This paper examines how transnational researchers have incorporated political dynamics into their analyses of transnational linkages and their impacts. It argues that they have done so in ways that ...have focused on conflict and contestation between migrant/diasporic communities and homeland states/communities rather than within them. At the same time, in construing transnational linkages as instruments of particular actors, they have presented a narrow conception of how transnational linkages interact with political dynamics. As an alternative, the paper proposes a political settlements approach which views transnational linkages as institutions embedded in power relationships between competing groups defined in class, racial, ethnic, religious and gender terms. This approach, it is argued, overcomes these two problems by presenting a more disaggregated view of the actors, interests and agendas involved and construing transnational linkages as simultaneously instruments and arenas of contestation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
This article examines the main drivers of the fiscal crisis in Asian/Southeast Asian Studies and considers ways of overcoming or at least ameliorating it. In the Australian context, several leading ...scholars in Asian Studies have called for various new forms of strategic state financial support to help keep the field alive, including incentives and structural support for Asian languages at both school and university levels and priority in publicly-funded research grant schemes. However, re-energizing Asian Studies in fiscal terms will undoubtedly require efforts to make the field more appealing to prospective students because of the prevalence of higher education funding models in which money follows student enrollments. This will particularly be the case with Southeast Asian Studies, given the weakness of enrollments in this sub-field. In this respect, there may be some value in seeking to create new education pathways in Asian Studies that focus on cross-national issues and problems within the region as an alternative to the traditional country-focused area studies approach
This article reviews the literature on human rights violations in Indonesia during the post-New Order period, evaluates the explanations it provides, and suggests avenues for future inquiry drawing ...on insights from Richard Robison's Indonesia: The Rise of Capital and his subsequent book with Vedi Hadiz, Reorganising Power in Indonesia: The Politics of Oligarchy in an Age of Markets. It is argued that this literature either gives insufficient attention to the nature of the Indonesian state or does so in a way that obscures the interests of the country's powerful politico-business oligarchy. Future research thus needs to examine the role of these factors, taking into account the way in which the oligarchy's interests vis-à-vis human rights are mediated by the type of right and the structure of the economy.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The poor quality of higher education institutions (HEIs) in Indonesia is due in part to failures of governance at the institution level. Drawing on an analysis of conflict and contestation in three ...Indonesian HEIs, this article argues that these failures reflect the dominance of predatory officials and business groups in institutional governance and the relative marginalisation of elements who support improved research, teaching and community service in line with either neo-liberal or idealist conceptions of quality. It also argues that some degree of change in governance has been possible when reformist elements have gained control of a HEI and driven change from the top down or such elements have challenged predatory HEI management by leveraging support from external actors with influence. Instances of such change hold out hope for improved governance at Indonesian HEIs in the future. But they also indicate that even if the dominance of predatory elements within HEIs can be overcome, further struggle will be required to define the precise nature of governance reform given competing reformist agendas with markedly different implications for how academic quality and integrity are understood, measured and implemented.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Following the endorsement of the United Nations Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) in 2011, attention has shifted towards challenges of implementation. Through detailed analysis ...of the case of Indonesia, this article analyses the conditions under which implementation occurs and explores strategies for strengthened implementation. While UNGP implementation has often been argued to depend on strong collaborative learning networks, we demonstrate instead that power balances between rights coalitions and politico-business and technocratic elites have proved decisive-implementation varying across sectors and over time depending on configurations of market power, histories of rights struggles, and patterns of high-level political support.
Canada has incrementally reduced restrictions to blood and plasma donation that impact men who have sex with men, gay, bisexual, and queer men, and some Two Spirit, transgender and non-binary ...individuals (MSM/2SGBTQ+). Prior to the launch of a pilot program in 2021 enabling some MSM/2SGBTQ + to donate source plasma, we explored the acceptability of the program among individuals who could become eligible to donate in the program.
We invited men identifying as MSM/2SGBTQ + to participate in two consecutive semi-structured interviews to explore their views on blood and plasma donation policy, plasma donation, and the proposed Canadian plasma donation program. Interview transcripts were analyzed thematically and acceptability-related themes were mapped onto the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability.
Twenty-seven men identifying as having sex with men participated in 53 interviews. Eighteen themes were mapped onto the seven construct domains of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability. Underlying all aspects of acceptability was a tension between four primary values influencing participants' views: altruism, equity, supply sufficiency, and evidence-based policy. The program was viewed as welcome progress on a discriminatory policy, with many excited to participate, yet tension with inequitable aspects of the program undermined support for the program and interest to contribute to it. The high demands of the program are unique for MSM/2SGBTQ + and are only tolerable as part of a program that is an incremental and instrumental step to more equitable donation policies.
Findings highlight past experiences of exclusion in Canada as a unique and critical part of the context of the donation experience among MSM/2SGBTQ+. Despite the program's goals of greater inclusivity of MSM/2SGBTQ + individuals, the anticipated experience of the program included continued stigmatization and inequities. Future research should seek to understand the experienced views of MSM/2SGBTQ + donors to ensure that as policies change, policies are implemented equitably.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Abstract
This article examines the Indonesian Diaspora Network (IDN), an organization that seeks to ‘facilitate’ and ‘empower’ Indonesia’s diaspora and enhance its contribution to the country’s ...development. IDN portrays itself as an expression of the collective will of a unified and coherent Indonesian diaspora that is working to promote development-for-all, while critics suggest it is the instrument of elite and professional elements within the diaspora pursuing narrower interests and agendas. By contrast, this article suggests that IDN is a political settlement between these and other elements within the diaspora, each of which has distinct interests and agendas with regard to Indonesia’s development. Its impact on Indonesia’s development is consequently much less clear-cut than existing analyses suggest while also being contingent on processes of political and social struggle. In theoretical terms, the article encourages an understanding of diaspora organizations in terms of political settlements analysis.
Numerous studies have suggested that natural resource abundance is bad for development. In this context, Indonesia's rapid growth during the 1970s and 1980s seems remarkable. Why was Indonesia able ...to grow strongly and what are the implications of its experience for other resource abundant countries? I argue that its rapid growth was not simply a matter of policy elites making rational economic policy choices, but rather reflected two more fundamental factors: (i) the political victory of counter-revolutionary social forces over radical nationalist and communist social forces in Indonesia during the 1960s; and (ii) the country's strategic Cold War location and proximity to Japan. Accordingly, the main implication of its experience is that improved economic performance in resource abundant countries requires shifts in structures of power and interest and the emergence of external political and economic conditions that provide opportunities for growth.
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BFBNIB, DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
This paper examines Indonesia's experience with neo-liberal higher education reform. It argues that this agenda has encountered strong resistance from the dominant predatory political, military, and ...bureaucratic elements who occupy the state apparatus, their corporate clients, and popular forces, leading to continuation of the centralist and predatory system of higher education that was established under the New Order. The only areas in which neo-liberal reform has progressed have been those where the neo-liberal agenda has aligned well with that of popular forces and there has been little resistance from predatory elements. In presenting this argument, the paper illustrates the role of domestic configurations of power and interest in mediating global pressures for neo-liberal higher education reform. It accordingly suggests that Indonesia needs to construct a model of higher education that simultaneously fits with the reigning political settlement and produces better research and teaching outcomes than the present model.
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BFBNIB, NMLJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK
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