The Pacific Basin Research Center is embarking on a new project to study the

history and practice of development theory as it has evolved over the past 65

years. Since the end of WWII, public officials, activists, economists, and

public administration experts have all played significant roles in the design

and implementation of development strategies in underdeveloped countries

around the world. The socio-economic changes wrought by these interven-

tions have had wide-ranging consequences – from the disastrous to the mi-

raculous to the prosaic. The project will critically assess these changes and

their effects on target countries, point to the remaining challenges and the cur-

rent avenues for addressing them, and from this attempt to deduce the likely

future evolution of development thinking and practice.

The insights about how development thinking has evolved will be illuminat-

ing to many. Understanding how the same debates, theories, and doctrines

have been around for decades under different labels will be useful for appreci-

ating the enduring tradeoffs and challenges of development. It is important to

understand that some approaches have been lauded or disparaged inappropri-

ately because they are not understood in the context of their times, or because

(Continued on page 2)

Soka University of Amer-

ica established the Pa-

cific Basin Research Cen-

ter (PBRC) in 1991 to

study public policy inter-

actions in the Pacific Rim.

The Center engages in

directed research on se-

lected topics and themes

relevant to the Asia-

Pacific region, including

the Latin American border

-states, and its peaceful

development. In keeping

with the educational mis-

sion of the University, the

Center also sponsors

campus conferences,

occasional lecture series,

and student seminars

that extend and support

its research activities.

Research, Activities,

and News of the

P a c i f i c B a s i n

Research Center,

Soka University of

America

Soka University of America, Aliso Viejo

UPDATE

Contents

Newest PBRC Research

Project

1

Director’s Message 3

Summer Grant

Recipients

4

Director in the News 5

2010 Distinguished

Speaker Series

6

PBRC in the News 8

PBRC-Sponsored

Student Activities 9

Newest PBRC

Publication

11

Number 22

PBRC Embarks on a New Project

“The Evolution of Development Theory and Practice”

Winter/Spring 2011

Research, Activities, and News of

the Pacific Basin Research Center,

Soka University of America

PBRC UPDATE

they coincided with global good

times or bad. It is equally impor-

tant to appreciate how and why de-

velopment theories and doctrines

do not translate directly into prac-

tice. Awareness of how develop-

ment approaches have evolved will

yield needed historical perspective

among today’s development theo-

rists and practitioners. When devel-

opment decision-makers consider

the options for economic policy,

governance, or foreign assistance,

they will be far better prepared in

knowing how the doctrines

evolved, what understanding lay

behind them, and what considera-

tions drove their adoption.

Development strategies have three

major, inter-related components:

economic strategies, governance

and administration, and the geopo-

litical approaches of donor govern-

ments and international organiza-

tions. The multi-authored book to

emerge from this project will be

structured along these lines with

chapter divisions reflecting the im-

portant distinctions among theory,

doctrine, institutions, and practice.

These aspects obviously interact:

theories are important in shaping

the doctrines by which developing-

country governments and interna-

tional development-assistance

agencies operate, yet these doc-

trines also reflect the structural con-

straints these institutions face. By

the same token, the practice of de-

velopment (choice of particular

measures) may be guided by devel-

opment doctrines, but will also be

shaped by practical economic and

political constraints. Institutional

development, which will be cov-

ered in the chapters on governance,

both reflects theory and doctrine

and shapes how theories are re-

ceived and doctrines formulated.

Different actors and organizations

are also involved in generating eco-

nomic and organizational theories,

in developing broad governmental

approaches or doctrines, in devising

the formal institutions and routines

to implement these doctrines, and

in applying and adapting the doc-

trines in the face of political and

economic challenges. For example,

development theories emerge

largely from academia and the re-

search divisions of governments

and development assistance agen-

cies; doctrines from the economic

ministries, planning departments,

and public-administration oversight

agencies; institutional changes from

governance-reform agencies, legis-

latures, and judicial bodies; and

practice from the myriad front-line

agencies that cope with specific

economic and administrative meas-

ures.

