Publications

The Nutribun, a ready-to-eat meal developed by a United States Agency for International Development program, became tied to Ferdinand E. Marcos when his administration claimed credit for its nationwide distribution through feeding programs. His children later used nostalgia for the Nutribun to cast the Marcos years positively, aiding their political rise. This article reframes nostalgia politics by tracing the Nutribun’s changing political and emotional meanings. It shows how the bun functioned as a symbol for reimagining authoritarian rule as a time of prosperity and national pride, and how nostalgic health messages were used to deflect attention from present problems. The study links public health communication, nutrition policy, and political memory to show nostalgia’s role in shaping historical narratives.

Preparedness strategies for emergent infectious diseases have focused on microbial surveillance, medical stockpiling and healthcare infrastructure resilience. But what does it mean to be epistemically or cognitively prepared for the next disease outbreak? Taking stock of lessons for data practices and statistical modelling in the wake of COVID-19, we propose a reconceptualising of preparedness in global health, focusing on ecological and sociological configurations or framings rather than resorting to reductive ‘crisis technologies’. We address three problem areas: data collection and sharing, outbreak modelling and the spatiotemporal structuring of analysis and intervention. We take these as illustrative of troubling effects of conceptual inflexibility. We inquire into alternative data practices and more complex epidemiological framings. This refiguring of our cognitive toolkit implies working through colonial legacies and national limitations embedded in governance of epidemiological reasoning. Epistemic preparedness—focusing on a more diverse, equitable and inclusive stocktaking as much as stockpiling—provides a reliable foundation for future disease outbreak management.

Abstract This article explores the relationalities of care involving horses and humans in the context of horse-racing. By examining the horse doping cases in the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club ( RHKJC ) from 1969 to 1971, a historical analysis demonstrates how caring for these relations requires infrastructures and relationalities of care. As a powerful institution that regulated gambling within postwar Hong Kong, the RHKJC became embroiled with allegations of horse doping. The cases involved more than 50 horses during the 1969/70 racing season, resulting in a fatality for one horse. This article argues that these kinds of care are institutional and episodic, both of which are necessary to sustain caring inside and beyond the confines of the racetrack. By positioning these relationalities within the socioeconomic movements of Hong Kong in the 1960s, the article also seeks to include animals and the relationalities of care as integral to Hong Kong’s social history.

The selection of sustainable technologies is a critical challenge in the global pursuit of decarbonisation, yet prevailing models often privilege technical and economic metrics at the expense of contextual nuance and stakeholder diversity. This article advances a holistic and reflexive assessment framework for technology selection, foregrounding the integration of technical, economic, environmental, and social criteria, and embedding the perspectives of end-users and local regulators within the evaluative process. Through a case study of green building technologies in Hong Kong, a city marked by dense urban form, regulatory complexity, and climatic specificity, the framework is applied to a spectrum of technologies, including insulation, paints, windows, lifts, and HVAC systems, across both retrofit and new construction scenarios. The findings reveal that technology selection, when attuned to local infrastructural, regulatory, and cultural conditions, not only enhances technical viability but also fosters social legitimacy and accelerates adoption. This approach transcends conventional expert-driven models, offering policymakers and practitioners an adaptive, user-centred, and reflexive methodology that is responsive to the evolving priorities of urban sustainability. While the present study constitutes an initial, expert-led assessment, it establishes a foundation for future participatory and iterative processes, ultimately aiming to democratise technology selection and align it with the lived realities of diverse urban communities. In so doing, the research contributes a novel, context-sensitive paradigm for sustainable building practice, with implications for decarbonisation strategies in cities worldwide.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly impacted food behavior choices, including in procurement, preparation, and waste management. Although some of these behavior changes have resulted in positive economic outcomes, such as the growth of employment opportunities for food delivery personnel, others have been deemed environmentally unsustainable, such as the increase in materials used for food packaging. This study examined how the pandemic intensified the negotiations between sustainability and health in food choice behaviors in Hong Kong and demonstrated how contextual and social determinants influenced these behaviors. Public health trumped sustainability drivers during these intense disruptions.

The electrical grid system is a technology and a complex amalgamation of various factors, including geography, relationships, institutions, and socio-political-economic influences. Although China's involvement in international grids has primarily been analysed from the political economy perspective, little attention has been given to its impact on the electricity systems of host countries and how it affects their performance. This article addresses this gap by combining insights from international relations, political economy, and electricity systems transitions to analyse databases, news accounts and interview data on the performance and perceptions of energy actors regarding China's involvement in the Philippine electricity grid. Dissatisfaction with delays in project implementations, declining contributions to the development of in-house technological capabilities of the national grid company and transmission lines, diversification of local economic elites and oligarchs, and a lack of transparency have intensified mutual distrust between the Chinese grid company and prominent energy actors in the Philippines and failed to mitigate national security concerns. Our findings imply that changes in the constellation of local energy actors amid the electricity sector reform and integration of renewable energy in grids affect the role of the grid and justification for international grid investors. The perception of unsatisfactory performances raises concerns about national security during the worsening of bilateral relations.

The Cotabato River Basin, located on the island of Mindanao in the Philippines, holds paramount importance for local communities and the national economy. However, over the past few decades, the region has been severely affected by the consequences of climate change, such as flooding and drought, along with long-standing socio-political conflicts that threaten livelihood security. This article analyzes the interplay between livelihood security, climate fragility, and state fragility to foster a more meaningful understanding of the impacts arising from historical fragilities and conflicts. The study findings reveal five significant effects of these fragilities on security: persistent flooding, changes in land use, river siltation, drought impact, and uncertainties stemming from violent conflicts. Through a detailed analysis, the article elucidates how the frequent exposure to these events has compelled communities to adapt by perceiving threats to their livelihoods as uncontrollable, thereby normalizing fragilities as an inherent aspect of everyday life. The study underscores the importance of temporal awareness and cultural understanding to comprehend the complexities of fragilities and conflicts. Integrating such awareness and experience makes refining approaches to strengthen livelihoods and mitigate community vulnerabilities possible.

This article examines the emergence of the Insular Cold Storage and Ice Plant as a site of preserving frozen meat and imperial action in response to biodeterioration in Manila under American rule between 1900 to 1935. Cold storage facilities allowed for the production, long-distance transportation, and storage of meat due to technological advances in refrigeration. While it was intended to control chemical breakdowns within meat, a multi-scalar analysis demonstrates how it also reinforced imperial biodeterioration. By focusing on the Insular Cold Storage and Ice Plant, this article argues that cold storage facilities both prevented and facilitated the process of biodeterioration. It also investigates the radicalized meanings of food, specifically with conceptions of “Western” meat as imported from Australia and U.S., versus Chinese meat. This article also considers the issues surrounding the global pathways of meat, racialized meanings of food, and the impact of imperial technologies on the local food landscape.

Abstract The place of the non-human animal in the legal world has been questioned. Animals’ legal status as property has been probed on how to best protect their welfare. While this is significant for animals who are not on the farm, it might not be effective when considering animals raised for food. The case of the carabao, or the water buffalo, in the Philippines is seen as a hybrid. This article traces the development of the carabao in Philippine history during the nineteenth century. Through historical, archival, and legal research on animals, the carabao is situated as private property. Colonial instruments of control were introduced to protect the carabao from criminals. In its proper historical context, the classification of carabaos as property indeed highlighted the animal’s status as legally owned, which did not necessarily demean the animal’s relationship with the human peasant nor the carabao’s quality as an animal.