Academic Essays
Beyond Algorithms: Exploring the Power and Sociopolitical Impact of UI and UX Design
2024. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Asia in Transition in the 21st Century.
User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) designs play a pivotal role in shaping human-to-machine and human-to-human interactions. They not only influence people’s engagement with technology but also shape individual perspectives, political discourses, and social relations. While much research has focused on algorithms and Big Data, less attention has been given to the sociopolitical dimensions of design, especially its impact in the Global South. This essay attempts to contribute to the conversation around how design functions as a form of power that targets and directs user actions and interactions. Through the lens of UI and UX design, I echo digital media scholars’ argument that today’s technologies simultaneously facilitate the following: the commodification of data, perpetuation of disparities, control over people’s access to information, and manipulation of user behavior. These dynamics often reinforce power structures and benefit those with access to user data, hence the need to further interrogate the sociopolitical implications of UI and UX designs. Design, as both a tool and a system of power, demands critical scrutiny if we are to challenge the deep-seated inequalities it perpetuates and reclaim digital spaces for more equitable futures.
Adapting to Uncertainties: Conducting Social Research in the Time of COVID-19
2022. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
With the pandemic limiting people’s mobility, adopting innovative research methods has never been more relevant, especially for researchers in the fields of social sciences and humanities. Learning from the COVID-19 experience, this essay stresses the need to reimagine social research. It explores different research strategies and techniques that can be implemented during public health emergencies, such as online ethnography, online interviews, and focus groups. Social research planning and execution in virtual environments require awareness of behavioral, spatial, and technological factors, some of which are briefly tackled in this essay. As the world struggles to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, this essay invites researchers to consider using existing technologies and adopting digital research methods.
Foodpanda and the Promotion of Precarious Work in the Philippines
2022. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
This preliminary study analyzes various issues surrounding Foodpanda, a popular online food and grocery delivery platform. Combining information on the platform’s scoring system with riders’ sentiments, the study unpacks contemporary technologies’ creation of new tools for exploitation and various allegations of unfair labor practices to expose the precarity of the riders’ work. Particular attention is given to technologies and policies that take advantage of the riders during the COVID-19 pandemic, identifying issues such as fake bookings or the unreasonable cancellation of confirmed orders, the unfavorable pay and working conditions, the endorsement of neoliberal governmentality, among others. The study found evidence of structural abuse embedded within the platform’s design. Foodpanda’s unjust payment schemes and inadequate action toward scams signify the platform’s failure to meet the needs and protect the welfare of their food delivery workers. Evidence analyzed in this preliminary work provides insights on how some platforms today are designed to meet capitalists’ insatiable desire for profit.
The Tam-Awan Village Performers and the Discourse of Authenticity and Tradition on YouTube
2021. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
In this essay, I explore the discourse of authenticity and tradition on YouTube. Mainly, I probe the influence of authenticity issues on Filipinos’ understanding of “traditional” performances. To fulfill this objective, I examined people’s understanding of the Cordilleran culture as manifested in various comments on YouTube, particularly those posts that feature the cultural performances of young Cordillerans in Tam-awan Village. In my preliminary investigation, I found that many Filipinos remain unaware of the diversity of cultures in the Cordilleras. I also found that when some YouTubers wrongly identified the source culture of specific rituals and performances, cultural insiders, or those from the region, were quick to correct them. Yet, the most curious finding of my preliminary work on the topic is the notion of authenticity that generally emerges in several comment sections, which reflect an interpretation of cultures that disregards their fluidity and dynamism.
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Producing Spectacles, Appropriating Traditions: The Case of Baguio’s Panagbenga Festival
2021. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
Panagbenga is an annual festival held in Baguio City, Philippines every February, celebrating Cordillera’s flora and promoting the region’s culture and economy. Despite the festival being initiated fairly recently, it has found its way to many Filipinos’ calendars. Every year, it attracts millions of visitors and contributes to the city’s flower industry and tourism. It is curious, however, that even with the festival’s popularity, very few social scientists have been intrigued by the festival’s inception and traditionalization. To address this gap, this study offers a preliminary examination of Panagbenga using nuanced anthropological descriptions of tradition. Central to its analysis of traditionalization is the modification, institutionalization, and multiplication of festival practices that serve various purposes. In exploring the intersection of cultural expressions and economic practices during Panagbenga, the study validated the fluidity of tradition, refuting the prevailing Hobsbawmian distinction between “genuine” and “invented” traditions.
Beijing-Manila Relations and the State of Philippine Democracy under Rodrigo Duterte
2020. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
The 2018 Memorandum of Understanding between the Philippines and China on cooperation on the Belt and Road Initiative ascertained a stronger infrastructure collaboration and interconnectivity in the transportation, telecommunication, and energy sectors. As I explained in an earlier publication, President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed Chinese aid with the hopes of ushering in a “golden age of infrastructure” in the Philippines. Recognizing the economic and geopolitical implications of infrastructure development as spurred by China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), this essay appends the discussion on Manila’s closer cooperation with Beijing by analyzing how the Beijing-Manila relationship impacts the state of democracy and the rule of law in the Philippines.
Statistical (In)capacity and Government (In)decisions: The Philippines in the Time of COVID-19
2020. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
The May 2020 report by the Committee for the Coordination of Statistical Activities on the social and economic impact of the Covid-19 outbreak validates Milan and Treré’s (April 2020) claim that the Global South is “virtually absent” from the “number-based narration of the pandemic.” Although there was an attempt to shed light on the potential ramifications of the pandemic on the Global South, the volume and variety of data presented in the report made the disparity between the Global North and Global South’s capacity to amass data apparent. The lack of data on the spread of Covid-19 in the Global South causes a plethora of problems, as it impairs the region’s ability to develop pragmatic containment plans and implement adequate economic, health, and social solutions. To this end, this article shares the disquieting situation in the Philippines. It provides examples of how the lack of data affects people’s physical and mental health and contributes to government (in)decisions.
Borders and Museums: Exclusion through Social Inclusion
2020. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
The study of borders involves an analysis of infrastructures and mechanisms that allow for their multiplication and crystallization, one of which is the museum. In this essay, I explain various ways in which museums can supposedly facilitate integration and social inclusion. At the same time, I question this theoretical capacity of museums to dispel borders by examining the relationship between exclusion and inclusion, as well as the intricacies and implications of social integration in the context of museums. In particular, I reflect on Tam-awan Village—a “living museum” envisioned to promote both the Cordilleran people’s welfare and indigenous culture—to present the seemingly inevitable reproduction of subjectivities and borders in postcolonial societies.
Realigning a Nation: Understanding Duterte’s Foreign Policy Shift
2019. Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies.
Recent developments between China and the Philippines paint a rosy picture of cooperation that is closer than ever, with Philippine President Duterte’s move towards the emerging regional power that postures a foreign policy shift for many is too close for comfort. This article argues that the emergence of China as a political and economic hegemon through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the ambiguous position of the U.S. in the territorial dispute in Southeast Asia, have influenced the Duterte administration to shift its stance towards a neighbor that seems closer to home. This relationship will be explained through a historical approach that could provide insights as to the possibilities of this connection between the two countries.