Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Haze Asia'

Biomass-burning haze (BBH) is an environmental concern which has a tremendous impact on human health and the economy in Southeast Asia (SEA). One of the worst haze events to ever hit Peninsular Malaysia occurred in June 2013 due to smoke from Riau, Central Sumatra. While biomass-burning in the region is common, the early occurrence of a haze episode of this magnitude is uncharacteristic of the seasonality of extreme fire events which usually occur between August and October in the Maritime Continent (MC). Previous studies on the June 2013 event mostly include statistical studies of the impacts of haze on air quality and health. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the phenomenology of this peculiar haze event and its underlying meteorological forcing agents. The aerosol and meteorological environment during the event is examined using the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) active fire hotspot detections and aerosol optical thickness (AOT) retrievals, satellite based precipitation retrievals and meteorological indices. Particular attention is given to El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and Madden-Julian Oscillation (MJO) conditions since these phenomena influence inter-annual and intra-seasonal fire-activity, respectively, as well as the influence of tropical cyclones (TC) over the South China Sea. The above datasets are then supported by a WRF-Chem nested simulation to provide a comprehensive picture of the event’s meteorology and aerosol transport phenomenology. Indeed, while the use of weather models to study BBH has become more popular, more modelling efforts need to be put into studying the June 2013 haze event to identify the mechanisms of long range transport of haze. A set of 13 sensitivity simulations are run to determine the physics settings which best represent the meteorology over the model domain during the June 2013 haze episode. The physics options used in the sensitivity simulations are selected based on previous WRF physics sensitivity studies and work which include WRF simulations with domains over Asia and SEA. In particular, the microphysics, cumulus parameterisation and planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes are looked into to obtain the best agreement to observation data. The output from the sensitivity simulations are evaluated with satellite based precipitation retrievals and ground station data over Malaysia. The simulations run with the Lin microphysics scheme, Betts-Miller-Janjić (BMJ) cumulus parameterisation scheme and Mellor-Yamada-Janjić (MYJ) planetary boundary layer scheme performed best overall. These best settings, based on the sensitivity studies, are then used in the numerical simulations which are evaluated with satellite and ground station data. The evaluation shows that model produces similar patterns and magnitudes of AOT and successfully captures the variations in smoke plume height when compared to MODIS AOD and Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) aerosol extinction profile datasets. The analysis of the time series ENSO conditions and MODIS fire count show that while extreme fire events are more characteristic of El Niño years, the MODIS fire count over the MC in June for the years 2001–2015 was highest in 2013 when neutral conditions prevailed. Although, the mean daily precipitation for June 2013 was below average for June for the years 2003–2015. In addition, the highest ratio of 0.89 of fire count for SPM to MC for any month for the period 2001–2015 was recorded in June 2013. An early and active TC season, which could have been the result of a strong transiting MJO, occurred in June 2013. The results show that the combined induced subsidence and flow enhancement due to TC Bebinca and the dry phases of the strong MJO event contributed to the event. The simulations further show that downward vertical motion of at least 6 cm s-1 prevailed over Sumatra on 22 June when TC Bebinca was most intense, while upward vertical motion reaching at least 9 cm s-1 prevailed over the same region before TC Bebinca on 17 June. Indeed, smoke sources were concentrated under this particular region of subsidence, where surface PM2.5 concentrations reached at least 1000 μg m-3 on 22 June. Vertical cross-sections across the model domain also show that subsidence during phase 6 of the MJO prevailed over Sumatra. Intense and early TC seasons over the Western North Pacific can therefore be an indication of the occurrence of early and extreme haze events over the MC. The numerical simulations are also used to study the convective mechanisms which are responsible for uplifting biomass-burning haze in the troposphere. These mechanisms over Sumatra and Peninsular Malaysia are under-studied and their physical mechanisms remain unclear. The PM2.5 mass concentration, vertical wind speed plots at different levels and vertical cross-sections of major smoke plumes are analysed and the corresponding convective mechanisms identified. Three main convective mechanisms are identified, namely, orographic motion over the Barisan Mountains of Indonesia, morning convergence over the strait of Malacca and orographic motion over Peninsular Malaysia. Results show that smoke is lifted to heights of at least 10 km in the atmosphere due to orographic lifting over Peninsular Malaysia while the average plume height increased to higher than 2 km as TC Bebinca subsided, due to the resulting decrease in subsidence. The identified mechanisms are able to uplift the biomass-burning emissions to the upper troposphere and this could have significant long-range transport and global climatic effects.

