Alibaba’s discourse for the digital Silk Road: the electronic World Trade Platform and ‘inclusive globalization’

The digital Silk Road, which involves the internationalization of Chinese internet firms across countries that are party to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has remained underexplored in the literature. This paper employs a poststructuralist discourse theory to analyze one of the most important Chinese internet firms, Alibaba, and its initiative for global trade: the electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP). The article argues that the eWTP is a counter-hegemonic discourse that, based on the economic and technological power of Alibaba and its support of the BRI, attempts to globalize a China-centered and privately led global digital trade order to challenge the previous wave of US-led globalization. However, the eWTP has at least five contradictions. First, despite its criticisms of globalization, the initiative remains essentially neoliberal. Secondly, it sidelines inherent tensions with the Chinese state-centric internet governance model. Thirdly, it excludes some social identities and makes utopian promises. Fourthly, it is unclear to what extent it really will be inclusive. Finally, unless carefully hedged, it might entrap partner countries in new types of problematic digital dependence.     

Teaching Islam to educate multiethnic and multicultural literacy: seeking alternative discourse and global pedagogies in the Chinese context

In the post-9/11 era, growing scholarly literature and social concern have focused on Islamic education in Muslim-majority countries and for Muslim minorities in the West. However, public attention and academic research concerning the teaching of Islam as a world religion and a commonly shared human civilization, are barely understood in secular contexts and in public education. This issue requires more attention, especially in Asia. For the sake of future dialogue and further discussion, this paper is a tentative attempt at initiating this understudied issue of teaching Islam as multicultural literacy. It inquires about the pedagogy of teaching Islam in an East Asian context by first briefly reflecting on the dilemmas of introducing Islam to the West and its implications for the university curriculum. Departing from the experience in North America and European societies, this article then attempts to explore alternative pedagogical discourse in teaching Islam to Chinese students in the East Asian context by considering its specific geographical position in global politics and the recent development of Hong Kong. This article finally foresees the developing pedagogy of Islamic teaching that challenges students to break away from the media cliché and apathy towards human suffering, leading them to understand that they themselves are the potential peacemakers of a future global multiethnic and multicultural society.     

Public Discourses About International Students

A growing, English‐language literature analyzes the public discourse of international education and students. One large set of studies highlight the discursive marginalization of non‐western, international students in western, host societies. They draw on critical discourse analysis (CDA) and meta‐narratives of western, White, and elite dominance, which diminish the theoretical importance of discourse in non‐western and non‐elite settings. A second, smaller set of studies analyze the public discourse of international education in non‐western, specifically Asian, countries; they generally reference educational discourse in both Asian and western countries. Relatively few studies critically examine patterns of discursive domination in Asian discourse; but the ones that do so compare both Asian and Western countries. Even rarer are studies of social media discourse among international students. We find a few studies of social media discourse among Asian students who studied abroad, but none of foreign students studying in host, Asian countries. Attention to multiple discourses and theoretical narratives offers a fruitful, research agenda and underlines the complex, dynamic, global nature of contemporary public discourse on international education.     

Navigating Globalization: Immigration Policy in Canada and Australia, 1945–20071

Scholarship on immigration and globalization has failed to adequately analyze the nation‐state’s regulatory capacities, insisting instead that contemporary patterns of migration jeopardize national sovereignty and territoriality. While recognized that states possess the legitimate authority to control their territorial and membership boundaries, recent transformations of these capacities remain largely unanalyzed. This article’s historical analysis of Australia and Canada’s postwar immigration policies demonstrates that the contours of state regulation are intimately connected to the exigencies of state administration and nation building and—in contrast to the expectations of dominant theories—have intensified and expanded within the globalization context. The literature’s inattention to the fundamentally political nature of immigration has obscured the critical effects of national policies within both the migratory and globalization process. Australia’s and Canada’s contemporary policies constitute a unique model of migration control and reflect attempts by both countries to strategically position their societies within the global system and resolve a number of economic, political, cultural, and demographic transitions associated with globalization.     

Transnational families and their children's education: China's ‘study mothers’ in Singapore

Abstract For many middle‐income Asian families from the region's less developed countries, the education of children in a more developed country has become a major ‘project’ requiring the transnational relocation of one or more members of the family. As an aspiring global education hub, Singapore has been a recipient of many international students. In our article we examine the case of ‘study mothers’ from the People's Republic of China who accompany their children to Singapore during the course of the latter's study, while leaving their spouses at home. In the analysis we demonstrate that the transnational ‘project of education’ for these young Asian children hinges crucially on the notion and realization of the ‘sacrificial mother’. Unlike the women in elite Chinese transnational families who enter western countries as potential citizens and are able to regain their relatively privileged lifestyles after a period of transition, the study mothers are admitted to, and remain in, Singapore as transient sojourners whose lives are characterized by continuing challenges and fluidity.     

