In the British colonial city of Singapore, municipal authorities and Asian communities faced off over numerous issue. As the city expanded, disputes arose in connection with sanitation, housing, street names, control over pedestrian ‘five-foot-ways’, and sacred spaces such as burial grounds. Brenda Yeoh’s Contesting Space in Colonial Singapore details these conflicts and how they shaped […]

Buddhism, Modernity, and the State in Asia explores the relationships between Buddhism and various nations in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Rather than promulgating a “Buddhist exceptionalism” in which Buddhist actors and institutions transcend politics, Pattana Kitiarsa and John Whalen-Bridge have assembled a collection of essays that closely examine the ways in which Buddhism and

Cell Phone Nation: How Mobile Phones Have Revolutionized Business, Politics and Ordinary Life In India conveys to readers how mobile phones have permeated every strata and sphere of society and is both a blessing and a curse. It gives an account of how this device rose to become a necessary means of communication in current

After celebrating their country’s three decades of fantastic economic success, many Chinese are now asking, “What comes next?” How can China convert its growing economic power into political and cultural influence around the globe? William A. Callahan’s China Dreams gives voice to China’s many different futures by exploring the grand aspirations and deep anxieties of

This new work explores the formation of populist urban programs in post-Suharto Jakarta and the cultural and political contradictions that have arisen as a result of the continuing influence of the Suharto-era’s neoliberal ideology of development. Analyzing a spectrum of urban agendas from waterfront city to green environment and housing for the poor, Kusno deepens

This book compiles some of the first research by Southeast Asian archaeologists on this significant but neglected subject.  It contains much new information on the roles of Southeast Asians in ancient commerce and industry, and on the nature of cultural interaction which has taken place in these sites for over 2,000 years. The bulk of

This book critically engages with the idea of decentralization as empowering cities and their residents to act innovatively and creatively. The contributions thus highlight how the term ‘empowerment’ in the context of decentralization regimes masks a competing array of intentions and agendas. Who and what are ‘empowered’, given a ‘voice’ and allowed to ‘participate’ via