Nearly four decades of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)-European Union (EU) relationship have witnessed the importance of ideas and identity alongside the economic interests in shaping the behaviour of the two sides. The study takes interest in understanding the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor with and within Southeast Asia through a reflectivist lens. The thesis is an attempt to provide a new perspective on a relationship commonly assessed from an economic angle. It outlines the opportunity of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges to enhance EU actorness and normative influence in Southeast Asia. Against this backdrop, the study explores the dialogue and cooperative initiatives of two regions, which attach relatively little salience to each other. The study employs a NTS lens and draws upon the case of the Asian Financial Crisis of 1997-98, the haze in relation to forest governance, the Bali bombings of 2002 and the political conflict in Aceh. The study assumes that these NTS issues can stimulate processes of threat convergence as well as threat ‘othering’. It argues that these processes enhance European engagement in Southeast Asia and contribute to shaping regional stability in Southeast Asia. Furthermore, NTS crises present situations, where norms can become unstable, contested and substituted. This allows us to better examine the EU as a normative actor. To establish an understanding of the EU’s actorness and the EU as a normative actor, the empirical evidence will focus on the threat perceptions, motivations of action and activities of the EU and its member states. For the purpose of differentiating the EU as a normative actor, the study will also include the discussion of the normative objectives and behaviours of the EU and its member states and apply a reflectivist theoretical framework. Hypothetically, NTS crises trigger external assistance and normative influence and thus, they offer an opportunity to establish a more nuanced picture of the EU in the region. At the same time, the study acknowledges that there are a variety of constraints and variables that complicate the EU’s actorness. The thesis seeks to identify and discuss these. So far, scholarly publications have failed to apply the NTS perspective systematically. This thesis provides the first monograph-length treatment of the EU in Southeast Asia through a NTS and reflectivist lens.

Beginning with Edward Said's seminal text, I will question the assumption of Orientalism as a universal and didactic discourse that was conducted exclusively from the West to and for the East. Said's overarching condemnation of Orientalism as an exclusively Western hegemonic structure overlooks the paradigm that Indians were not just collaborative producers of the Orientalist text but selective readers as well. I will argue that the contribution made by the influx of colonised people from the periphery to the colonial centre from the eighteenth century onwards has historically been overlooked. Indian Orientalisms developed along their own particular axes by both utilising and reversing Orientalisms. Through this discursive utilisation, Indians were able to formulate responses to the dominant ideologies of Orientalism and as a consequence created new forms of discourse, both literary and historical. My thesis aims to illustrate that Indians, both in the colony and the metropole, were active and not passive agents in their negotiations of colonial as well as post-colonial space. This legacy needs to be recognised, as it continues to resonate and pose questions in contemporary times where the success of multicultural states in an increasingly globalised world is of paramount importance. Generically, I have adopted non-fiction as the best form in which to convey these hidden histories. Autobiographies, diaries, letters, memoirs and travelogues establish the fluidity and imaginative endeavour that existed between the colony and the metropole. These historical documents illuminate a deeply contested colonial and post-colonial world, where colony became home and home could become the colony. Ultimately, this project aims to identify the Orient within Britain itself and also argue that Indian travellers and settlers have engaged in similar "Orientalising" projects to render Britain intelligible for the Oriental mind, in ways that deconstruct the conventional Orientalist power relations associated with not only the high colonial period but also the pre and post colonial eras.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe the resilience strategies of 13 South Asian female survivors of child sexual abuse. Two research questions guided this study: (a) How does a small sample of South Asian adult women in the United States (U.S.) describe their experiences of child sexual abuse? and (b) What resilience strategies do these South Asian female survivors of child sexual abuse report using to cope with child sexual abuse? The phenomenological research design was grounded in feminist theory to capture the lived experiences of resilience related to child sexual abuse (Patton, 1990). Data were collected during semi-structured interviews with five informants and one 90-minute focus group of eight informants who did not participate in the individual interviews. Bracketing of researcher assumptions was used to demonstrate dependability, credibility, and coherence of the data reduction and analysis (Creswell, 1998). Open coding generated a list of broad domains to create a codebook (Wertz, 2005). Using a recursive method of data collection and analysis, the codebook guided independent coding of each transcribed interview. Constant comparison identified new codes that did not fit under previously identified domains (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Two overarching themes emerged from the data. The first theme, South Asian context, included four subthemes (gender, family, ethnic identity, acculturation), and the second theme, resilience, included five subthemes (use of silence, hope social support, social advocacy, self-care). A model based on these finding suggests the informants in this study made meaning of child sexual abuse within a South Asian context before utilizing effective resilience strategies. Practice and research implications for South Asian women who have survived child sexual abuse are discussed.

