The throughgoing urbanisation of East and Southeast Asia

The image of East and Southeast Asia is of a predominantly rural region, with the exception of Japan. This image no longer reflects reality. Although in 2000 the proportion of the population living in areas officially defined as urban will still be below 40 percent, this understates the degree to which populations throughout the region have, in terms of employment, ease of transport and communications, been brought into a close relationship with urban areas. Not only this, but the region already has eight of the world’s 21 megacities — cities with populations exceeding eight million. Urbanised corridors are emerging in parts of the region, in some cases cutting across national boundaries. Some implications for the future are discussed: the growth of a truly urban proletariat, the influence of megacities on political change, the ending of rural isolation, and regional development and income inequality issues.     

Smallholders and the spread of capitalism in rural Southeast Asia

Abstract: Although capitalism is now widely seen to be the world's only remaining form of political economy, most discussion of capitalism is vague regarding what it is and gives it little analytical importance. In this paper, I attempt to determine whether two more explicit conceptions of capitalism – those of Ellen Meiksins Wood and Hernando de Soto – can shed any light on the literature on rural smallholder commodity production in the Asia Pacific, and vice versa. I use the papers collected in this volume to analyse the relevance of ‘market dependence’ (Wood) and the various ‘mysteries of capital’ (de Soto) for agrarian relations in the Asia Pacific. The paper tries to point towards a definition of capitalism that distinguishes it from such related terms as commercialisation, markets, and globalisation.     

Of miracles and crises: (re–)interpretations of growth and decline in East and Southeast Asia

In the last two decades of the 20th century Asia stumbled from miracle into crisis. The crisis not only had manifold social consequences but also demands a reconsideration of the multiple explanations offered for Asia’s miracle years. This paper examines these explanations in the light of the crisis and briefly discusses the ways in which scholars of different orientations have adapted and refined their views. In particular the paper looks back on the influential East Asian miracle report of the World Bank, how it was interpreted at the time of publication, and how the report did (or did not) reflect the dominant Washington consensus. The paper then offers a discussion of the post–Washington consensus concluding that the crisis has seen some convergence of the revisionist developmental state and neoliberal positions. However, this convergence should not be seen as a paradigm shift but rather as a reworking of existing positions in the light of debates that predated the economic crisis.     

Orally transmitted texts of the minorities in East and Southeast Asia: Suggestions for research across borders

The rich body of orally transmitted texts kept alive by the people of the border country of Southwest China, both religious and secular provides a valuable source of information that has barely been tapped. The author believes that this time consuming task is well worth the effort. Even an exploratory review of selected parts of texts which focus on matters such as: how identity is constructed; what observations are made in the course of a journey to buy salt; general flora and fauna; and migration have more to tell us than is conveyed by the story. The possible rewards for those prepared to engage in textual analysis are likely to be considerable.     

Development of refining and petrochemical industries in East Asia: An interpretation based on the Flying Geese Paradigm

Several East Asian countries, with scarcely any crude oil, have developed since the second half of the twentieth century strong production capacities in refining and petrochemicals. This has been the case in Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and China. This paper assesses whether the development of refining and petrochemical industries in these countries may be better understood with the aid of one of the major interpretative paradigms of structural change and foreign relations in East Asia: the Flying Geese Paradigm. The article concludes that, overall, the production and external relations in oil‐related industries do indeed follow a Flying Geese Paradigm pattern. We observe, nevertheless, some dissonances that are attributable to the particularities of intermediate sectors (such as refining and basic petrochemistry).     

Asset mapping and Whanau action research: ‘New’ subjects negotiating the politics of knowledge in Te Rarawa

Te Runanga o Te Rarawa is the tribal council representing the interests of the marae (tribal commons) and hapu (a subtribal kin group) that make up the iwi (a Maori tribe) of Te Rarawa in the far north of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In April 2005, officials approached us to help them secure a valuable funding stream tagged to marshalling resources for material development in the area. They sought curriculum vitae and assistance in reframing the funding specifications. Intrigued, armed with a conceptual toolkit drawn from Gibson‐Graham's ideas of post‐development and asset‐based community mapping, and confident that we could add value, we agreed to help. This paper examines the complex politics of our involvement and our changing positioning as researcher subjects. We argue that negotiating a politics of knowledge for projects of this nature requires engagement in complex representational politics of place and divisive identity politics that rage around it. There are no easy protocols for outside researchers, but with appropriate humility and sensitivity to these politics, we can rely on, and should stand up for, the value of our work, which lies in commitments to excellence in scholarship. We cannot and should not seek to control these politics, which will chew us up and spit us out – humanely and with good grace or otherwise. However, good academic work will recognise and adapt to them. In our particular case, we argue that our work had significant value; and in this paper, we trace the production of this value.     

