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Scholarship on Christianity in Malaysia has been dominated by denominational church history, as well as the study of urban, middle-class and English-speaking church congregations in the post-Independence period. In focusing on the vernacular Chinese Protestant church in Malaysia, and one of its most prominent para-church organisations, called The Bridge, this paper draws attention to the variegated histories of Christian conversion and dissemination in Malaysia, and the various modes and meanings of Christian identity as incorporated into different local communities and cultures. The history of the Chinese Protestant church suggested in the first part of the paper takes as its point of departure the distinction between mission and migrant churches, the latter being the origin of the vernacular Chinese churches in Malaysia. The second part of the paper traces the emergence of a Chinese para-church lay organisation called The Bridge, and the Chinese Christian intellectuals behind it, in their mission to engage the larger Chinese and national public through literary publications and other media outreach activities. In so doing, these Chinese Christian intellectuals also drew on the resources of an East Asian and overseas Chinese Christian network, while searching for their destiny as Chinese Christians in the national context of Malaysia. By pointing to the importance of regional, Chinese-language Christian networks, and the complexity of vernacular Christian subjectivity, the paper hopes to fill a gap in the existing literature on Christianity in Malaysia, as well as make a contribution to on-going debates on issues of localisation, globalisation and authenticity in global Christianity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines knowledge diffusion, talent development and technology transfer in Malaysia's electronics and electrical (EE) industry by employing a triangular model comprising the collaboration of the state, industry and the university in Penang's Free Trade Zone. It examines the government's policies and initiatives under the Economic Transformation Program (ETP) to rejuvenate Malaysia's EE sector in the context of neoliberal globalisation. It explores and understands the actual transfer of tacit knowledge at ground level through three case studies which include multinational corporations and local contract manufacturers, a research university, and a newly-established non-profit knowledge institute, designated as Collaborative Research in Engineering, Science and Technology (CREST). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to advancements in telecommunications and transportation over the past century, the world is shrinking and physical boundaries are being eroded. The advent of globalization has facilitated the flow of ideas, values, goods, and people from one part of the world to another. This hyperbolic human activity has altered the structure of inter-civilizational relations and has spawned a spirited debate on how to create a multi-civilizational world order. This paper is critical of contemporary approaches on the subject that envisage the primacy of one civilization on the one hand and a clash among civilizations on the other. By examining Ibn Khaldun's theory of 'Umrān and the discipline of Fiqh, it argues that these concepts remain relevant for our understanding of the human condition today. While the theory of Umrān analyzes political and economic relations at the macro-level, Fiqh tries to arrange societal relations at the micro-level. This paper also studies the Ottoman legacy since the Ottoman state was founded on Fiqh and the Millet system. It proved to be successful in preserving pluralistic communities based on principles of autonomy and mutual coexistence. Even though Ibn Khaldun was one of the pioneers in the field of civilizational studies, his seminal work is largely neglected in scholarly circles today, both Muslim and non-Muslim alike. The present inquiry seeks to address this shortcoming. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper revisits the concept of state autonomy in the context of globalization. Earlier literature either considered state autonomy from the social forces in broad institutional and cultural terms or from the dominant classes in a restrictive sense. However, in either case the focus remained on domestic/national society, not the global society. The discussion of relative autonomy of the state began among the Marxists in the 1970s and then graduated into the mainstream social sciences in the 1980s and 1990s. In the upshot, the notions of developmental state and the embedded autonomy have significantly added to our knowledge of the role of the state. This paper broadens the idea of embedded autonomy by locating the sources of embeddedness in both local as well global institutions and norms. The paper uses the Singapore case to illustrate some of the possibilities and limitations of the reconfigured role of the state in the face of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization has influenced the conduct of scientific research in a number of expected and unexpected ways. At the same time the emergence of specific scientific fields has also influenced the texture and trajectory of globalization. In this paper the relationship between globalization and genomics is analyzed. Much like the globalization of traditional manufacturing, genomics research represents a phase of global bio-capitalism. With specific reference to Singapore, the possible social, economic and political