Videos by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
A short video to question ourselves -- will we ever learn from the eco-socio-crisis brought to ou... more A short video to question ourselves -- will we ever learn from the eco-socio-crisis brought to our doorsteps by the Coronavirus. 1 views
Examining and exploring the practice of sustainability in the island city of Penang, Malaysia. Th... more Examining and exploring the practice of sustainability in the island city of Penang, Malaysia. The focus is on cultural sustainability. (Documentary by Nat, 2007) 31 views
Exploring the contours of Indigenous spirituality.
Interview with Fr. Niphot, Director of Rese... more Exploring the contours of Indigenous spirituality.
Interview with Fr. Niphot, Director of Research and Training for Religion and Culture (RTRC), based in Chiang Mai, Thailand/2008 Books by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
"I...read Nat’s thirty-two Meditations very carefully, pausing after reading each one to reflect ... more "I...read Nat’s thirty-two Meditations very carefully, pausing after reading each one to reflect on the profound insights and messages contained therein, as well as learning that each meditation possessed powerful ideas and evocative images with respect to the world of the future and the role that sustainable cultures and cosmologies in Asia can play in this. This enabled me to see that these meditations - indeed the entire book including the Appendix - lead us to a world that is far more in keeping with the emotional, sustainable, and spiritual requirements of the future than the physical, material, and technical demands of the present...It is one of the most far-sighted, thoughtful, and moving statements I have ever read on what is wrong with the current world system and what is required to set things right."
D. Paul Schafer
Director
World Culture Project
Canada
Culture, Gender and Ecology: Beyond Workerism is certainly not about the irrelevance of class re... more Culture, Gender and Ecology: Beyond Workerism is certainly not about the irrelevance of class realities of the working class. It is about the strengthening and consolidation of the gains of the working class movement. Such a consolidation is already taking place at the level of practice though it is not articulated at the level of theory. The working class movement is increasingly seen to combine its political activities with the feminist, ethno-communal/cultural and ecological movements (non-class movements). Thus, the present work is an attempt at achieving consolidation at the level of ideas/theory. A considerable re-working of Marx’s historical materialism has been attempted, subtly guided by some of Mao’s critical notions.
The reconstructive effort has contributed to the development of a number of ‘novel’ ideas and arguments: the notion of communism has been re-examined; a new ontological category ‘individual-in-relations’ has been introduced as a substitute for relations of production; the Self-Other dynamics have been reconsidered introducing the idea of open self-mediation, replacing the Hegelian closed self-mediation, which is the enlargement of dialectical universalism to dialogical universalism; the emancipatory subject has been conceived of as a multi-self, multi-identity one enlarging the notion of the proletarian subject; the role of the body has been carefully inserted in relation to our universality and contingencies, to self-and-the-other-as-distinction and self-and-the-other-as-difference; the notion of power has been elaborated to include its articulation at the political and the cultural terrains; the resolution of class reality is problematized by introducing the reality of seemingly unity-rupturing non-class segmentary social forces; and the idea of dialectical transcendence has been critically related to dialogical co-existence/co-evolution of multiple social totalities.
The result of this reconstructive effort is the conception of a new trajectory of Non-Workerist Model of Historical Materialism.
Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities (Free e-copy available at: https://collections.unu.edu/eserv/UNU:2475/pdf9789280811254.pdf ), Dec 2006
Unprecedented urban growth makes sustainability in cities a crucial issue for policy makers, scho... more Unprecedented urban growth makes sustainability in cities a crucial issue for policy makers, scholars and business leaders. This emerging urban crisis challenges environment-based and economic-based approaches to sustainability, and brings to the forefront the multi-faceted and critical role that culture plays in ensuring that cities are viable for future generations.
Culture provides fertile ground for new approaches to sustainable development at the local level. Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities makes important contributions towards a theory on culture in sustainable cities, assesses the use of cultural indicators as a tool for policymakers, and includes useful case studies of Patan (Nepal), Penang (Malaysia), Cheongju (South Korea), and Kanazawa (Japan).
This book offers fresh insights into the role of culture in fostering community development, environmental awareness and balanced economic growth, and it will be of particular interest to students of urban studies, academics, and civil society groups working on urban issues.
Observations made here are based on the research promoted by the Global Media Education project o... more Observations made here are based on the research promoted by the Global Media Education project of SIGNIS World and is on the status of media education initiatives in Asia and the Pacific. Contributions to the study conducted in 2004 come in three forms: survey, case study and article (from secondary-source research). The countries that participated were Fiji, India, Malaysia, Pakistan, Philippines, Solomon Islands and Thailand. The reports of the eight studies provide a rich source of information on media education initiatives. While there is certainly a lot of variation in the reports, all reports present good starting points for deliberations and understanding of critical media education in Asia and the Pacific.