Over the Summer of 2010 PBRC

Associate Director, John M. Hef-

fron, produced ―A Preliminary

Guide to Archival Records and Se-

lected Secondary Writings, 1944-

1980.‖ In his introduction he

writes: ―Development theory and

practice has evolved in a number of

different, often contrary directions

since the end of World War II. Sev-

eral factors have contributed to this

complex circuitry in the history of

development aid: the work of natu-

ral selection (the whole question of

adaptability to partisan political de-

mands, to bureaucratic infighting,

and to circumstances on the

ground) in the often precipitous rise

and fall of development institu-

tions; as political priorities shift, the

re-ordering of the goals of national

self-interest, humanitarianism, and

international peace and security;

changes in the empowerment of

civil society organizations; coop-

eration and competition between

private and public sector forces of

development; a chequered history

of linkages between military assis-

tance and economic aid; and the

increasing play of anonymous

global institutions and actors. These

and other factors,‖ he writes

―complicate considerably the task

of analyzing the large and growing

literature of economic aid and de-

velopment, and extracting from it

lessons for future policy-makers.

And although researchers have

touched on one or more of these

factors to varying degrees, there is

no single comprehensive study of

development that has taken full ad-

vantage of both the primary and

secondary sources available to the

modern development scholar. So

voluminous are these records that it

is no wonder that few have at-

tempted the task of synthesis.‖ This

multi-year, multi-volume study is

the first of its kind to attempt such a

synthesis.

Page 2

The Pacific Basin Research Center's three-

year project on Physical Infrastructure

Development: Balancing the Growth, Eq-

uity, and Environmental Imperatives was

published by Palgrave Macmillan in May

2010. The book, which I co-edited with

Professor Corinne Krupp of Duke Univer-

sity, addresses the key sustainability chal-

lenges faced by the infrastructure sector,

ranging from transport to energy, in both

developing and developed countries. The

contributions, reflecting the perspectives of

economics, engineering, planning, political

science, and urban design, examine the

impact of alternative financing and pricing

arrangements on the sharing of burdens

and benefits, and the opportunities and

risks of public-private partnerships. They

also assess the emerging approaches for

restoring ecosystems degraded by past

infrastructure development, and the strate-

gies for promoting farsighted infrastructure

planning and protecting vulnerable people

impacted by physical infrastructure expan-

sion.

In December 2010 Palgrave Macmillan

also published Cultural Change and Per-

sistence: New Perspectives on Develop-

ment, which PBRC Associate Director

Professor John M. Heffron and I have co-

edited. The contributions explore the ways

that traditional cultural practices either

change or persist in the face of social and

economic development. The unifying argu-

ment is that adapting cultural practices and

beliefs is often the key to the preservation

of core values and societal integ-

rity—economic development

and culture can co-evolve in

healthy ways as long as both are

promoted with the objective of enhancing

human dignity.

Our multi-country project on the linkages

between economic development and inter-

group conflict has now generated twenty

case-study contributions assessing country

experiences and economic strategies, cov-

ering both relatively peaceful and rela-

tively conflict-ridden nations. Soka Uni-

versity of America Professors Edward

Feasel and John M. Heffron have written

papers for the project, as have experts from

ten other universities. An overview book

and several books of case-study contribu-

tions are in preparation.

Professor Heffron and I participated in the

June East-West Center Workshop on Pol-

icy Sustainability, which also coincided

with the release of the book, Engaging

Civil Society: Emerging Trends in Democ-

ratic Governance, co-sponsored by the

PBRC. This workshop afforded us the

opportunity to begin designing another

project in collaboration with the Director

of the East-West Center’s Asia-Pacific

Governance and Democracy Initiative, Dr.

Shabbir Cheema, who is also on the PBRC

Advisory Committee. The project will

focus on the evolution of development

thinking and practice since WWII, and the

challenges that the development field faces

today. Both the theo-

ries and the practice of

development econom-

ics, development ad-

ministration, and poli-

cymaking processes

have changed dramati-

cally over the past 65 years, with more

changes likely in the years ahead. The

development agenda has expanded to em-

phasize human rights, poverty alleviation,

sustainability and culture, very much in

keeping with the fundamental PBRC

theme of humanistic development, and the

diagnosis of development problems has

also changed dramatically, with more em-

phasis on institutions and the balance be-

tween state control and free markets. A

review of the literature on development is

already underway; workshops and confer-

ences are being planned.

