This book examines the contemporary feminist movement in Singapore through an in-depth case study of the locally-based Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). It examines the meanings attached to feminist activism by AWARE members, including the use of the label 'feminist' as a self-identifier by both individuals as well as the organisation as a whole. By exploring the range of activities that AWARE has been involved in since the mid-1980s, the text describes in detail the fraught relationship between feminism and the state in Singapore. The author uses the framework of...

Globalization, modernization and colonialism have played a pivotal role in the social transformation of Southeast Asian societies. The essays in this volume examine three aspects of this transformation: social change and development, the role of intellectuals, religion and cultural values. The volume honours the distinguished Malaysian sociologist Syed Hussein Alatas and his seminal contributions to the sociology of Southeast Asian societies. They have been written by his present and former colleagues, friends andstudents. Their contributions, reflect, complement and extend the influence of...

This book provides a critical analysis of the social consequences of the Internet in Asia. The papers discuss a wide variety of issues and domains, ranging from the economy and politics to interpersonal relations.

This book critically examines authoritative colonial works on adat laws in the Malay Peninsula and some continuities revealing unstated assumptions, ideological influences and distortions and methodological limitations in scholarship on the subject.

The important theoretical dimension of this book is the refinement of the concept of the sojourner to take into account the migrants' settlement phases. Although the sociological meaning of the sojourner vis-a-vis settler has not been sufficiently discussed in the social scientific area, the growing significance of sojourning foreigners should not be ignored. Part of the book illustates the characteristic patterns of population movements from Japan to Australia by analysing statistical data. The outcome from the extensive research, including intensive fieldwork conducted in Melbourne,...

Based on a large-scale survey, indepth interviews and comparative analyses, this book offers deep analyses of work stress and coping among seven professional groups: doctors, lawyers, engineers, nurses, teachers, police officers, and life insurance agents. The book makes practical recommendations for personal, organizational and societal intervention.

This volume fundamentally improves our understanding of processes like the secularization of society, and the growth of mass ideological movements, by looking upon these transformations to modernity as a species of conversion akin to religious conversion. The geographical areas covered by the contributors--the Ottoman domain, India, China, and Japan--provide striking examples of the dynamic force of conversion as a reaction to the tremendous pressures exerted by colonialism and imperialism and by the types of transformations constitutive of modernity.

Over the past few decades, East Asia developments in terms of production, population and trade have shown remarkable dynamics. Ensuing changes in these regions of non-Western civilization are commonly interpreted in terms of a successful adaptation of modernity. However, experiences such as the regional crisis in 1997 and the tragic incident of September 2001 more than ever ask for more intensive civilizational dialogues, and urge us to carefully consider the implications of capitalist development in the East Asian context(s). This book deals with the issues of Asian values, civilizational...

Why could not the Second World War catalyse science in India as it did in the West? This is one of the central questions of this volume on the British policy towards science and technology in India. Its focus is on education, research, innovation and organisation of science in such sectors as industry, agriculture, public health and transport and communications. In the process the author comes across revealing developments where science played a crucial role: an Anglo-American tussle for dominance in the region, the clash between capitalism and socialism, and the entry of neo-colonialism...

This is a book of great originality that analyses cultural change and experience of development in terms of the pursuit of the 'good life' as a social process. While recent anthropological critiques of development highlight the importance of 'local knowledge', this book argues that these critiques have not gone far enough, and suggests that a much more fundamental issue concerns the ends of development as seen from a more holistic, cultural perspective. Based on ethnographic research among an ethnic Tibetan community in the Nepal Himalaya, the book eloquently illustrates how the pursuit of...