Michele Ford | The University of Sydney (original) (raw)
Papers by Michele Ford
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) eBooks, 2009
Mobilization: An International Quarterly
Scholars of internet activism have comprehensively analyzed techniques for ensuring the success o... more Scholars of internet activism have comprehensively analyzed techniques for ensuring the success of online campaigns, but few have examined whether and how campaigns built around culturally specific tropes drawn from non-Western contexts can achieve traction with global audiences. This article addresses this question by tracking the use of a hyperlocal cultural trope relating to the impact of women’s sarongs (htamein) on men’s power in an awareness-raising campaign sparked by a violent crackdown against tens of thousands of protesters in Myanmar. We draw on in-depth interviews with the campaign’s originators and a content analysis of its online component to document how this trope transformed through three iterations over several years. In doing so, we examine the impact of processes of appropriative mediation and digital reflexivity, and the extent to which available technology shapes online campaigns.
The presidential elections this time around are a big deal not only for business. They are also a... more The presidential elections this time around are a big deal not only for business. They are also a big deal for Indonesia's unions, who have taken sides in the presidential race. Said Iqbal, the…
Activists in Transition, 2019
This chapter demonstrates how the actions of the labor rights movement made a decisive contributi... more This chapter demonstrates how the actions of the labor rights movement made a decisive contribution to the delegitimization of the regime. Struggling to regain a foothold after the decimation of independent labor unions in the massacres of 1965 and repression in the decades that followed, worker activists and their middle-class allies nevertheless clawed their way back, raising awareness at home and abroad of the Indonesian government's unrelenting subjugation of labor rights in its search for economic growth and political stability. Having been forced to accommodate some of the labor movement's demands in the early 1990s, the government struck back, all but destroying the alternative labor unions that had emerged in the intervening years. As a consequence, there was little evidence of worker mobilization in the immediate lead-up to the fall of Suharto. While continuing to grapple with the ongoing obstacles of low density of unionization among workers, organizational fragmen...
Journal of Industrial Relations, 2017
Under what conditions do trade unions in divided labour movements cooperate? Does cooperation in ... more Under what conditions do trade unions in divided labour movements cooperate? Does cooperation in one domain increase the likelihood of cooperation in the other? Do institutions facilitate or discourage cooperation? We explore these questions through an examination of collective action across federation and confederation lines in post-Suharto Indonesia. Using a comparison of union cooperation in the policy and electoral domains, we demonstrate that tripartite wage-setting institutions have played a central role in facilitating collective action in the policy domain, encouraging unions to look beyond shop-level issues to policy issues identified by their respective national organizations as affecting workers. The relative absence of collective action across organizational divides in the electoral domain, meanwhile, can be explained by the institutional context, which creates higher barriers to unions working together.
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2016
This article examines the Japan–Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement, an agreement that has a... more This article examines the Japan–Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement, an agreement that has allowed Japan to supplement its local healthcare workforce while continuing to sidestep the thorny issue of labour and immigration policy reform and Indonesia to increase its skilled workers’ access to the Japanese labour market at a time when it was making a concerted effort to reorient migrant labour flows away from informal sector occupations. Despite the programme’s many problems, it has contributed to the use of trade agreements as a mechanism for regulating labour migration, and so to the normalisation of migrant labour as a tradable commodity rather than a discrete area of policy-making, with all the attendant risks that normalisation brings.