Page 3 Winter/Spring 2011 PBRC UPDATE

From the Director

William L. Ascher

Director

Pacific Basin Research Center

PBRC Staff and Advisory Committees

Soka University of America

Student Advisory Committee

Jolie Tea (Class of 2011)

Junhong Cheng (Class of 2012)

Sho Nakagome (Class of 2013)

Takumi Rader (Class of 2013)

Rhythm Sethi (Class of 2014)

Advisory Committee

Shabbir Cheema - East-West Center

Edward Feasel - SUA

Dongyoun Hwang - SUA

Dean Jamison, UCLA

Staff

William L. Ascher,

Director

John M. Heffron,

Associate Director

Jayson Chang,

Administrative/Research Assistant

Page 4

In the Fall of

2007, drawing

upon legal prece-

dents established

during the Nuremberg Trials, the Ar-

gentine supreme court made an un-

precedented decision to do away with a

set of amnesty laws called Punto Fi-

nal. These laws provided court-

protected immunity to military officers

and civilian leaders for crimes against

humanity committed during The Dirty

War, a period of history between 1976

and 1983 in which an estimated 30,000

people were brutally tortured, killed

and disappeared in an international,

collective genocide referred to as Op-

eration Condor (or Plan Condor 1973-

1980). Operation Condor’s success at

fighting what was perceived to be in-

ternational terrorism depended upon

the close cooperation of the military

governments of Chile, Paraguay, Bra-

zil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Bolivia.

In the years following the Dirty Wars

of Latin America, victims, historians

and activists noticed a disappearance

of documentary evidence that paral-

leled the disappearances of human be-

ings. During the Clinton administra-

tion, thousands of pages of classified

CIA documents about the Dirty War

years were released to the public under

a controversial order issued by Made-

line Albright. While this is a watershed

moment in the history of archives

about state-sponsored terror being

made available to the populace, a

handful of international human rights

lawyers, judges, journalists and power-

ful grassroots organizations like The

Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, and docu-

mentary filmmakers have long been

working on these topics. This rich in-

teraction made possible by the avail-

ability and circulation of these texts

offers an unprecedented opportunity to

analyze what has been called Latin

America’s Holocaust in all its com-

plexity.

The PBRC grant allowed me to do re-

search in the summer of 2009 toward

examining the role that documentary

film has played in cataloging these

atrocities and consequently, in provid-

ing groundbreaking evidence that has

both paved the way for democratic

reform policy in certain countries, and

helped to change complicated amnesty

laws that have blocked the prosecution

of crimes against humanity, thus im-

pacting the international legal commu-

nity. In particular, I established

contact and an ongoing scholarly

relationship with Argentine po-

litical filmmaker Alejandro Fernandez

Moujan, who has made documentary

films on social genocide, Peronism and

artists working on themes related to the

Dirty Wars in Latin America. My in-

terest in this subject is a rhetorical one.

I am interested in the power of and

other primarily visual media to influ-

ence social groups and ultimately, hu-

man rights legislation.

Kristi Wilson received her Ph.D. from

the University of California, San Diego

in 1999 in Comparative Literature and

has since authored many publications

among them an Introduction to The

Satryricon of Petronius and several

articles and reviews for academic jour-

nals such as Screen, Literature/Film

Quarterly, and the Yearbook of Com-

parative and General Literature. Prior

coming to SUA in 2008, she was a part

of the Stanford Program in Writing and

Rhetoric faculty from 2004.

Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

Kristi M. Wilson, PhD

Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Composition

Documentary Film and Plan Condor In Latin America

Beginning in 2005, the PBRC inaugurated a Summer Research

Grants program for Soka University of America faculty. The Summer

Research Grants are intended as ―seed money‖ to help faculty prepare

proposals to grant-making organizations for external funding and as a

means of disseminating knowledge about the Pacific Basin in fields

in which SUA faculty are doing research and offering courses.

SUA Faculty Summer Stipend Program

Page 5

The Buddhist

monasteries in

G a n d h a r a

(NW India/

Af ghan i s t an

and Pakistan) had multiple roles,

social, economic and intellectual.

