Producing Migrant Domestic Work: Exploring the Everyday Political Economy of Malaysia's ‘Maid Shortage’

Abstract

The article considers how the employment of domestic workers by middle-class Malaysian households has been thrown into flux by the imposition of bans on the sending of workers by states such as Indonesia and Cambodia, as well as the decline in numbers of women seeking employment as domestic workers in Malaysia and rising employment costs. This article does not seek to focus on the high-level policy negotiations and disputes that have come to characterize systems of temporary return migration for domestic work in Asia, but to focus in on the everyday political economies (of social reproduction, work, and everyday agency) that constitute the conditions of possibility within which bilateral disputes and labour agreements between Southeast Asian states take shape. We examine three dimensions of migration for domestic work in Southeast Asia in ways that bring together literatures on everyday life and social reproduction. These interconnected yet distinct dimensions are (a) the relationship between strategies to boost remittances and flows of workers from some of the most impoverished parts of Southeast Asia; (b) the centrality of low-cost migrant domestic workers to Malaysian middle-class ‘success stories’, and (c) the day-to-day production of ‘good’ worker subjects—a process that is actively and constantly resisted by workers themselves. The article provides important insights into the mechanisms through arenas of everyday life—and the household in particular—are transformed; becoming sites for the ever widening and deepening of the market economy.     

Shifting journalistic paradigms of American correspondents on contemporary China: The case of Orville Schell

This study examined the change and continuity in the journalistic paradigm of Orville Schell, a prominent China expert and journalist who exemplifies tumultuous cycles of idealism and discontent U.S. journalism has experienced toward China. The tilts in his prisms were shown to have conformed to the rise and fall of governing frames in American press and public cynicism in and after the Vietnam War and the Cold War. Despite the undisputed “end” of the China policy, the question of the “means” offered such individual correspondent as Schell much leeway to anchor his liberal predisposition characteristic of the Vietnam War generation.     

无意识机制下情绪词DRM词表的编制和评定

为了进一步完善情绪词为材料的错误记忆DRM范式研究,在参考前人词表的基础上,重新匹配了包含300词语的DRM词表和包含150词语的DRM词表。通过单因素方差分析结果发现,不论在300词语词表还是在150词语词表,都能够在情绪价水平、唤醒度水平、熟悉度水平及BAS值四个水平上达到平衡。两种词表都可以作为错误记忆研究的实验材料使用。     

范式问题与问题范式:“中国问题”对于当代中国政治哲学研究的意义

当代中国政治哲学无疑处于初创阶段,研究范式的讨论对于该学科沿着规范轨道生长具有重要的学科价值。哲学的实践使命与学科特质决定了范式问题的真正解决有赖于问题范式的形成。关注、解读中国问题是当代中国政治哲学研究范式所以可能和得以建构的基本学术路径。解读中国问题,可以从哲学高度认知,从当代中国所处的历史境遇定位,从当代中国人性的发展状态观照,从社会公正的角度揭示。中国问题在于现代性的缺乏的根本特质决定了打通问题进入范式并形成问题范式之通道,以理性多元、立宪民主和公民理性为基本维度的公共理性成为极为重要而有效的理念诉求。以此为范导,立足中国语境,可以也应该构建起以问题为中心的当代中国政治哲学研究范式。     

中国传统政治伦理的逻辑源点及历史探路--基于两汉之前的伦理学分析

中国传统政治伦理汉后开始以儒家为核心和主线,但是,其逻辑源点和演绎进路却在汉前,汉前政治伦理经历了“神教→宗族→诸子→法家→道家”的重心转移过程,这一辨争、探索和筛选过程,对于后来儒家的胜出至关重要。“夏商→西周”是中国传统政治伦理的奠基期,神教政治伦理向宗族政治伦理过渡,完成了政治伦理“天道”向“人道”的转变;春秋时期虽然天崩地解,但是,政治伦理仍在沿用宗族伦理;战国时诸子伦理兴起,宗族政治伦理开始松动,在诸子伦理的政治纷争中法家最终获胜;面对秦二世而亡的残酷事实,中国传统政治伦理反省后开始真正走上了历史合理性的路径：阳儒阴法———儒法两家软硬、外内结合共同维护传统社会政治秩序,结束了漫长的摸索期。     

