Filipino Crosscurrents
Oceanographies of Seafaring, Masculinities, and Globalization
How migrant Filipino seamen navigate alternative masculinities in the global shipping industry
Filipino Crosscurrents examines the cultural politics of seafaring, Filipino maritime masculinities, and globalization in the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora. Drawing on fieldwork conducted on ships and in the ports of Manila and Oakland, and on an industrial container ship on the Pacific, Kale Fajardo argues that the Philippine state and economic elites promote Filipino masculinity and neoliberal globalization through Filipino seamen.
Filipino Crosscurrents is a very exciting book, whose contributions include its rich data; its use of a multi-disciplinary approach, incorporating ethnography, history, and literature; and its ‘crosscurrents framework’ which looks at those in-between spaces that people inhabit.
Rhacel Parrenas, University of Southern California
Filipino seamen currently compose approximately twenty percent of the 1.2 million international maritime transportation workers. Ninety percent of the world’s goods and commodities are transported by ship. Taken together, these statistics attest to the critical role Filipino seamen play in worldwide maritime trade. In Filipino Crosscurrents, an interdisciplinary ethnography, Kale Bantigue Fajardo examines the cultural politics of seafaring, Filipino maritime masculinities, and globalization in the Philippines and the Filipino diaspora.
Drawing on fieldwork conducted on ships and in the ports of Manila and Oakland, as well as on an industrial container ship that traveled across the Pacific, Fajardo argues that Filipino seamen have become key figures through which the Philippine state and economic elites promote Filipino masculinity and neoliberal globalization. From government officials to working-class seamen and seafarers’ advocates, Fajardo’s wide-ranging analysis exposes the gaps in dominant narratives of Filipino seamen in national, regional, and global contexts.
Writing in a hybrid style that weaves together ethnographic description, cultural critique, travelogue, and autobiography, Fajardo invites readers to reconsider the meanings of masculinity and manhood.
Filipino Crosscurrents is a very exciting book, whose contributions include its rich data; its use of a multi-disciplinary approach, incorporating ethnography, history, and literature; and its ‘crosscurrents framework’ which looks at those in-between spaces that people inhabit.
Rhacel Parrenas, University of Southern California
Contents
Preface. Boatmen and Boyhood
Introduction. Filipino Crosscurrents
1. The Race of the Century: Galleons and Global City Desires in Manila
2. Ashore and Away: Filipino Seamen as Heroes and Deserters
3. Ethnography in Blue: Navigating Time-Space in the Global Economy
4. Transportation: Seamen and Tomboys in Ports and at Sea
Epilogue. Decolonizing Filipino Masculinities
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
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