They were part of a system of ex-

change networks of traders, mer-

chants and kings. Evidences point

out that they were active partici-

pants in an exchange of money

transactions, such as lending

money, raising funds for construc-

tion and maintenance of an elabo-

rate monastic institution. They lived

by elaborate Buddhist monastic and

administrative rules. As pilgrimage

sites they drew a large heterogene-

ous population. The monks as

teachers,provided an attractive reli-

gious doctrine that favored urban

living and developing the monastic

centers into places for rejuvenation

and worship. Monasteries had an

attractive ideology that drew all

types of elite groups, and legiti-

mized the prestige and position of

the Kushan kings.

The Kushans patronized a variety

of cults and gods - Sumerian, Per-

sian, Indian Buddha and Shaivism -

which were not antagonistic cults,

but reflected a political dimension

of royal religious patronage. By

incorporating local cults, they

claimed their legitimacy over them

and patronage was a major way of

domination, and power. Viewed

from this perspective, Buddhist art

and institutions developed largely

under the patronage and supervi-

sion of monasteries which were In-

dian in religion, ideology, organiza-

tion and social networks. This is

substantiated by the construction of

devakulas in Mat in Mathura and

Surkh Kotal which signified Ku-

shans as special patrons of Bud-

dhism.

Thus the trans-Asian overland trade

network led to a transformation of

the region, with magnificent Bud-

dhist monastic sites that revealed

their strong networks of

power with merchants, kings,

and local population. They

were dynamic interpreters of the

monastic tradition which began and

spread to Gandhara and continued

to be preserved in architecture, im-

agery and ritual practice. Art was

also a means for the diffusion of

Buddhist philosophy, way of life

and a unifying element of cultures.

Aesthetically, the enigma of the

sublime and determination of the

essence of beauty was a product of

the sangha. Monasteries were a vis-

ual statement of internal dynamics

of religious patronage and power

that accommodated the challenges

of the times. Art was a visual form

of power that expressed the dynam-

ics of political and religious net-

works of transaction. The paper is

based more on historical facts than

theory and recognizes North West

India not as a passive receptacle of

Greek culture, but as an active

player in the formation of this

school of art.

Nalini Rao joined the Soka Univer-

sity of America faculty as Professor

of World Art in September 2000.

She holds two Ph.D.’s: one in Art

History and the other in Ancient

History and Archaeology.

Nalini N. Rao, PhD

Associate Professor of World Art

William Ascher’s book, Bringing in the

Future: Strategies for Farsightedness and

Sustainability in Developing Countries,

won the International Political Science

Association’s Charles H. Levine Prize for

best book on public policy published in

2009.

The International Political Science Asso-

ciation, founded in 1949 under the aus-

pices of UNESCO, is an international

scholarly association devoted to the ad-

vancement of political science around the

world.

MIT Press just published his co-authored

book, Knowledge and Environmental Pol-

icy, and Palgrave Macmillan published his

co-edited PBRC book, Physical Infrastruc-

ture Development.

Director in the News

Winter/Spring 2011 PBRC UPDATE

Power and Rel ig ious Patronage in the Making of Gandhara Art

Page 6

2009-2010 PBRC Distinguished Speaker Series

“Water Barons vs. Water Warriors: New Water Wars”

Friday, April 16th, 2010

On April 16, 2010, Hilal Elver, a distinguished legal scholar and leading authority on interna-

tional water rights, addressed SUA students on the topic: ―Water Barons vs. Water Warriors:

New Water Wars.‖ Dr. Elver has been a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the University of

California Santa Barbara since 2002. She has a law degree and a Ph.D from the University of

Ankara Law School where she started her teaching career. During this period, she was also ap-

pointed by the Turkish government as the founding legal advisor of the Ministry of Environment.

Later she became the General Director of Women’s Status in the Prime Minister’s Office. In

1994, she was appointed to the UNEP Chair in Environmental Diplomacy by the United Nations

Environment Program at the Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies in Malta. Since

1996 she has been teaching at several American universities. In 1993 she was a Fulbright Scholar

at the University of Michigan Law School in Arbor, and 1996-1998 she was a visiting fellow at

the Center of International Studies at Princeton University. Her publications have focused mainly

on international environmental law, and international human rights law. Her book, Peaceful Uses

of International Rivers: Case of Euphrates and Tigris Rivers, was published in 2002.