This thesis addresses issues concerning trade effects of a particular RTA: AFTA. In the first part of the thesis, 2 different but related gravity frameworks are constructed as to evaluate the independent effects of AFTA on relevant countries' trade flows. The first paper proposes examining ‘AFTA-effects' on members' trade, specifically within the AFTA context. This aims to distinguish trade effects that AFTA has had on early and delayed members' trading patterns. The panel ‘Gravity Model' is constructed, pointing to control for several biases commonly observed in the cross-section model. Although the result implies that early members do share trade benefits from AFTA more than non-members, the overall ‘AFTA-effects' on the membership's trade have not been benign. Another paper measures ‘AFTA-effects' on both members' and non-members' trade. This aims to assess whether AFTA has played a role as an export base for the international market. In this case, ‘AFTA-effects' appeared positive. Such effects are driven by an enhancement in extra-export bias, suggesting that the membership's exports to outside destinations have increased post-AFTA. The last paper provides a theoretical framework addressing the incidence of RTA-membership expansion. The fact that AFTA was gradually established and empirical results indicating AFTA's impacts on members and non-members brings about the idea that bloc-membership expansion could plausibly be explained by the economic effects that these countries have received. The corollaries of trading with/without RTA-membership of a potential member's gains of trade and welfare levels are related to the decision towards membership. Even though welfare effects are not always greater, the RTA-membership status surely benefits member countries in gains from trade more than non-members. This can be perceived as one of the important reasons to explain the widespread regionalism worldwide and why joining the RTA is often seen as a safe haven strategy for a country.

HIV-positive, Asian Pacific Islander (API) men who have sex with men (MSM) experience triple minority stigma including HIV, sexual orientation, and minority ethnicity. To date, there is no research that examines the influence of cultural factors, level of acculturation, social determinants of health, and other confounding variables (e.g., age, education, level of income, and length of time since diagnosis) on HIV-positive disclosure behaviors, attitudes, and intentions to casual sexual partners for API MSM. The theoretical framework for this study was based on Hofstede's original cultural values and Triandis's cultural dimensions. In this 2-phase, mixed methods, sequential explanatory study, 24 API MSM participants who are members of Fridae and other API organizations in the United States completed an anonymous online survey and 8 participants in Southern California completed in-depth semistructured phenomenological qualitative interviews. None of the regressions produced significant findings at the requested significance level (i.e., p < 0.5). The findings from the 2 phases of the study were integrated to facilitate a deeper, richer, and better understanding and explanation of those results than either approach alone. This mixed methods study was unique because it addressed an under-researched and poorly understood population of API MSM. The findings from this study have implications for positive social change for practitioners to incorporate culturally sensitive counseling strategies and for policymakers to develop or modify existing HIV preventive health education and health promotion programs for HIV-positive API MSM to negotiate safer sex behaviors, improve well-being, provide informed choice, and protect life that would promote competent quality care.

The purpose of this study is to examine and analyse how corruption can have different outcome on economic growth. A clear  division can be seen in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia where corruption have different economic outcomes. The countries in this study are the following: Botswana,  Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, South Korea, Thailand, Vietnam and Indonesia. The thesis composes of data over corruption indexes, annual growth in GDP, and socio-economic indicators such as political stability and Rule  of Law. The result from theassembled statistics is analysed through the Principal -Agent theory as well as previous research. Previous research includes both positive and negative studies on corruption. The  conclusion is that corruption has not a direct effect on economic growth but socio-economic indicators have an important role to explain the different outcome on corruption. The Principal-Agent theory helps us to un derstand the structure of the governmental body and the outcome of corruption.

