Left Parties in Power: Elections and Governance in Latin America

PROGRAM

9:30-9:50
Registration

9:50-10:00
Welcome Remarks
Dr. Zosimo E. Lee
Dean
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

10:00-10:10
Introduction of the Guest Speakers
Mr. Mirko Herberg
Resident Representative
Friedrich Ebert Stiftung
Philippine Office

10:10-10:30
Presentation
Prof. Andre Singer
University of Sao Paulo, Brasil

10:30-10:50
Input
Dr. Diego Canepa Baccino
Member of Parliament
Nueva Espacio, Uruguay

10:50-11:10
Discussant
Dr. Eduardo C. Tadem
Associate Professor
Asian Center
University of the Philippines-Diliman

11:10-11:50
Open Forum

11:50-12:00
Closing Remarks
Dr. Maria Lourdes G. Rebullida
Chair
Department of Political Science
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman


Moderator

Prof. Katherine Marie G. Hernandez
Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
College of Social Sciences and Philosophy
University of the Philippines-Diliman

2008 UP Third World Studies Center Training-Workshop on Globalization

Globalization: Emerging Trends and Alternatives, 19 to 23 May 2008

Supporters of globalization will acknowledge that there is dynamism inherent in any competitive market order but, in line with the principles of classical economics, they will also argue that markets tend towards long-term equilibrium, with supply eventually coming into line with demand. However, one of the many criticisms leveled against globalization is that it has a tendency towards risk, uncertainty and instability. One manifestation of this tendency is that economic decision-making is increasingly influenced by global financial markets that are inherently unstable. This is because much of their activity is speculative and driven by short-term economic considerations. This has implications for companies, industries, national economies and even regions.

The financial crisis in Mexico in 1994 and the Asian financial crisis of 1997-99 were seen as early indications of a crisis-prone and more unpredictable world economy. In January 2008, global stock markets went wild and the United States (U.S.) is on the road to recession. Commentators predict a worldwide slowdown, once again highlighting the risks, uncertainty and instability associated with globalization. Will we see the U.S. economic slowdown turn into a worldwide slump? Or has the global economy experienced change since the 1990s? Are people, countries, companies, regions and international institutions better prepared to cushion the impacts of this new economic slump or for that matter any future slump? What lessons can be drawn from the crisies in the 1990s?

Given the backdrop of the looming U.S. recession and its possible consequences for the rest of the world, particularly the Philippines and the Asian region, it is timely to take stock of the emerging trends in globalization as well as the various alternatives presented by the financial and economic sector, states, civil society, and regional organizations. What are the trends happening in the global financial and trading system? What are their impacts on cultures, states, people and regions? How are people, states and regions responding to globalization and these changes? Have they presented viable alternatives to globalization or measures to cushion the impact of risks, uncertainties and instability on their people and national economies?

Module 1: Globalization (A Critical Introduction)

From Thomas Friedman’s pop analysis in The Lexus and the Olive Tree to James Petras’ and Henry Veltmeyer’s treatise on imperialism in the twenty-first century in Globalization Unmasked, globalization remains to be the most important debate of the times. Yet, despite a burgeoning literature, no cogent theory of globalization or a systematic analysis of its primary features has been formulated. Globalization is heavily contested in terms of its meaning, form, and implication; but,as such, it has become a catchphrase that encompasses everything and thus rendering the term meaningless. It is the objective of this module to clarify this concept and its fundamental theses on the economy, politics, and culture.

As an introductory part of the course, this module will tackle basic issues in understanding globalization. It will survey and sketch the development of the concept as well as various approaches used by social scientists to explain the complexity of globalization as a concept, which include but not limited to world-system theory and neorealism/neoliberal institutionalism. It will also examine the debates about globalization concerning temporal relations. It is expected that at the end of this module, students will have a better grasp of the current discourse on globalization, particularly on the core areas that dominate public and academic debate—the nature of the world economy, the role of the state, and the fate of national culturecontestation of culture.

* Political Economic Perspectives
* Sociocultural Perspectives

Module 2: Markets

Building on the discussions in Module 1, this module gives an overview of the global financial system, economic crises and recession, the global trading system, and non-economic variables affecting economic goals. The impacts of developments in the global financial and trading system on states and societies will be discussed. These will be contextualized in the Philippines and in the Asian region where possible responses and viable alternatives can be discussed and evaluated.

* Global Financial System
* The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and the Looming U.S. Recession
* The Global Trading System After Doha
* Cultures, Institutions and Market

Module 3: Peoples and States

The objective of this module is to investigate the impacts of globalization on peoples and states and how states, civil society and regional organizations are responding to the process based on concrete experiences and empirical studies. What viable responses and alternatives are being pursued? The objectives of this module are to investigate and assess the forms of action utilized by states, civil society and regional groupings in Asia in performing their purported role in the processes of globalization, and to reflect on the promises and pitfalls of such tactics.

* States
* Regionalism
* Democratization Process

Revolution without Tears: Notes on People Power and the February 1986 Uprising in the Philippines

Randolf S. David

When it finally came, Ferdinand Marcos's fall from power was swift, sudden and dramatic. For more than 20 long years he had ruled the country, and it was natural that Filipinos should expect that the elimination of such entrenched dictatorship would require a protracted and ultimately bloody struggle. But the actual uprising that brought the Marcos regime down took only four days, from February 22 to 25, while the sporadic armed clashes which were more the exception than the rule claimed a total of exactly four lives, three of whom were soldiers all belonging to the Marcos troops, and one civilian. Yet, it should not be forgotten that the struggle against the dictatorship had been going on for many years--certainly long before the middle class, which was at the center of the February events, had even dared to join the growing mass actions in the streets. Moreover, it should ever be borne in mind that the Marcos regime claimed countless victims from all social classes throughout the dark period of its rule.