In her talk Elver contrasted the efforts of governmental, intergovernmental and civil society

groups to manage and monitor access to the world’s supply of fresh water with the growing sale,

ownership and exploitation of scarce water supplies by large private companies and corporations

as well as by international financial institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, questioning

the implications of privatization for the democratic management and distribution of such a vital

public utility. The marketing and exchange of large resources of the world’s fresh water by a

small coterie of ―water barons‖ to the highest bidder effectively excludes over 1 billion of the

world’s poor from access to safe drinking water. Not until governments recognize that clean wa-

ter is a human right will we begin to see the necessary regulation of the private sector in this vital

area of human health and welfare.

Hilal Elver, Ph.D.

The PBRC Distinguished Speaker

Series brings to the University

world-renowned scholars and pol-

icy-makers whose work reinforces

the Center’s research goals by

contributing to the humane and

peaceful development of the Asia-

Pacific region.

Hilal Elver

Photos by Mitsu Kimura, SUA Archivist and Photographer

Winter/Spring 2011 PBRC UPDATE

Page 7

2010-2011 PBRC Distinguished Speaker Series

Please visit our website at:

pbrc.soka.edu

Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

Garry Brewer, Ph.D.

The Business of the Environment:

Trends and Challenges of Natural Resource Management

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

Dr. Garry Brewer

On November 16th, 2010, Garry Brewer, a distinguished legal scholar and leading authority on

international water rights, addressed SUA students on the topic: ―The Business of the Environment:

Trends and Challenges of Natural Resource Management.‖ Dr. Brewer is a leader in the field of

policy science with expertise in environmental management. He began his professional career at

the RAND Corporation in 1970, where he was a senior staff member of the social science depart-

ment. Between 1991 and 1998, he was the dean of the University of Michigan’s School of Natural

Resources & Environment and also a professor at the Michigan Business School. He has been the

Frederick K. Weyerhaeuser Professor of Resource Policy and Management at Yale University

since 2001. His primary research has been focused on assessing organizational effectiveness and

building institutional capacity, especially related to conservation and environmental organizations.

In his lecture Brewer discussed the importance of natural resource management, emphasizing what

he calls the ―no regrets strategy.‖ Doing nothing to solve environmental problems is a decision;

therefore the ―no regrets strategy‖ suggests decisions should be made with common sense, which is

not always taken into account. As environmental problems continue to exist in daily life, the typi-

cal MBA is not sufficient in dealing with those problems. Brewer argues for the necessity

to bridge the gap between environmental and business concerns, recommending the de-

velopment of joint degree programs to promote the field of environmental management.

He concluded with a final message to all the attendees: ―Don’t be discouraged. Take

risks.‖

Page 8

PBRC in the News

The Pacific Basin Research Center,

Soka University of America partnered

recently with the East West Center and

the United Nations University’s Insti-

tute for Sustainability and Peace to

hold a high-level workshop on Sustain-

ability and Policy-Making: Reconcil-

ing Short and Long-term Policy Needs

in Democratic Governance at the East-

West Center, Honolulu from June 30

to July 1, 2010. Participants included

scholars, intergovernmental experts,

and NGOs from Japan, United States,

Malaysia, Korea, Brunei Darussalam,

Australia, and Canada, including offi-

cials from the United Nations, the

Government of Pakistan, the Malay-

sian Human Rights Commission, and

the East-West Center.

The workshop focused on an emerging

concern for democratic governance –

how the concept of sustainability can

inform policymaking that addresses

pressing challenges without compro-

mising the long-term needs of future

generations.

After a series of plenary ses-

sions in the morning of the

first day, the par-

ticipants divided

into three groups.

Each group exam-

ined sustainability

of policymaking

related to a set of

issues including

climate change,

education and

health, human de-

velopment, natural

resource manage-

ment, poverty alleviation, population

growth, food security, peace-building,

regional cooperation, and the financial

crisis.

The workshop was part of a multi-year

Asia Pacific Governance and Democ-

racy Initiative led by East West Center

Senior Fellow and PBRC Advisory

Board member, G. Shabbir Cheema.