South Asian disabled women: negotiating identities

This paper is concerned with the identities of disabled South Asian women within Britain. It presents empirical evidence concerning how disability, gender and ethnicity are negotiated simultaneously for young disabled Muslim and Sikh women. How these identities are negotiated is analysed in the realms of family, religion and marriage drawing on qualitative interviews with the young women, their parents and siblings. The paper argues against ideas of singular identity or the hierarchisation of identities or oppressions. The paper contributes to contemporary debates about how young South Asian women are constructing new forms of identity in Britain.     

Local Rites and Body Politics

The growing awareness of violence against women has resulted in endorsement of various international codes and conventions relating to physical, psychological and sexual violence. Female genital mutilation is one form of violence against women that has polarized people within and across national borders. Here, I explore its popular representation, consider how activism against genital mutilation has been confounded by sex and race and how activism to eradicate the practice is understood by immigrant women in Australia. In doing this, I draw on research conducted with women immigrants to Australia from north Africa (the Sahel areas) and the Middle East, from countries where female genital mutilation is most common. These women are often frustrated by what they see as contradictions in hospital policy and practice that arise in response to their requests to be reinfibulated after childbirth. I tease out the dilemmas that emerge when refusal is contrasted with other permissible practices of the body, such as hymen reconstruction, and given the commodification of bodies and related issues of age and agency, the individual and the community. The perceived discrepancies suggest to these African women that rights discourse is discriminatory, racist and informed by sensational portrayals of traditional practices. I question the ethics, values and rights that inform public discourse about sexual and reproductive rights, when women’s rights and values are so discrepant from our own ideals.     

Controversy and Its Implications for the Practice of Contemporary Social Work in Intercountry Adoptions: A Korean–Australian Case Study

Abstract

Korean–Australian intercountry adoption has been practiced for 30 years. This longevity provides unique opportunities to develop critical perspectives on a complex, global practice. This paper presents understandings drawn from a study that explores Korean intercountry adoption using Actor Network Theory. It argues that the practice of intercountry adoption in Australia has been shaped by adoption-driven influences and characterised by controversy and competing discourses. It concludes that contemporary understandings necessitate a global, contextual, and critical view that is inclusive of emerging voices and alternate discourses. The challenge for practitioners and policy makers is to ensure the complex nature of the phenomenon is understood by all stakeholders. This will involve remaining child-focused, promoting multilevel interventions, incorporating research findings, and resisting wholly positive discourse that promotes singular perspectives. An awareness of how the internet is used to forge networks and promote discourses is crucial in ensuring multiple perspectives are considered in this contentious practice field.     

“America Will Not Tolerate Slave Traders”: Counter-Trafficking Policies and US Power

The US government has implemented an ambitious set of policies designed to combat human trafficking and sex trafficking in women and girls in particular. This article argues that anti-trafficking discourse and policy can be understood as a project to sustain and strengthen US power. This power has been wielded through the use of foreign aid, which influences the actions of both state and non-state actors overseas. Existing policies reinforce unilateralism and executive-branch dominance. Policymakers have also used gender strategically to moralize their actions and assert global leadership on this issue. Gender is thus deployed to serve US interests.     

Practising social work in a context of austerity: experiences of public sector social workers in Greece

Since the 1980s and within a context of neoliberal globalization, the welfare state provision in many countries has been affected adversely by austerity and social spending cuts that have intensified since the last global financial crisis of 2008. A country that has been particularly harshly affected is Greece. This paper draws on interviews with public sector social workers in Greece and presents their perceptions of the consequences of austerity/social spending cuts on their work. The research findings of this study suggest that, within the context of austerity, social workers are facing a number of challenges and tensions. The paper argues that these tensions and challenges are local manifestations of the global conditions of neoliberal globalization and as such they have relevance for other countries. Furthermore, it argues that this understanding needs to inform the actions of social workers. It is important for these tensions and challenges to be contextualized within the socio-economic conditions in which they arise in order for austerity and social spending cuts to become a locus of intervention.     

