Comparative Evaluation of Tractor and Carabao Use in Rice Land Preparation, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, 1980

This article is part of the seminar-workshop on the “Consequences of Small Farm Mechanization on Production, Employment and Incomes in the Philippines” sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Economic and Development Authority, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and the International Rice Research Institute held on December 1-2, 1983 at Tagaytay City. It identifies the activities requiring tractor and/or carabao use, evaluates the arrangements employed by contractors to secure work and assesses the changes that have occurred overtime in the provision of contract services. It also conducts cost-benefit analysis of tractor ownership and nonownership/hiring scheme. Effects of increased operating costs due to tractor utilization are discussed.agriculture sector, utilization, landless people, impact analysis

Comparative Evaluation of Tractor and Carabao Use in Rice Land Preparation, Nueva Ecija, Philippines, 1980

This article is part of the seminar-workshop on the “Consequences of Small Farm Mechanization on Production, Employment and Incomes in the Philippines” sponsored jointly by the Ministry of Agriculture, the National Economic and Development Authority, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies and the International Rice Research Institute held on December 1-2, 1983 at Tagaytay City. It identifies the activities requiring tractor and/or carabao use, evaluates the arrangements employed by contractors to secure work and assesses the changes that have occurred overtime in the provision of contract services. It also conducts cost-benefit analysis of tractor ownership and nonownership/hiring scheme. Effects of increased operating costs due to tractor utilization are discussed.agriculture sector, utilization, landless people, impact analysis

Speculative somatics

Based on a presentation at The Undivided Mind conference at Plymouth University, this article sketches out speculative applications of somatics, the first person, phenomenological study of sensation, perception and movement. I first introduce the subject of somatics through an experiential exercise for the reader before summarizing theoretical aspects of somatic study. Drawing from the literature in embodied cognition and from personal recollections of embodied experiences, I propose how somatic approaches could potentially be used in working with immigrant communities, living in outer space, and empathizing with non-human animals

Evidence-Based End-of-Life Comfort Care Guidelines

Practice Problem: In the absence of end-of-life (EOL) comfort care guidelines, the nurses in a medical-surgical unit are apprehensive about caring for patients in their active stage of dying, which leads to abandoning the values of holistic and patient-centered care. PICOT: The PICOT question that guided this project was: How do acute care bedside nurses (P) who utilize the evidence-based comfort care guidelines (I) compare to not using the evidence-based guidelines (C) perceive their confidence in their capability to provide holistic and patient-centered care (O) during the active onset of the patient\u27s end-of-life stage (T)? Evidence: The literature indicated that accessible, evidence-based EOL comfort care guidelines could help nurses to enhance their confidence and skills to deliver holistic and patient-centered care at the bedside for actively dying patients. Intervention: The nurses identified primary stressors for a dying patient within 24 hours of the patient deemed on EOL stage using a Patient Dignity Inventory Tool as an embedded part of EOL comfort care guidelines. The nurses initiated individualized plans of care based on the stressors identified, which upheld holistic and patient-centered EOL care concepts. Outcome: Pre-and post-EOL intervention survey data attested that having accessible EOL comfort care guidelines was valuable for nurses in attaining more confidence in providing patient-centered and holistic care at the bedside for the actively dying patient. Conclusion: Accessible, standardized, evidence-based EOL comfort care guidelines fostered the nurses\u27 ability to provide care to patients who were actively dying, embracing the core concepts of holistic and patient-centered care