effects of the rapid global circulation of scientists, knowledge, capital and DNA are examined in this paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concept of ummah embodies the universalism of Islam and provides a framework for religious unity, which accommodates the cultural diversity of believers. It is an important part of historical as well as contemporary discourse on Islam. This paper provides an overview of the development and evolution of the concept of ummah and its usage in Islamic discourse to explain the current social, political and economic conditions of the Muslim world. It reports the findings about ummah consciousness and its relationship to modernity in Muslim countries of Southeast Asia, South and Central Asia, and the Middle East. It will examine the impact of globalisation on the Islamic ummah and how it is shaping the emerging struggle between 'hybridity' and 'authenticity' among Muslims and Islamic movements. The paper will explore the challenges of this struggle and its sociological implications for the 'de-centering' of the Muslim world into multiple autonomous regions. It will argue that the future of the Muslim ummah may gain strength not as a unified and unitary community, but as a differentiated community consisting of ummahs representing different Islamic regions. Each regional ummah will possess and embody a unique character that has been moulded by the history and temperament of its people. The paper will conclude with some observations on the future religious, intellectual, economic and political trajectories of Muslim countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper argues that the emergence of a global economy has led to new lines of conflict between transnational corporation (TNCs) and civil society actors. While the efficiency of state regulation seems to have diminished, transnational protest group have been able to challenge TNCs and enforce certain standards upon them. The paper discusses the conflict between the Mitsubishi Corporation and rainforest protection groups in order to identify the mechanisms behind this and similar conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The non-West is not only the object of the Eurocentric notion of development, hut also the main contributor to its global hegemony. South Koreans, for instance, make a Eurocentric hierarchy between countries according to the criteria of their developmental discourse, the discourse of seonjinguk (advanced country). This paper examines the main features of the discourse of seonjinguk in contemporary Korea, focusing on the representations and identities of countries reflected in its basic concepts. Through the analysis of newspaper editorials, it shows that the discourse constructs a world dichotomised by idealised seonjinguk and marginalised hujinguk (backward country). In this discursive framework, the West is generally referred to as seonjinguk in relation to the belittled non-West. The identity of South Korea tends to be constructed as a country near seonjinguk or "on the threshold of seonjinguk" ("seonjinguk munteok"), which provides both senses of superiority over hujinguk and of inferiority over seonjinguk. This becomes a main discursive source that keeps Korea still under the project of modernisation, with the achievement of the status of seonjinguk as its historical national mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Social theorists examining the impact of globalisation on state power argue that sovereignty is being respatialised and rescaled and that it is no longer adequate to understand state sovereignty as operating evenly on a national scale over a population within a bounded territory. Nevertheless, ASEAN states continue to adopt such a national framing of people and place, particularly in the construction of immigration control regimes. I argue that in order to understand the localised and spatialised exercise of graduated sovereignty and the selective introduction of neoliberal practices, it is necessary to recognise the significance of the immigration status of individuals and examine how the dividing practices of immigration control regimes permit the selective allocation of rights to non-citizens. This paper examines Malaysia's approach to international labour migration, noting that it makes different biopolitical investments in different types of non-citizens on the basis of a calculation of their potential contribution to the 'nation'. Malaysia creates a hierarchy of rights, giving greater rights to skilled workers, while restricting those of 'unskilled' workers. Malaysia punishes those who breach immigration laws severely. However, Malaysia's modernist approach to immigration control fails to achieve intended results and I highlight a number of reasons why. