South East Asia panel at Political Studies Association meeting
----- Original Message -----
From: Martin Gainsborough
To: 'Vietnam Studies Group' ; 'Pietro P. Masina' ;
euroseas@yahoogroups.com ; 'P KHNG'
Sent: Tuesday, January 30, 2007 3:44 AM
Subject: [Vsg] South East Asia panel at Political Studies Association
meeting
Mekong Scholars Blaze a Trail to Bath
The Director of the Bristol-Mekong Project at the University of Bristol
, Dr Martin Gainsborough, has organised a unique panel for the
Political Studies Association's Annual Conference in Bath , England , 11-13
April 2007.
The Political Studies Association Annual Conference in Bath (11-13
April 2007) will be hosting a unique panel involving senior scholars and
practitioners from Vietnam , Cambodia , Laos and Myanmar ( Burma ). The
panel, entitled ‘Rethinking Participation in the Greater Mekong
Sub-region’, explores diverse modes of citizen participation in political,
economic and social life in one-party or dominant-party contexts. In so
doing, the panel avoids the tendency – commonplace in the West – to view
political change solely through a liberal democratic lens. The venture
is being organised for the PSA by Dr Martin Gainsborough, Lecturer in
Development Politics at the University of Bristol and director of the
Bristol-Mekong Project. The panel has been made possible by the generous
support of the Political Studies Association under its External
Relations programme and by co-funding from the Bristol-Mekong Project.
Speaking about the forthcoming event, Dr Gainsborough said, ‘We at the
Bristol-Mekong Project are very excited at the prospect of five
distinguished individuals from Southeast Asia coming to the UK for the annual
PSA meeting. These are countries where scholars don’t often have a
chance to exchange ideas with their colleagues abroad so we think the event
is unique in this respect. We are grateful for the PSA’s agreement to
host the panel and for its generous financial support. The event is
aimed at scholars in comparative politics as well as area specialists, so
we hope that both communities will come along and be enriched by the
experience.’
Dr Gainsborough will introduce the occasion with a short paper setting
out the panel’s theoretical context. He will be followed by Professor
Hoang Chi Bao, senior scholar at the Ho Chi Minh Political Academy in
Hanoi , the Vietnamese Communist Party’s leading theoretical institute.
Professor Bao will speak on Vietnamese experiences with ‘grassroots
democracy’, one of the ways that country is realising democracy whilst
retaining the Communist Party’s monopoly on power. Dr Wah Wah Maung, from
the Institute of Economics in Yangon ( Rangoon ), and Mr Khampha
Keomanichanh, who runs a not-for-profit organisation in Laos , will explore
different ways in which civil society is able to organise in restricted
political climates. The panel will thus consider diverse ways of
understanding civil society, particularly where its relationship with the
state is viewed in non-confrontational terms. One of the questions, which
will no doubt occupy the panel, is the extent to which such ways of
thinking and acting represent a real alternative to liberal democracy or
are simply a sop to authoritarianism. The final speaker will be Mr Sedera
Kim from the Cambodia Development Resource Institute in Phnom Penh . In
his paper ‘Democracy in Action’, Mr Sedera will be looking at the
realities of decentralisation in post-conflict Cambodia . Professor Terry
King from the University of Leeds will also present a paper exploring the
utility of the term ‘middle class’ when thinking about political change
in South East Asia. Dr Caroline Hughes, from the University of
Birmingham , and Ms Dang Huong Giang, from an environmental NGO in Vietnam ,
will be discussants. Registration is via the PSA Conference website.