The Institute of Philippine Culture, School of Social Science welcomes
proposals for the IPC Merit Research Awards.  With funds provided by
the Ford Foundation, the awards seek to advance research in the social
sciences.  Proponents are asked to present a written proposal with
clearly stated research objectives, the proposed study's theoretical
significance, and the research methods required.

Priority Research Areas

The program puts priority on five substantive thematic clusters:

1. Social justice, poverty, and well-being;
2. Civil society, social change, cultural- and spiritual- based values;
3. Asset building and social capital formation in community-based
             health, education, shelter, and natural resource management;
4. Cultures of work, conflict, and peace; and
5. The impact of globalization on people's everyday lives.

Within these thematic clusters, specific substantive areas would include:

a. Religious change and transformation;
b. Families, childhood, youth, and aging;
c. Culture, political leadership, and state power;
d. Critical analysis of citizenship and civil society;
e. Forms of governance;
f. Corporations and private authority;
g. Social dynamics of agriculture and the environment;
h. Articulations of the global-local nexus; and
i. The coexistence of "modernity" and "tradition".

Proposal guidelines

Research proposals should not exceed 2,500 words.  The proposed
project must be completed within 12 months.  The maximum research award is
P500,000.00.

The IPC Merit Research Awards are granted on a competitive basis.

The deadline for submission of research proposals this year is

The Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC), with the Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities of Ateneo de Manila University and The World Bank, would like to invite the community to the forum, A Crisis of Their Own: Monitoring Crisis from the Margins, which will be held on 15 September 2011 (9:00 am-12:30 pm) at the Social Sciences Conference Rooms 1 and 2, Social Sciences Building. Organized to mark the 51st anniversary of the founding of IPC, the forum will present findings and insights from two IPC-World Bank studies: the first is a longitudinal qualitative monitoring of the effects of the 2008 financial crisis on selected sectors of the Philippine economy (e.g., households dependent on overseas/domestic remittances, returned overseas workers, smallholder farmers/workers on coconut plantations, formal sector employees in export-dependent industries, and informal workers in urban areas depending on domestic demand for goods and services). The second is a social impact monitoring study of poor communities in Metro Manila and Northern Luzon two years after Ondoy and Pepeng. Fifty years, fifty memories, fifty stars of the IPC. The second event to celebrate IPC's 51st anniversary is a fellowship lunch on 16 September. To be previewed on this occasion are some of the memoirs of IPC research and  administrative staff, Visiting Research Associates, and students of the IPC-DSA scholarship program who have  written for the planned anthology to commemorate IPCs 50 years of  social science research. Dr. Ricky Abad and Ms. Cynthia Veneracion are overseeing the work on this book. For inquiries and reservations, please contact IPC (Tel: 2-4266067 ext 213; Email: ipc@admu.edu.ph).

The Institute of Philippine Culture (IPC)
School of Social Sciences, Ateneo de Manila University
cordially invites you to the first in a series of lectures by IPC
Visiting Research Associates (VRA) and Merit Research Award (MRA) Associates
for SY 2011-2012:

Light at Night: How the Offshore Call Center Industry is Reshaping 
Young Filipino Workers

by

Resmi Setia Milawati
Visiting Research Associate, IPC
Asian Public Intellectual (API) Fellow

on

July 12, 2011 (Tuesday)
4:30 to 5:30 pm
IPC Conference Room
Rm 203, Frank Lynch Hall
Social Development Complex
Ateneo de Manila University

**Please call local 4651 or e-mail ipc@admu.edu.ph for inquiries.

Abstract:
This research examines the social impact of the offshore call center 
industry on young college-educated Filipino workers by analyzing how 
the industry is reshaping the way they see about themselves  and how 
they are adjusting with it. Despite valuable contributions of the BPO 
industry, specifically the call center, there are issues related to 
the workers that need to be examined further. Findings show that the 
combination of relatively high salaries and peculiar characteristics 
of the industry that involve the graveyard shift, irate customers, 
tedious workloads, tight control and high performance demand seem to 
change the way they see about themselves and lead to conspicuous 
consumption and unusual use of leisure time. Moreover, the industry