Ben Kerkvliet


Benedict John Kerkvliet is Emeritus Professor at the Department of Political and Social Change, School of International, Political & Strategic Studies, Australian National University. He works across the areas of comparative politics, Southeast Asia and Asian studies.

Early life and education

Benedict was born and raised in Montana, surrounded by working-class relatives and friends for whom political discussion and debate were part of life. After graduating from the local public high schools, he earned his B.A. at Whitman College and his M.A. and Ph.D. at University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Teaching

Kerkvliet taught at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa for nearly twenty years before joining the Australian National University in 1992. At the latter, where he was a professor and Head of the Department of Political and Social Change, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies.

Research

Kerkvliet is fascinated with how ordinary people deal with big pressures on their lives. He has emphasized research on agrarian politics in Southeast Asia. Closely related is his study of interactions between ordinary people and authorities or other elites. He is currently doing research on local reactions to major recent national policies in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Career highlights

Kerkvliet taught Political Science and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi from 1971 to 1991. He has been teaching at Australian National University since 1991. He has received various international fellowships and awards for research and teaching in Asia, Australia, Europe and America. Most importantly, Kerkvliet enjoys working with industrious graduate students and living in and doing research in the Philippines and Vietnam.

Personal life

Kerkvliet currently resides in Hawaiʻi with his wife Melinda.

Works

Books

  • Political Change in the Philippines: Studies of Local Politics Prior to Martial Law, editor,.
  • The Huk Rebellion: A Study of Peasant Revolt in the Philippines
  • Everyday Forms of Resistance in Southeast Asia, co-edited with James C. Scott,, originally a special issue of Journal of Peasant Studies 13.
  • Everyday Politics in the Philippines: Class and Status Relations in a Central Luzon Village. Reprinted in a Philippine edition by New Day Press, Quezon City, 1991
  • From Marcos to Aquino: Local Perspectives on Political Transition in the Philippines, co-edited with Resil Mojares,.
  • Dilemmas of Development: Vietnam Update 1994, editor,.
  • Vietnam's Rural Transformation, co-edited with Doug J. Porter.
  • Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared, co-edited with Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger.
  • Mot so Van De ve Nong Nghieip, Nong Dan, Nong Thon o cac Nuoc va Viet Nam, co-edited with Nguyen Quang Ngoc and James C. Scott.
  • Getting Organized in Vietnam: Moving in and around the Socialist State, co-editor with Russell H. K. Heng and David W. H. Koh.
  • Beyond Hanoi: Local Government in Vietnam, co-edited with David G. Marr.
  • The Power of Everyday Politics: How Vietnamese Peasants Transformed National Policy.
  • Speaking Out in Vietnam: Public Political Criticism in a Communist Party-Ruled Nation.

