Rural Development in Southeast Asia: Dispossession, Accumulation and Persistence

Rural areas and rural people have been centrally implicated in Southeast Asia’s modernisation. Through the three entry points of smallholder persistence, upland dispossession, and landlessness, this Element offers an insight into the ways in which the countryside has been transformed over the past half century. Drawing on primary fieldwork undertaken in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, …

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Bringing Women to the Fore in the Mapping of Chinese Female Religious Heritage in Singapore

Bringing Women to the Fore in the Mapping of Chinese Female Religious Heritage in Singapore Author: Show Ying Ruo, Postdoctoral Fellow, ARI. Publication Date: 3 September, 2020 Publisher: ARIscope Keywords: vegetarian halls, religion, female temples, Singapore, vegetarian nuns, Chinese diaspora, Southeast Asia Vegetarian nuns conducting religious rituals and reciting Buddhist scriptures in Singapore, from the …

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Asia Pacific Viewpoint – Special Issue: Governing the Transboundary Commons of Southeast Asia (Vol. 61, Issue 2)

This special issue is concerned with increasing the understanding of the challenges and opportunities involved in governing environmental issues that are cross-jurisdictional and multi-scalar in nature. Our geographical focus is on Southeast Asia, a resource-rich but land scarce region with a long history of porous borders around informal resource regimes, mixed use landscapes and economic …

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Spreading Protestant Modernity: Global Perspectives on the Social Work of the YMCA and YWCA, 1889-1970

A half century after its founding in London in 1844, the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) became the first NGO to effectively push a modernization agenda around the globe. Soon followed by a sister organization, the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA), founded in 1855, the Y movement defined its global mission in 1889. Although their …

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Political Theologies and Development in Asia: Transcendence, Sacrifice, and Aspiration

This innovative and timely reassessment of political theology opens new lines of critical investigation into the intersections of religion and politics in contemporary Asia. Moving beyond a focus on the (post-) Christian West, this volume locates ‘development’ – conceptualised as a set of modern, transnational networks of ideas and practices of improvement that connect geographically …

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Democracy in Indonesia: From Stagnation to Regression?

Indonesia has long been hailed as a rare case of democratic transition and persistence in an era of global democratic setbacks. But as the country enters its third decade of democracy, such laudatory assessments have become increasingly untenable. The stagnation that characterized Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s second presidential term has given way to a more far-reaching …

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The Roots of Resilience: Party Machines and Grassroots Politics in Singapore and Malaysia

The Roots of Resilience examines governance from the ground up in the world’s two most enduring electoral authoritarian or “hybrid” regimes―Singapore and Malaysia―where politically liberal and authoritarian features are blended to evade substantive democracy. Although skewed elections, curbed civil liberties, and a dose of coercion help sustain these regimes, selectively structured state policies and patronage, …

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