Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/llyons Recent documents in Assoc. Prof. Lenore Lyons en-us Sun, 31 May 2009 08:36:48 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/21 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/21 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 21:01:43 PST Studies of sexuality and the Internet have focused on how the web provides individuals with opportunities to perform new sexual acts and establish new sexual communities, thus challenging heteronormative models of sexuality. But Internet bulletin boards and chat rooms can also provide a medium for the recuperation and performance of forms of hetereosexual masculinity that have become marginalised and rendered unacceptable in the offline world. Faced with the challenges of the globalised economy and changing expectations about gender roles in the public and private spheres, some men seek to reclaim power over women through the performance of a hyper-sexualised subjectivity in a homosocial online space. The Sammyboy Times - a commercial sex information site aimed primarily at a Singaporean male audience - is such a space. In its members-only forum about sex tourism to the Indonesian island of Batam, Singaporean men escape from the demands of a heteronormative expression of masculinity predicated on the reproduction of the Singaporean state. But Sammyboy provides much more than a space for the expression of an alternative, transgressive masculinity; it also allows the men to produce a localised form of brotherhood in which the men share information and look out for each other's welfare in their encounters with Batam's sex workers. While descriptions of sex acts are ever present in the forum's 'international field reports', we argue that they are a vehicle for fraternity rather than eroticism or competitiveness. S. Williams http://works.bepress.com/llyons/20 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/20 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:59 PDT Extract: Female domestic workers are emblematic of the increasing movement of peoples across national borders. The global economic and cultural flows associated with transnational migration play a significant role in shaping the construction of gender in both sending and receiving countries by creating new forms of subjectivity and community, and destabilising traditional national boundaries. The interplay between local expressions of gender relations, and macro-level global processes, is central to the processes of nation-building and nationalism. This paper examines the material and discursive practices that produce foreign domestic workers as 'symbolic border guards' (Armstrong) between 'here' and 'there', between 'us' and 'them', within Singapore. L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/19 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/19 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:56 PDT The islands of Batam, Bintan and Karimun on the Indonesian border with Singapore and Malaysia have an extensive sex industry which caters predominantly to foreign visitors. This paper explores the place of 'sex as work' for women involved in the industry and the opportunities for class mobility that sex work may present to them. We argue that these opportunities are the product of the Riau Islands' particular spatiality, including a geographical proximity to Singapore and Malaysia, and a pattern of migration which has seen large numbers of temporary and long-term transmigrants from throughout the archipelago moving in and out of the islands in search of work. In this paper we explore these issues through the stories of two women, Lia and Ani, who - as a result of their marriages to foreign men - have moved out of the sex industry and into the lower middle class. M. Ford http://works.bepress.com/llyons/18 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/18 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:53 PDT In November 2002, a group of Singaporean activists established a group called The Working Committee 2 (TWC2) to advocate for the rights of foreign domestic workers in Singapore. By limiting both its lifespan and the scope of its activities the TWC2 avoided the requirement that all NGOs formally register under the Singapore Registrar of Societies. At the end of its year-long campaign, however, the group signalled its intention to continue with its advocacy work. The new TWC2 (now called Transient Workers Count Too) was registered in August 2004. For some commentators, the TWC2 represents a new phase in the People's Action party's (PAP) engagement with Singapore's 'civil society experiment' and a loosening up of the 'OB markers' (boundaries marking politically acceptable activism). An examination of the TWC2's experience, however, shows that the opportunities for Singaporean activists to address the politically fraught issues of citizenship and gender remain little changed. Nonetheless, the TWC2's success in raising the profile of foreign domestic workers has brought about some significant improvements in the regulatory regime governing the conditions of maid employment. L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/17 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/17 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:50 PDT Feminist approaches to the use of interviewing emphasise the importance of building rapport with respondents in order to achieve a successful research outcome. This 'participatory model' is concerned with addressing power differentials between researcher and researched and thus producing non-hierarchical, non-manipulative research relationships. We argue that the continued centring of rapport as a key interview strategy ignores both the nature of power relationships within the interview, as well as interviewee subjectivity. Drawing on our own experiences of interviewing we examine the ways in which both interviewer and interviewee are placed along intersecting axes of power. An analysis of the complex ways in which power operates within interviews shows us that interviewees are active participants in the creation of "the interview". Simply admonishing the interviewer to establish rapport ignores how the interviewee sees the interview, what she wishes to achieve, and