Renegotiating Local Values

Explores the role of women as social actors who contribute to both continuity and change in their society. It examines the inter-linkages between women, industrial work and relations both within the family and in the local community.

Explores the role of women as social actors who contribute to both continuity and change in their society. It examines the inter-linkages between women, industrial work and relations both within the family and in the local community.

This book brings together a collection of essays that discuss alternative development and its relevance for local/global processes of marginalization and change in the Global South. Alternative development questions who the producers of development knowledges and practices are, and aims at decentring development and geographical knowledge from the Anglo-American centre and the Global North. It involves resistance to dominant political-economic processes in order to further the possibilities for non-exploitative and just forms of development. By discussing how to unravel marginalization and voice change through alternative methods, actors and concepts, the book provides useful guidance on understanding the relationship between theory and practice. The main strength of the book is that it calls for a central role for alternative development in the current development discourse, most notably related to justice, rights, globalization, forced migration, conflict and climate change. The book provides new ways of engaging with alternative development thinking and making development alternatives relevant.

Change is inevitable, we are told. A job is lost, a couple falls in love, children leave home, an addict joins Narcotics Anonymous, two nations go to war, a family member's health deteriorates, a baby is born, a universal health care bill is voted into law. Life comprises events over which we have considerable, partial, or little or no control. The distance between the event and our daily lives suggests a quirky spatial politics. Our lives move forward depending upon how events play out in concert with our reactions to them. Drawing on nearly three decades of geographic projects that involve ethnographies and interviews with, and stories about, young people in North and South American, Europe and Asia and using the innovative technique of ethnopoetry, Aitken examines key life-changing events to look at the interconnections between space, politics, change and emotions. Analysing the intricate spatial complexities of these events, he explores the emotions that undergird the ways change takes place, and the perplexing spatial politics that almost always accompany transformations. Aitken positions young people as effective agents of change without romanticizing their political involvement as fantasy and unrealistic dreaming. Going further, he suggests that it is the emotional palpability of youth engagement and activism that makes it so potent and productive. Pulling on the spatial theories of de Certeau, Deleuze, Massey, Agamben, Rancière, Zizek and Grosz amongst others, Aitken argues that spaces are transformative to the degree that they open the political and he highlights the complexly interwoven political, economic, social and cultural practices that simultaneously embed and embolden people in places. If we think of spaces as events and events encourage change, then spaces and people become other through complex relations. Taking poetry to be an emotive construction of language, Aitken re-visualizes, contorts and arranges people's words and gestures to

This astute book initiates a broad discussion from a variety of different disciplines about how we place children nationally, globally and within development discourses. Unlike other books of its kind, it does not seek to dwell solely on the abiding complexities of local comparisons. Rather, it elaborates larger concerns about the changing nature of childhood, young people’s experiences, their citizenship and the embodiment of their political identities as they are embedded in the processes of national development and globalization. In particular, this book concentrates on three main issues: nation building and developing children, child participation and activism in the context of development, and globalization and children’s live in the context of what has been called "the end of development." These are relatively broad research perspectives that find focus in what the authors term "reproducing and developing children" as a key issue of national and global concern. They further argue that understanding children and reproduction is key to understanding globalization.

Despite decades of industrialization, Johor remains an agricultural powerhouse. The state is Peninsular Malaysia’s largest contributor to agricultural gross domestic product, and its official agricultural productivity is Malaysia’s third highest. Johor’s agricultural strengths lie primarily in product specialization, namely the farming of oil palms, various fruits and vegetables, poultry, pigs, cut flowers, and ornamental fish. Johor’s production clusters have taken decades, if not centuries, to build up their regional dominance. Urbanization, often blamed for diminishing agriculture’s importance, has actually helped drive Johor’s farm growth, even until the present day. Johor’s agricultural sector will persist for at least another decade, but may become even more specialized.