Everyday Politics of the World Economy, 2001
Female migrant workers, especially the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) who comprise the majority ... more Female migrant workers, especially the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) who comprise the majority of women migrants in Asia, are generally portrayed as having little or no agency in the world economy. Scholars of Asian migration have traditionally conceived of female migrant workers as either passive victims of global power structures (emphasising macroeconomic 'demand and supply' dynamics) or isolated actors exerting micro agency through acts of 'everyday resistance', while regulatory international political economy (RIPE) scholarship has largely failed to consider them at all. But while substantial evidence exists that reveals the extent to which the human and labour rights of FDWs are violated in East and Southeast Asia (Piper and Iredale 2003), it is wrong to portray these workers as either passive bearers of the weight of global structures or simply the objects of transnational advocacy campaigns (Keck and Sikkink 1998). Although FDWs are clearly subjected to structural oppression and are often objectified by well-meaning non-governmental organisations (NGOs), a significant number of FDWs attempt to mediate their experiences of work not only personally, but in conjunction with other migrant workers. When combined with the campaigns of middle class activists associated with NGOs acting both within national boundaries and across them, these attempts at defiance constitute an informal regime that interacts withand has the potential to influencethe formal industrial relations and immigration regimes that seek to control and regulate foreign domestic labour at the national and international levels. This chapter focuses on FDWs' collective activism and middle-class campaigns in sending and receiving countries in East and Southeast Asia around foreign domestic worker issues. The chapter begins with a brief overview of female labour migration in East and Southeast Asia followed by a discussion of the formal regimes that seek to regulate it. It then proceeds to discuss the informal regimes that have emerged both within and across national borders since the 1980s, using examples from several countries in the region. The final section focuses on the implications of interactions between the formal and informal regimes associated with foreign domestic labour. The chapter concludes that although serious obstacles continue to hinder migrant worker groups' and migrant labour NGOs' campaigns, these groups are engaged in an increasingly important form of transnational collective action
Men and Masculinities in Southeast Asia, 2012
Introduction - Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons 1. Masculinities Afloat: Filipino Seafarers and the ... more Introduction - Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons 1. Masculinities Afloat: Filipino Seafarers and the Situational Performance of Manhood - Steven Mckay and Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III 2. Masculine Intent and Migrant Manhood: Thai Workmen Talking Sex - Pattana Kitiarsa 3. Low Wage Vietnamese Immigrants Remake Social Class and Masculinity in the Homeland - Hung Cam Thai 4. Homosociality and Desire: Charting Chinese Singaporean Sex Tourists' Online Conversations - Sophie Williams, Lenore Lyons and Michele Ford 5. Being Broh: The Good, the Bad and the Successful Man in Cambodia - Trude Jacobsen 6. Violence, Masculinities and Patriarchy in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste - Henri Myrttinen 7. The Biggest Cock: Territoriality, Invulnerability and Honour Amongst Jakarta's Gangsters - Ian Wilson 8. Defending the Nation: Malay Men's Experience of National Service in Singapore - Lenore Lyons and Michele Ford Index
... Indonesian women as export commodity: notes from Tanjung Pinang Michele Ford ... Although the... more ... Indonesian women as export commodity: notes from Tanjung Pinang Michele Ford ... Although they are not officially recognised, they have the wherewithal to organise local identity cards and passports for workers from Java so that they can apply for positions in Malaysia. ...
... Under Suharto's New Order, the word buruh (worker) was, at best, relegated to descriptio... more ... Under Suharto's New Order, the word buruh (worker) was, at best, relegated to descriptions of blue-collar workers. At worst, it was associated with images of the communist unions forbidden under New Order ideology. Public-sector unionism ...
Industrial Relations, Sep 26, 2022
Transnational Flows and Permissive Polities
The smuggling will never stop. As long as seawater is still seawater and as long as the sea still... more The smuggling will never stop. As long as seawater is still seawater and as long as the sea still has water in it, smuggling will continue in the Riau Islands.
Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Development, 2017
The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed unprecedented global action against hu... more The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed unprecedented global action against human trafficking. Governments have fallen over themselves in their efforts to be seen to be tough on human trafficking and sensitive to the plight of those who fall victim to it. In some cases, these attempts have been a response to pressure from powerful lobby groups concerned with the human rights of victims but in others they have been prompted by geopolitical concerns about the massive movement of people that has characterised globalisation. These latter concerns have dominated international policy responses to human trafficking, which are invariably framed in border security terms states are encouraged to stop illegal cross-border flows, rescue 'victims', detain 'illegals' and prosecute evil 'traffickers' and 'smugglers'. The positioning of human trafficking as a border security issue, rather than a human rights issue, has occurred alongside a massive ...
Research for this chapter began during initial visits to Karimun, Batam and Bintan in 2004; repea... more Research for this chapter began during initial visits to Karimun, Batam and Bintan in 2004; repeat visits were made in 2005 and 2006. Interviews were conducted in Indonesian and translated by the first author, who has been travelling to the Riau islands since 1993. Thanks to Nick Long and Lyn Parker for providing helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. 2 Before the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was announced, the three islands were part of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS-GT) which was established in 1990. The underpinning philosophy of the IMS-GT was economic complementarity in which Singaporean capital would be combined with Indonesian and Malaysian labour and land to facilitate cross-border regional growth (Sparke et al. 2004). In recent years, the promise of the IMS-GT has not been realised and the new SEZ is an effort to reinvigorate economic development in the islands. The history of economic interaction between Karimun and Singapore is much longer than the life of the Special Economic Zone, or the growth triangle that preceded it. See Ford and Lyons (2006). 3 Unlike destinations like Bali, the islands are not a recognised destination for female sex tourists. Male homosexual sex work represents a relatively small segment of the industry. Researchers working on this area have confirmed the presence of homosexual sex tourism in the islands, but note its underground nature (Personal communication with Dede Oetomo, March 2007). 4 Pseudonyms are used throughout this chapter at the request of informants, except in the case of NGO activists. The stories of Ani and Lia are based on in-depth interviews conducted in August 2006, which were taped and transcribed. 5 For accounts of other sex workers in the Islands see Lindquist (2002; 2004).
