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This paper argues that existing approaches to Indonesian media hypostatise what may be more imaginatively understood as a rapidly changing assemblage of arguments and practices. A series of intellectual manoeuvres creates the appearance of a relatively stable, knowable and measurable system. These include confusion over the precise object of study, omission of anything that does not fit the theory and rigid techniques of closure that prevent these weaknesses being evident. Critiques of Eurocentrism raise broader questions of processes of power/knowledge by which the discourse of Indonesians is culturally translated into the hegemonic language of an élite of experts, producers and politicians. The paper proposes instead to approach Indonesian media as assemblages of practices of production, distribution, engagement and use by different people in different situations. Such practices constitute performances, which may be differently articulated by different participants on different occasions. The paper concludes by rethinking key genres of Indonesian television broadcasting as performances. Indonesia emerges less as a stable, coherent entity than as the shifting object of antagonistic representations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper describes and analyses the Hadrami migration to and adaptations in Hyderabad, India. The various adaptive niches exploited by the Hadramis in Hyderabad before the merger with India in 1948 are outlined, particularly the ones relating to the military field. Hadrami officers and soldiers were a typical features of the Nizam's army. But this was to change with the Indian take-over in 1948. The second part of the paper outlines these changes as they relate to Hyderabad in general and to the new adaptive strategies adopted by the Hadramis in particular. The new evolving adaptations during the 1950s was based on petty trade and represented a downward turn in the fortunes of the Hadramis. During this period the Hadrami identity was fading and they tended to disappear among the other Muslims in the city. In the 1970s, however, labour migration to the Gulf helped improve the economic status of the Hadrami families, and it lead to a strengtheneing of the diasporic organisations that could facilitate the migration and which also strengthened the Hadrami diasporic identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traditional and largely rural patterns of relationships seem to persist in Japan despite economic and political modernization. Infused within modern technology, ideology, and apparently modern organizational forms, one discerns the persistent, if not determining, influence of native values and social patterns. Following a genealogical approach, inspired by Nietzsche and Foucault, this paper goes beyond the opposition between universalist and multiculturalist models of modernization, in order to identify certain indigenous principles of social organization manifest in both "traditional" and "modern" social formations of Japan. The persistence of these basic principles, such as the 'frame orientation," and the emphasis on wa (harmony, peace), is traced through the historical process of Japan's modernization in various realms of social life — the economy, political life, and popular culture. e analysis recent structural shifts in Japanese society, while still affirming the principles of Japan's "alternative modernity," also implies that major changes in its basic organizing principles might be under way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study, we examine how prevalent the notion of filial piety remains in a modern Chinese society like Hong Kong as an initiative for individuals to become caregivers for their parents, and how it is practiced in actual caregiving scenarios. From the experiences of the caregivers analyzed in our paper, it can be seen that the Confucian notion of filial piety as a cultural norm still runs deep even in a post-industrial society like Hong Kong. However, the respondents in our study have adopted aspects of this filial norm to suit their own experiences and actual circumstances in their everyday caregiving practices. We also found that a relational approach to filial behavior with its emphasis on 'felt obligation' seemed to offer an apt interpretation of the respondents' motivations while engaging in caregiving for their parents. Specifically, caregiver obligations are negotiated commitments that can perhaps only be accurately interpreted in their highly personal family contexts. In addition, the notion of reciprocity, or giving back to one's parents, was also a prevalent factor, which reflected that emotional bonds binding the parents and children remained important, as was the empathy for elderly parents. [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]

From the pioneering works of Enriquez, Covar and Salazar, which paved the way for the production of social science knowledge that is particularly meaningful and sensitive to Philippine culture and society, this paper explores the social significations of kapwa, kapatiran and bayan. In the context of the dominant influence of Western perspectives in Philippine social science, the understanding, appreciation and evaluation of their contributions continue to be an important undertaking. As a preliminary attempt to contribute to this discourse, a panlipunang pagbabanghay is offered as an approach or an outline for the analysis of Philippine social organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ruth F. Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (1946) remains perhaps the most influential English-language book on contemporary Japanese society and culture. The Chrysanthemum and the Sward has generated a large critical literature and has sold over 1.4 million copies in Japan. It would not be an exaggeration to state that benedict's book framed both American and Japanese -- and, by extension, global -- perceptions of Japan since the end of World War II. In this paper, I explore why her work found such resonance among the Japanese themselves to the extent that The Chrysanthemum and the Sword became something of an ur-text of the post-World war II Japanese discourse on the Japanese and on Japanese culture (Nihonjinron or Nihonbunkaron). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Said's work has had different significance in different contexts. From a literary perspective his greatest achievement has been his challenging of the New Critical separation of aesthetic and political concerns. His seminal work Orientalism has been the central influence of the last twenty years for literary scholars concerned with cultural exchanges between Asia and America, even though his professed task was the discussion of European and Middle Eastern political and aesthetic interrelations. This paper examines the political significance of Orientalism in the light of the struggles within literary studies a that gave rise to the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]