It has been identified that there is a need to diversify the current knowledge base of autism and there remains a distinct lack of cross-cultural research. This research investigates the experiences of South Asian parents living in the UK who have a child with autism, as this has been identified as an under-represented cultural group by previous researchers. Culture is discussed as an important factor shaping experience and this research explored the effects of parents' culture on their construction and experience of autism. The study is informed by key ideas from sociocultural theory (disability is understood differently depending on the social context of the individual) and intersectionality (the intersection of factors relating to culture and disability are significant in shaping experience). A grounded theory design was chosen, with the aim of developing a theoretical model that could explore the interplay of factors that shape the experience of South Asian parents who have a child with autism. Nine parents were interviewed and the data was analysed using grounded theory methods, based on the Corbin & Strauss (2008) version. The findings are presented in detail, including the grounded theory model developed during the analysis process. The main finding that South Asian parents' construction of autism was based on a medical model understanding is discussed, as well as the sources of knowledge that were considered to inform this construction: parents' direct exposure to information, parents' cultural values and beliefs and the effects of migrating to the UK. -The implications of these findings are considered, with particular thought given to how professionals such as Educational Psychologists can best support South Asian parents who have a child with autism.

The purpose of this study was to explore the lived experience of parents who have a child diagnosed with a developmental disability who received Early Intervention services in Thailand. A phenomenological approach was used in the design of the study. Open-ended interviews were conducted with eight participants who lived in Thailand and had a child with a developmental disability. Only participants whose children were 5 years old or younger at the time of the study were interviewed. Five themes emerged from the data, including the journey, helpful versus unhelpful attitudes and actions, systems and services in Early Intervention, challenges, and positive outcomes. Implications for professionals, policy-makers, and society are discussed, including areas for future research on Early Intervention in Thailand.

This work asserts that bureaucratic organization is not only an inevitable part of the modern administrative state, but that a high quality bureaucracy within a strongly empowered executive branch is an ideal mechanism for running government in the modern era. Beginning with a philosophical inquiry into the purpose of American government as we understand it today, this paper responds to criticisms of the role of expanded government and develops a framework for evaluating the quality of differing government structures. Following an evaluation of the current debate surrounding bureaucracies (from both proponents and critics), this thesis outlines the lessons and principles for structuring and managing an efficient bureaucracy. Finally, this paper concludes with two case studies – Puerto Rican bureaucratic failures and Japanese/Chinese national development – to consider the effects of compliance and non-compliance to the lessons outlined in this work. The inquiry finds that principles such as specialization, political autonomy, effective information systems, higher accountability standards, and managerial emphasis on policy implementation are all critical to superior bureaucratic governance.

碩士
銘傳大學
國際事務研究所碩士班
96
With the trend of globalization, and the influence of non-governmental organizations and trans-national business, “international governance” and “international regimes” take the place of the traditional concept,” sovereignty.” In recent years, the ozone holes, greenhouse gases, and global warming are getting serious that people have to face them urgently. We can realize that international society has sensed “we only have one earth” through the Montreal Protocol (MP), the United Nations Framework on the Climate Change (UNFCC), and Kyoto Protocol (KP). In Asia, the Indonesia haze problem has been highly publicized recently. It is an environmental problem of single country however with the winnowing of monsoon, it becomes a regional problem. Heavy smog influences residents’ health, traffic, even tourism of Southeast Asian countries. Since the most important forum in this area, Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) helps these countries to cope with haze problem, haze still happens each year without any improvement. Therefore, this article will combine two concepts,” international governance” and “international regimes’, to study the environmental problems. I will analyze how does UNFCC and KP, environmental cooperation landmarks, do reach? How do they consensus through numerous of barriers? What is their significance? Moreover, I will discuss the reasons why the haze problem cannot be resolved in many years. Is that the ASEAN way? Why would the Indonesian government refuse cooperation? In conclusion, I will sum up three ways to strengthen the capability of environmental governance.

