Philosophische Fakultät / Südostasienkunde
Refine
Document Type
- Doctoral Thesis (6)
- Master's Thesis (1)
Has Fulltext
- yes (7)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (7)
Keywords
- Indonesia (2)
- Indonesien (2)
- Stadtsoziologie (2)
- Vietnam (2)
- international cooperation (2)
- Allianz Aktiengesellschaft (1)
- Alor (1)
- Alor <Kleine Sundainseln> (1)
- Alur (1)
- Armut (1)
Institute
Following an “agency-oriented Urban Theory” as advanced by Smith (2001), this study takes the urban landscape of Vinh City in Central Vietnam as a starting point into an investigation of multiple visions of modernity (Eisenstadt, 2000) put forward by social actors, as well as into urban change resulting from the implementation of such visions. Focusing on the period from 1973 to 2011, it traces the application of three different visions for urban development in Vinh: The Socialist City, The Modern and Civilized City, and the Participatory City. Projects aiming at implementing these visions in Vinh that are presented in this study have one thing in common: they are informed by a specific view of what a city is and what it should be, and their implementation aims at changing the city in the desired direction. This goal involves not only physical change of the city, but also institutional change in the urban society. To grasp the interplay between visions of a modern city, their application through concrete projects, and the results of these implementations, the study operates with two specific terms: modern projects, and urban change. After introducing Vinh and its history, the thesis presents the period of the vision of The Socialist City and its application in Vinh through cooperation between Vietnam and the German Democratic Republic in the 1970s. It then moves on to contemporary period starting in the 1990s, during which varying and conflicting modern projects for the city were put forward by different social actors cooperating in joint projects on urban development: the Modern and Civilized City and the Participatory City. While the modes of cooperation differed between the two periods, the study concludes with the argument that the impact of these transnational projects has led to path-dependent, as well as ambivalent, urban change in Vinh.
The introduction of the economic reform program, Doi Moi, in 1986 opened the door for private sector development in Vietnam, as well as the country’s integration into the world economy. As Hanoi is the national political centre, it occupies an important role in Vietnam’s transformation process. The capital has become a major hub for socio-economic development. Whereas “Hanoi was renowned for its quiet streets in the 1980s” (Drummond 2000: 2382), nowadays it is characterised by its bustling street life. Public spaces, such as streets and sidewalks, are appropriated by private individuals for mostly small-scale economic activities. Existing green parks are privatised in order to cater to the growing demand for leisure space. At the same time, official spaces like Ba Dinh Square or Ly Thai To Square are occupied by Hanoi’s residents for sports and gatherings. Thomas (2002: 1621) regards this a contestation of the state-defined landscape by local people. In other words, the state’s defining power for the urban image is challenged by a multiplicity of spatial producers. This thesis focuses on the development of public spaces in Hanoi. Using the frame of an emic reconstruction , major themes such as changes in power relations between state and society and their reflection in the city’s physical environment are explored. Embedded in the discipline of urban sociology, this thesis aims to contribute to the discussion about the correlation between the public sphere as a sociological/political category and the materiality and practices of public space. According to Sennett (2008), the public sphere is a crucial element of urbanism. Furthermore, as Eisenstadt and Schluchter (20021: 12) indicate, there is a strong relationship between the public sphere and civil society, along with political and economic liberalisation. Therefore, the question remains whether public spaces in Hanoi are an expression of a public sphere or a prerequisite for its development.
