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This paper looks into the controversial Buddhist Asoke group generally known as Santi Asoke in Thailand. The group has challenged the state Buddhist hierarchy (Mahatherasamakhom) by ordaining women as sikkhamat. The sikkhamats observe Ten Precepts and are highly respected in the group. In the wider Thai society, they are less known and often confused with visiting Chinese bhiksunis. Santi Asoke has been controversial since its emergence in the 1970s due to its strict vegetarianism and harsh criticism on capitalism, consumerism and monastic corruption. It became highly politicised when their most famous lay member Major-General Chamlong Srimuang was elected as the governor of Bangkok and later on established his own political party Palang Dharma (Power of Dharma or Moral Force) to contest in the national elections in 1988. Palang Dharma failed to change Thai politics, but when in 1998 the former Palang Dharma member, telecom tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra established his nationalistic Thai Rak Thai party (Thais Love Thais) to contest the elections in 2000, many Asoke people enthusiastically supported him until 2006 when they joined street protests to oust him. Asoke group has been widely criticised for their involvement in politics. Asoke movement administers several autonomous self-reliant villages in rural Thailand where it practices sustainable organic agriculture, produces herbal shampoos and medicine and runs primary and secondary schools. The sikkhamats are primarily involved in teaching and preaching but have also participated in the street demonstrations. The purpose of this paper is to look into the role and status of the sikkhamats in the Asoke group; explore social and economic background of Asoke sikkhamats; ask why women choose to become sikkhamats; and why do they not seem to want to be ordained as bhikkhuni. The paper is based on many years of observation and interviews with the Asoke sikkhamats and laywomen in their temples, schools, villages, and on the streets of Bangkok.

Considering the recent trends of the increasing globalization of the market economy and the diffusion of democracy, the modern world needs to pay closer attention to pro-women and pro-girls policies if gender discrimination is to be challenged. Such policies could mark an era of building greater gender equality across the world by strengthening domains of women’s well-being that have been shown to decline in the initial years of the democratization and globalization of countries.

Women, who have more complex societal roles than men and whose employment is more tenuous, are more vulnerable to the rapid restructuring in macro-political and economic systems and bear more of the costs of systemic changes. My world-scale analyses show that women and men benefit unequally from the growth of democracy and the global economy – men’s well-being improves with the growth of democracy and globalization but women’s well-being declines. According to my follow-up studies, the decline lasts for over a decade (2014). These findings suggest that prior results of research proposing that democracy and the global economy improve people’s well-being are most likely biased when gender and the level of development in countries are not accounted for. To protect women and girls and to avoid gender discrimination, globalizing and democratizing countries should prioritize gender mainstreaming in their policies.

Mandi Bane is a Ph.D. candidate, in the Department of Sociology, University of Michigan. Her areas of academic interest are social change, globalization, race and ethnicity, comparative-historical and ethnographic methods, social movements, and Latin America. Her dissertation is a multiscalar, historically grounded study of indigenous social movement organizations in Ecuador that contributes to the literature on multiculturalism, development, cultural citizenship, radical democracy, and neoliberalism.

Having lived for many years in communist Poland, principles of democracy, human rights, and the opportunity for economic development were among my main concerns in life. My introduction to democracy as a political system and to democratic processes, however, was initiated by activism in the Pro-Democracy Solidarity Movement in 1980–1981. I was a student at that time and a member of the student segment of the Solidarity Movement. Participation in occupational strikes at A. Mickiewicz University in Poznan, my alma mater, was the best and the most important lesson for me on the nature and processes of democratization. This activism prompted eagerness to record the history unfolding before my very eyes. I collected copies of circulating documents, students’ poetry, songs as well as recorded interviews with striking students. I watched hours of video recordings of the student negotiations with Polish government members (a phenomenon equivalent to workers negotiations). I also visited other campuses on strike across Poland. The documentation I collected and recorded was presented as a doctoral dissertation and constituted a significant part of two books.

So far only minimal efforts have been made to directly integrate health concerns with priorities of the processes of global economic development. Nonetheless, there is search for new models to provide sufficient medical care and to encumber global threats, soaring medical costs, technological costs, poverty, and disease. Using example of health conditions and health policies implemented in countries of Southeast Asia in comparison to Eastern Europe, the chapter emphasizes success achieved and in the process of achievement in provision of health care to societies in these countries.

Paper recycling is an environment friendly technology used worldwide. The process involves turning waste paper into new paper products. According to the Society for Technology and Action for Rural Advancement (TARA), the process includes shredding of waste paper, soaking the shredded paper in water overnight, feeding the shredded soaked paper inside the hydrapulper, transforming wet material into pulp, forming pulp into required and specified size of paper, squeezing out excess water from wet paper, drying the wet sheet on cloth, removing the paper from the cloth, cutting paper into definite size, and finally manufacturing the product. Handmade paper can be used for making different paper products. This simple technology can reduce environment degradation, produce cost-effective paper, inculcate skill development, and create livelihoods. This chapter highlights a specific activity initiated in 2007 by the author in the capacity of then director, UGC Centre for Women Studies, BITS, Pilani. The activity involved setting up the TARA Mini Paper Recycling Unit, sponsored by the UGC Centre for Women Studies, BITS, Pilani, training 10 rural women on the process of making paper from waste paper and making end products out of recycled paper. The outcome of this activity was economic empowerment and helping women acquire skills of making paper from waste paper.