Development Studies Program
RESEARCH PROJECTS IN THE DEVELOPMENT STUDIES PROGRAM
(2019)
1. HATID ASEAN Project (“Assessing eHealth Technologies Contribution to Health Governance and Program Management in the Philippines”)
Dr Leslie Lopez, Project Director
Funding source: Philippine Council for Health Research and Development, Department of Science and Technology (PCHR-DOST
The project addresses cross-cutting issues regarding program management and service delivery done via existing eHealth technologies and involves the sharing of best practices and research findings on the development of eHealth technologies in the three participating ASEAN countries — Philippines, Thailand, and Indonesia. The overall goal of the project is to develop a governance framework on local eHealth systems based on the results of an assessment of local health units’ implementation of eHealth technologies.
2. A Template for City- and MunicipalityWide Public School Feeding Programs for National Implementation
Dr Leslie, Lopez, Research Specialist
Funding Source: Commission on Higher Education (CHED) - Discovery Applied Research and Extension Trans/Inter-Disciplinary Opportunities (DARE TO Grant-in Aid)
Impact and process evaluations of, a review of policies enabling, and a description and analysis of community participation under the Ateneo Center for Educational Development (ACED) Blueplate for Better Learning Program and the GK Kusina ng Kalinga (KnK) as crucial contribution to the development of an evidence-based template for sustainable, replicable, scalable, and cost-effective feeding programs in Philippine schools. Focus is on the ACED Blueplate public school feeding programs implemented in Valenzuela City, Metro Manila and Mercedes, Camarines Norte and a few sites serviced by KnK. The research aims to provide an evidence-based template for conducting citywide, rural and rural-island municipality-wide public school feeding programs which are sustainable, replicable, scalable, and cost-effective.
3. Participatory Communication in Populist Times
Bianca Ysabelle Franco, Research Associate
Septrin John Calamba, Project Manager
This project aims to diagnose the pathologies of political communication and what can be done to make things better. To achieve this, a series of deliberative forums will be convened—a randomly selected group of citizens will be invited to reflect on the character of political talk today and propose possibilities for participatory communication in populist times.
4. Ethnographies of Philippine Auditory Popular Cultures (EPAPC)
Lara Mendoza, Team Leader
The Ethnographies of Philippine Auditory Popular Cultures (EPAPC) is an interdisciplinary research project that aims to fill the lacuna or neglected area of Philippine popular cultures studies, particularly on auditory art forms and scenes that need and can benefit from interdisciplinary approaches and methodologies. In particular, its goals are to document the history of recorded sound in past Philippine cultures, describe ethnographically the nature of collaboration in studio musics, describe the scenes in terms of its multisensorial aspect, and to explore technology and broadcast mediations.
The materials produced for this project aim to significantly contribute to a better understanding of expressive popular cultures as an important force in shaping our nation’s identity. Specifically, EPAPC aims to advance research on music and popular culture in the Philippines, through publications, lectures, databases, and creative outputs such as video documentaries and other recorded performative practices. It also aims to provide serious, scholarly research to be made available to young learners, teachers, and other scholars of popular cultures.
Some of the outputs that have already been done are two documentaries (one about 60’s to 70’s OPM, and the second about Philippine Hip Hop), papers presented in various local and international conferences, Kritika Kultura lectures, published papers, and the team’s very own recently concluded national conference, that run from September 4-6, 2019.
The project is a grantee of the CHED-NCCA SALIKHA Creative Grants, and is expected to be finished by October 2020. The team is comprised of scholars, research assistants, and personnel from the University of the Philippines Diliman and Ateneo de Manila University.
5. Religion and anti-criminality
Jayeel Cornelio, Co-investigator
Erron Medina, Research Associate
This project builds on the previous work of Jayeel Cornelio and Erron Medina on Christianity and the War on Drugs. Funded by the Global Religion Research Initiative of the University of Notre Dame, it analyzes the different discursive responses of national religious leaders to the War on Drugs in the Philippines. Its project partners are Andrew Johnson and James Densley at the Metropolitan State University.
6. The rise of the new prosperity gospel in the Philippines
Jayeel Cornelio, Principal Investigator
Erron Medina, Research Associate
One innovation taking place in the religious landscape in the Philippines is the prosperity gospel, which makes a direct link between religious beliefs and financial success. The most prominent has been the charismatic group El Shaddai, led by Brother Mike Velarde. His brand of prosperity gospel relies heavily on giving to receive blessings (seed-faith). This project explores the shift that has taken place with regard to the character of the prosperity gospel. We call this the rise of the prosperity ethic. The ethic has two dimensions that set it apart from the previous incarnation of the prosperity gospel. First, it values upward mobility. Second, it uses Biblical principles to justify practical rules to acquire wealth.
We explain the rise of the prosperity ethic by relating it to major shifts in the economy since the 1980s. It is by embracing aspiration and discipline that Christianity reaffirms its influence in contemporary Philippine society. Our analysis draws from a textual analysis of influential books written by two Filipino preachers who encourage followers to pursue financial success: Bo Sanchez, a Catholic, and Chinkee Tan and evangelical. We analyze their insights about God and how money and blessings should be understood.
7. Filipino Christianity in Southeast Asia
Jayeel Cornelio, Principal Investigator
Erron Medina, Research Associate
This project documents and analyzes the growth of the Filipino population in Thailand from the point of view of the sociology of religion. Funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020, it unravels the religious imaginary that Filipinos have about Thailand and Southeast Asia. By doing so, the project advances scholarly work on religion and migration among Filipinos.
8. Queer Christianity Project
Jayeel Cornelio, Co-Investigator
Jozon Lorenzana, Co-Investigator
Robbin Dagle, Research Associate
This project seeks to understand the different ways in which young adults narrate their experiences of growing up queer and Christian in the Philippines. By focusing on non-hetersexual male young adults, it assesses the negotiations they have with regard to the tenuous relationship between faith and sexuality. This is the first study of its kind in the Philippines.
8. Youth and Aspirations in Post-Conflict Marawi
Jayeel Cornelio, Principal Investigator
Septrin John Calamba, Co-Investigator
This study advances the scholarship on young people’s participation by foregrounding the role of aspirations in post-conflict reconstruction. As future-oriented dispositions, aspirations are crucial in motivating young people in participating in rehabilitation efforts and peacebuilding. Their potency lies in offering critiques of the state of affairs. But they are limited by the structures that foster participation. This projects makes these arguments by drawing on interviews with young people who were affected by the Marawi Siege, an armed conflict between the Philippine government and ISIL-affiliated forces. Their aspiration is to “go home”, which this article unpacks in two respects: people-centered reconstruction and the reassertion of Marawi’s Islamic identity.