The Dialogue of Civilizations: How the I Ching Can Help Understand The Relationship Between Globalization and Anti-Globalization

I Ching, or the Book of Changes, is a kind of ancient classical philosophy in China, mainly consisting of Yin-Yang theory, five elements and 64 hexagrams, whose wisdom has influenced eastern Asian civilizations for more than 2000 years. The paper attempts to study the relationships between globalization and anti-globalization via its discourses. The interdisciplinary perspective does not challenge the dominant ideologies in current political study, but only attempts to open up a new avenue in studying international relations and to constitute the following codes for reference in international relations study: (1) as an analytical model to observe diverse global issues via the Chinese philosophy; (2) as a mirror or medium to understand global conflicts and to help to exchange ideas and achieve moral or ethical consensus; and (3) as a new discourse contributive to the global debates on the diversity and complexity of globalizations and anti-globalizations.     

Ethnic family structure

Using information from large-scale statistical collections and elaborations from ethnographic studies, this paper examines the underlying social processes and structures of migrant families in Australia. Migrants in Australia are often confronted by family values and behavior which run counter to their own. For some migrants, particularly those from the United Kingdom and Western European countries, there is little conflict as Australian family values and behavior approximate their own; the feminine conception of the family is not foreign to them. On the other hand, migrants from Mediterranean countries and from Asia are likely to face a clash between the masculine conception of the family and the dominant feminine conception they find in Australia. Economic structure also often forces an accommodation to the feminine conception of the family. For example, migrant women in Australia are heavily involved in the work force outside the family circle, and, in the main, have relatively low fertility. Age at marriage is increasing and many single women of migrant origin are being educated at the tertiary level and are working before marriage. These changes necessarily expose women and youths to the dominant social values and increase their economic independence, thus disrupting the conventional male family authority. There is evidence of a degree of accommodation to Australian patterns of behavior in migrant groups more inclined to a masculine conception of the family. In other areas, however, which are less directly related to economic pressure, migrant values have been far less accommodating. There is still a high level of endogamy, the 1st birth occurs soon after marriage, divorce rates are low, and the aged are very likely to live with their children. Large migrant groups have been able to maintain these patterns of behavior through the formation of ethnic substructures that form their principal social environment. In the longer term, however, their children are deeply exposed to the dominant Australian social environment.     

Sensuality as Subversion: Doing Masculinity with Chinese Australian Professionals

Within western gender structures, dominant discourses of Asian men as weak, feminized and asexual continue to render Asian masculinities subordinate to white hegemonic ideals. Although research of gender in organization studies has revealed important insights into how gender might be redone or undone, non‐white voices remain marginalized in this critical project. This article explores through in‐depth interviews the ways by which Chinese cis‐male professionals in Australia attempt to coopt desexualizing discourses and ‘do’ masculinity through sensuality. Specifically, the findings show how their sensuality is practised across various dimensions at work and beyond, including via the presentation of the self, relationships with others and representations in social texts. In presenting the voices of Asian men, this article seeks to illuminate their individual and collective pursuits for decolonization, agency and pleasure.     

Post-1945 international migration: New Zealand,Australia and Canada compared

"New Zealand's immigration policies and trends since 1945 are compared with those of Canada and Australia. For most of this period, Australia has pursued the more expansive immigration policy while Canada and New Zealand have tended to link immigration intakes to fluctuations in labor demand. All three countries initially discriminated against non-European immigrants but gradually moved towards nondiscriminatory policies based on similar selection criteria and means of assessment. New Zealand has traditionally been more cautious than both Canada and Australia in terms of how many immigrants it accepted and from what sources, but it has recently followed the other two in raising immigration targets encouraging migration from nontraditional sources, particularly Asian countries. Historical, global and national factors are drawn upon to explain the degree of convergence between these three societies."     

‘Intercourse in every direction’: America as global phenomenon

In news magazines and scholarly journals a wide‐ranging ‘globe‐talk’ has arisen since the 1970s in response to recent transformations in the world. Much of the discourse reflects a growing international concern about U.S. dominance of the world’s economy and cultural production. Understandably, the discourse is about agency. The United States has dominated global affairs since the Second World War and especially since the end of the Cold War ‐ militarily, economically, and culturally. It is sometimes forgotten, however, how much America is a product of the internationalizing processes it has come to symbolize. This essay argues that the United States is as much a product as an agent of globalization and that, if we accept the logic of globalization, the United States as a national culture is being undermined in much the same ways as other countries. The title of the paper is borrowed from the Communist Manifesto, an ironically prescient document that 150 years ago outlined the processes of globalization that characterize America’s global history and forecast the transformations we experience worldwide today.     