• Eleven case studies on media education and reforms from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Mala... more • Eleven case studies on media education and reforms from Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan.
• A critical review of issues concerning the mass media, media education and reforms.
• Trends, overviews and frameworks in media education and reform.
• Examples of tested media education methodologies.
• Alternatives to mainstream mass media.
• Approaches to "mainstreaming" alternative media.
• Practical initiatives (The Manila Initiative) for the democratisation of the media.
• Web resources on the media and communications.
• Case studies of spirituality- in-action.
Book published for school consumers clubs, encouraging reflection, questioning and activities in ... more Book published for school consumers clubs, encouraging reflection, questioning and activities in relation to dangers of the market, indiscriminate and mindless consumption and impact on our environment. (Collection of news items from national English newspapers, with questions to reflect and/or discuss.)
Book Chapters by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
Absences, Silences and the Margin: A Mosaic of Voices on the Indian Diaspora, 2018
Absences, Silences and the Margin: A Mosaic of Voices on the Indian Diaspora, 2018
It is important that one defines diaspora sufficiently well and shifts it from the discourse of m... more It is important that one defines diaspora sufficiently well and shifts it from the discourse of migration per se. In other words, do we have a differentia specifica for the use of this term or is it a postmanteau word that has overstretched its reach and theoretical scope?
(From the introduction to a collection of essays. Co-authored by Samuel Asir Raj, Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay and M. Nadarajah. Write to Prof. Samuel Asir Raj for details here: asirajs@gmail.com)
Social Work Profession in India: An Uncertain Future By T.K. Nair, Sep 2014
A Giving Society? The State of Philanthropy in Malaysia, 2002
Transitions to Democracy in East and Southeast Asia (Edited by Kristina N. gaerlan), 1999
Consumers in the Global Age (Proceedings), 1997
Reprint Booklet Series (Consultant Editor) by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
Series: Critical Orientations to Sustainability and Spirituality, Jan 2015
The process of disenchantment is a phenomenon traceable to the age of rationality that prides on ... more The process of disenchantment is a phenomenon traceable to the age of rationality that prides on science and technology. This age has spawned a process of secularism with its virulent effects, ranging from the de-traditionalization of the rural communities, the de-territorialization of cultures, and the dereligionization and de-ethicization of societies, to the desacralization of human and natural resources. The prevalence of “godlessness” is met with the religious resurgence that facilitates re-enchantment with religions. The dawn of the mystical age enjoins the radical reorientation of development that includes the diverse cosmologies and spiritualities of sustainability. The new vision and mission in this mystical age is to promote humans as homo spiritus /shamanicus who initiate an era of sacred sustainability that calls for a spirituality of covenantal mindfulness, the promotion of an inclusive and sustainable economy, and a paradigm shift in science and technology.
Series: Critical Orientations to Sustainability and Spirituality, Dec 2014
A critical analysis of two world-scale cultures – cooperative and competitive – is presented here... more A critical analysis of two world-scale cultures – cooperative and competitive – is presented here by Robert Roskind. This study is based on his personal 45-year spiritual journey, and the stories and wisdom collected through his travels with various indigenous elders, including Hopi, Havasupai, Iroquois, Mayan, and Rasta. Our planet is experiencing a quantum transformation with the expansion of the competitive culture, which with its built-in design is making our future unsustainable. The author helps us look back to an age when societies were designed to bring out the best in their people while enhancing their health and happiness; when people were cared for from cradle to grave; when leaders truly were the servants of the people; when each person found their true calling and offered this to others, and when life was sustainable for millennia. It was a time when everything was free, and humans, like all other species, did not have to pay to live on the planet. Roskind urges us to make a choice – at planetary level.
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Videos by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
Interview with Fr. Niphot, Director of Research and Training for Religion and Culture (RTRC), based in Chiang Mai, Thailand/2008
Books by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
D. Paul Schafer
Director
World Culture Project
Canada
The reconstructive effort has contributed to the development of a number of ‘novel’ ideas and arguments: the notion of communism has been re-examined; a new ontological category ‘individual-in-relations’ has been introduced as a substitute for relations of production; the Self-Other dynamics have been reconsidered introducing the idea of open self-mediation, replacing the Hegelian closed self-mediation, which is the enlargement of dialectical universalism to dialogical universalism; the emancipatory subject has been conceived of as a multi-self, multi-identity one enlarging the notion of the proletarian subject; the role of the body has been carefully inserted in relation to our universality and contingencies, to self-and-the-other-as-distinction and self-and-the-other-as-difference; the notion of power has been elaborated to include its articulation at the political and the cultural terrains; the resolution of class reality is problematized by introducing the reality of seemingly unity-rupturing non-class segmentary social forces; and the idea of dialectical transcendence has been critically related to dialogical co-existence/co-evolution of multiple social totalities.
