Bangkok--7 Aug--AIT
Dr. Kyoko Kusakabe, Associate Professor of the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) has contributed mightily to the field of gender studies in Asia with the release of two scholarly publications that are destined to become required reading.
A faculty member of the School of Environment, Resources and Development’s Gender and Development field of study, Assoc. Prof. Kusakabe recently co-authored one book titled Thailand's Hidden Workforce: Burmese Migrant Women Factory Workers and edited another titled Gender, Roads and Mobility in Asia. Both works have received considerable favorable reviews from experts in academia, nongovernmental organizations and the media.
Thailand’s Hidden Workforce: Burmese Migrant Women
Factory Workers
In Thailand's Hidden Workforce: Burmese Migrant Women Factory Workers, pp. 215, published by Zed Books (2012), Prof. Ruth Pearson, a professor of International Development at the University of Leeds, UK, and Prof. Kasukabe opine on the largely forgotten story of women who migrate from Myanmar to work in Thailand’s export-focused industries, as part of “a large and exploited workplace.”
It sheds light on the difficult plight of countless young female workers who are often illegal or ‘unregistered’ migrants. Casting an insightful look at a very dark and wholly unseen part of the global economy, the nine chapter book offers a unique empirical and engendered study of the role of women migrant workers in Thailand’s factories, and exposes the harsh realities they face.
Gender, Roads and Mobility in Asia
Gender, Roads and Mobility in Asia, pp. 225, published by Practical Action Publishing (2012) and supported by the ASEAN Foundation, was edited by Assoc. Prof. Kusakabe, who also wrote the introduction and conclusion chapters.
It is a twenty-one chapter collection of case-based research that assesses how poor roads, transport infrastructure, and lack of mobility in Southeast Asia are key factors of the marginalization of women and other disempowered groups.
The book explores the inter-relations between gender, poverty, and mobility, especially in the context of transportation development in the region, through a nuanced overview of the influence and impact of infrastructure development on people’s lives.
Gender, Roads and Mobility in Asia should be a useful tool for policy makers, transportation planners, development practitioners and researchers, undergraduates, postgraduates, and academics in areas of gender and development studies and transportation planning and management.