Malaysian women and their role as the sandwiched generation

Women have been playing the role of caregiver in their families for generations. However, the traditional role of women as caregivers of the family, specifically as a mother and wife, is now being expanded to include caregiving for their elderly parents. The longer life expectancy of the older generation and delayed marriage are putting women in a situation where they are sandwiched between their role as wife and mother of growing-up children and their role as daughter on whom their parents depend in their old age. Based on a study of 150 women respondents working in the banking sector, this paper will focus on the roles of the sandwiched generation. Data were collected via purposive sampling by identifying women staff in selected banks; these women fulfilled the criteria of being married and having living parents. The paper will discuss issues encountered by these women, all whom reside in urban areas in Kuala Lumpur, who are sandwiched between their roles as mother, wife, employee and caregiver to the elderly. What are the problems they face in performing their many and often conflicting roles and what are their coping mechanisms when the roles come into conflict with one another? The main research question in this study is whether the women find the additional role of caregiver to the elderly an added burden causing added conflict beyond that caused by their already conflicting roles as mother, wife and employee. This study also seeks to identify the support systems in place or required to alleviate the problems encountered by these women

Influence of internet usage on social and subjective well-being of Sri Lankan GLIS

The Internet has significantly contributed to the drastic growth of technological inventions and innovation in the world. The majority of the inventors in developing countries is independent inventors work on inventions by their own interest. The Internet has been one of the leading knowledge repositories for these independent inventors to search clues for their inventions. Owing to the self-driven behavior of the independent inventors, they might gain success and perceive happiness through the inventive activities that involved searching and creation of new knowledge. However, there is hardly any study that explains the influence of the Internet usage on social and psychological aspects of grassroots level inventors (GLIS). Therefore, the existing knowledge on how the Internet usage influence on social capital, connectedness, success and subjective well-being of inventive community in developing countries is not exact. Present study explores the influence of the Internet usage on social capital, community connectedness, inventive achievements and subjective well-being of the grassroots level inventive community of Sri Lanka. Findings suggest that the Internet has significant direct influence on the subjective wellbeing of GLIS in Sri Lanka. Further The Internet usages indirectly influence the subjective well-being through social capital and connectedness. However, The Internet usage has not significantly influenced on the objective inventive achievements of the GLIS in Sri Lanka

Revolution of digital communication and Asian competitive creativity chasm

This study aims to identify changes that have taken place in the Asian technological creativity after the post-communication revolution of digital technologies. After examining the utility patent applications forwarded to the US Patent Office by 24 Asian countries between 1965 to 2007, the study partially supports the claim that the “digital communication revolution have influenced the competitive creativity development in Asia.” However, the development growth model is shaped like a snail shell, and digital technologies have not been the silver bullet that promoted the leapfrogging of creativity in stagnating countries. Information and communication technologies (ICT) should be considered as a means of technological learning rather than the end of creativity development. The challenge of strengthening stagnating Asian countries to become competitive and innovative nations will continue until the next decade. Unless necessary steps are taken to improve technological learning and local innovations in stagnating countries, their technological dependency will increase and thus deepen the marginalization in the coming eras

Participation and community development.

This paper tries to put forward the argument that participation is a vehicle of community development. In order to achieve development in the community, community members should be involved directly in the process of development. Participation is participating in decision making, to choose a community project, plan it, implement it, manage it, monitor it, control it. The paper focuses on the definition of community development and participation in order to elaborate them. The main argument in this paper is: Participation is a vehicle to achieve to development that community members can involve directly in development process. This paper is theoretical in nature and the review is based on secondary materials

How does internet usage influence on social capital, connectedness, success and well-being of grassroots level inventors in Sri Lanka?

Internet has been recognized as the world largest knowledge depositary. Therefore, there is overwhelming expectation over the Internet to be influenced the social and technological development of marginalized communities of less developed countries. However there were no published studies that investigate the nature of the innovation systems and the impact of internet on the inventors in developing countries. Therefore, the existing knowledge of how the internet usage of influence on social capital, connectedness, success and subjective well-being of inventive community in developing countries is vague. Present study explores the influence of the internet usage on social capital, community connectedness, inventive achievements and subjective well-being of the grassroots level inventive community of Sri Lanka. Findings suggest that internet has been significantly influenced on the social capital, connectedness and subjective well-being of grassroots level inventors in Sri Lanka. However, internet usage is not significantly influence on the objective inventive achievements of the inventors

Influence of place identity and place dependence on resilience towards Boko Haram insurgency among Maiduguri residents in Borno State, Nigeria