The Palgrave Handbook of Workers’ Participation at Plant Level, 2019
Ford and Sirait assess the impact of industrial relations reform on workers’ participation at the... more Ford and Sirait assess the impact of industrial relations reform on workers’ participation at the firm level in Indonesia. Having explained the changing structure of Indonesia’s economy and regulatory framework for industrial relations, this chapter examines firm-level channels for workers’ participation including bipartite cooperative structures and collective bargaining processes. The chapter demonstrates that while opportunities for workers’ participation at the enterprise level have increased dramatically with the reorientation of the regulatory and institutional frameworks of industrial relations, practices are largely yet to follow suit. It concludes that the likelihood of further progress is dependent on better implementation of legally mandated industrial relations processes and growth in the reach and effectiveness of the trade union movement.
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) eBooks, 2009
Mobilization: An International Quarterly
Scholars of internet activism have comprehensively analyzed techniques for ensuring the success o... more Scholars of internet activism have comprehensively analyzed techniques for ensuring the success of online campaigns, but few have examined whether and how campaigns built around culturally specific tropes drawn from non-Western contexts can achieve traction with global audiences. This article addresses this question by tracking the use of a hyperlocal cultural trope relating to the impact of women’s sarongs (htamein) on men’s power in an awareness-raising campaign sparked by a violent crackdown against tens of thousands of protesters in Myanmar. We draw on in-depth interviews with the campaign’s originators and a content analysis of its online component to document how this trope transformed through three iterations over several years. In doing so, we examine the impact of processes of appropriative mediation and digital reflexivity, and the extent to which available technology shapes online campaigns.
The presidential elections this time around are a big deal not only for business. They are also a... more The presidential elections this time around are a big deal not only for business. They are also a big deal for Indonesia's unions, who have taken sides in the presidential race. Said Iqbal, the…
Activists in Transition, 2019
This chapter demonstrates how the actions of the labor rights movement made a decisive contributi... more This chapter demonstrates how the actions of the labor rights movement made a decisive contribution to the delegitimization of the regime. Struggling to regain a foothold after the decimation of independent labor unions in the massacres of 1965 and repression in the decades that followed, worker activists and their middle-class allies nevertheless clawed their way back, raising awareness at home and abroad of the Indonesian government's unrelenting subjugation of labor rights in its search for economic growth and political stability. Having been forced to accommodate some of the labor movement's demands in the early 1990s, the government struck back, all but destroying the alternative labor unions that had emerged in the intervening years. As a consequence, there was little evidence of worker mobilization in the immediate lead-up to the fall of Suharto. While continuing to grapple with the ongoing obstacles of low density of unionization among workers, organizational fragmen...
Journal of Industrial Relations, 2017
Under what conditions do trade unions in divided labour movements cooperate? Does cooperation in ... more Under what conditions do trade unions in divided labour movements cooperate? Does cooperation in one domain increase the likelihood of cooperation in the other? Do institutions facilitate or discourage cooperation? We explore these questions through an examination of collective action across federation and confederation lines in post-Suharto Indonesia. Using a comparison of union cooperation in the policy and electoral domains, we demonstrate that tripartite wage-setting institutions have played a central role in facilitating collective action in the policy domain, encouraging unions to look beyond shop-level issues to policy issues identified by their respective national organizations as affecting workers. The relative absence of collective action across organizational divides in the electoral domain, meanwhile, can be explained by the institutional context, which creates higher barriers to unions working together.
