Publications

“Tener suerte y coger mucho pescado: masagal”. Diccionario Español-Ibatan [por varios PP. Dominicos missioneros de las islas Batanes] (1914, p.395) Ivatans would readily translate the word sagal as “suerte” (Spanish for ‘luck’) but also add that it is specifically in relation to catching fish, so a “masagal” person is ‘someone who catches a lot of fish’. This essay’s aim is to explore experiences, discourse, and practices linked to the notion of sagal, especially as shared among those using traditional hook and line fishing methods. Sagal is a cultural notion informed by specific experiences of direct engagement with the sea around Batanes. The personal ‘ability to catch fish’—or having ‘luckiness in fishing’—contained in the notion is not primarily about skill, experience, or technique but rather thought of as a quality of being that is innate to certain people.

This study examined client-therapist alliance congruence as a predictor of psychological well-being among 104 Filipino psychotherapy dyads. Descriptive analysis showed that although most dyads had non-identical ratings, 55.8% fell within the conservative broad agreement band; among dyads outside this band, therapist-higher discrepancies were more common. Client- and therapist-rated alliances were analyzed using polynomial regression with response surface analysis (RSA) to model both congruent and incongruent alliance effects on client psychological well-being. Treatment length, treatment interval, therapist professional maturity, and client symptom severity were included as covariates. Results indicated a significant positive linear effect along the line of alliance congruence, such that a mutually perceived alliance was associated with greater psychological well-being. In contrast, significant curvature along the line of incongruence (LOIC) showed that discrepancies between therapist and client alliance ratings were associated with lower well-being, with increasing mismatch predicting progressively poorer outcomes. The findings suggest that therapist and client alliance perceptions should not be treated as interchangeable and that their dyadic alignment provides clinically meaningful information beyond either perspective alone. These results are discussed in relation to alliance monitoring, client feedback, and culturally responsive psychotherapy practice in the Filipino context.

This book examines the evolving landscape of media across Asia, offering critical insights into contemporary challenges facing journalism, digital communication, and media representation in the region. Drawing from six rigorous research studies, the volume explores diverse dimensions of Asian media systems, from authoritarian resistance strategies to digital platform dynamics.

The book provides empirical analysis of key media phenomena, including journalistic resistance in authoritarian contexts, public health communication framing in China, the emergence of podcasting in India, Japanese cosmetic brand strategies on Chinese social media, smart home technology adoption patterns, and gender representation in Indonesian digital news. This volume will serve as an essential resource for understanding contemporary media dynamics in Asia. It will particularly benefit those studying comparative media systems, digital communication strategies, and the intersection of technology, culture, and society in Asian contexts.

This book was originally published as a special issue of Media Asia.

Mental health mobile applications are increasingly used to address psychological distress and promote well-being, yet evidence on how and when these tools exert their effects over time and what constitutes meaningful engagement remains mixed. This study examined whether use of the Social Activity Guardian and Intervention Project (SAGIP) mental health mobile application predicts differential growth trajectories in psychological well-being and psychological distress among members of an academic community, and whether app engagement explains individual differences in these trajectories. Using an experimental repeated-measures design, participants from a university academic community were randomly assigned to a SAGIP app group or a waitlist control group and assessed at baseline (Month 0) and monthly for three months (Months 1 to 3). Psychological well-being and psychological distress were analyzed using latent growth curve modeling and mixed-effects piecewise growth models to capture nonlinear change. Compared to waitlist controls, SAGIP users demonstrated significantly greater improvements in psychological well-being and larger reductions in psychological distress during the randomized phase. Piecewise models indicated phase-specific change, with distress reduction strongest early in the intervention and well-being gains emerging more gradually and strengthening later. Frequency and duration of app use were associated with baseline mental health status but did not predict growth trajectories. Supplementary analyses provided additional support for the robustness of the findings: descriptive post-randomized analyses suggested that the experimental group generally maintained gains in psychological well-being and stabilized psychological distress below baseline levels through Month 6, whereas the control group showed modest improvements in well-being and distress after crossover to app access. Sensitivity analyses restricted to student participants replicated the primary pattern of intervention effects, while exploratory moderation analyses found no clear evidence that intervention effects differed between students and employees. These findings suggest that the therapeutic impact of self-guided digital interventions may depend more on the timing and quality of engagement than on the quantity of use and highlight the importance of modeling nonlinear change when evaluating digital mental health interventions.

This book explores the transformative impact of digital technology across diverse Asian communities and social contexts. From economic empowerment initiatives to environmental advocacy, the seven chapters provide critical analysis of how digital media shapes contemporary Asian societies.

This book explores key themes including digital economic empowerment of marginalised communities, environmental journalism and agenda-setting, content diversity in broadcasting, feminist discourse on social media, children's digital content ecology, youth engagement with reality television, and healthcare communication during the COVID-19 pandemic. Each chapter offers insights into how digital technologies are reshaping social structures, economic opportunities, and cultural practices across the region. The collection demonstrates both the democratising potential and the challenges of digital transformation in Asian contexts.

This volume will be essential reading for scholars and practitioners in media studies, digital sociology, Asian studies, and communication policy. It provides valuable insights for researchers examining digital transformation, policymakers developing technology strategies, and educators teaching about media and society in the digital age. This book was originally published as a special issue of Media Asia.

This comprehensive collection examines the complex relationship between media and conflict across diverse Asian contexts, offering critical insights into how news coverage shapes public understanding of violence, protest, and social tensions.