Selected articles and other writings

  • "A Critique of Raymond Aron's Theory of War and Prescriptions," International Studies Quarterly, 12 : pages 419-442
  • "Additional Source Materials on Philippine Radical Movements," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 3 : pages 83-90.
  • "Peasant Society and Unrest Prior to the Huk Rebellion in the Philippines," Asian Studies, 9 : pages 164-213.
  • "Peasant Rebellion in the Philippines: The Origins and Growth of the HMB,".
  • "A Critique of the RAND Report on the Philippines," Journal of Asian Studies, 32 : pages 489-500.
  • "Politics of Survival: Peasant Responses to 'Progress' in Southeast Asia," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 4 : pages 241-268. Co-authored with James C. Scott.
  • "How Traditional Rural Patrons Lose Legitimacy: A Theory with Special Reference to Southeast Asia," Cultures et developpement, 5:3 : pages 500-540. Co-authored with James C. Scott. Reprinted in Steffen W. Schmidt, et al., Friends, Followers, and Factions: A Reader in Political Clientelism, pages 439–457.
  • "The Philippines: Agrarian Conditions in Luzon Prior to Martial Law," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 5 : pages 36-40.
  • "Agrarian Conditions Since the Huk Rebellion: A Barrio in Central Luzon," in Kerkvliet, ed., Political Change in the Philippines: Studies of Local Politics Prior to Martial Law, pages 1–76.
  • "All Show, No Go: Land Reform in the Philippines," The Nation, 11 May 1974, pages 586–589.
  • Testimony about conditions in the Philippines, U.S. Senate, Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, and House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Asian and Pacific Affairs. Printed in the Congressional Record, 120 : S-9564-70.
  • "Land Reform in the Philippines Since the Marcos Coup," Pacific Affairs, 47 : pages 286-304.
  • "Peasants and Marxists in Asia: A Review Article," Peasant Studies, 6 : pages 7-11.
  • "Land Reform: Emancipation or Counterinsurgency?" in David A. Rosenberg, ed., Marcos and Martial Law in the Philippines, pages 113–144.
  • "Difference among Philippine Peasants: A Provincial Sample," Philippine Sociological Review, 27 : pages 133-159. Co-authored with Werasit Sittitrai.
  • "Resources for Research on Local Philippine Society," Philippine Studies Newsletter, 8 : pages 3-9.
  • "Classes and Class Relations in a Philippine Village," Philippine Sociological Review, 28 : pages 31-50.
  • "The Meaning of Martial Law in a Nueva Ecija Village, the Philippines," Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 14 : pages 2-19.
  • "Profiles of Agrarian Reform in a Nueva Ecija Village," in Antonio Ledesma, et al., eds., Second View From the Paddy, pages 41–58.
  • "Possible Demise of the Marcos Regime," Crossroads: Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 1 : pages 67-83.
  • "Documentary Methods: Review of Two Films," Pilipinas: A Journal of Philippine Studies, 5 : pages 110-113.
  • "Everyday Resistance to Injustice in a Philippine Village," Journal of Peasant Studies, 13 : 107-123; also in Scott and Kerkvliet, ed., Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance in Southeast Asia.
  • "Patterns of Philippine Resistance and Rebellion, 1970-1986," Pilipinas: A Journal of Philippine Studies, 6 : pages 35-52.
  • "Peasants and Agricultural Workers: Implications for United States Policy," in Carl Lande, Rebuilding a Nation: Philippine Challenges and American Policy, pages 205–218.
  • "'We Are Being Oppressed by Those Already Well Off': Political Thought and Action of Wage Workers in Rural Central Luzon, the Philippines," in Michael Pinches and Salim Lakha, eds., Wage Labour and Social Change in Asia, pages 67–92.
  • "Understanding Politics in a Rural Community During the Transition from Marcos to Aquino," in Kerkvliet and Mojares, eds., From Marcos to Aquino, pages 226–46.
  • "The Transition from Marcos to Aquino," co-authored with Resil Mojares, in Kerkvliet and Mojares, eds., From Marcos to Aquino, pages 1–12.
  • "Claiming the Land: Take-overs by Villagers in the Philippines with Comparisons to Indonesia, Peru, Portugal, and Russia," Journal of Peasant Studies 20 : pages 459-493.
  • "State-Village Relations in Vietnam: Contested Cooperatives and Collectivization." Working Paper, Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Monash University, 1993. 28 pages.
  • "Withdrawal and Resistance: the Political Significance of Food, Agriculture, and How People Lived During the Japanese Occupation in the Philippines," in Laurie Sears, ed., Autonomous Histories, Particular Truths: Essays in Honor of John Smail., 175-94. An earlier appeared in Bernd Martin and Alan Milward, eds., Agriculture and Food Supply in World War Two, pages 297–316.
  • "Politics of Society in the Mid 1990s," in Ben Kerkvliet, ed., Dilemmas of Development: Vietnam Update 1994, pages 5–44.
  • "Village-State Relations in Vietnam: The Effect of Everyday Politics on Decollectivization," Journal of Asian Studies, 54 : pages 396-418.
  • "Rural Vietnam in Rural Asia," co-authored with Doug J. Porter, in Kerkvliet and Porter, eds., Vietnam's Rural Transformation, pages 1–38.
  • "Rural Society and State Relations in Vietnam," in Kerkvliet and Porter, eds., Vietnam's Rural Transformation.
  • "Toward a More Comprehensive Analysis of Philippine Politics: Beyond the Patron-Client, Factional Framework," Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 26: pages 401-19.
