Community Resilience
Resilience Building and Income Generation: Tools for Holistic Leadership Training in the Ugandan Context
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Casey Duthiers
Through a case study and qualitative research, this paper examines the impacts of institutionalized leadership training in the Ugandan context. After first establishing the current assets and strengths of the case study program, a cycle of dependency is identified, and suggestions are made for reversing this cycle. In response to the current cycle of dependency among communities led by alumni, it is suggested that the case study institution should consider implementing a curriculum to train leaders in holistic development. This curriculum would equip students to lead holistically by empowering community members to build resilience throughout their community and engaging in income generating projects. Suggestions are based on Asset-Based Community Development theory as well as input from local community development workers.
Innovative Disruptions to End Human Trafficking: Harnessing Technology and Collaborative Design
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Annalisa Enrile, Gabrielle Aquino Adriatico
Labor trafficking is the use of force, fraud, threat, or coercion for the purpose of involuntary servitude, peonage, debt bondage, or slavery. It is the most common form of human trafficking with approximately 25 million victims worldwide. Of the 25 million, 16 million are exploited in private sectors (domestic work, agriculture, and construction, with construction exploiting 7 million). These numbers don’t reflect full child labor counts due to differences in definition. Two major factors of labor trafficking are globalization and migration, both of which have create push/pull factors for cheaper labor and an increase profit, leaving migrant workers vulnerable to trafficking. For example, research shows that Thailand hosts approximately 4.9 million non-Thai residents in 2018. This has increased by 3.7 million since 2014. Migrant workers are estimated to contribute between 6 to 7 percent of Thailand’s Gross Domestic Product. This study highlights two aspects of construction labor trafficking in Thailand on both ends of the response continuum- prevention and intervention. These approaches address the need for transparency and economic alternatives. In one approach, the harnessing of technology for social good by increasing technology is shared. In our second method, the design of a collaborative intervention approach to provide economic intervention, training, and reintegration is discussed. This focuses on Cambodians and their families who migrate to Thailand for construction contracts. Both approaches are based on best practices and offer disruption and impact in the fight to end human trafficking.
Hope from the Hermit Kingdom: The Potential for Gender Subversion in North Korea
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Alisson Rowland
The heralding of the golden age of globalization highlights success stories from East Asia; Japan in the Meiji Era, South Korea’s Miracle on the Han River, and China’s rise as an economic bulwark. The glaring exception in this region is North Korea, which is so opposed to integration it is colloquially known as the Hermit Kingdom. But even this inward-looking state is subject to globalizing processes. Emerging information has depicted an unprecedented phenomena alluding to this; women are becoming the family’s breadwinners. This regional shift comes from a very unlikely source with potentially far-reaching implications. Feminist and International Political Economy literature have separately attempted to relate women’s economic roles to existing social relations. By combining their theoretical frameworks, a more holistic approach of the way(s) gender operates in economic discourse appears. Applying this mixed framework to the case study of North Korea illuminates how social practices can be relational and/or causal to economic practices, and what this could mean for more equitable gender relations.
