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Political Science Question

Post ID: 3113966

Overview

ESSAY [2500 WORDS]:

ESSAY Q: Is labour migration empowering for women in Southeast Asia?

This is a standard academic essay designed to assess your grasp of the thematic issues considered in the latter half of the module.

· Rather than being about just one country, this essay requires you to consider a theme across at least two countries, or the region as a whole.

· You must not re-use material from your earlier assessment: choose different countries this time. DO NOT USE THE ONE WE DID FOR THE COUNTRY REPORT!!! [PHILIPPINES].

· For an essay of this length, it would be appropriate to consult 8-10 scholarly sources, plus non-scholarly sources (e.g. NGO reports, economic data, etc) as appropriate to your argument. Your research should use the further readings listed beneath the relevant topic(s) in the reading list. You may also use Google Scholar to identify additional reading if you feel it is necessary.

Readings to use (USE THE FIRST TWO HIGHLIGHTED BOLD ESPECIALLY AND THEN ANY/REST FROM THE LIST): (but please use your own readings too plus non-scholarly sources e.g. (NGO reports, economic data, etc. as appropriate to your argument).

  1. Elias, J. (2020) “The Gendered Political Economy of Southeast Asian Development”, in Carroll, T. et al. (eds.) The Political Economy of Southeast Asia: Politics and Uneven Development under Hyperglobalisation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 227-248 [eBook]
  2. Gerard, K. and Bal, C.S. (2020) “Labour Migration in Southeast Asia: The Political Economy of Poor and Uneven Governance” in Carroll, T. et al. (eds.) The Political Economy of Southeast Asia: Politics and Uneven Development under Hyperglobalisation (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan), 249-270 [eBook]
  3. Baharamitash, R. (2005) Liberation from Liberalization: Gender and Globalization in Southeast Asia (London: Zed) [eBook/ HQ1240.5 BAH]
  4. Bal, C.S. (2017) Production Politics and Migrant Labour Regimes: Guest Workers in Asia and the Gulf (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) [HD5961.85 BAL/ eBook]
  5. Bradley, C. and Szablewska, N. (2015) “Anti-Trafficking (ILL-)Efforts: The Legal Regulation of Women’s Bodies and Relationships in Cambodia”, Social Legal Studies 25(4): 461-488
  6. Devashayam, T. (ed.) (2009) Gender Trends in Southeast Asia: Women Now, Women in the Future (Singapore: ISEAS) [eBook/ HQ1745.8 GEN]
  7. Elias, J. (2011) “The Gender Politics of Economic Competitiveness in Malaysia’s Transition to a Knowledge-Economy”, Pacific Review 24(5): 529-552 [see also her many other articles on this topic]
  8. Elias, J. and Louth, J. (2016) “Regional Disputes Over the Transnationalization of Domestic Labour: Malaysia’s ‘Maid Shortage’ and Foreign Relations with Indonesia and Cambodia”, in Elias, J. and Rethel, L. (eds.) The Everyday Political Economy of Southeast Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) [eBook/ HC441 EVE]
  9. Ford, M. and Piper, N. (2007) “Southern Sites of Female Agency: Informal Regimes and Female Migrant Labour Resistance in East and Southeast Asia”, in Hobson, J.M. and Seabrooke, L. (eds.) Everyday Politics of the World Economy (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), 63-79 [eBook/ HF1359 EVE]
  10. Ford, M. et al. (eds.) (2012) Labour Migration and Human Trafficking in Southeast Asia: Critical Perspectives (Abingdon: Routledge) [eBook/ HD8690.8 LAB]
  11. Hedman, E-L. (2008) “Refuge, Governmentality and Citizenship: Capturing ‘Illegal Migrants’ in Malaysia and Thailand”, Government and Opposition 43(2): 358-83 [available here]
  12. Kaur, A. (2010) “Labour Migration Trends and Policy Challenges in Southeast Asia”, Policy and Society 29(4): 385-97 [see also her many other books and articles] [available here]
  13. Kaur, A. (2007) “International Labour Migration in Southeast Asia: Governance of Migration and Women Domestic Workers”, Intersections: Gender, History and Culture in the Asian Context 15 (online). Available at http://intersections.anu.edu.au/issue15/kaur.htm
  14. Kaur, A. and Metcalfe, I. (eds.) (2006) Mobility, Labour Migration and Border Controls in Asia (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan) [eBook/ HD5856.A78 MOB]
  15. King, V.T. (2008) The Sociology of Southeast Asia: Transformations in a Developing Region (Copenhagen: NIAS Press), 197-224 [eBook/ HN690.8.A8 KIN]
  16. Oh, Y.A. (2016) “Oligarchic Rule and Best Practice Migration Management: The Political Economy Origins of Labour Migration Regime of the Philippines”, Contemporary Politics 22(2): 197-214
  17. Oishi, N. (2005) Women in Motion: Globalization, State Policies, and Labor Migration in Asia (Stanford: Stanford University Press) [EBOOK/ HD6181.85 OIS]
  18. Peletz, M.G. (2020) “Neoliberalism and the Punitive Turn in Southeast Asia and Beyond: Implications for Gender, Sexuality, and Graduated Pluralism”, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Society, early online: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9655.13317
  19. Peletz, M.G. (2009) Gender Pluralism: Southeast Asia Since Early Modern Times (New York: Routledge), ch.4-5 [EBOOK/ HQ1075.5.S64 PEL]
  20. Rigg, J. (2016) Challenging Southeast Asian Development: The Shadows of Success (Abingdon: Routledge), ch. 4 [EBOOK/ HC441 RIG]
  21. Yamanaka, K. and Piper, N. (2005) “Feminized Migration in East and Southeast Asia: Policies, Actions and Empowerment”, UNRISD Occasional Paper 11, December. Available at http://unrisd.org/unrisd/website/document.nsf/ab82...