Countdown to Martial Law: The U.S-Philippine Relationship, 1969-1972

Between 1969 and 1972, the Philippines experienced significant political unrest after Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos’ successful reelection campaign. Around the same time, American President Richard Nixon formulated a foreign policy approach that expected its allies to be responsible for their own self-defense. This would be known as the Nixon Doctrine. This approach resulted in Marcos’ declaration of martial law in September 1972, which American officials silently supported. American officials during this time also noted Marcos’ serving of American business and military interests. Existing literature differed on the extent Marcos served what he thought were American interests. Stanley Karnow’s In Our Image noted that Marcos did not adequately serve American interests, noting that he sent an insignificant amount of soldiers to Vietnam. Karnow also did not mention business interests. Raymond Bonner’s Waltzing with a Dictator mentioned that Marcos was effective for serving American business and military interests. James Hamilton-Paterson’s America’s Boy agrees with Bonner’s assessment, also noting that Marcos served American business and military interests. Materials from the Digital National Security Archive (DNSA) and Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series affirmed Bonner and Hamilton-Paterson’s position, while noting that Karnow’s work was outdated because of the limited information he had when In Our Image was published. There are three issues that concerned the U.S.-Philippine relationship under President Marcos during this time. The first issue was the societal and political unrest that threatened to undermine Marcos. The second issue concerned U.S. officials’ application of the Nixon Doctrine to the Philippines. The third regarded President Marcos’ serving of military and business interests in the Philippines. Marcos supported maintaining America’s Filipino bases, which were important hubs of American military operations during the Vietnam War. In addition to military interests, President Marcos also aided American businesses in the Philippines, by removing restrictions that threatened American business activity. Each of these concerns led to President Marcos’ declaration of martial law. American officials’ tacit support for Marcos reflected their commitment to the Nixon Doctrine, which ensured political stability that preserved American business and military interests

Divergent Thinking In Disaster: Examples from Typhoon Haiyan Survivors

In this presentation, delivered at Off the Lip 2015 at Plymouth University, we shared some of the ethnographic research on the creative and cognitive work needed to survive the high-stakes, high-stress, and emotionally charged situation of a disaster, in which “divergent thinking” is more just than a cognitive process: it becomes a survival skill. The presentation centred on a series of narratives based on our experiences of conducting fieldwork in the province of Leyte in the Philippines on December 2013, six weeks after Typhoon Haiyan decimated the Visayas region of one of most typhoon-prone countries in the world

Anthropology Of, For, And With Design: A Philippine Perspective

The intersection of the fields of design and anthropology emerges as fertile ground for study as societies increasingly acknowledge the tremendous impact the objects we create for ourselves have on our lives. As anthropologists and ethnographers involved in running our own design research company in the Philippines, negotiating the alignments and contradictions between the two fields of knowledge is an essential component of our everyday research practice. This paper outlines different models of the relationships between design and anthropology as systems of knowledge and practice. We first extend a theoretical framework that distinguishes between anthropology of, anthropology for, and anthropology with design (Gunn and Donovan 2013): we maintain that anthropology with design underlies an approach increasingly used in commercial industries known as "design thinking", and describe the different ways by which knowledge is generated and mobilized in each of these relationships; we further describe how the artifacts of design can be seen to either materialize, shape, or probe culturally-mediated meanings, power relations, and values. We illustrate these concepts through client-commissioned projects that our organization has conducted in the Philippines. We next examine how and when these design-anthropology relationships are realized when working with clients. While anthropology with design will likely create better outcomes for our clients, larger clients must often settle for anthropology for design; we describe how we have negotiated these tensions and present our outcomes from our engagement with them. We end with a call for the development of a local prism through which practitioners in the field of design can further engage in critical reflection of the production of artifacts, particular those created with the intent of addressing social concerns. Specifically, we call for more localized conceptual frameworks of design that can be patterned (for instance) on India's notion of jugaad, and advance an increased engagement for anthropology with design across various sectors of Philippine society

When Ideas Migrate: A Postcolonial Perspective on Biomodd [LBA2]

This paper was completed as part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network FP7-PEOPLE-2013-ITN, CogNovo, grant number 604764.Biomodd is a global series of art installations in which computer technology and ecology converge. Computer networks built from upcycled computer components are provided with living internal ecosystems. In a symbiotic exchange, plants and algae live alongside electronics and use the latter’s waste heat to thrive. Sensors and robotics provide additional interaction possibilities with the organisms. The first version of the project was completed in the US, while the second version was built in the Philippines. Using a postcolonial stance, we reflect on the challenges involved in translating the project from one context to another. We focus on issues related to heat recycling in the tropics; authenticity and hybridity; obsolescence and the convertibility of capital; cultural sampling, remixing, and appropriation; and structures for social organization. We advance Biomodd as a significant contribution to artscience collaborative initiatives in the global South