The result of this reconstructive effort is the conception of a new trajectory of Non-Workerist Model of Historical Materialism.
Culture provides fertile ground for new approaches to sustainable development at the local level. Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities makes important contributions towards a theory on culture in sustainable cities, assesses the use of cultural indicators as a tool for policymakers, and includes useful case studies of Patan (Nepal), Penang (Malaysia), Cheongju (South Korea), and Kanazawa (Japan).
This book offers fresh insights into the role of culture in fostering community development, environmental awareness and balanced economic growth, and it will be of particular interest to students of urban studies, academics, and civil society groups working on urban issues.
• A critical review of issues concerning the mass media, media education and reforms.
• Trends, overviews and frameworks in media education and reform.
• Examples of tested media education methodologies.
• Alternatives to mainstream mass media.
• Approaches to "mainstreaming" alternative media.
• Practical initiatives (The Manila Initiative) for the democratisation of the media.
• Web resources on the media and communications.
• Case studies of spirituality- in-action.
Book Chapters by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
(Written in the early 2000s, unpublished for awhile. For details of the book, write to Prof. Samuel Asir Raj at asirajs@gmail.com. Draft available at: https://www.academia.edu/7972656/Diaspora_and_Nostalgia_Towards_a_Cultural_Theory_of_Indian_Diaspora)
(From the introduction to a collection of essays. Co-authored by Samuel Asir Raj, Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay and M. Nadarajah. Write to Prof. Samuel Asir Raj for details here: asirajs@gmail.com)
Reprint Booklet Series (Consultant Editor) by Nadarajah (Nat) Manickam
Interview with Fr. Niphot, Director of Research and Training for Religion and Culture (RTRC), based in Chiang Mai, Thailand/2008
D. Paul Schafer
Director
World Culture Project
Canada
The reconstructive effort has contributed to the development of a number of ‘novel’ ideas and arguments: the notion of communism has been re-examined; a new ontological category ‘individual-in-relations’ has been introduced as a substitute for relations of production; the Self-Other dynamics have been reconsidered introducing the idea of open self-mediation, replacing the Hegelian closed self-mediation, which is the enlargement of dialectical universalism to dialogical universalism; the emancipatory subject has been conceived of as a multi-self, multi-identity one enlarging the notion of the proletarian subject; the role of the body has been carefully inserted in relation to our universality and contingencies, to self-and-the-other-as-distinction and self-and-the-other-as-difference; the notion of power has been elaborated to include its articulation at the political and the cultural terrains; the resolution of class reality is problematized by introducing the reality of seemingly unity-rupturing non-class segmentary social forces; and the idea of dialectical transcendence has been critically related to dialogical co-existence/co-evolution of multiple social totalities.
The result of this reconstructive effort is the conception of a new trajectory of Non-Workerist Model of Historical Materialism.
Culture provides fertile ground for new approaches to sustainable development at the local level. Urban Crisis: Culture and the Sustainability of Cities makes important contributions towards a theory on culture in sustainable cities, assesses the use of cultural indicators as a tool for policymakers, and includes useful case studies of Patan (Nepal), Penang (Malaysia), Cheongju (South Korea), and Kanazawa (Japan).
This book offers fresh insights into the role of culture in fostering community development, environmental awareness and balanced economic growth, and it will be of particular interest to students of urban studies, academics, and civil society groups working on urban issues.
• A critical review of issues concerning the mass media, media education and reforms.
• Trends, overviews and frameworks in media education and reform.
• Examples of tested media education methodologies.
• Alternatives to mainstream mass media.
• Approaches to "mainstreaming" alternative media.
• Practical initiatives (The Manila Initiative) for the democratisation of the media.
• Web resources on the media and communications.
• Case studies of spirituality- in-action.
(Written in the early 2000s, unpublished for awhile. For details of the book, write to Prof. Samuel Asir Raj at asirajs@gmail.com. Draft available at: https://www.academia.edu/7972656/Diaspora_and_Nostalgia_Towards_a_Cultural_Theory_of_Indian_Diaspora)
(From the introduction to a collection of essays. Co-authored by Samuel Asir Raj, Surajit C. Mukhopadhyay and M. Nadarajah. Write to Prof. Samuel Asir Raj for details here: asirajs@gmail.com)
The Islamic scholar Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406) introduced his science of society (Ba-Yunus and Ahmad 1985:24) about four centuries before the Frenchman, Auguste Comte. However, it is Auguste Comte that generations of sociologists in Asia, Africa and Latin America recognise as the titular founder of Sociology. This historical inaccuracy is maintained—on the basis of an unequal relationship between the 'West' and the 'Rest of the World'—as a given in the global system of production of (sociological) knowledge.