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A worldwide resurgence of local ethnic or religious identities has led to numerous conflicts locally, and also globally, since the end of the Cold War. This trend is exemplified by Indonesia, where political liberalisation after 32 years of authoritarian rule have allowed local identities and political aspirations to be expressed more freely and in new ways. In this paper, I look at new social movements that are demanding regional autonomy, more local control of local resources and greater recognition for traditional institutions. Such movements shed light on the challenges faced by the multi-ethnic nation of Indonesia today and, more generally, on shifting local identities in developing nations in a globalising world. An example of regional cultural revival movements in Indonesia is the Ajeg Bali Movement. This movement stems from a growing sense of disenfranchisement and desire for self-empowerment among Hindu Balinese. Contributing factors are political liberalisation and decentralisation, the 'touristification' of local culture, increasing dependence on the global economy, the threat of terrorism after the Bali bomb, the influx of Muslim labour migrants and fears of an Islamisation of the Indonesian state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper argues that sweeping proclamations about the effects of globalization relate to a world which is antithetic to that of real people. While, for example, politicians strive to meet what they 'know' to be the demands of socio-economic globalization; people contending with the problems such policies raise, deploy a repertoire of local knowledge and concomitant practices. Their knowledge combines traditional lore and lessons learned over a lifetime from dealings in ordinary local contexts. With the help of theorizations of globalization and of everyday life, it is possible to show how local knowledge interacts with the global, and to touch on indicators which are potentially decisive for the differential evolution of the 'glocal'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the role of economic and cultural globalization in the interaction between Muslim and European public spheres. Focusing on the dynamics of globalization at three levels — broadly, in the Muslim world and in Europe — I argue that globalization today is both more complicated and less broad than most of its proponents or critics assume. While most commentators assume that it is a primarily economic phenomenon (and so focus on the impact of supposedly increased global economic integration or technological innovation), these phenomena are concentrated largely within the mature G-8 economies and the most successful recent industrializers (such as the "Asian tigers"), leaving much of the developing world marginalized from the emerging "globalized" economy as defined in the mainstream literature. In this context it is culture that is the most powerful driver of contemporary globalization as it is experienced in the Muslims' majority world and in Muslim communities in Europe. This dynamic, in turn, has a powerful impact on how Muslim public spheres are shaped across Eurasia, particularly in the context of a transformation in the nature of globalization in the wake of September 11 towards a more militarized form of global economic interaction. An exploration of the dynamics of chaos as a defining feature of this emerging global system in the Middle East and North Africa, and Europe as well, along with a discussion of the role of anti-Semitism in contemporary discourses of globalization in the MENA and Europe, reveal the challenges to building more positive "Euro-Islamic" public spheres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The globalisation of economies offers new opportunities to both developed and developing countries in terms of promoting growth, improving income, and reducing poverty and inequality. However, it has also given rise to labour flexibility, wage depression, and eroded important elements of redistribution and weakened social protection systems. The 1997–1998 financial crisis in Southeast and Northeast Asia further exposed important limitations in the ability of such existing systems to cope with the crisis. This paper identifies new forms of economic insecurities generated by the renewed growth of labour flexibility as globalisation weakens the basis of social partnership and tripartism. It examines Malaysia's development experience, the impact of the crisis on workers' economic security, and assesses the adequacy of existing social protection programmes in its response to new types of economic insecurities generated by globalisation. It argues that these issues need to be addressed in formulating policies to ensure equitable social development in Malaysia in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, Malaysia's attempt to join the 'information society' and 'knowledge economy' by embarking on the ambitious Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) is mapped out and analysed. The discussion is framed in the context of globalization, modernity and the situation in other Muslim societies. Notwithstanding the present national skepticism regarding the MSC, the project has been reasonably well designed and launched. But it is, in the final analysis, only a part of the larger structure of national innovation systems that function equally as 'engines of economic growth.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the human security implications of the Asian economic crisis for the Western Pacific. It will be shown that the regional insecurity was not caused by great power military intervention or by the escalation of territorial disputes, or subversion from revolutionary ideologies. Rather the insecurity was transmitted through the unregulated operation of the global market, on which the countries of East Asia had based their national and regional development strategies. It is likely that the regional approach to security will change forever after 1998. It is argued that if the countries of the Western Pacific are to successfully ameliorate the effects of the Asian economic crisis as well as optimally position themselves to resolve future challenges then a regional security regime that revolves around humanitarian concerns must be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]