant cultivars of melon on the powdery mildew fungus, Sphaerotheca fuliginea, were investigated in a melon‐growing area of Japan. Powdery mildew fungi were isolated from four melon cultivars (‘HN21’, ‘Quincy’, ‘Earl's Knight Natsu 2’ and ‘Earl's Miyabi Natsu 2′) which are resistant to different races of S. fuliginea.‘HN21’is resistant to races 1 and N1,‘Quincy’ and ‘Earl's Knight Natsu 2’are resistant to races 1 and N2, and ‘Earl's Miyabi Natsu 2’is resistant to races 1, N1 and N2. All 155 strains isolated from ‘HN21’were identified as race N2. Seventy out of 81 strains isolated from ‘Quincy’ and ‘Earl's Knight Natsu 2’were identified as race N1, while other strains were identified as races 1, 2US, N2 and N3. Nineteen out of 29 strains isolated from ‘Earl's Miyabi Natsu 2’were identified as race N3, while other strains were identified as races 10, 2US, N1 and N4. These results suggest that, although the resistant cultivars are extremely effective for protecting the plants from their respective races, a race succession rapidly takes place, even in a small area, and other minor races become predominant.     

The Work trips of Rural Non-metropolitan Women in Iowa

ABSTRACT The paper presents a model of worktrip length for rural nonmetropolitan resident women. We find that some factors important in constraining the length of urban women's commute, such as linking worktrips with household-related trips. are less relevant in a rural setting. We also find that women working in non-feminized occupations, women receiving employer-provided health benefits, and women with better transportation resources, tend to have longer worktrips.     

‘Changing My Thinking With a Western Woman’: Javanese Youths’ Constructions of Masculinity

Yogyakarta’s ‘wild’ guides are young men who pursue fantasies of true love and easy wealth by striking up ‘love affairs’ with tourist women. A hegemonic masculinity emerges as male peergroup gossip evaluates dramatic incidents to pinpoint ideal male with­male image and behaviour. In romances with Western women, guides renegotiate the sexual aspect of their masculinity, as tourist women’s holiday­romance expectations of attentiveness and deference collide with this ideal masculine self­image. The tension between disgust and desire within guides’ lifestyle leads to fragmented performances of identity for their different audiences.     

Genetics of Resistance to Phytophthora capsici in the Pepper Line 'SCM-334'

In order to establish a genetic model of the resistance to Phytophthora capsici in Capsicum annuum genotype ‘SCM-334’, two experiments were conducted which included ‘SCM-334’, as well as, the susceptible line ‘Morrón INIA 224’ and their Fl, F2, F3 and BC1 generations. We also tried to introgress a recessive gene, hypothetically responsible for resistance to P. capsici, from ‘SCM-334’ into ‘Morrón INIA 224’. Inoculations were made, when plants had 4—6 leaves, by irrigating the culture substrate with a zoospore suspension of P. capsici isolate ‘Bl’. The χ² test was applied to segregating generations to determine how many genes were involved in resistance. The hypothesis which explained the obtained segregations best, although not completely, was one that assumes 3 genes in ‘SCM-334’;, with at least 3 alleles in the heterozygous condition or 4 at any position, present in any genotype in order to be resistant. The influence of the isolate's aggressiveness and the inoculation method on the results are discussed.     

‘Second generation’ Tongan transnationalism: Hope for the future?*

Abstract: Tonga's economy is supported by remittances from Tongans overseas, but there are indications that the younger generations are unlikely to maintain this level of support. There appears to be a complacent attitude to remittances both within Tonga and in externally produced economic reports, yet if remittance levels drop significantly, the ramifications will be disastrous for Tonga. This paper looks at Tongan transnationalism in the context of the current situation in Tonga and the wider Pacific, arguing that it will be crucial, yet very difficult, to encourage the ‘second generation’ overseas to be involved in the process of nation building through transnational engagements. The major obstacles to young people's establishment of transnational ties are examined, and the Tongan situation is compared to U.S. research on second generation trans‐nationalism in other migrant groups. Finally, the ways in which transnational engagements could be encouraged are explored, particularly the importance of language learning and developing a sense of ‘belonging’ to the ‘homeland’.     

Turf wars: The livelihood and mobility frictions of motorbike taxi drivers on Hanoi's streets

In Vietnam's capital city Hanoi, the growing popularity of application based (app-based) motorbike taxis has offered many inhabitants new opportunities to pursue a mobile livelihood with ride-hailing platforms. Nonetheless, as this influx of app-based drivers has hit the city's streets, specific livelihood and mobility frictions have emerged, notably with informal, ‘traditional’ motorbike taxi drivers, or xe ôm. In this paper we analyse these evolving sites and moments of friction and their impacts on driver livelihoods and mobilities for both driver groups. We draw conceptually on debates regarding mobility, platform economies, and urban livelihoods, while specifically interrogating the concept of friction to highlight three possible analytical applications. Methodologically, we interpret static and ride-along interviews completed with over 130 drivers. We highlight a range of tactics ‘traditional’ and app-based motorbike taxi drivers have employed to respond to rising frictions, defend their ‘turf’, and maintain their street-based livelihoods. Driver responses reveal differing access to distinctive forms of social capital and social networks, and contrasting levels of agency regarding their mobilities. By conceptually teasing apart the notion of friction, we wish to expand and deepen understandings of the experiences of vulnerability, precarity, and other impacts of platformisation for different motorbike taxi driver cohorts.