There is a growing recognition of the significance of knowledge produced by people of the developing world. In this effort, tradition is receiving increased attention. Such a complex effort is necessarily multi-faceted. It has to: i) re-interpret/re-invent tradition in order to influence or characterise the present and future, ii) develop culture-specific knowledge systems that establish and sustain a continuity with the past intellectual traditions and iii) produce a less violent, and more dialogical, form of knowledge in comparison to Western knowledge. The first two are also part of the contemporary
movement to assert cultural identity.
Such a development in the developing world also reflects the need for a moral regulation of a situation produced by Western intellectual culture, that is, the problem of 'runaway', instrumental rationality. The consequences of the situation are rather serious. After all, is it not internal to the knowledge produced by the West which took Western 'civilization' towards Auschwitz, the (atomic) bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—a pain neither a generation of Japanese nor the more sensitive sections of the West have forgotten1—or the systematic destruction of simple people and their cultures in the process of economic and political colonisation?
While one can today recognise contestation of Western knowledge at many levels, the one that I will take up for preliminary consideration concerns the construction of Western sociology as Sociology. While the language was unavailable then, today we can boldly say that Sociology is a site of contestation. Scholars in 'our'2 part of the world are contesting the construction of Western sociology as Sociology. Should not such an intellectual movement/situation spur us to rethink the teaching of sociology in the institutions of higher learning in our parts of the world?
To guide the above effort, perhaps we need to concentrate on some important questions:
1. How do we overcome the identification of sociology as solely a Western, post-Enlightenment project?
2. Do we develop a sociological discourse which is merely (i) an application of theoretical narratives developed in the West, (ii) an attempt to indigenise theoretical narratives developed in the West,or do we develop a different and independent sociological discourse.
3. How do we (i) suture our tradition which has broken away from us due to the intervention of an aggressive colonialism, (ii) proceed to develop from it a methodology and practice of sociology that is sensitive to our cultural realities, and (iii) yet maintain the possibility of cultural dialogue?
4. How do we introduce a 're-framed' sociology into our institutions of higher learning? What are the stages we need to consider to effectively achieve this?
Though the paper does not directly answer the questions raised above, it emphasizes the need to raise such important questions so as to identify key issues regarding the production and dissemination of sociological knowledge in our parts of the world.
(See Full Article at Link.)
This research aims to re-think the notion of sustainable development. Mainstream discourses on sustainable development are about economic development, environment, resource depletion, and all types of pollution. The latter two, of course, have a direct bearing on the environment. Thus, sustainable development is about harmonising economic development and environmental well-being. Born out of the urgent concerns of industrialized countries and their production-consumption patterns of behaviour, the notion and practice of sustainable development articulating within a mechanistic cosmology and a strong GDP-focus -- are not only limited but also hegemonic. It also seems to suggest that the notion of sustainability is a recent i.e. 20th century, concern. Hardly.
The notion of sustainability (differentiated from sustainable development) is very much internal to local or indigenous cultures; the ‘spirit of sustainability’ is embedded in local or indigenous cultures. Such an understanding makes space for a number of critical issues to be thrown up. It helps one to move away from the mainstream concerns of sustainable development and allows for greater understanding of the ‘meanings of sustainability’ from a local cultural perspective. It also allow for a conception that goes beyond economics and development. In addition, it contributes to questioning Euro-American centrism in theory and methodology.
Three of the nine planetary boundaries that support a liveable Mother Earth have been breached. Climate change and the destruction of biodiversity are among the three and in the red. And they continue to worsen. The other boundary conditions are not looking good either and are moving towards the red. All these, in spite of the many, many meetings, conferences, negotiations, research papers, policies and beautifully illustrated annual reports published across the globe. There are also other aspects of the planetary status, like global slavery, that demand urgent attention, reflection and solutions. All of us are implicated in the ‘crime’ involving the destruction of our planet, some more so than the others. A large section of our leaders continue committing the crime, rationalising it in myriad ways. Is the national, regional and global leadership in the various sectors really ready to let go and get off the mindless growth highway and take that long but necessary journey of creative diversions or u-turns to save Mother Earth, so that we, and other sentient beings, may all be also saved? (Powerpoint Presentation)