Funding for the

The initiative draws on support from

the Institutional Partners Group (IPG),

a consortium of multilateral and bilat-

eral institutions, including Harvard

University, the Asian Development

Bank, the Association of Southeast

Asian Nations, and the Pacific Basin

Research Center of Soka University of

America.

Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

PBRC Partners with the East-West Center and

the United Nations University’s Institute for Sustainability and Peace

The various participants in the Workshop on Sustainability and Policy-making: Reconciling Short and Long-term Policy Needs in Democratic Governance

Page 9

PBRC-Sponsored Summer 2010 Activities

From July 27th to August 7th, 2010,

Seon Mi Jin attended an international

peace study course called Hiroshima

and Peace. This program was organ-

ized by Hiroshima City University and

Hiroshima Peace Institution in Japan.

According to Jin, she was able to

achieve a better firsthand understand-

ing of peace by learning the history of

Hiroshima, the first and last city that

experienced the Atomic bomb. She

also came to realize that students have

a unique mission not only to pursue

peace but also to discover ways of con-

tributing to it by entering more fully

into the

lectures

and discus-

sions on

peace, war and nuclear culture, such

as the course provided. Jin had oppor-

tunities to speak with Hiroshima

Mayors as the student representative

of the program, and meet with Atomic

bomb survivors. On her last day in

Hiroshima, Seon Mi Jin participated

in the Annual Peace Memorial Cere-

mony 2010 attended by the current

UN secretary General and the ambas-

sador of the U.S. All these activities

and her coursework encouraged Jin to

develop her own understanding of

peace, one that begins with the state of

individuals’ mind seeking co-existence

and having empathy for all human suf-

fering.

Please visit our website at:

pbrc.soka.edu

Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

Hiroshima and Peace

Seon Mi Jin was interviewed by the Mainichi newspa-

per about Korean atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima. This article was published on the Kansai region of the

This summer Garrett Braun received

$1600 from the PBRC to travel to El

Salvador to implement a creative edu-

cation program for rural school-age

children. Braun brought art supplies to

the community and formed four youth

groups where he and the children

would first dialogue on a range of top-

ics, from personal values to commu-

nity resources, which the youth were

invited to draw their interpretations of

these things. He used a United States-

based NGO called Doctors for Global

Health (DGH – www.dghonline.org) to

connect with a community-based, le-

gally-recognized NGO in El Salvador:

Asociación de Campesinos para el

Desarrollo

Humano

(Association

of Farmers

for Human Development).

While working with the children,

Braun had the idea to start a his-

tory book project in addition. He

brought 25 illiterate elders to-

gether with 25 literate youth to

record their stories. The children

then drew pictures to accompany

the stories. Currently, Braun is

developing the book with help

from members of the community,

and an NGO called Project

CREED, which will be publishing

the work. He will return to the

community to deliver the book.

Garrett Braun would like to thank all

the PBRC supporters for giving him

this opportunity to learn and grow in

ways that could not have been possible

without the Center’s funding.

Creative Education in Rural El Salvador

Garrett Braun with one of his groups in La Presa

Page 10 Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

PBRC-Sponsored Summer 2010 Activities (Cont.)

This past summer, the PBRC sup-

ported seven SUA students to attend

the first annual HPAIR (Harvard Pro-

ject for Asian and International Rela-

tions) Asia Conference. Unlike

previous years, HPAIR com-

bined their annual Business

and Academic Conferences

into the Asia Conference.

The HPAIR 2010 Asia Con-

ference was held in Singa-

pore from August 20th to the

24th, hosted by Singapore

Management University.

Various issues were high-

lighted throughout the con-

ference in panels covering

such diverse topics as inter-

national law, environmental

security, energy, business

strategy & management, and

entrepreneurship. "I was able to attend

the International Business Manage-

ment Panel fully funded by the PBRC

grant. Not only was I able to experi-

ence Singaporean culture, but I was

also able to make vital career-related

connections. For example, I met the

Japanese CEO of McDonalds and the

marketing director for PRADA. Both

of whom impressed me with their in-

ternational business experiences. Pur-

suing international business manage-

ment as a possibility after SUA, I feel

that this experience has given me a lot

of insight towards my future goals,"

said Maiko Miura, SUA class of 2013.