  • "Contemporary Philippine Leftist Politics in Historical Perspective," in Patricio Abinales, ed., The Revolution Falters: The Left in Philippine Politics after 1986 , pages 9–27.
  • "Contested Meanings of Elections in the Philippines," in R. H. Taylor, ed., The Politics of Elections in Southeast Asia, pp. 136–63.
  • "Partial Impressions of Society in Vietnam," in Adam Fforde, ed., Doi Moi: Ten Years after the 1986 Party Congress, pp. 47–79.
  • "Land Struggles and Land Regimes in the Philippines and Vietnam during the Twentieth Century," Wertheim Lecture, 40 pages.
  • "Comparing the Chinese and Vietnamese Reforms: An Introduction," co-authored with Anita Chan and Jonathan Unger, The China Journal 40: pages 1-7.
  • "Agrarian Transformations in China and Vietnam," co-authored with Mark Selden, The China Journal 40 : pages 37-58.
  • "Land Regimes and State Strengths and Weaknesses in the Philippines and Vietnam," in Peter Dauvergne, ed., Weak and Strong States in Asia-Pacific Societies, pages 158–174.
  • “Wobbly Foundations: Building Co-operatives in Rural Vietnam,” Southeast Asia Research 6 : pages 193-251.
  • “Comparing Vietnam and China,” co-authored with Anita Chan, Benedict Kerkvliet, and Jonathan Unger, in our edited book Transforming Asian Socialism: China and Vietnam Compared, pages 1–14.
  • "Accelerating Cooperatives in Rural Vietnam, 1955-1961," in Bernhard Dahm and Vincent J. H. Hauben, eds., Vietnamese Villages in Transition, pages 53–88.
  • "Dialogical Law Making and Implementation in Vietnam," in Alice Tay, ed., East Asia, Human Rights, Nation Building and Trade, pages 372–400.
  • "Advocating Vietnam Studies: Phan Huy Le and the Center for Vietnam Studies and Cultural Exchange," in Philippe Papin and John Kleinen, eds., Liber Amirorum: Melanges offerts au Professeur Phan Huy Le, pages 103–17.
  • "Manuela Santa Ana vda. de Maclang and Philippine Politics," in Alfred McCoy, ed., Lives at the Margin: Biography of Filipinos Obscure, Ordinary, and Heroic, pages 389–421.
  • “Political Ironies in the Philippines,” forward for book by Jennifer Conroy Franco, Campaigning for Democracy: Grassroots Citizenship Movements, Less-The-Democratic Elections, and Regime Transition in the Philippines, pages xv-xxii, pages xxi-xxiv.
  • "Analyzing the State in Vietnam," Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 16:2 : pages 179-86.
  • "An Approach for Analyzing State-Society Relations in Vietnam," Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 16:2 : pages 238-78.
  • "Reverberations of Freedom in the Philippines and Vietnam," in Robert Taylor, ed., Freedom in Africa and Asia, pages 182–213, 297-308.
  • "Grappling with Organizations and the State in Contemporary Vietnam," in Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet, Russell H. K. Heng, and David W. H. Koh, eds., Getting Organized in Vietnam: Moving in and around the Socialist State, pages 1–24.
  • "Authorities and the People: An Analysis of State-Society Relations in Vietnam," in Hy V. Luong, ed., Postwar Vietnam: Dynamics of a Transforming Society, pages 27–53.
  • “Agrarian Policy Renovation in Vietnam from the Bottom Up,” Taiwan Journal of Southeast Asian Studies 1 : pages 19-36.
  • "Surveying Local Government and Authority in Contemporary Vietnam," in Benedict J. Tria Kerkvliet and David G. Marr, eds., Beyond Hanoi: Local Government in Vietnam, pages 1–27.
  • "Politics in Vietnam’s Red River Delta in the 1970s-1980s," in Edwina Palmer, ed., Asian Futures, Asian Traditions, pages 143–56.
  • "Political Expectations and Democracy in the Philippines and Vietnam," Philippine Political Science Journal, 26 : pages 1-26.
  • "Agricultural Land in Vietnam: Markets Tempered by Family, Community and Socialist Practices," Journal of Agrarian Change 6 : pages 285-305.
  • "In-Depth Research and Knowledge Accumulation About Agrarian Politics in Southeast Asia," in Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu, eds., Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis, pages 129-43.
  • "Forms of Engagement between State Agencies & Civil Society Organizations in Vietnam," co-written with Nguyễn Quang A and Bạch Tân Sinh. Prepared for the VUFO-NGO Resource Centre, Hanoi, December 2008.
  • "Everyday Politics in Peasant Societies," Journal of Peasant Studies, 36:1 : pages 227-43. Reprinted in Critical Perspectives in Rural Development Studies, pages 215–31, edited by Saturnino M. Borras Jr..
  • "Southeast Asia," in R.A.W. Rhodes, ed., The Australian Study of Politics, pages 257-67.
  • "Workers’ Protests in Contemporary Vietnam," Journal of Vietnamese Studies, 5:1 : pages 162-204. Republished with some revisions as "Workers' Protests in Contemporary Vietnam," in Labour in Vietnam, edited by Anita Chan, pages 160-210.
  • "Governance, Development, and the Responsive-Repressive State in Vietnam," Forum for Development Studies 37 : pages 33-60.
  • "A Different View of Insurgencies," In Search of a Human Face: 15 Years of Knowledge Building for Human Development in the Philippines, pages 268-79.
  • “Government Repression and Toleration in Contemporary Vietnam,” Working Paper 119, Southeast Asia Research Centre, City University of Hong Kong, 2012.
  • Small articles, mainly on aspects of Philippine history, society, and politics have been published in the Encyclopedia of Asian History, Encyclopedia of Political Revolutions, Los Angeles Times, International Herald Tribune, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, Honolulu Advertiser, and ''The Australian''