abstract: This thesis reviews options available to women in rural India and whether these opportunities grant them freedom. Initially, I distinguish the term freedom from autonomy, recognizing the flaws in the theory of autonomy. I identify freedom as a human's ability to make choices without external coercion. This differs from the concept of autonomy because autonomy does not recognize culture as a form of coercion; autonomy also neglects to consider the possibility of a person making a decision that affects his or her life negatively. These concepts tie into battered women in rural India because of the pressure they receive from cultural forces to make decisions reflecting practiced gender norms. Through case study research, I found that battered women in India lack access to freedom, being unable to access their freedom because of the constant threat of violence and/or ostracism. I drew this conclusion after reviewing opportunities of financial freedom through micro-credit loans, land-owning, and women’s employment. I reflect on freedom of mobility, and examine women’s threat of violence in both the public and private sectors. Lastly, I reviewed women’s political freedom in rural India, reviewing laws that were passed to ensure women’s equality. Women in India are already in a vulnerable position because of existing gender norms that require women to perform tasks for the benefit of the men in her life. A woman under the threat of domestic violence is twice as vulnerable because of her positionality as a woman in her culture, as well as a wife in her marriage. She is bound by gender norms in society, as well as her expected marital duties as a wife. Being unable to escape the threat of violence in both her private and public spheres, a woman experiencing domestic violence has virtually no access to freedom. I suggest that state and community-level empowerment is necessary before individual-level empowerment is effective and culturally accepted.
Dissertation/Thesis
Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2016

碩士
國立臺南大學
教育學系課程與教學碩士在職專班
102
This research explores the causes of learning habitus of a Southern- Asian Taiwanese student through P. Bourdieu’s concept of habitus. According to P. Bourdieu, habitus is developed with family cultural capital to some extent, which is also an essential basis of cultural reproduction theory. Yet the structure of the theory has a tendency to mechanical structuralism and ignores the possibilities of individual cultural reproduction. The research studies the causes of learning habitus of a Southern-Asian Taiwanese student with outstanding academic performance in elementary school as well as reflects on the phenomenon of habitus reproduction in P. Bourdieu's cultural reproduction theory. Qualificative Approach is applied as the main research method of this thesis, which including documentary gathering and interviewing. The findings show that the Southern-Asian Taiwanese’s school success, whose habitus, is not necessarily built on inherited insufficient family cultural capital. The findings further indicates that with the support of significant others and handy social resources, the case in this research is able to learn independently, and overcomes family structure limits to create her own cultural capital.

碩士
佛光大學
未來學系
95
Leisure farming industry, one of the main governmental policies of the Council of Agriculture, Executive Yuan, and a mainstream travel market popular by Taiwan nationals in recent years, has reached a stage of saturation in both industrial development and upgrade as supply outweighed demand due to a sharp raise of recreational farming operations. The opening of international market has become a must, an inevitable course of action to breakthrough the bottleneck. Presently, as neither product positioning nor related researches such as marketing strategies for the global market are available, hence while pertinent bodies actively strive to encourage foreign visitors it would be exceptionally beneficial to the industry itself if a series of market-specific studies were conducted, implicating helpful and valuable data as an outcome. This research is purposed to discover and analyze the overall willingness or image ethnic Chinese in the Southeast Asia region has for Taiwan’s leisure farming industry through a research survey, and for the findings to be coupled with tourist segmentations analyzed through psychographics and demographics, so thus identifying a profile base for the Taiwan leisure farming industry on positioning and marketing strategies when foraying into the international market. First, Standardized Image Measurement Tool was used to design a travel willingness questionnaire on Taiwan leisure farming industry for foreign marketing purposes. Second, National Association of Travel Agents Singapore (NATAS) and Malaysian Association of Tour and Travel Agents (MATTA) were selected as sampling locations. Third, travel willingness factor analysis was applied to analyze respondent impressions and tourist segmentations in respect to Taiwan’s leisure farming industry, before exploring the future development and marketing plans for international marketing of this particular industry in Taiwan. Survey findings revealed six distinctive and different imagery categories from tourists of the Singapore and Malaysia region on Taiwan’s leisure farming industry, and named by their unique attributes as “Taiwan’s Weather Image”, “Resort Leisure Image”, “Agro-scenic Image”, “Country Living Image”, “Indigenous Food & Beverage Image”, and “Art and Culture Image”. Moreover, tourist-respondents were segmented into five different segmentations – “Comprehensible Experience”, “Agro-Exploration”, “Recreational Purchase”, “Summer Get-A-Away & Holiday”, and “Intelligible Traveler”, with respective preferences and habits identified via cross-analyses. It was clear that foreign tourists have their individual perspectives and concentrations, and that tourists with dissimilar characteristics have noticeable different impressions for Taiwan’s leisure farming industry. Differentiation also existed between Singapore and Malaysia tourists on travel willingness as well. The findings of this research could provide authorities or execution organs a reference base to formulate international marketing plans in accordance to the different images or segmentations, while presenting local operators and travel industry keen on developing leisure farming businesses on the international market a foundation for product positioning and marketing. The analytical insights derived may also be used as fundamentals for those aspired to study the international marketing of Taiwan’s leisure farming industry as well.