论古代白话小说程式存在的合理性

程式化作为一种伴随白话小说文体日臻成熟而出现的现象,在白话小说中表现得非常充分,但它历来颇受诟病。本文从认知语言学角度出发,认为程式化现象与人的基本认知需求有着紧密联系,它既能传达白话小说作者特定的意图,指导创作符合读者期望视野的作品,又能充当读者的认知引导,减轻其认知负荷。从白话小说产生、发展、成熟的社会历史文化背景来看,程式化现象是与白话小说创作、接受、传播相适应的表达形式,它的存在对白话小说有着一定的合理性基础。     

Academic mothers,professional identity and COVID-19: Feminist reflections on career cycles,progression and practice

Based on a collection of auto-ethnographic narratives that reflect our experiences as academic mothers at an Australian university, this paper seeks to illustrate the impact of COVID-19 on our career cycles in order to explore alternative feminist models of progression and practice in Higher Education. Collectively, we span multiple disciplines, parenting profiles, and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Our narratives (initiated in 2019) explicate four focal points in our careers as a foundation for analyzing self-definitions of professional identity: pre- and post-maternity career break; and pre- and post-COVID-19 career. We have modeled this research on a collective feminist research practice that is generative and empowering in terms of self-reflective models of collaborative research. Considering this practice and these narratives, we argue for a de-centering of masculinized career cycle patterns and progression pathways both now and beyond COVID-19. This represents both a challenge to neo-liberal norms of academic productivity, as well as a call to radically enhance institutional gender equality policies and practice.     

Buying a Voice: Gendered Contribution Careers among Affluent Political Donors to Federal Elections, 1980–2008

Early work in feminist theory hypothesized that differences in women and men's social and institutional roles might be reflected in the ways they participate in the political sphere. However, past empirical research has found scant evidence of a gender gap in the participatory strategies or motivations of women and men who become active in politics. But significantly less is known about the gender gap among a more select and increasingly significant player in American politics—political donors. In this article, we utilize a novel big data set—called the Longitudinal Elite Contributor Database (LECD)—that contains the population of all itemized donations made in federal elections between 1980 and 2008. Using this novel big data set supplemented with Social Security Administration (SSA) data on the gender of first names, we provide original estimates of the long‐term evolution of gender representation in the donor pool, vis‐à‐vis when, how often, and to whom affluent men and women have made political contributions over nearly 30 years. We find that large and persistent gendered inequalities of political voice continue to characterize this significant form of political influence. We theorize the potential implications of these findings for the representation of women's interests in the political sphere.     

When Queerness Meets Intersectional Thinking: Revolutionizing Parallels,Histories, and Contestations

ABSTRACT

Intuitively distinguishing the myriad of critically informed paradigms requires an in-depth analysis of genealogies, histories, and philosophical underpinnings grounding each paradigm. Despite significant parallels between queer theory and intersectionality theory, the distinction of these two paradigms acts in both complicated and complementary manners that necessitate a dialogue on the contributions emanating from both paradigms to LGBTQ studies. This article targets the following goals: (1) explicate genealogy, history, and philosophical tenets of intersectionality and queer theory; (2) dialogue about the complementary yet complex relationships between the two paradigms; and (3) illustrate the promise of the complex relationship and distinction for LGBTQ studies.     

Critical feminist analysis of STEM mentoring programs: A meta-synthesis of the existing literature

We conducted a meta-synthesis review of existing literature on science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) mentoring programs for women. Critical feminist theory (CFT) was used to understand how mentoring programs support retention and occupational advancement of women in traditionally male-dominated STEM fields. Four primary strands of CFT were explored: gender, oppression/patriarchy, social institutions, and systemic change. Traditional models of mentoring encompass varied approaches, including institutionally enforced programs, formal and informal programs, paired peer grouping, as well as face-to-face and online forums. However, low levels of retention and self-stated lack of professional satisfaction for women in STEM fields continue to plague those professions. This study reviews the literature on mentoring programs that have been implemented to support women in STEM, thus adding to the epistemology of mentoring women in STEM through feminist discourse.