The capacity of a society to adapt and cope with disasters is generally discussed under the term resilience. It is a concept that entered vulnerability research recently and that will still need further theoretical underpinning and empirical grounding. The vulnerability context of urban poor can be approached from different angles, such as urbanism or development studies. My thesis has the aim to contribute to a better understanding of resilience within vulnerability research. I decided to follow recent approaches in vulnerability research for two reasons. First, integrated vulnerability concepts highlight the value of interdisciplinary approaches. Second, the integrated vulnerability discourse offers a analytical framework that can be modified and applied to the empirical study of vulnerability in Jakarta's kampungs. In chapter two I will introduce the theoretical embedding of the analytical framework. This will be necessary, as disaster research in social science is a relatively young research stream. Terms such as disasters, catastrophes and hazards are often used synonymously. Moreover, different definitions of vulnerability and resilience lead to diverse applications of the concepts. Thus, I would like to outline some aspects of disaster research in social science and present the definitions I will apply in this thesis. Moreover, at the end of chapter two, I will refine my research question and present the methodological framework I use for the analysis of my empirical data. The integrated vulnerability framework is pointing out the importance of the temporal and spatial scale in vulnerability analysis. In chapter three, I will therefore provide the temporal and spatial embedding of my research by presenting a historical perspective on Jakarta. Since it is not possible to present almost 500 years of city history in one chapter, I will concentrate on two aspects. The first focus will be put on the origin and development of Jakarta's kampungs. The second focus will be put on the flood situation. Accordingly, I will shortly present the different phases of Jakarta's history. In each phase I will point out the aspects relevant for kampungs and aspects that will be relevant in regards to the flood situation. Finally, I will conclude how the situation of the kampungs and its dwellers changed over time. In addition to that, I will discuss the historical development of flood risk in a separate section in order to contribute to a better understanding of recent flooding. Since the integrated vulnerability framework is a place based approach, I would like to introduce the theoretical discussion on urbanism and space in chapter four. I will show that the analytical value of the concept of slum in approaching the local level in Jakarta's kampungs is limited. I will also present the concept of informality as it is often discussed in the context of slums and urban poverty. Moreover, I will argue that informality is an integral part of megacities in developing countries and it reflects processes of self-organisation on a local level. Aspects of social organisations are, again, also important for a vulnerability analysis. I will then link the concepts of institutions and social capital in order to show how social organisation can be approached as a resource for communities. I will conclude the chapter with models of social space, particularly the concept of locality, that will provide a framework for structuring and analysing the empirical field data. In chapter five and six, I will leave the theoretical discussion and present the data I collected during my empirical research in two kampung. Chapter five will begin with a short introduction to the research approach and the methods I used in the research process. Then I will present the field data following the structure provided by the concept of locality which is basically referring to the categories of material space and social organisation. I will add two categories to this structure. In order to link the previous discussion on informality with the empirical research, I will present data on the informal-formal continuum in both research locations. In addition to this I will sum up my empirical findings on how people adapt to and cope with hazards, particularly flooding. I decided to separate description and analysis of my research findings because I would like to first provide a general understanding of the local situation in both research locations in a descriptive way before I analyse and interpret the data. Accordingly, I will analyse and interpret the data in chapter six. The main focus will be put on aspects of space and social organisation so that local communities can be conceptualised. In chapter seven I will finally analyse aspects of vulnerability and resilience by applying the integrated vulnerability framework to my research findings. Lastly, I will briefly summarize the thesis in chapter eight and provide an outlook.
Landscapes and societies in Xishuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture in Southwest China have undergone unprecedented changes over the last 60 years. These transformations within the landscapes manifest themselves as land cover change, for example intensification of traditional land use systems and introduction of monocultures leading to deforestation, loss of biodiversity and other forms of environmental degradation. At the same time, communities and societies within these landscapes have experienced a certain degree of economic development, mainly through exploitation of natural resources. Through changing of political and economic frameworks, they have also profound transformations within their social and socio-cultural configurations. Based on the outcomes of field work in Xishuangbanna between 2006 and 2010, this study examines institutions, institutional voids and institutional change concerning land-use in the Naban River Watershed National Nature Reserve. Combining socio-economic and ecological data, patterns of land-use change and their interrelation to local communities are explored. With the emergence of the rubber-line, a socio-ecological frontier, disparities between upland and lowland landscapes and communities are intensifying.
