Research Projects

 Contested Space and Resources in the Tonle Sap (Great Lake) of Cambodia
(Carl Grundy-Warr, NUS; Mak Sithirith, NUS; and Heoun Honey, Fisheries Action Coalition Team, Cambodia)

The Tonle Sap Lake is one of the most critical biophysical and ecological areas of the Mekong Basin, characterized by the wet season “reverse flow” which produced a huge natural floodplain. The Lake is also utilized intensively for its environmental resources. Our research focuses on the multiple resource conflicts of the lake, particularly over fisheries, and at how resource governance is greatly complicated by multi-scalar influences, complex territorialities, and conflicts between and within different fishers and communities in the lake system. Our research seeks to build upon the growing theoretical strands found in political ecology, as well as to develop new insights about the politics of resources and space in relation to issues of livelihood and environmental security, social and environmental justice, and concerns about ecological sustainability.

 The commercialization of the Diannan Small Ear Pig in Southern Yunnan, China: Producing local meat, diversifying the local economy
(Harvey Neo)

The Diannan Small Ear Pig is an indigenous breed of pig found only in Southern Yunnan. In 1993, it was accorded Second Level protected status by the Chinese government. Attempts have been made in the past to encourage local villagers to rear the pig at a subsistence scale (usually not more than two sows per household) to supplement their household income. Of late, however, there have been state supported initiatives to make the Diannan pig commercially viable in a larger scale. This paper describes the rearing of the Diannan pig at two different spatial scales: the household level and the commercial farm level. While brief comments will be made about the role of small scale rearing in diversifying household incomes, the main objective of the research is to outline the efforts made by the state and private firms to commercialize the pig. The problems faced in the commercialization process (e.g. marketing, sales and breeding difficulties) and the budding industry’s future prospect will be critically analysed.

 Financial development, productive efficiency and profitability of manufacturing firms in China
(Godfrey Yeung, with Vincent Mok at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Xiaoping Xu at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, and Zhaozhou Han at the Jinan University)

This project studies the effects of finance (including the provisions of loans through the banking system) on productive efficiency and to what extent efficiency affects profitability of manufacturing firms in China. This research project is partly financed by the Sino-British Research Fellowship Trust Fund.

 Asian firms in the global economy
(Henry Yeung, with Jang-sup Shin at the National University of Singapore and Yong-Sook Lee at Korea University; Funded by the National University of Singapore URC Grant)

This project, completed in end 2006, examined, in a comprehensive and comparative manner, the nature and extent of influence in global production networks orchestrated by leading firms from the four Asian Newly Industrialized Economies (Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan) in today’s global economy and evaluated the complex interrelationships between the firms’ influence in global production networks and the national-institutional contexts of their home economies. Over a period of three and a half years, the team members conducted over 75 personal interviews with CEOs, Managing Directors, and Presidents from the top 50 firms in Singapore (N=15), Hong Kong (N=20), Taiwan (N=24), and South Korea (N=13). Apart from these corporate interviews, we also conducted 18 personal interviews with top government officials such as Permanent Secretaries and Director- Generals from various ministries and statutory boards. Please click here for project website.

 Market transition and the spatial dynamics of Internet development in China
(Zhang Jun)

This is an extension of Jun Zhang’s dissertation project, looking at the spatially uneven development of China’s Internet industry from its initiation in late 1990s. This project is designed to elucidate the evolution of the regional unevenness of Internet service providers as a result of the micro-behavior of Internet firms and entrepreneurs shaped by the macro-structure of China’s market transition and global integration. Attention is paid to the interplay of key actors—Internet entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, overseas returnees, and government agents across different geographic scales. The different growth trajectories of key Internet clusters, such as Beijing and Shanghai, are compared.

 Regional competition, land development and local governance in China
(ZHANG Jun, with TAO Ran at Center for Chinese Agricultural Policy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China, and CAO Guangzhong, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Peking University, China)

Local states have become increasingly entrepreneurial and engaged in inter-regional competition in China’s post-Mao era. Driven by the ongoing governance mechanism and taking advantage of their monopolistic power, local governments use land conveyance as a principal means for local revenue generation and inter-regional competition. In such competition, regions with different resource endowments and levels of economic development are differently situated. While advanced regions often enjoy high-rate GDP growth and rising tax revenue, backward regions frequently have ended up with pseudo-urbanization and wasteful land use. Using both panel and survey data, in this project we examine the nature of China’s local governance mechanisms and socialist land markets, regional variations in the form of land development and urban expansion, and the compensation to and resettlement of land-deprived peasants.