This paper examines the impact of industrial estates on surrounding villages in Karawang Regency, West Java, Indonesia. A few large industrial estates have been in operation since the latter part of the 1990s, with hundreds of tenants, mainly auto manufacturers and related component suppliers. The rapid inflow of industry and decrease of agriculture-related jobs have prompted villagers to look for jobs in the industrial estates. However, there is a significant mismatch between the average educational and skill levels of the villagers and those required by companies in the estates. Competition with a growing number of immigrants with higher educational or skill levels has made it difficult for local villagers to obtain jobs in industry, while newcomers with a more secure job status are forming a new socioeconomic order outside the existing village settlements. The study also found that recruitment of regular staff had decreased rapidly since the introduction of a new labor law in 2003. Widespread use of fixed-term contracts and temporary agency workers has made jobs in industrial estates fragile and short-term. This gives companies flexibility of employment but at the same time is producing a growing pool of disenchanted and frustrated village youths in the surrounding environment. Further assistance to the villagers is desirable—not only for their sake but also for local government and industry if they hope for a long-term peaceful and conducive business environment.

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This paper focuses on the processes of producing fermentation starters in Cambodia, in order to explore the dispersal routes of starters in Southeast Asia. Spices, herbs, and a sweet ingredient are widely used to make starters in Cambodia, and many people put new starters on rice husks or straw. These widely distributed techniques may have originated in one place and later dispersed throughout Southeast Asia. Two different production processes are used in Cambodia: one based on a “rice wine culture”—characterized by not using rice liquor, not using old starters, using leaves and branches to cover the starters, and not drying the starters; and the other based on a “rice liquor culture”—characterized by the use of rice liquor (blown over the starters), old starters (scattered over new starters and/or mixed with rice powder), and the addition of sugar without using plant materials. “Rice wine culture” seems to be the older type of process in Cambodia, and new techniques related to the “rice liquor culture” probably infiltrated the region later. The use of plants and the rituals related to starter production are very important in understanding the dispersal routes of starters in Southeast Asia.

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Focusing on the analysis of mortuary rites, this article explores how the Bunun, an Austronesian-speaking indigenous people of Taiwan, conceptualize and deal with death in particular historical contexts. It suggests that death rituals should not be treated as self-contained wholes or closed symbolic systems but as busy intersections of multiple social processes. The paper examines how colonial policies and the introduction of Christianity have transformed the ways in which death is dealt with among the Bunun, and how they continue to pose questions on how to deal with rage in grief for this formerly headhunting group by producing hesitations and disagreements over the moral and social propriety of alternative ritual forms. When the consequences of social change are taken seriously, the extent to which ritual forms organize and shape the experience of mourning needs to be reconsidered.

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When we look at way ASEAN is perceived, it is easy to see that the organization has undergone a dramatic change in image over the past few decades of its activity. The aim of this paper is to systematically analyze the dramatic changes that ASEAN's image has undergone, by relying on documented evidence.
 ASEAN came to be associated with an image of success in the 1980s, due to two main actors. The first was the organization's attempt to resolve the Cambodian dispute as a unified body, and the other was the rapid economic development of ASEAN member countries.
 However, the process through which ASEAN's image of success was formulated was indeed a complicated one. In fact, the success of the organization's attempts to resolve the Cambodian dispute was limited, and the economic growth of ASEAN countries occurred independently of the organization's activities.

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This article aims to reveal urban transport policy in Bangkok in the eras of “development” and “democratization” from the end of the 1950s to the mid 1970s, focusing on the politicization of bus services. A unification plan of numerous bus operators led by the Ministry of Transport surfaced at the beginning. Subsequently, Bangkok Municipality’s plan, supported by the Ministry of Interior, came out. However, both suffered setbacks through public opinion and leadership fights within the government. Private operators finally pushed forward with unification independently, though this ultimately failed.
 When a fare hike in 1968 was withdrawn due to fierce civic resistance, a policy of reducing expenditure instead of introducing fare hikes was considered. As a result of this, a conclusion was reached that there was no method apart from expenditure reduction through unifying existing operators. This unification plan was carried over into the era of “democratization” after the collapse of the Thanom government in 1973, and it made progression within the limits of the license renewal in 1975. Eventually, the plan was settled by the installation of a state-owned company. Then, it was reorganized into the public authority; the Bangkok Mass Transport Authority.
 As the politicization of bus services progressed, the unification plan became a tool for materializing populist style policy. Political decisions made in regards to countermeasures during general elections and the realization of campaign pledges greatly influenced the realization of unification. Unification in the form of a public authority was finally achieved in order to realize the Khukkrit Government’s populist style policy; free bus services for the poor. However, since the bus service has deteriorated, it has not functioned to the degree that politicians expected.

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Several aspects of Vietnamese society and people have changed since the adoption of the Doi Moi policy at the 6th Communist Party National Congress in 1986. It has led to a rapid spread of higher education all over the country, including mountainous regions where many minority people live. Since the beginning of 1990s, The Government of Vietnam and the Ministry of Education and Training have implemented some affirmative action policies to increase the number of minority university students. This paper shows which minority students have gained as a result of these affirmative action policies.
 In the 1990s, a mass movement towards higher education, which had once been only available for a small number of the elite, suddenly expanded, even to minorities in mountain regions. There were two main reasons why affirmative action for minority students led to higher education. Firstly, the employment allotment system of the Vietnamese government was abolished at the beginning of the Doi Moi period and people were able to choose the career paths they wished for. Secondly, the change of the Vietnamese government’s minority policy aimed to give them a main part in the administrative control in mountainous regions.
 The findings herein, based on research undertaken at four major universities in Hanoi during 2004 to 2005 indicate that affirmative action brought about two major consequences for minority behavior in relation to higher education. Firstly, affirmative action helped minority children who live in undeveloped remote regions or who are “distant minorities” from the center of national power and offer them opportunities to access university education. In fact, some people have chosen to change their ethnic status in order to gain from the affirmative action policies. On the other hand, students who have a particular ethnic background tend to proceed to universities more easily. This is because affirmative action was not intended to equally expand learning opportunities to “all minorities,” but was also based on the principle of competition to select and train future elite government officials for the mountainous regions.

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