On 10th February 2021, SEAC is hosting a Book Launch for the 2020 book 'Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines', written by SEAC Associate Prof. John Sidel (Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at LSE) with Jaime Faustino. This event features an introduction by Prof. Sidel and responses by panellists, and will be chaired by Prof. Hyun Bang Shin.

Outline of the book

In this publication, authors John T. Sidel and Jaime Faustino look into the Coalitions for Change (CfC), a program of The Asia Foundation and the Australian Embassy Partnership in the Philippines. In looking at CfC’s diverse initiatives–in tax reform, education reform, land governance reform, electoral reform, infrastructure reform, disaster risk reduction and management, and conflict resolution–the book surfaces lessons on problem-driven, adaptive, and iterative policy-making that resonates across the developing world.

Click here to access an electronic copy of the book.

Speaker and chair biographies

• Prof John Sidel is the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Professor Sidel received his BA and MA from Yale University and his PhD from Cornell University. He is the author of Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (1999), Philippine Politics and Society in the Twentieth Century: Colonial Legacies, Postcolonial Trajectories (2000, with Eva-Lotta Hedman), Riots, Pogroms, Jihad: Religious Violence in Indonesia (2006), The Islamist Threat in Southeast Asia: A Reassessment (2007), Thinking and Working Politically in Development: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines (2020, with Jaime Faustino) and Republicanism, Communism, Islam: Cosmopolitan Origins of Revolution in Southeast Asia (2021).
• Jaime Faustino has been working for three decades with international donors and Philippine leaders and organizations to introduce reforms in diverse areas such as civil aviation, property rights, education, disaster risk reduction, electoral reform. From those reform experiences and development thinking, Jaime conceptualized development entrepreneurship, an operational model for introducing policy reform. He published an edited volume Built on Dreams, Grounded in Reality: Economic Policy Reform in the Philippines in 2011. In 2014, he co-wrote Development Entrepreneurship: How Donors and Leaders can Foster Institutional Change, with David Booth. And in 2020, he co-wrote Thinking and Working Politically in Practice: Coalitions for Change in the Philippines with John Sidel. Jaime received his Bachelor of Arts degree in History at Duke University and a Master’s degree in Political Science at University of the Philippines in 1992.
• Prof James Putzel is Professor of Development Studies at LSE. Professor Putzel is well-known for his research in the Philippines where he has maintained active research since 1984. His book, A Captive Land: The Politics of Agrarian Reform in the Philippines (1992), is recognised as a classic on the topic and remains influential in current policy actions and debates in the country. His research also includes work on nationalism, comparative politics of development in Southeast and East Asia, democratic transition, and the role of foreign aid and NGOs in development. Professor Putzel served as Head of the International Development Department at LSE in 1999-2001 and was Director of the School’s Crisis States Research Centre in 2001-2011.
• Dr Tamaki Endo is an Associate Professor at Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Saitama University in Japan. Her research interests include informal economy, inequality, urban risk management and global value chain analysis. The current research projects are ‘Informalizing Asia: Dynamics and dilemma of global mega cities’, ‘Flood risk and resilience in mega cities: The case of Thailand and Myanmar’, and ‘The Well-Being of Asian Cities’. Main publications are Living with Risks: Precarity & Bangkok’s Urban Poor (NUS Press association with Kyoto University Press, 2014), The Asian Economy: Contemporary Issues and Challenges (Goto, Endo and Ito [eds], Routledge, 2020). She received her B.A. in Law and Politics from Faculty of Law (1999), and her M.A. (2001) and PhD (2007) in Economics from Graduate School of Economics, Kyoto University.
• Prof Hyun Bang Shin is Professor of Geography and Urban Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science and directs the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre. His research centres on the critical analysis of the political economy of speculative urbanisation, gentrification and displacement, urban spectacles, and urbanism with particular attention to Asian cities. His books include Planetary Gentrification (Polity, 2016), Neoliberal Urbanism, Contested Cities and Housing in Asia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019), Exporting Urban Korea? Reconsidering the Korean Urban Development Experience (Routledge, 2021), and The Political Economy of Mega Projects in Asia: Globalization and Urban Transformation (Routledge, forthcoming). He is Editor of the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and is also a trustee of the Urban Studies Foundation.

* The Zoom link for the event will be sent on your registered email before the event