The Globalization of Householding and Social Reproduction in Pacific Asia

Abstract

This article focuses on the missing dimension of global studies, the household, in the context of developments in Pacific (East and Southeast) Asia over the past two decades. In this world region, householding-the processes of forming and sustaining households-has been global, not only to seize new opportunities for advancement but equally to compensate for growing crises in householding within the nation-state. Global householding is only partially motivated by and manifested in work and income opportunities, as it encompasses issues of marriages; bearing, raising, and educating children; and caring for the elderly. From a societal level, global householding responds to collapsing population growth below replacement, severe labor shortages, rising dependency ratios, welfare systems going broke, and rapidly aging societies. However, popular attitudes and immigration policies are often inimical to global householding, and tensions with national identity bundled with ethnicity are generating important social and political issues in the region.