(Please see this link to read/download the full article.)

MENDIOLA NARRATIVES: It's January and Who Remembers What Happened in Mendiola?

Who remembers what happened in Mendiola on January 30, 1970? Four students, Feliciano Roldan of FEU, Ricardo Alcantara of UP, Fernando Catabay of MLQ, and Bernardo Tausa of Mapa High School died in the intense battle between student protestors and the military force guarding Ferdinand Marcos's Malacañang Palace.

Who remembers what happened in Mendiola on January 26, 1971? Six student activists died when Marcos's troops opened fire on student demonstrators.

Who remembers what happened in Mendiola on January 22, 1987? Danilo Arjona, Leopoldo Alonzo, Adelfa Aribe, Dionisio Bautista, Roberto Caylao, Vicente Campomanes, Ronilo Dumanico, Dante Evangelio, Angelito Gutierrez, Rodrigo Grampan, Bernabe Laquindanum, and Sonny Boy Perez perished in the infamous Mendiola Massacre. And during the 21st anniversary of their death, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's administration allowed these streamers to be put up in Mendiola:

New Kasarinlan: Interrogating Cultures, Unsettling Identities (Vol 22, No. 2, 2007)

More than a decade after the release of a special issue on culture (Volume 12, Number 2, 1996), Kasarinlan revisits the complex and dynamic field of cultural studies. But this issue looks beyond earlier debates on Asian culture that, back then, were essentially built around dichotomies or polar opposites. This is because in recent years culture—Asian culture, in particular, has been widely problematized and contested, especially in light of fundamentalist tendencies and movements in the region and all over the world. Digital and nuclear advancements, transnational migration, and widespread political and social violence and destabilization are just few of the global developments of the twenty-first century that have profoundly reshaped the field.

The theme of the issue emphasizes the valuable place of identity, viewed as a social and conceptual construct than an immutable psychological entity. Identity occupies an important place in discourse where cultural ramifications abound; new sites and modes of social interaction often impact on conceptions and perceptions of identity.

True to the thrust of Kasarinlan, the articles in this issue also give credence to political economy. In discussions of culture and identity, the articles regard global trends as part of a political, neocolonial and imperialist project, implicitly or otherwise. Each article grounds particular social or ideological issues and the formation of identities within contentious historical or genealogical configurations.

In this volume the analysis of culture and identity is framed in a variety of contexts and persuasions. In “Imagining the Terrorist: Racialization of Asian Identities since 9/11,” Malreddy Pavan Kumar discusses the resurgence of race issues in light of the “global war on terror” from the discursive angle of anthropology and geography. The author traces the developments of the two disciplines, arguing that their colonial and imperialist legacies, as found in contemporary discourses of “area studies,” “security studies,” and “terrorology” have contributed to the otherization of Asian identities associated with Islamic political dissent.

The commingling of history, politics and art is expressed in Patrick Flores’ “Colonial Posterities: Portraiture and the Face of the Modern.” The article reflects on the socially etched concepts of intimation and intimacy through an appraisal of portrait making in three Asian countries, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines. Flores extends the discourse of self-consciousness, modernity and post-colonial art history, and illustrates how representation, or “the aesthetic of appearance and appearing,” is a broadly political gesture.

Sumit Mandal, in his article “Indianness in Malaysia: Between Racialized Representations and the Cultural Politics of Popular Music” pursues the issue of race more concretely, looking at the emergence and reconfiguration of Indian identity via popular music. Mandal explains how dominant representations of Indian Malaysians downplay the dynamic, fluid relations among ethnic groups and ignore the complexities of Indianness. Meanwhile, popular music subverts state and institutional tendencies to simplify the racial discourse. As globalization further pushes Indian identities to the margins, Indian musicians in peninsular Malaysia challenge the prevalent discourse through the creative use of foreign music genres with distinct ethnic sounds. The re-appropriation of a specific symptom of globalization (the merging of foreign and indigenous music cultures) and its politics suggests that ethnic identities, rather than identity, are more permeable than commonly perceived.

The final article shifts the analysis of culture and identity from the context of race to migration. Akiko Watanabe’s “The Formation of Migrant Muslim Communities in Metro Manila” provides an anthropological study of the Filipino Muslims’ flight to Metro Manila. Watanabe identifies geographic and social patterns of community formation and the consequences of these movements on Muslim culture and identity in the nation’s capital. Her study of migrant community formation highlights the complexity of marriage and family ties, and the nuances of self-identification that are linked, in part, to a sense of imagined community shared with fellow Muslims from their places of origin.

The two other sections of the journal also provide interesting discussions foregrounding religion and how it animates the body politic. In the Proceedings Section entitled “Seeds of Violence or Buds of Peace?” Ursula King asks whether world faiths can serve as resources for peace education. In the Perspectives Section, Kasarinlan posed this question: “Why end fundamentalism?” Four scholars share their insights and arguments on the issue. Through these essays and articles, we hope to encourage readers to reflect on, or have a renewed appreciation of the broadening field of cultural studies.