State-Society-Culture Dynamics

Welcome to the 2nd semester! First, let us place into context ICT as the cutting edge industry for development. Under the general category of research and development (R&D), it is seen as way of post-industrial development, generating economic growth for resource challenged, but highly educated and highly techonological societies (e.g., Taiwan). Since ICT development demands relatively high capital inputs, this is a policy choice, informed by rational calculation, in other words, a development plan by the State. A science park (industrial complex) like Nankang in Taipei which is devoted to software development alone absorbed millions of dollars. Then the State has to forge backward and forward linkages for its products which are basically just “thoughts”, and not yet commodities by any definition. Both Development Planning and ICT students should review basic economic concepts like supply and demand, and the theory of production. I will deliver a lecture on economic developmen...

Labor has ever been central to issues of production. Indeed, Marxists assert that it is the primary factor of production. Labor comes from the demographic stock, population. Recently, social scientists have again resurrected the specter of continued, if not worsening, prospects of poverty in the Philippines, in spite of projected growth of the economy. Their contention is that demographic growth will serve as stumbling block to Philippine development. Students of Economic Planning, let me hear your views on the matter. Students of Sociology of Socio-Political Change, likewise. Please consider this as a sort of written examination. Your posts should reflect your theoretical position, as well as your empirical observations. Citations are most welcome. Due date for your posting is 5 p.m. on September 20, 2008.

After viewing the film, “Let it Be” (last February 23, 2008) which is a documentation of the daily lives of farmers and their families in Houbi Township, critique the following assertion of the state plan for agricultural development in 21 st century Taiwan: “…agriculture is no longer an industry that only emphasizes the production of food or raw materials; rather, it is an industry that incorporates other functions, such as quality of living and a balance of the natural ecology.”