This thesis analyses the social impact of Payung Keluarga, an obligatory enhanced credit life microinsurance product launched by Allianz in Indonesia in 2006. Payung Keluarga automatically insures micro-borrowers who take out microcredits from microfinance institutions. In case of death, the outstanding credit balance is canceled and the beneficiary receives twice the original loan as additional payout. Payung Keluarga was conceived to ameliorate the assumed post-mortem financial crisis of low-asset families. Through qualitative-explorative field research from 2006 until 2008 I investigated if this developmental intention was realized. It is the first impact analysis on microinsurance in Indonesia. In the research process, I took the position of an observing participant. As operational project leader for Allianz in Indonesia I was virtually doing research on my own work. The resulting challenge to research neutrality is primarily mitigated by the sobering to discerning social impact which was eventually revealed. The majority of insured were married female Muslim petty traders in urban and semi-urban areas around Jakarta. Socio-economically these women stand at the upper end of the low-asset stratum. Their husbands were generally the main bread-winners of the family, and it was mostly them who received the insurance payouts. It could therefore be said that Payung Keluarga benefited the main breadwinner instead of insuring him. The study found that norms of a moral economy are still exerting significant clout on the insured. The moral economy aims at providing “subsistence insurance” for all community members through an intricate collective system of balanced exchanges. The corresponding “premium” is a denouncement of self-interested material asset accumulation. Next to structural reasons, it was this moral restriction that saw the businesses of the women stagnate at low and socially inconspicuous levels. Payung Keluarga did not help to overcome the assumed post-mortem financial crisis. In reality, such crisis did not exist since community and family support among low-asset Muslim Indonesians is normally strong enough to largely provide for the bereft family. This support is driven by the perception of death as a collective risk in the light of the moral economy and hinged on principles of balanced reciprocity. For cultural and religious reasons, the beneficiaries used most of the insurance payouts for funeral ceremonies and repayment of informal debt. With the advent of Payung Keluarga familial post-mortem assistance has been reduced. Funeral costs also seem to have been inflated by the product. It has thereby promoted a long-term societal shift from equality-seeking balanced reciprocity towards status-seeking and socially diversifying general reciprocity. In effect, Payung Keluarga has attacked cooperative social cohesion head-on where it is still strongest in a rapidly modernizing Indonesian society. This discerning and unintended impact of Payung Keluarga is hardly offset by a positive increase in financial literacy among the insured. Furthermore, the effect on “peace of mind” on the insured is ambivalent: while most insured stated to feel safer, some declared to feel less secure with their obligatory coverage for fear of interference with divine predetermination. Its overall developmental impact can be literally described as “micro”. Instead of protecting the status-quo of the family, Payung Keluarga has assumed the role of an actor of social change. Not only because it has changed the funeral pattern of the beneficiaries, but also because it promotes a far-reaching conceptual paradigm shift from balanced reciprocity, which forms a core pillar of the insured’s social structure, towards general reciprocity. The thesis hypothesizes that with sufficient insurance coverage provided, the insured will increasingly opt out of the coercively egalitarian “subsistence insurance” system. Such opt out will allow the insured to pursue a more aggressive economic asset accumulation strategy, particularly in combination with micro-credit. For the individual, this can be seen as a “liberating fortune” that would induce more women to grow their businesses to significant sizes. In parallel, it would deal a blow to cooperative social cohesion. I propose to call this the “double fortune / double blow” dilemma of microfinance. Although this thesis is exemplary, some of its findings can be generalized: The impact of microinsurance is highly dependent on cultural, religious and socio-demographic context. Any microinsurance intervention concerned with social impact should be preceded by a thick contextualization going beyond the usual demand assessments. In turn, microinsurance likewise impacts context as an actor of ambivalent social change. The complex influence of context and the role of microinsurance as an actor of social change have so far been hardly discussed in the development discourse.
After two decades of almost complete isolation, Cambodia was rather suddenly integrated in 1991 into the global ‘free world’. As a result, the function and the role of the administration had to be modified. These transformations in the name of modernization and development have led to a significant rise of professionals, as these provide the necessary knowledge to manage the ongoing socio-economic and political transformations. Due to their educational socialization in urban centers and overseas, they consider themselves the most modern section of their society. Their common objective is to make the organizations they work for less rigid and to reform them along lines of technical-pragmatic concepts. Especially for the professionals working within the Cambodian state, the movement towards more efficiency and effectiveness in the administration and the strengthening of the rule of law is seen as a means to increase credibility of the Government on one hand and to attract foreign investment on the other. However, due to their functional specialization and expertise, professionals in Cambodia are marginalized from the overall socio-political changes in their environment. This has led to the reduction of their possibilities to communicate and organize effectively. Instead, their knowledge is applied to serve the requirements of their organizations/ patron-client networks and not as a resource to form alliances on a national or on a transnational level. A potential exists though for the professionals working in the state administration to either form a strategic group through processes of hybridization, or to form a ‘neutral’ rational administration after the ceding of the ‘old guard’ and thus their ‘disentanglement’ from old clientele structures.
Der Alor-Archipel ist eine bislang kaum aus sozio-kultureller Perspektive untersuchte Region. Einige wenige Quellen, die überwiegend aus der 1. Hälfte des 20. Jahrunderts stammen, gibt es aber dennoch. Sie werden unter dem Aspekt der Jenseitsvorstellungen kurz vorgestellt. Inhaltliche Schwerpunkte der Zusammenfassung dieser Quellen beziehen sich auf Dorfbeschreibungen, Beschreibungen von Festplätzen, die das Zentrum eines Dorfes bilden, sowie auf Totenrituale und die damit in Verbindung gebrachten Vorstellungen über das Jenseits. Abschließend werden die Quellen auf ihre Aussagekraft bezüglich Verehrung übernatürlicher Wesen untersucht und zusammenfassend wiedergegeben. Die Arbeit bietet einen Einstieg in tiefer gehende Forschungen zur Region.