Asia Pacific Viewpoint

Murray, Warwick E.; Morrison, Philip S.

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00180

Leinbach, Thomas R.

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00181

One critical aspect of the study of rural development involves the contribution of non–farm employment. In light of the need for employment creation and income expansion, the analysis of small businesses and home enterprises has been understudied. The current paper focuses on these activities in a spatially differentiated sample of transmigrant households from South Sumatra, Indonesia. An overriding objective is the deeper understanding of enterprise activities in terms of economic, social and contextual variables. Statistical inference is used to draw out relationships which contribute to the body of knowledge on enterprises and entrepreneurs in the developing world. In addition qualitative analyses of business experiences are presented using a case study approach with information derived from in–depth household interviews. In this regard the family mode of production is used as a theoretical tool to gain insight and seek more generalisation on the Lipton defined concept of ‘fungibility’.

Tan, Yan; Wang, Yi Qian

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00182

This paper provides an evaluation of current arrangements made for compensation and resettlement to farmers who will be displaced by the construction of the Three Gorges Project (TGP) on the Yangtze River. Kaixian County is used as a case study. Under present regulations the specific value of peri–urban land is underestimated, neither cash–in–hand arrangements nor land–for–land swaps are adequate. There are other problems. The availability of suitable land for resettlement is scarce and rarely of equivalent quality. The inflexibility of the ‘household responsibility system’ contributes to the problem. It is suggested that some of those facing displacement should be encouraged to accept resettlement in places at considerable distance from their current homes and that a more creative approach should be taken to the issue of compensation to enable people to develop their trade and business skills.

Shen, Jianfa; Huang, Yefang

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00183

A large floating population is moving around in China. This is a challenging demographic, social and economic issue for the country. But the knowledge about this particular population group remains incomplete and fragmentary. This paper uses a recent set of statistical data covering a registered temporary population of 37 million to assess the status of the floating population in China. It is found that the majority of the registered floating population is employed or self–employed in one way or another. But the housing conditions of the rural migrants are generally poor. Institutional and market forces are playing an important role in shaping the working and living space of China.

Nunn, Patrick D.

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.00184

Rapid cooling and sea–level fall around AD 1300, perhaps accompanied by increased storminess, had major impacts on Pacific Island environments including water–table fall, reef–surface death, increased lagoonal turbidity, and the conversion of seawater embayments to brackish–water wetlands. These environmental changes had severe and lasting impacts on Pacific Island societies, largely associated with a massive (perhaps 80 per cent) reduction in the food resource base on some islands. Conflict ensued, coastal villages were abandoned on high islands in favour of fortified inland sites, settlements on large atoll islands were dispersed. It is clear that environmental change a the major cause of last–millennium cultural transformation in the Pacific Islands, a conclusion which is likely to apply elsewhere.

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00185

Books reviewed in this article: Carl A. Trocki, Opium, Empire and the Global Political Economy: A Study of the Asian Opium Trade 1750–1950 Robert Robertson and William Sutherland, Government by the Gun: The Unfinished Business of Fiji's 2000 Coup Maung Maung, The 1988 Uprising in Burma Jan Van Bremen and Akitoshi Shimizu (eds), Anthropology and Colonialism in Asia and Oceania Hugh Cortazzi (ed.), Japan Experiences: Fifty Years, One Hundred Views – Post–war Japan through British Eyes

2003 Asia Pacific Viewpoint

doi: 10.1111/1467-8373.t01-1-00186