2008—2018年长江中下游小麦区试品系品质分析

为了解长江中下游小麦品质育种进展,对2008—2018年本区域参试的130个品系(182份样品)的品质测试数据进行分析,并根据不同品质分类标准评价了该区域小麦品质改良现状。结果表明,2008—2018年130个小麦区试品系的容重为786±16.07 g/L,粗蛋白含量12.79%±0.93%,湿面筋含量26.14%±2.77%,沉降值为34.65±10.43 mL,吸水率为56.62%±3.83%,稳定时间为4.03±2.82 min,最大抗延阻力为289.55±123.01 E.U,延伸性为154.55±19.11 mm,此外,变异系数最高的为稳定时间69.98%、最低的为容重2.04%。年度间比较发现,容重、粗蛋白含量和吸水率起伏较大,湿面筋含量保持平稳,沉降值、稳定时间、最大抗延阻力和延伸性呈现先增加后降低趋势。根据国家品质评价体系,2008—2018年长江中下游小麦区试品系中,存在较多同一品系各项指标间强、中、弱筋相互交错的现象,达标品系中,强筋、中强筋较少,中筋、弱筋较多。总体而言,长江中下游小麦品质育种趋向中弱筋。     

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.     

The effects of climatic variation in Europe on the yield response of spring wheat cv. Minaret to elevated CO2 and O3: an analysis of open-top chamber experiments by means of two crop growth simulation models

In the ESPACE-Wheat programme, 25 open-top chamber experiments were carried out in 1994, 1995 and 1996, on nine locations, divided over eight European countries. In most experiments, spring wheat cv. Minaret was subjected to two levels of atmospheric CO₂ and two levels of ozone. Grain yields in the control treatments (ambient levels of CO₂ and O₃) varied strongly between sites. Also, yield response to elevated CO₂ and O₃ showed great variation. The present study was conducted to determine whether climatic differences between sites could account for the observed variation.

Two simulation models were used for the analysis: AFRCWHEAT2-O3 and LINTULCC. AFRCWHEAT2-O3 simulates phenology, canopy development and photosynthesis in greater detail than LINTULCC. Both models account for the effects of radiation and temperature on crop growth. New algorithms were developed to simulate the effects of CO₂ and O₃. Weather data that were measured in the experiments were used as input, and simulated growth responses to CO₂ and O₃ were compared with measurements. No attempt was made to merge the two models. Thus two independent tools for analysis of data related to climate change were developed and applied.

The average measured grain yield in the control treatment, across all 25 experiments, was 5.9 tons per hectare (t ha⁻¹), with a standard deviation (SD) of 1.9 t  ha⁻¹. The models predicted similar average yields (5.5 and 5.8 t ha⁻¹ for AFRCWHEAT2-O3 and LINTULCC, respectively), but smaller variation (SD for both models: 1.2 t ha⁻¹). Average measured yield increase due to CO₂-doubling was 30% (SD 22%). AFRCWHEAT2-O3 expected a slightly lower value (24%, SD 9%), whereas LINTULCC overestimated the response (42%, SD 11%). The average measured yield decrease due to nearly-doubled O₃ levels was 9% (SD 11%). Both models showed similar results, albeit at lower variation (7% yield decrease at SDs of 6 and 4%). Simulations accounted well for the observation that, at elevated CO₂, the percentage yield loss due to O₃ was lower than at ambient CO₂.

The models predicted lower variation among sites and years than was measured. Yield response to CO₂ and O₃ was predicted to depend on the climate, with a predominant effect of temperature on the response to CO₂. In the measurements, these climatic effects were indeed observed, but a greater part of the variation was not related to light intensity, temperature, CO₂, or O₃. This unexplained variability in the measured dataset was probably caused by factors not accounted for in the models, possibly related to soil characteristics.

We therefore conclude that even perfect information on the climate variables examined in ESPACE-Wheat, i.e. light intensity and temperature, by itself would be insufficient for accurate prediction of the response of spring wheat to future elevated levels of CO₂ and O₃.