Generally the importance of a place of residence becomes paramount to its habitants during lose and hard times. The economic viability of a place and self-reference to a place which depends on how individuals appreciate and express themselves in relation to their settings can increase residents’ consciousness of a specific place.It is in this vein that this study aim to examine whether place identity, place dependence, age,gender, length of stay, income and occupation influence sresilience toward Boko Haram insurgency in Maiduguri. Place attachment and resilience theory was used for this study. The study is unique in having investigated place identity, place dependence and other demographic characteristics on the survival of residents been troubled by terrorism. Though other studies have dealt mainly with areas of threat due to natural disasters,this present study,examine a particular neighbourhood that is subject to terrorist attacks for the past 8 years.This paper relies on a cross-sectional data, with a sample size of 383, using convenient sampling technique. The Pearson correlation analysis revealed significant and positive relationship between place identity and place dependence on resilience, while, age and length of stay indicated positive and insignificant.Income on the other hand, shows negative and insignificant relationship with resilience. The results of the Multiple Linear Regression analysis revealed that, place identity and place dependence are significant predictor of resident’s resilience towards Boko Haram insurgent. This is an indication that, in spite of the conflicts and casualties, the residents did not regard their neighborhood as being too hazardous and were holding on to the neighbourhood as a place they are identified with and depend on as a source of their livelihood

The social and spatial impact of settlement policies in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

As a multiracial country, one of the main concerns of Malaysia is maintaining political and economic stability in the process of achieving national integration. The plurality of society is a legacy of British colonialism and has contributed to occupational and geographical segregation between the ethnic groups. Economic disparities between each ethnic group has been a source of ethnic conflict. In 1970, the Government formulated the New Economic Policy, a preferential treatment policy which favours the Bumiputera over the non -Bumiputera. The objectives of the policy are, first, to restructure society so as to eliminate the identification of race with economic functions and, second, to eradicate poverty. However, while the Bumiputeras benefited from the affirmative action programmes, the non-Bumiputeras, especially the Chinese, were alienated by them and this lead to rising ethnic tension. Residential segregation had divided the two ethnic groups further. One part of the New Economic Policy is designed to foster better social relations between ethnic groups by fostering greater ethnic mix within residential areas. The aim of this study is to investigate social interaction patterns and levels of integration between Malays and Chinese who reside in different types of residential areas, that is mixed and monoethnic. The implementation of the housing mix policy is interpreted as the Government's intention to overcome residential segregation and thereby integrate different ethnic groups. The policy is one of the ways of bringing the two ethnic groups into closer contact with each other in the hope of promoting better social interaction and integration. The first task of the research was to establish the rationale behind the policy on residential and ethnic mix and secondly to find out if there were any significant differences in the form of socialising patterns and integration levels between the ethnic groups residing in different types of residential areas. The study involved the use of interviews and social survey as methods of gathering information. Kuala Lumpur, the capital city of Malaysia was chosen as the case study because it represented the plurality in society. Surveys were carried out in residential areas that were both ethnically mixed and monoethnic. The findings of the study suggested that there are differences in social relationships and levels of integration between Malays and Chinese who live in the different types of residential areas. Those who lived in mixed areas were found to be more socialised and more integrated than those who lived in monoethnic areas. However, the effect of the types of area was not strong as a determinant of social interaction and integration and other non spatial factors were more important. Factors like socialising patterns and place of employment also explained social interaction and integration. Those who socialised with other ethnic groups were found to be more integrated than those who did not. Malays were also more integrated than non-Malays. The study also found differences in gender and age. Although there was an area effect, it was not the same for Malays and Chinese from different income groups and educational levels. The findings have important policy implications

Sense of community and citizen participation in neighborhood council in Iran

This paper was explored to understand the effects of sense of community on citizen participation in Neighborhood Councils of Tehran city, Iran. There is a variation in study results regarding citizen participation, therefore understanding the effective factors (e.g. sense of community) can help to make citizen participation efforts successful in neighborhood organization. The analysis of data uses SEM to determine the effects of sense of community on citizen Participation in neighborhood organization. The findings revealed that 66% variance in citizen participation explained by sense of community. The findings of the study imply that residents who have a sense of community with their neighbors are more likely to participate in neighborhood associations

Bonding, bridging and linking social capital and psychological empowerment among squatter settlements in Tehran, Iran

This study aims to determine the effect of bonding, bridging and linking social capital in the psychological empowerment among squatter settlements in Tehran, Iran. The sample comprised 328 poor people in two communities from Iran, which were randomly selected for the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used as the data collection method and the stratified random sampling technique was employed. The results revealed the significant effect of bonding, bridging and linking social capital on psychological empowerment among squatter settlements. Bonding social capital had the largest beta coefficient than other dimensions, such as bridging and linking social capital in predicting psychological empowerment among squatter settlements

Social interaction in urban areas: a case study of mixed and mono-ethnic neighbourhoods in Kuala Lumpur

Malaysia has always been the focus of research towards understanding the social interaction and integration patterns of its multiethnic society. This study describes the social interaction patterns in residential neighbourhoods in Kuala Lumpur. The analysis was done to compare social interaction patterns between those who lived in mixed and mono-ethnic neighbourhoods, mainly Chinese or Malay. The findings suggested that there is a difference in the social interaction patterns where there were more socialisers, that is those who mixed with other ethnic groups, in mixed residential neighbourhoods compared to those who lived in mono-ethnic neighbourhoods