The Economic and Labour Relations Review, 2016
This article examines the Japan–Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement, an agreement that has a... more This article examines the Japan–Indonesia Economic Partnership Agreement, an agreement that has allowed Japan to supplement its local healthcare workforce while continuing to sidestep the thorny issue of labour and immigration policy reform and Indonesia to increase its skilled workers’ access to the Japanese labour market at a time when it was making a concerted effort to reorient migrant labour flows away from informal sector occupations. Despite the programme’s many problems, it has contributed to the use of trade agreements as a mechanism for regulating labour migration, and so to the normalisation of migrant labour as a tradable commodity rather than a discrete area of policy-making, with all the attendant risks that normalisation brings.
Everyday Politics of the World Economy, 2001
Female migrant workers, especially the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) who comprise the majority ... more Female migrant workers, especially the foreign domestic workers (FDWs) who comprise the majority of women migrants in Asia, are generally portrayed as having little or no agency in the world economy. Scholars of Asian migration have traditionally conceived of female migrant workers as either passive victims of global power structures (emphasising macroeconomic 'demand and supply' dynamics) or isolated actors exerting micro agency through acts of 'everyday resistance', while regulatory international political economy (RIPE) scholarship has largely failed to consider them at all. But while substantial evidence exists that reveals the extent to which the human and labour rights of FDWs are violated in East and Southeast Asia (Piper and Iredale 2003), it is wrong to portray these workers as either passive bearers of the weight of global structures or simply the objects of transnational advocacy campaigns (Keck and Sikkink 1998). Although FDWs are clearly subjected to structural oppression and are often objectified by well-meaning non-governmental organisations (NGOs), a significant number of FDWs attempt to mediate their experiences of work not only personally, but in conjunction with other migrant workers. When combined with the campaigns of middle class activists associated with NGOs acting both within national boundaries and across them, these attempts at defiance constitute an informal regime that interacts withand has the potential to influencethe formal industrial relations and immigration regimes that seek to control and regulate foreign domestic labour at the national and international levels. This chapter focuses on FDWs' collective activism and middle-class campaigns in sending and receiving countries in East and Southeast Asia around foreign domestic worker issues. The chapter begins with a brief overview of female labour migration in East and Southeast Asia followed by a discussion of the formal regimes that seek to regulate it. It then proceeds to discuss the informal regimes that have emerged both within and across national borders since the 1980s, using examples from several countries in the region. The final section focuses on the implications of interactions between the formal and informal regimes associated with foreign domestic labour. The chapter concludes that although serious obstacles continue to hinder migrant worker groups' and migrant labour NGOs' campaigns, these groups are engaged in an increasingly important form of transnational collective action
Men and Masculinities in Southeast Asia, 2012
Introduction - Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons 1. Masculinities Afloat: Filipino Seafarers and the ... more Introduction - Michele Ford and Lenore Lyons 1. Masculinities Afloat: Filipino Seafarers and the Situational Performance of Manhood - Steven Mckay and Don Eliseo Lucero-Prisno III 2. Masculine Intent and Migrant Manhood: Thai Workmen Talking Sex - Pattana Kitiarsa 3. Low Wage Vietnamese Immigrants Remake Social Class and Masculinity in the Homeland - Hung Cam Thai 4. Homosociality and Desire: Charting Chinese Singaporean Sex Tourists' Online Conversations - Sophie Williams, Lenore Lyons and Michele Ford 5. Being Broh: The Good, the Bad and the Successful Man in Cambodia - Trude Jacobsen 6. Violence, Masculinities and Patriarchy in Post-Conflict Timor-Leste - Henri Myrttinen 7. The Biggest Cock: Territoriality, Invulnerability and Honour Amongst Jakarta's Gangsters - Ian Wilson 8. Defending the Nation: Malay Men's Experience of National Service in Singapore - Lenore Lyons and Michele Ford Index
... Indonesian women as export commodity: notes from Tanjung Pinang Michele Ford ... Although the... more ... Indonesian women as export commodity: notes from Tanjung Pinang Michele Ford ... Although they are not officially recognised, they have the wherewithal to organise local identity cards and passports for workers from Java so that they can apply for positions in Malaysia. ...
... Under Suharto's New Order, the word buruh (worker) was, at best, relegated to descriptio... more ... Under Suharto's New Order, the word buruh (worker) was, at best, relegated to descriptions of blue-collar workers. At worst, it was associated with images of the communist unions forbidden under New Order ideology. Public-sector unionism ...
Industrial Relations, Sep 26, 2022
Transnational Flows and Permissive Polities
The smuggling will never stop. As long as seawater is still seawater and as long as the sea still... more The smuggling will never stop. As long as seawater is still seawater and as long as the sea still has water in it, smuggling will continue in the Riau Islands.