HPAIR Delegates representing Soka University of America

(left to right) Megumi Tanaka, Sho Nakagome, Jenny Ng, Maiko

Miura, Jayson Chang, Aoi Sato, Teruo Katsukawa

HPAIR 2010 Asia Conference

In June of 2010, Soka University of

America students Agnes Conrad and

Ariel Labasan travelled to Kathmandu,

Nepal to participate in the Rural Com-

munity Development Program

(RCDP). The program, locally oper-

ated within Kathmandu, provides vol-

unteer opportunities related to a num-

ber of important social issues in the

city and the opportunity to stay with a

Nepali host family. With PBRC fund-

ing, Conrad and Labasan volunteered

through RCDP, to teach English to

Tibetan monks in exile at Swoyambu-

nath monastery. The students taught

two classes daily, in addition to travel-

ling around the city conducting inter-

views, visiting refugee camps and rele-

vant commercial centers. As part of a

larger project, the stu-

dents visited and met

with many individuals

and organizations active in the

Tibetan community in exile in

Nepal. The students met with

NGO leaders, refugees, and the

head of the unofficial Tibetan

embassy in Nepal to discuss

current problems and social

activism initiatives in the Dias-

pora. The English teaching ex-

perience allowed the opportu-

nity to investigate shifting ven-

ues of cultural preservation as learning

English is increasingly promoted by

older monks. The main objective was

to collect research and firsthand ac-

counts (via translation when English

skills were insufficient) of the affects

of displacement on culture, and the

importance of the Diaspora in transna-

tionalizing culture. PBRC funds were

granted and used to pay a program fee

that benefits RCDP’s school building

initiatives, and to cover the cost of the

students’ airfare from California to

Kathmandu.

Rural Community Development

Program in Nepal

Ariel Lasbasan (far left) and Agnes Conrad (far right) during

the development program in Nepal

Page 11 Winter/Spring 2011

PBRC UPDATE

Cultural Change and Persistence: New Perspectives on Development

The Pacific Basin Research Cen-ter’s latest publication Cultural Change and Persistence: New Perspectives on Develop-ment edited by William Ascher and John M. Heffron came out with Palgrave McMillan in December 2010.

The book address the complex chal-

lenge of pursuing development while safeguarding cherished aspects of deeply-rooted cultural practices and beliefs . Through cases from multiple world re-gions, the authors tackle the thorny problem of how to define and identify cultural aspects that require safeguarding and persistence. They document how leaders and activists use culture to shape development and vice versa, with exam-ples ranging from use of historical un-derstandings to promote or critique eco-

nomic developments strategies to efforts to modify cultural practices in order to prevent their decline. The cases provide penetrating insights in effective strate-gies for pursuing both cultural integrity and development.

“This work shrewdly and compel-

lingly advances the important topic of culture and economic development, en-riching efforts ranging from anthropol-ogy to World Bank economists. The authors cut through and across older formulations, for example, in their use-ful comparison of globalization and modernization and in their suggestive correlations of cultural factors as inhibit-ing and energizing development. As one favoring analysis both contextualizing and generalizing, I recommend this

book for scholars and practitioners.” - James Peacock, Kenan Professor

of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina and former president of the American Anthropological Associa-tion.

Page 12 Winter/Spring 2011 PBRC UPDATE

Soka University of America

1 University Drive

Aliso Viejo, CA 92656

Contact: PBRC Assistant—

Jayson Chang

Phone: 949.480.4782

Fax: 949.480.4261

E-mail: jtran@soka.edu

This issue of the PBRC Update is a tribute to all those affected by the recent earthquake and

tsunami in Japan. We express our deepest sympathies to the people of Japan as they combat

one the greatest natural disasters in the country’s history. Notwithstanding the great loss in

human lives and property, the Japanese people have managed to muster extraordinary re-

serves of courage, strength, and tenacity as they face and overcome this terrible circumstance.

The global community is coalescing to help Japan regain its foothold and begin the long,

painful process of reconstruction. In the wake of this great tragedy, the Pacific Basin Research

Center wishes to reaffirm its commitment to research and scholarship dedicated to the ad-

vancement of peaceful global development.