From domestic violence reporting in China to the framing of political upheaval in Iran, the six research studies reveal how media narratives both reflect and influence conflict dynamics across the region. The volume demonstrates how different media systems— from hyperlocal digital platforms in India to international news outlets covering Kazakhstan— employ distinct framing strategies that impact audience perceptions and policy responses. It analyses the role of technology in conflict reporting, examines accessibility challenges for persons with disabilities in media consumption, and explores how digital stressors affect contemporary news engagement. Each study employs rigorous methodological approaches including comparative content analysis and validation of measurement instruments.

This work is essential reading for postgraduate courses in media studies, international relations, and Asian studies programmes, providing both theoretical frameworks and empirical evidence for understanding media’s role in contemporary conflicts. This book was originally published as a special issue of Media Asia.

The received canon on the history of art in the Philippines has portrayed abstraction in modern painting as an artistic current that figured dominantly from the 1950s to the early 1960s. In the decade that followed, however, it has been critiqued as having been co-opted by the market and the State—interpreted as indexical to the dimming of the radical potential it once promised. As abstraction has been generally lodged onto the wider genus of the modern, this perceived exhaustion also came to signify the decline of local modernism in painting, a decline said to be superseded by the streams of thought and practice regarded as the contemporary. Critical of the notion of a sharp rupture between the modern and the contemporary, this paper examines the persistence of the former by examining the case of abstraction in painting during the decades in which its decline was purported to have begun. Specifically, it centers on the practices of abstraction by Marciano Galang (1945–2001) and Alfredo Liongoren (1944–2025), the discourses that stem from these, and how they responded to the violences enforced and maintained by the form of modernity that was developing in the Philippines during the time. These practices point toward complicating discourses on the notion of nation: the lack of complete congruence among its peoples, the perilous relationships it holds within and outside of its territorial bounds, and the replicative logics of empire it continues to perpetuate. By highlighting these, the article argues that abstraction did not simply decline but persisted in ways that resonate with what art historian Patrick Flores postulated as “continuing modern”: wherein the modern did not only coexist with the contemporary, but also, at times, acted as an articulation of the latter.

Porohanon (ISO 639-3 prh) spoken in the Municipality of Poro, Camotes, Cebu and Tacloban Waray (ISO 639-3 war) spoken in the Eastern Visayas Region are two members of the Central Bisayan branch of the Bisayan complex (Zorc 1977: 179). Previous descriptions of these speech varieties have tended to classify their common prenominal markers into nominative, genitive, and oblique case forms (“case marking particles” in Zorc’s terminology, p. 229). These forms are also pur-ported to encode distinctions of definite vs. indefinite and specific vs. nonspe-cific; notions which fall under what Balogh et al. (2020: 1) call “nominal anchoring”.

The current study reevaluates the functions of these common prenominal markers using naturalistic speech data from both languages. The syntactic alignments of Porohanon and Tacloban Waray are also reassessed considering more contempo-rary research on ergativity in Philippine languages.

Urban agriculture experiments in Asia's metropolises are often spontaneous assemblages that unfold with diverse trajectories. Rather than being confined to the laboratories and field sites of state and market institutions, many such experiments escape or exceed the knowledge production spaces of technocrats, scientific professionals, and planners. Instead, knowledge is co-produced within a network of agentic actors, which also includes fledgling gardeners, local government officials, non-profit organizations, experienced rural farmers, culinary professionals, and even nonhumans. Some emergent networks are unlikely alliances forged across class lines, rural-urban divides, and political spectra. Spontaneous, diffuse, and polycentric, urban agriculture experiments complicate our understanding of the governance of urban experiments and urban environments. This paper explores the polycentric governance of urban agriculture experiments in Metro Manila, a highly dense and fragmented megacity in Southeast Asia. Drawing on observations in urban agriculture spaces and in-depth interviews with urban farmers and representatives from state and non-state institutions, this paper illustrates how polycentric urban agriculture experiments in Metro Manila reflect the ambivalences—both the promises and struggles—of urban experimentation. On the one hand, the socio-material relations emerging from urban agriculture experiments demonstrate transformative promises. On the other hand, while creativity and innovation sprout out of the metropolis's cracks and fissures like tiny seedlings of hope, many of them are ultimately stunted by Metro Manila's adverse political and economic realities. Whether these experiments can eventually influence urban governance and planning to improve the lives of Manileños remains a question.

Introduction: Self‐doubt is a pervasive yet often unspoken experience among mental health clinicians, manifesting as moments of uncertainty in which they question their ability to make sound clinical judgements, support therapeutic progress, or meet professional expectations. This study aimed to deepen understanding of self‐doubt as a complex, nuanced, and meaningful aspect of clinical practice, exploring how it shapes clinicians' professional experience, decision‐making, and personal growth.

Methods: Using descriptive phenomenology, the lived experiences of self‐doubt among 12 Filipino licensed psychologists were examined. Data were collected through in‐depth, semi‐structured interviews and analysed using thematic analysis to capture the nuanced and contextualised experiences of participants.

Results: Analysis revealed five core themes: the Inner Critic, the Contextual Triggers, the Demanding Pressure, the Double‐Edged Sword, and the Reflective Space. Findings indicate that self‐doubt is not inherently detrimental; it can function as a regulatory mechanism that fosters humility, ethical sensitivity, and heightened self‐awareness when approached with reflection, supervision, and self‐compassion.

Conclusions: These findings suggest the potential value of creating supervisory, organisational, and peer contexts that acknowledge, normalise, and provide structured opportunities to reflect on experiences of professional self‐doubt. While the present study draws on a small, context‐specific sample, the phenomenologically grounded insights it offers may be relevant to considerations in clinical training, supervision, and organisational support systems.