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Beyond the Contemporary: Crafting Practices and Visions of the Future in Japan
No full textIntroduction to the Special Issue of Contemporary Japan "Japan Futures: Visions, Orientations, Imaginations
Theorising the politics of famine: Bangladesh in 1974
No full text1974 saw the first—and last—famine in independent Bangladesh. The disaster killed an estimated two per cent of the population and caused a crisis of legitimacy for the leadership of a nation that had won its independence only three years previously. Its catastrophic aftermath saw the emergence of an agreement among ruling elites and citizens that protection against mass starvation was a priority for the legitimation of political rule, or an ‘anti-famine contract’. This article examines the event to revisit theories of the politics of famine at a time when episodes of mass starvation are on the rise. Utilising existing theories of famine politics, it establishes propositions about the conditions under which states have or acquire the political commitment and capacity to prevent or mitigate episodes of famine. The effort at theory building draws specific attention to how to incorporate the geopolitics of famine and humanitarian relief into the analysis of the political reasons why famines occur or are not prevented
The Enduring Legacy and Historical Continuity of Kokang’s Mutinies in the China–Myanmar Borderlands
Full text linkThis article investigates the persistent conflicts in the Kokang region, a territory on the China–Myanmar border occupied by a Han Chinese community. The conflicts in 2009, 2015 and 2023, characterised by intense clashes between Kokang’s Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army and the Myanmar government, escalated local mutinies into broader regional conflicts. Utilising archival research, including important Chinese material, this article traces the conflict’s evolution from colonial-era family strife through Cold War proxy battles to complex post-Cold War family–faction contestations. It explores how Kokang has historically leveraged external powers, transitioning from interactions during British colonial rule in Burma and the Republic of China to engagements with the People’s Republic of China during and after the Cold War. This historical engagement has shaped Kokang’s regional and international conflict profile. The findings indicate that while external state interactions have played a role, the primary drivers are the Kokang factions themselves, who use these mutinies for self-governance and power accumulation. This analysis provides insights into the complex dynamics driving ongoing conflicts in the China–Myanmar borderland
Consultancy state: government as (a) service and the anti-politics of technological expertise in Indian cities
No full textThis paper analyses ideas of ‘good governance through technology’ in India that first emerged from the software industry, symbolising state support for the ‘new middle-class’ values of liberalized private enterprise. We suggest that contemporary prominence of consulting firms in government represents a second transformation embedding private sector logics within statehood. Perceived needs for technical expertise allow consultants to supply urban governance capacity as a commercial service, encouraging further outsourcing and corporatisation. This phenomenon, we argue, expresses ‘anti-political’ tendencies. Consultant writings frame urban governance as primarily technical, promoting context-free policy and private-sector involvement. Acknowledged issues with technology and participation undermine assertions of digital technology’s benefits to citizens. We argue that implicit redefinitions of ‘ordinary citizens’ as middle-class dissipate these tensions between visions of government as a platform for outsourced, monetized services and India’s democratic ideals. We illustrate some effects – and limits – of these processes through ethnography of a government department which supplies digital mapping and software ‘as-a-service’ to other government agencies, displacing private actors. Despite this organisation’s technical expertise, local knowledge, and use of digital data ‘as a platform’ for influence, political economies of land administration limit the ability of digitalisation to check powerful individual and corporate actors
Muddy waters: the electoral impact of river pollution from Galamsey in Ghana
No full textThis study investigates the political consequences of environmental degradation, specifically river pollution from illegal gold mining (‘Galamsey’), on electoral behaviour in Ghana’s 2024 general elections. Utilising constituency-level data, the research combines propensity score matching with difference-in-differences estimation to assess the political impact. Findings reveal a consistent and statistically significant decline in voter turnout in polluted constituencies, suggesting environmental harm fostered political disengagement. However, effects on party vote share were mixed; while support for the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) decreased in some affected regions, others saw increases or no significant change, highlighting regional variations. These results imply that environmental grievances did not uniformly translate into partisan backlash but rather into voter withdrawal. The study contributes to environmental politics by quantifying ecological degradation’s effect on political participation, demonstrating the mediation of voting patterns by local political economies, and emphasising ecological issues beyond traditional ethnic and elite political frameworks in African politics
Refugee Housing and Homelessness: Scoping Local Authority responses to newly granted refugees not in priority need: Briefing Paper
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A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader
No full textAn Indigenous hunter laments the decline in the flying squirrel population and reflects on how animals perceive the world. In a drought-stricken cyberpunk anytown, kids revolt against the grown-ups only to face off with stray dogs over water. During late-night diving sessions, a researcher encounters a mysterious group of ocean-dwelling people with gills. In an overpopulated future, marrying an AI spouse will raise a human’s credit score. A man follows the trail of an extinct leopard, seeking to unravel a metafictional mystery left behind by his late wife.This anthology showcases cutting-edge works on ecological themes by essential and emerging Taiwanese authors, revealing the vitality of their engagements with environmental crises. Taiwan is a biodiversity hotspot and geopolitical flashpoint, home to both Indigenous peoples and settlers. The pieces collected in A Taiwanese Ecoliterature Reader give voice to this human and more-than-human diversity, telling tales that are disturbing yet hopeful, serious yet sensuous, speculative yet grounded, down to earth yet spanning the seas. They span Indigenous eco-writing, oceanic hybrid narratives, ecological sci-fi, and speculative Indigenous fiction. Together, these stories navigate the landscapes of Taiwanese ecoliterature, illuminating its past and pointing toward its future
Protecting Antiquities: Ottoman Legal, Museological, and Literary Responses to the Neglect, Looting and Preservation of Ancient Works and Fine Arts
Full text linkThis thesis critically reassesses the protection of antiquities in the late Ottoman Empire by shifting focus from the dominant emphasis on classical Graeco-Roman antiquities to the legal, institutional, and discursive protection of Islamic antiquities. It challenges the prevailing assumption that Islamic-era monuments and objects were unprotected prior to the twentieth century, arguing instead that their preservation was embedded in broader strategies of sovereignty, reform, and identity. Drawing on Ottoman Turkish legal texts, illustrated periodicals, and travelogues, it demonstrates how internal political fragmentation, rising nationalisms, and the colonial ambitions of foreign powers – particularly those exporting antiquities to enrich museums abroad – shaped the empire’s responses. Several controversial exports are considered, from the excavations of John Turtle Wood in Ephesus and Luigi Palma di Cesnola in Cyprus – who targeted classical sites yet challenged Ottoman authority and Islamic spaces – to specific Islamic sites, including Qasr Mshatta and the Beyhekim Mosque.Structured chronologically across the Tanzimat (1839–1876), Hamidian (1876–1909), and Young Turk (1909–1918) periods, the thesis re-evaluates key legislation – including the Penal Code and Land Law of 1858, and the Antiquities Laws of 1869, 1874, 1884, and 1906 – alongside legal exchanges with foreign powers. Central to many of these efforts was the Imperial Museum in Constantinople, whose directors – Philipp Anton Dethier, Osman Hamdi, and Halil Edhem, each serving during the respective periods discussed in this thesis – expanded its remit with the Ministry of Education. The museum’s provincial branches, located on the grounds of high schools and supported by the 1889 Internal Affairs of the Imperial Museum Law, further embedded preservation within pedagogical and surveillance structures. Particular attention is given to Halil Edhem’s articles in the Ottoman press and wider intellectual interventions that sought to educate the public on the looting, neglect, and need for protection of the empire’s “national” Islamic antiquities, even after the 1912 Protection of Monuments Law came into effect. The thesis concludes by focusing on the Regulations of the Islamic Foundations Museum of 1914 and the gradual shift in national discourses from Ottomanism to Turkism
Heal, Aspire, Transform: Modern Transnational Yoga in Three Discourses
Full text linkThis thesis explores how meanings of ‘yoga’ are constructed in three interrelated discourses within Modern Transnational Yoga (MTY): (1) health and healing, (2) aspiration and neoliberal economics, and (3) personal transformation through tourism. Its mixed-method approach combines poststructuralist discourse analysis with empirical data from participant observation, qualitative interviews, and online ethnography. It argues that ideas about what ‘yoga’ means and how it feels—termed here as yogic imaginaries—are shaped by participation in the MTY sector and legitimised through prioritising introspection in the form of supposedly subjective, internal, and individual perspectives.This psychologisation veils the social nature of these experiences and their biopolitical production, creating tensions with opposing epistemological paradigms. The multiplicity of meanings attributed to the term ‘yoga’ renders discourses on ‘yoga’ empty, while the strategic use of conflations and terminological vagueness serves the MTY sector and advances its overall popularity. An inconsistent approach to historical (dis)continuities of the practice means that its syncretism often goes unnoticed and presents supposedly ‘yogic’ discourses which respond to contemporary social needs around ‘authenticity’, origin, and purpose. However, these discourses emerge not from ‘yogic’ themes but from characteristically modern transformations of post-Enlightenment liberalism centred on the self, including individualisation, medicalisation, neoliberalism, and Orientalism.The products of ‘yoga’ discourse constitute social facts devoid of extra-discursive reality. Yet, MTY participants claim their experiences with and of ‘yoga’ are real, tangible, and measurable. However, this embodiment is also susceptible to exploitation through neoliberal biopolitical production as it is often the result of a self-validating discursive cycle of expectation and experience. Through this analysis, this thesis contributes to both Yoga Studies and the poststructuralist study of religion and spirituality by demonstrating how practices such as ‘yoga’ are framed and experienced as personal forms of self-exploration when they are instead fundamentally shaped and controlled through external scripts
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