Routledge Handbook of Southeast Asian Development, 2017
The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed unprecedented global action against hu... more The first decade of the twenty-first century has witnessed unprecedented global action against human trafficking. Governments have fallen over themselves in their efforts to be seen to be tough on human trafficking and sensitive to the plight of those who fall victim to it. In some cases, these attempts have been a response to pressure from powerful lobby groups concerned with the human rights of victims but in others they have been prompted by geopolitical concerns about the massive movement of people that has characterised globalisation. These latter concerns have dominated international policy responses to human trafficking, which are invariably framed in border security terms states are encouraged to stop illegal cross-border flows, rescue 'victims', detain 'illegals' and prosecute evil 'traffickers' and 'smugglers'. The positioning of human trafficking as a border security issue, rather than a human rights issue, has occurred alongside a massive ...
Research for this chapter began during initial visits to Karimun, Batam and Bintan in 2004; repea... more Research for this chapter began during initial visits to Karimun, Batam and Bintan in 2004; repeat visits were made in 2005 and 2006. Interviews were conducted in Indonesian and translated by the first author, who has been travelling to the Riau islands since 1993. Thanks to Nick Long and Lyn Parker for providing helpful comments on an early draft of this paper. 2 Before the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) was announced, the three islands were part of the Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore Growth Triangle (IMS-GT) which was established in 1990. The underpinning philosophy of the IMS-GT was economic complementarity in which Singaporean capital would be combined with Indonesian and Malaysian labour and land to facilitate cross-border regional growth (Sparke et al. 2004). In recent years, the promise of the IMS-GT has not been realised and the new SEZ is an effort to reinvigorate economic development in the islands. The history of economic interaction between Karimun and Singapore is much longer than the life of the Special Economic Zone, or the growth triangle that preceded it. See Ford and Lyons (2006). 3 Unlike destinations like Bali, the islands are not a recognised destination for female sex tourists. Male homosexual sex work represents a relatively small segment of the industry. Researchers working on this area have confirmed the presence of homosexual sex tourism in the islands, but note its underground nature (Personal communication with Dede Oetomo, March 2007). 4 Pseudonyms are used throughout this chapter at the request of informants, except in the case of NGO activists. The stories of Ani and Lia are based on in-depth interviews conducted in August 2006, which were taped and transcribed. 5 For accounts of other sex workers in the Islands see Lindquist (2002; 2004).
The Palgrave Handbook of Workers’ Participation at Plant Level, 2019
Ford and Sirait assess the impact of industrial relations reform on workers’ participation at the... more Ford and Sirait assess the impact of industrial relations reform on workers’ participation at the firm level in Indonesia. Having explained the changing structure of Indonesia’s economy and regulatory framework for industrial relations, this chapter examines firm-level channels for workers’ participation including bipartite cooperative structures and collective bargaining processes. The chapter demonstrates that while opportunities for workers’ participation at the enterprise level have increased dramatically with the reorientation of the regulatory and institutional frameworks of industrial relations, practices are largely yet to follow suit. It concludes that the likelihood of further progress is dependent on better implementation of legally mandated industrial relations processes and growth in the reach and effectiveness of the trade union movement.
Journal of Contemporary Asia, 2021
In 2013, the Cambodian People’s Party faced two major threats: a near loss at the ballot box in t... more In 2013, the Cambodian People’s Party faced two major threats: a
near loss at the ballot box in the national election and large-scale
demonstrations by garment workers dissatisfied with the minimum
wage. Unsurprisingly, the government responded by cracking down
on the opposition, the independent media and civil society groups.
Labour leaders were persecuted and legislation passed that undermined
unions’ ability to organise and register. Less predictably, this
crackdown was accompanied by an attempt to woo garment workers
through policies that delivered tangible benefits to them as individuals.
There was a marked shift in the party’s focus from its traditional
rural constituency to the urban working class. In this article we
examine how labour acts collectively to shape politics within authoritarian
regimes. We do this by interrogating labour’s role at a time
when the state was clearly shifting towards hegemonic authoritarianism.
By re-assessing the 2013 and 2018 national elections through
this lens, we demonstrate the bidirectional nature of state–labour
relations even in authoritarian regimes. We conclude that, even
where election results are largely predetermined, elections can provide
opportunities for workers to strengthen their position by
prompting shifts in not only in patronage but in policy.