Taiwanese Immigrant Entrepreneurs in Canada and Transnational Social Space

This article explores the migration of Taiwanese immigrant entrepreneurs to Canada and their transnationalism. Their presence in Canada is documented and described with statistical data on their demographic characteristics, human capital, and economic capital. An assessment of their transnationalism is provided by primary qualitative data gathered through in‐depth interviews. Overall, the review of the literature on Taiwanese migration to various countries, and their transnationalism, indicates that research has primarily been conducted in Australia and the United States, while it remained understudied in Canada. The article makes a case for contextualizing Taiwanese entrepreneurial migration in terms of a global immigration marketplace and the specific business migration programmes in Australia, United States, and Canada. Further, the article argues for the appropriateness of conceptualizing these Taiwanese entrepreneurs as operating within the theoretical framework of transnational social space. The findings on transnational social space include the importance of transnational familial networks, transnational business circuits, and transmigration. Transnational familial networks constitute a form of “capital” as the dispersal is a “resource”. The transnational business circuits include three types: (1) Asian production‐North American distribution; (2) retail chains; and (3) import‐export, all spatially distributed with their multiple national sites. In selected areas of the presentation and discussion of the data the policy implications of the findings are explored. These include discussion of the implications of this transnationalism on Canadian policies such as immigration, multiculturalism, business development, international trade, economic development, and citizenship. There is clearly a lack of harmonization among migration policy and other social and economic policies in Canada. While Canadian multiculturalism policy facilitates transnationalism, Canadian citizenship policy is shown to conflict with and discourage transnational practices.     

Asian student migration to Australia

"This paper presents an overview of Asian student migration to Australia, together with an analysis of political and educational aspects of the overseas student programme. It focuses on some significant consequences of this flow for Australia. The characteristics of key student groups are contrasted to provide some perspective of the diversity of historical and cultural backgrounds, with the source countries of Malaysia, Indonesia and PRC [China] selected as case studies. Since the issue of PRC students in Australia has attracted considerable public attention and policy consideration, particular focus is placed on their experience." (SUMMARY IN FRE AND SPA)     

Active aging—spunky survivorship? Discourses and experiences of the years beyond breast cancer

Recent critical gerontology has drawn attention to the origins, functions and consequences for elders of the ‘successful aging’ discourse. In this paper we describe parallels between successful aging and what we are calling ‘spunky survivorship,’ the contemporary subject position made available to women in the years after a breast cancer diagnosis. The central focus of the paper is a study about the intersections between a dominant discourse of breast cancer survivorship, and the perceptions and experiences of women living the years beyond breast cancer. It is our hope that the analysis presented here will suggest new pathways for exploring the relationship between discourses of successful aging and people's ideas and feelings about growing older.     

AMBIGUOUS IDENTITY IN AN UNAMBIGUOUS SEX/GENDER STRUCTURE:

This article explores bisexual identity as an ambiguous social category within the dominant dualistic sex/gender structure. The article documents the stigmatization of the bisexual category in the discourse of both the Religious Right and lesbian feminist communities, then examines the impact of dual stigmatization on bisexual women, who often see bi identity as disrupting the dominant sexual binary. Drawing from interviews with bisexual women, the article argues that bisexual women's discourse on sexual subjectivity does not escape the influence of binary structures, although it does at times reconfigure the binary along the queer/nonqueer and bisexual/monosexual axes. While the bisexual identity category may work as a discursive stabilizing device during the sex/gender crisis provoked by the AIDS epidemic, its politicization by bi feminists also allows the category to be strategically deployed for feminist and queer political projects.
At the present time, the regions where the grid is tightest, where the black squares are most numerous, are those of sexuality and politics; as if discourse, far from being that transparent or neutral element in which sexuality is disarmed and politics pacified, is in fact one of the places where sexuality and politics exercise in a privileged way some of their most formidable powers.
-Michel Foucault
No wonder people think we [bisexual women] are all sleazy.
-Bisexual woman     

‘We are not Victims,we are Protagonists of this History’

This article centers on the Mexican and Argentinean ‘Dirty Wars’, examining the limitations inherent in human rights and women's human rights responses to these epochs of violence. I situate Argentina's report on the dictatorship, Nunca más (1984), in conversation with Elena Poniatowska's text on the 1968 Mexico City massacre, La noche de Tlatelolco (1971), to trace the rise of a global human rights discourse that has become the dominant manner of conceptualizing human rights violations and gender violence in the latter half of the twentieth century. While feminist critiques of human rights have centered on the lack of gender-specific focus of violence committed against women, this article questions whether the women's human rights discourse disengages the historical, economic and geopolitical realities from which these violations were committed and instead focuses on women's sexual violations to garner international condemnation of gender violence. By turning to these texts, this article centers on the possibilities and limitations of women's human rights discourse and the impact this has on the shaping of women's political agency. This article calls for a critical feminist approach to women's human rights in order to document narratives of women survivors of human rights abuses without obfuscating their political subjectivities.