A new study of how Asian Pacific organizations and private enterprises are expanding into markets beyond their national bases by transforming themselves in multinational and transnational directions. It shows how multicultural relations are fundamental to such shifts. It explains the organizational processes that characterize economic restructuring and the transgression of state borders by organizations seeking economic opportunities. It shows how these ambitions require boundaries to be overcome both inside and outside of organizations. This study also details the trend towards fluidity and complexity of boundaries – both physical and symbolic – within and without of organizations due to the speeding up of key processes. This, however, does not imply that boundaries are disappearing. Organizational change always challenges identities and sets new targets for this very identification. Mergers, acquisitions and strategic alliances all generate new organizational forms and necessitate the redefinition and renegotiation of organizational boundaries. The manifold ways in which organizational boundaries are affected by economic restructuring and at the same time affect social processes within and between organizations, in particular in the context of the booming economies of the Asia Pacific area is the focus of this volume. This book was previously published as a special issue of the Asian Pacific Business Review.

Celebrating more than two decades of feminist theory and gender research, this book provides an essential overview of current theoretical positions, hot topics and state-of-the-art perspectives in the field of Nordic Gender Studies: an area currently facing the challenges of internationalization and destabilized well-fare states, intersectionality, materiality, and academic transformation. Forming an overview, the introductory texts collected here are intended for Nordic and international students and teachers specializing in gender studies or related areas of interdisciplinary humanities and social sciences. With vibrant contributions from Nordic and international key scholars, think pieces and position papers culled from NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, are in fact essential reading for anyone in need of accessible yet condensed guidance on key discussion points such as post-constructionism and new materialism, neo-liberal academia and interdisciplinarity and the role of critical gender theory and posthumanism. The volume also looks at the differences within Nordic Gender Studies of today. This book is made up of material that was previously published in various issues of NORA: Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research.