how she will present herself. In contrast, focusing on the 'constructed' nature of the interview moment allows us to see how the interview as practice mediates the respondent's construction of her/self. L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/16 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/16 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:48 PDT The border studies literature makes a strong case against claims for unfettered transnationalism and 'borderlessness' in our 'globalizing world'. However, its focus on movement across borders means that it fails to address bordering practices that occur within the nation state as a result of transnational activity. In this paper we extend Cunningham and Heyman's concepts 'enclosure' and 'mobility' to confront the different layers of bordering (both physical and non-physical) that have occurred in Indonesia's Riau Islands since they became part of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS-GT). M. T. Ford http://works.bepress.com/llyons/15 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/15 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:45 PDT While migration studies scholars have paid considerable attention to internal migration within Indonesia, as well as to international labour migration flows from Indonesia, they have rarely considered the intersections between these two processes. This article addresses this gap through a close analysis of migration flows in one of Indonesia's key transit areas - the Riau Islands. We argue that in the borderlands the processes of internal and international migration are mutually constitutive. The Riau Islands' status as a transit zone for international labour migrants and as a destination for internal migrants determines its demographic profile and policies of migration control. Bordering practices are strongly influenced by the fact that not everyone who comes to the Riau Islands has the intention of moving on, and not all international migrants returning to the Islands intend to go home. Our analysis demonstrates that internal migration cannot be understood as a solely national phenomenon, and that international migration cannot only be explained by push and pull factors in sending and receiving destinations. These complexities necessitate research and policy responses that take into account the unique character of the transit provinces, and the role that their geographic location plays in the formation of multi-ethnic communities and the management of migration. L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/14 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/14 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:42 PDT In the Riau Islands of Indonesia significant numbers of women have entered into marriages with men from the nearby countries of Singapore and Malaysia. In many cases, neither spouse migrates after marriage: instead, husband and wife continue to reside in their country of origin. Their close geographical proximity means that the couples can see each other regularly while at the same time taking advantage of the economic opportunities presented by living on different sides of the border. These cross-border marriages challenge the normative model of the nuclear cohabiting couple/family. Our research into the motivations and desires of these cross-border couples living in the Riau borderlands reveals that space and mobility mediate their interactions with the Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian states, thus producing localised accounts of citizenship in which class mobility (rather than physical mobility) becomes the dominant frame through which they view state regulation of marriage and migration. This research challenges the state-centric tendencies in some of the scholarly literature on international and transnational marriage which places overwhelming emphasis on the ability of states to regulate access to citizenship rights. In presenting a view of inconsistent and sometimes incoherent states, we highlight the significant differences between perceptions of state influence and actual state practices in relation to the regulation of international marriages. L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/13 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/13 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:40 PDT There has been some interest in recent years in identifying the features or characteristics of an 'Asian' or 'Third-World' feminism (Moraga and Anzaldua 1983; Jayawardena 1986; Grewal et al. 1988; Mohanty 1991; Basu 1995; Alexander and Mohanty 1997). Part of this concern has focused on a costs-benefits analysis of Asian women 'coming out' as feminists in overtly hostile political climates. For many women embracing the identity 'feminist' continues to be a difficult process. Caught within multiple and shifting discourses that serve to inscribe place, allegiance and behaviour, being a feminist is not only an expression of individual political belief, but is often perceived as a rejection of dominant group identity. Within their own communities, women have often been forced to make a choice between their race, class or ethnic group, and their gender (see hooks 1981; Enloe 1989; Accad 1991). Where feminism is inscribed as part of an unreconstructed colonial discourse, 'choosing' to be a feminist becomes an even more dangerous exercise (see Phillip 1978; Mernissi 1987; Kandiyoti 1991; Heng 1997). L. T. Lyons http://works.bepress.com/llyons/12 http://works.bepress.com/llyons/12 Wed, 28 May 2008 17:09:37 PDT Extract: This article examines the limits of transnational feminist activism through a case study of domestic worker rights in Singapore. This work builds on my decade-long research on the feminist movement in Singapore and my activist involvement in the Singaporean women's organisation, the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE). I argue that the Singaporean state inhibits attempts by local feminist organizations to engage transnationally (either through links with international NGOs, or by confronting the forces of globalization locally). Singaporean activists have creatively responded to these challenges, but their actions remain constrained by the imperatives of the nation-state. L. T. Lyons