Here are some tips on how to succeed with this specific assignment:

  • The question must draw on evidence from at least two countries or discuss developments across the region. The countries you reference must be different to the one chosen for your Country Report. DO NOT USE THE ONE WE DID FOR THE COUNTRY REPORT!!! [PHILIPPINES]. Failure to follow this instruction will result in a failure for task fulfilment.
  • You need to give this some thought. The answer will turn in part on what exactly you want to argue. Sometimes you may wish to pick dissimilar countries in order to compare them, if you want to argue that a factor present in one country, but not the other, is very significant. Sometimes you will be more concerned to identify similarities.
  • SPIR’s marking criteria prize original thought and writing. For this assignment, this means:
    • Work that genuinely expresses your own intellectual perspective, based on a critical engagement with the readings, will do better than work that merely parrots the readings;
    • Likewise, you should always write what you think, not what you might think I want to hear (because, actually, what I want to hear is what you think!); and
    • You should draw on sources beyond the core seminar readings – this will enable you to think about the topic in ways that go beyond class discussion, and draw upon a wider range of ideas and evidence to make your argument. This will make your essays more original, distinctive and interesting. Don’t assume that all the relevant reading for the essay you are doing is listed beneath just one week’s “topic”. Sometimes reading for other weeks may also be relevant.
      • Important: this assignment is about testing your understanding of content on this module. At the risk of stating the obvious, this requires engaging with themes, ideas, readings, etc, on this module – not just randomly selecting sources via a Google search, or relying on a completely different set of literature. You are welcome to bring in sources/ things you have learned from other modules but the core of your research should be focused on this one. If in doubt, ask.
  • An essay is an argumentative response to a question. If you do not make an argument, you have not produced a successful essay.
  • The only way you can develop an argument is to be constantly reflecting on the question as you read. Do not just read lots and hope an answer will magically occur to you at the end, as you wallow in mounds of notes. Take notes based on what sources have to say about your question, not just the question they are addressing (which may well be quite different). As you read, constantly ask yourself: what does this tell me about my question? How does it fit with/ contradict other things I have read? As you read, write: take notes, not just summarising what the source says, but identifying what is useful/ relevant/ important/ difficult for your question and how you might make use of it. Marginal notes are good, but you should also always write a short paragraph at the end of your reading to reflect actively on what you’ve read. These notes can often provide arguments in embryo for your essay.
  • When you’ve finished reading, work out what it is you want to argue, then plan your essay as a sequence of points. You cannot convince the reader all at once, only step by step. So, think about the logical steps necessary to get your argument across, and the best structure (sequence) for these points. Think about the evidence required to support each point you want to make.
  • The only way to make a fully persuasive argument is to state your case at the beginning, then demonstrate why you are correct. An essay is not a magic trick: your purpose is not to rummage around in a top hat, muttering mysteriously and then finally pull out a white rabbit at the very end. Every successful essay involves a clear, transparent line of argument that is sustained throughout. Use the whole essay to explain to the reader why they should agree with you. If you leave stating a clear answer to the question until the very end, it is very unlikely that you will have persuaded the reader of your case in the preceding paragraphs. Therefore, state your argumentative response to the question in the introduction. Use the rest of the introduction to summarise the key steps in your argument. The introduction thus acts as a “map” of your essay, helping to show the reader the structure you want them to follow (and, ultimately, be persuaded by).
  • Each paragraph should then develop one substantive point in your argumentative sequence, as foreshadowed in the introduction. Make it clear what each paragraph is “doing” in the argument by using a clear “topic sentence”: an opening line that makes a clear statement, which the rest of the paragraph then develops in full. I should be able to read just the first lines of your paragraphs and understand immediately what the content is likely to be; and, taken together, these topic sentences should sketch out your argument in full.
  • Making a clear argument does not mean that you do not consider contrary arguments and evidence. But rather than an equivocal “on the one hand, on the other” type approach, which typically involves flip-flopping back and forth without making any clear overall argument, you need to deal with possible objections (either rebutting them, or incorporating them into your argument) as part of your argument. E.g. paragraph A might argue X; paragraph B acknowledges that there are some objections to X; paragraph C explains why these objections are wrong; and paragraph D provides further evidence of why X is correct. This is clearly superior to: paragraph A saying that some people say X; paragraph B saying that some people say Y; conclusion C says that, on balance, the personal opinion of the author is X. The reader is unlikely ever to be persuaded by the latter approach, because you have given them no reason to agree with you.
  • When you’ve finished writing your essay, check it for consistency. Is the structure and argument set out in your introduction actually executed in the body of the essay, or does it wander off-track? If there’s a mismatch, restructure your essay or change your introduction. Ensure all the parts of the essay are logically coherent.
  • Also proof-read the work for spelling, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and ensure all references are provided. As third-year students there is no excuse for sloppily-presented work, and any such work will be graded lower on presentation; poor citation practices and wrongly formatted references/ bibliographies will also attract lower marks for representation of sources.