In the mid-eighteenth century the British Crown claimed a network of territories around the globe as its "Empire." Through a close study of law and legal instutions in Bombay, Madras, Calcutta, as well as London, this dissertation examines what it meant to be a part of that Empire. These three cities on the Indian subcontinent were administered by the English East India Company and as such have often seemed abberant or unique to scholars of eighteenth-century empire and law. This dissertation argues that these Indian cities fit squarely within an imperial legal and governmental framework common to the wider British world. Using a variety of legal records and documents, generated in both India and England, the dissertation explores the ways in which local elites and on-the-ground litigants of all national, religious, and cultural backgrounds shaped the colonial legal culture of EIC India. In the process, the dissertation shows the fitful process by which litigants from India, Company officials, and London legal elites struggled over how to define the limits of Empire. The dissertation argues that it was this process of legal wrangling which both defined the mid eighteenth-century Empire and planted the seeds for the more exclusionary colonial order in nineteenth century British India.

Dissertation

碩士
逢甲大學
國際貿易學系
103
The thesis investigates the effect of social interaction across countries through two channels - migration and tourism - on decisions in foreign direct investment (FDI). We argue that FDI inflows increase with greater movements of people across countries, because 1) investors may acquire more valuable information regarding destination countries through such social networks and 2) investors prefer to make investments in countries with greater familiarity. Employing migration and tourism dataset from World Bank, our empirical results provide evidence that migration and tourism networks are significantly related to inward FDI flows, either equity or debt, to countries in East and Southeast Asia.

碩士
大葉大學
造形藝術學系碩士在職專班
96
The purpose of this research study is to gain an understanding of upper elementary school students' participation in an art museum educational program and the effectiveness of art learning, and the model of instructional curriculum. The research subjects consisted of 5th grade elementary students from two 5th grade classrooms. The two cohorts contained students who have been exposed to the art museum educational program versus students who have been exposed to similar resources within the school. The two classes were involved and were exposed to one of the above conditions by using action research cycles. Through this activity of research, observations were made about the teachers that effectively utilize the program and resources of art museum instructional curriculum to enhance the capability of curriculum design: A. The researcher's pedagogical belief effectively encouraged students' self expression and decreasing the gap in experience and understanding between teachers and students. B. The researcher utilized educational theory to increase students' integration ability, multi faceted thinking, and analytical skills to understand art works. C. The researcher improved the integration, curriculum design and assisted teacher-student interactions within the classrooms. D. The researcher based belief in pedagogical environment to assist the execution of the art museum educational program proposal. In addition, through the results of studying the difference between classroom teaching and museum teaching, the researchers assisted students with the following: A. Understand self development, especially internal analysis that can inspire the desire to learn and develop more sophisticated learning skills. B. Using the resources from an art museum to increase the exposure and the knowledge of art, social, and humanity. C. Interactions with the environment will increase and develop keen sense of observations. However, students' abilities to understand the intention of the artist were better developed when taught through the art museum curriculum than the classroom curriculum. Lastly, the research provided recommendations based on the results of the finding in the hopes to share the proposed curriculums of the art museum to educational professionals.

This qualitative, grounded theory study examined the experiences of single, second generation South Asian women in relation to the cultural expectations to marry. Personal experience brought me to identify the significance of this social issue. The theoretical framework included feminist, acculturation, and multigenerational family theories. In-depth semi-structured interviews were carried out with seven South Asian women between the ages of 20-35 from the Greater Vancouver area of British Columbia, Canada. Six women were from Punjabi, Sikh ethnocultural background while one was of Hindu heritage. Five major themes emerged from the findings: pervasive pressures to marry; conflicting expectations; effects on the women; women's ways of coping; and, women's suggestions for change. Tensions between social expectations and personal expectations were discussed as well as the interlocking oppressions of race, gender and class experienced by South Asian women. Social work implications for theory, policy, practice and research were also explored. The importance of delivering culturally sensitive service was emphasized. By becoming cognizant of South Asian ideologies such as izzat, amanat, jaat (caste), dharm, karm, kismat and sanjog, a practitioner can begin to honour the world views, values and cultural contexts of the women and their families.