“The Provinces Elect Governments,
10:00-11:30 a.m.
Palma Hall 207
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
Urban social movements are often associated with what are considered “progressive” causes, and most activists involved in such movements are inclined to describe themselves in such terms. The Thai coup of September 2006, and the ongoing street demonstrations of the People’s
10:00-11:30 a.m.
Palma Hall 207
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
After
The Greater
3 July 2008 (Thursday)
2:30-4:00 p.m.
Palma Hall 207
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
The Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)—a project of transborder economic integration between Burma, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, and Yunnan province (China), funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB)—has been portrayed by the ADB as reflecting the natural geographic expansion of market processes after the end of the Cold War and the re-orientation of Communist Party regimes. I argue that a better interpretation of the development of the GMS is that it reflects a power-laden struggle by different investors and states to procure a “spatial fix” for problems of overaccumulation. Among other things, this means (1) that the GMS is not a “natural” market area but is socially produced as a space of investment by various political economic processes, (2) that large-scale capitalist forces from both inside and outside the GMS are central to its production and do less to integrate it internally than to selectively integrate key sites within the GMS into a broader East Asia regional economy of which they are a part; and (3) that the entire process is marked by conspicuous forms of socio-spatial uneven development, rather than by the equal opportunity for betterment sometimes suggested in neo-classical and neo-liberal literature on the GMS.
Global Poverty and Inequality: Measuring Trends, Interpreting Implications
4 July 2008 (Friday)
2:30-4:00 p.m.
Palma Hall 207
University of the Philippines
Diliman, Quezon City
The recent explosion of studies by economists on global measures of poverty and income distribution has received somewhat less attention from non-economists and social activists than it should. There are various problems with measures of either poverty or inequality, but there are also tentative conclusions that can be drawn from the empirical evidence regarding both long-term and short-term trends. Interpretation of the evidence, however, also depends upon the goals and assumptions of the interpreters. In this talk I argue that for groups involved in social movements favoring redistribution of wealth and income, the implications are important and point to the necessity of shifting strategies in response to shifting geographies of global inequality.
Click the link or follow this address to download the presentations from Focus on the Global South website:
http://www.focusweb.org/philippines/content/blogsection/16/46/