"This is not only the best collection of essays on the political economy of Southeast Asia, but also, as a singular achievement of the “Murdoch School”, one of the rarest of books that demonstrates how knowledge production travels across generations, institutions and time periods, thereby continually enriching itself. No course on Southeast Asia can afford to miss it as its core text." (Professor Amitav Acharya, American University, USA) "This book – the fourth in a path-breaking series – demonstrates why a critical political economy approach is more crucial than ever for understanding Southeast Asia's transformation. Across a wide range of topics, the book explains how capitalist development and globalisation are reshaping the societies, economies and politics of a diverse group of countries, casting light on the deep sources of economic and social power in the region. This is a book that every student of Southeast Asia needs to read." (Professor Edward Aspinall, Australian National University, Australia) "This book does what a work on political economy should do: challenge existing paradigms in order to gain a deeper understanding of the processes of social transformation. This volume is distinctive in three ways. First, it eschews methodological nationalism and focuses on how the interaction of national, regional, and global forces are shaping and reshaping systems of governance, mass politics, economies, labor-capital relations, migration, and gender relations across the region. Second, it is a bold effort to show how the “Murdoch School,” which focuses on the dynamic synergy of internal class relations and global capitalism, provides a better explanatory framework for understanding social change in Southeast Asia than the rival “developmental state” and “historical institutionalist” approaches. Third, alongside established luminaries in the field, it showcases the younger generation of political economists doing pathbreaking work on different dimensions of the political economy of the region." (Walden Bello, State University of New York at Binghamton, USA, and Former Member of the Philippines’ House of Representatives) "This very timely fourth edition explores Southeast Asia’s political economy within the context of hyperglobalisation and China’s pronounced social-structural impacts on international politics, finance and economics over the past decade and a half. The volume successfully adopts a cross-cutting thematic approach, while also conveying the diversity and divergences among the Southeast Asian states and economies. This will be an important resource for scholars of International Relations and Comparative Politics, who need to take an interest in a dynamic and increasingly significant part of Asia." (Professor Evelyn Goh, Australian National University, Australia) “This ambitious collection takes a consistent theoretical approach and applies it to a thematic, comparative analysis across Southeast Asia. The yield is impressive: the social, political and economic forces constituting the current conjuncture are not simply invoked, they are thoroughly identified and explained. By posing the deceptively simple questions of what is happening and why, the authors demonstrate the reciprocal relation between theory-building and empirical inquiry, providing a model of engaged scholarship with global resonance. Bravo!" (Professor Tania Li, University of Toronto, Canada) "Counteracting the spaceless and flattened geography of much literature on uneven development, this book delivers a forensic examination of the unevenness of geographical development in Southeast Asia and the relations of force shaping capital, state, nature and civil society. This is the most compelling theoretical and empirical political economy book available on Southeast Asia." (Professor Adam David Morton, University of Sydney, Australia) "A vital book for all scholars, students and practitioners concerned with political economy and development, this volume combines cutting-edge theory with rich and wide-ranging empirical analysis. It is terrific to see the continued success of this book with this fully revised fourth edition." (Professor Nicola Philips, Kings College London, UK) "The Political Economy of Southeast Asia has become a leading reference for students of the region. With its breadth of geographic scope, timely themes, clarity of prose and rigour of analysis, Carroll, Hameiri and Jones have ensured that with this fourth edition the volume will continue its landmark status. The book, which brings together prominent experts in the field, will not only be of immense interest to scholars studying Southeast Asia, but also those seeking to understand the multifaceted nature of the political economy of uneven development in contemporary capitalism." (Professor Susanne Soederberg, Queen’s University, Canada) "The Asia Research Centre at Murdoch University has long produced leading analyses of the social, economic and political developments in Southeast Asia. This volume carries on that wonderful tradition. It brings together top-class scholars to challenge our assumptions about one of the most dynamic parts of the world. This collection is a crucial read for anyone interested in understanding trends in Southeast Asia’s development today and into the future." (Professor Richard Stubbs, McMaster University, Canada) "This fourth volume in a distinguished series provides a welcome and timely update of the Murdoch School’s distinctive approach to understanding the evolving political economy of Southeast Asia. Its theoretical depth and wide empirical scope will be of great value to scholars, students and practitioners seeking a systematic understanding of the political economy dynamics in the Asian region and, more broadly, of states and regions embedded in a complex, unstable global political economy." (Professor Andrew Walter, University of Melbourne) This all-new fourth edition of The Political Economy of Southeast Asia constitutes a state-of-the-art, comprehensive analysis of the political, economic, social and ecological development of one of the world’s most dynamic regions. With contributions from world-leading experts, the volume is unified by a single theoretical approach: the Murdoch School of political economy, which foregrounds struggles over power and resources and the evolving global context of hyperglobalisation. Themes considered include gender, populism, the transformation of the state, regional governance, aid and the environment. The volume will be of interest to scholars and students across multiple disciplines, including political economy, development studies, international relations and area studies. The findings of contributors will also be of value to civil society, policymakers and anyone interested in Southeast Asia and its development.

Singapore and Malaysia are rapidly modernising, globalising Asian states which, although being distinct nations since 1965, share common elements in the on-going struggle over the meaning of gender and sexuality in their societies. This is the first book to discuss a range of discourses around gender in these two countries. Women and the Politics of Representation in Southeast Asia: Engendering Discourse in Singapore and Malaysia seeks to give an overview of how gender and representation come together in various configurations in the history and contemporary culture of both nations. It examines the discursive construction of gender, sexuality and representation in a variety of areas, including the politics of everyday life, education, popular culture, literature, film, theatre and photography. Chapters examine a range of tropes such as the Orientalist "Sarong Party Girl," the iconic "Singapore Girl" of Singapore Airlines, and the figure of pious Muslim femininity celebrated by Malaysian NGO IMAN, all of which play important roles in delineating limitations for gender roles. The collection also draws attention to resistance to these gender boundaries in theatre, film, blogs and social media, and pedagogy. Bringing together research from a variety of humanistic and social science fields, such as film, material culture, semiotics, literature and pedagogy, the book is a comprehensive feminist survey that will be of use for students and scholars of Women’s Studies and Asian Studies, as well as on courses on gender, media and popular culture in Asia.