Shaping the boys' agenda: The backlash blockbusters

The boys’ debate internationally is being fuelled by a range of texts on boys and masculinity. Many of the most popular texts are situated firmly within a backlash politics. These politics suggest that boys are the new ‘victims’ of schooling and that the girls’ agenda in schooling is a completed one. This paper will challenge the arguments contained within a number of the most recent of these ‘backlash blockbusters’. The paper will argue that, rather than boys being placed on the educational agenda in the status of victims, the ways in which dominant forms of masculinities and the harms they cause many girls and some boys need to be addressed.

Southeast Asia and China: The role of history and culture in shaping future relations

Despite the position of the United States as de facto global hegemon, China is a rising power in the world. As Chinese power grows, the projection of Chinese influence will be felt most acutely in Southeast Asia. Whether to accommodate, contain or resist China will depend on future developments that none can foresee, including Chinese ambitions, the policies of other international players (the U.S., Japan), and the cohesion or fragility of the Association of Southeast Asia Nations (ASEAN). This paper argues that in deciding how best to deal with China, two factors that will influence the countries of Southeast Asia are their own long histories of bilateral relations with China and their own differing conceptions of how foreign relations should be conducted. This is to argue that history and culture are central to any understanding of the likely future shape of China-Southeast Asia relations. Only by taking history and culture into account will analysts be in a position to predict how the mainland and maritime states of Southeast Asia are likely to respond to a more powerful, confident and assertive China.