You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
This book examines five countries in South East Asia that are instructive case studies of how the region has had to negotiate pathways of development beyond crises and traps. At two ends of just one decade, 1997–2007, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam all had to weather the shocks of an East Asian financial crisis and a global financial crisis. Some economies might have buckled completely under those shocks and been condemned to long-term stagnation. Yet these five economies, part of the larger Asian region, emerged with continued if slower economic growth. An important theme of this book is that their resilience has been partly derived from the pursuit of growth a...
Rapid urbanisation presents challenges such as inequality, informalisation and diversified, social needs for emerging cities. Informal and formal institutions and their impact on urban development and well-being vary across social classes and cities. Endo, Shibuya, and their contributors provide a systematic and multifaceted overview of urban well-being. It explores the characteristics and complexities of urban well-being of lower and middle classes in Asian megacities. The book explains that social setting and socioeconomic condition of individuals and households play a critical role in urban well-being. It offers insights on the vulnerabilities and resilience of urban populations and the intertwined dynamics of social networks and what they mean for individual well-being. This book will be a useful reference for students, researchers and academics in urban studies, Asian studies or development studies.
By any indicator, Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth, is a development success story. Yet 20 years after a deep economic and political crisis, it is still in some respects an economy in transition. The country recovered from the 1997–98 crisis and navigated the path from authoritarian to democratic rule surprisingly quickly and smoothly. It survived the 2008–09 global financial crisis and the end of the China-driven commodity super boom in 2014 with little difficulty. It is now embarking on its fifth round of credible national elections in the democratic era. It is in the process of graduating to the upper middle-income ranks. But, as the 25 contributors to this comprehe...
"As we celebrate the 40th Anniversary of the ASEAN-Japan Dialogue Partnership, the essays in this book remind us, and amplify the ASEAN-Japan relations. The complexities of this relationship, including the external influences which have impinged on its development over the years, are cogently discussed and recorded for the younger generation and students of ASEAN-Japan ties. The intricacy and spread of ASEAN-Japan cooperation mechanisms are also well highlighted in this book, while several thought-provoking commentaries on the future of this four-decade old partnership give pause to the readers. Many of the challenges that exist in this relationship originated from domestic political dynamic...
The informal economy in Bangkok, Thailand, offers upward mobility but is fraught with risk. For members of the urban lower class, residence and occupation are closely inter-connected. Shifts in priorities in housing, occupation and education as family circumstances change affect the way they deploy their limited financial resources, while home fires and job lay-offs make it necessary for poor communities to accommodate frequent changes of residence and variations in production and consumption. People with limited resources are extremely sensitive to uncertainty. Living with Risk examines how lower class communities in the inner city and the urban fringe of Bangkok view their employment prospects and living conditions, and how they manage risk. The author draws on two case studies, one considering the situation of women who became self-employed after losing factory jobs during Thailand's economic restructuring in the late 1990s, and the second a community displaced by a devastating fire. The book's detailed examination of the dynamics of the informal economy makes a substantial contribution to the literature on development economics in urban areas.
This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-ND license. This volume analyzes the economic, social, and political challenges that emerging states confront today. Notwithstanding the growing importance of the ‘emerging states’ in global affairs and governance, many problems requiring immediate solutions have emerged at home largely as a consequence of the rapid economic development and associated sociopolitical changes. The middle-income trap is a major economic challenge faced by emerging states. This volume regards interest coordination for technological upgrading as crucial to avoid the trap and examines how various emerging states are grappling with this challenge by fostering public-pri...
Research on Singapore's economic history has been complicated by the absence of economic data on pre-independence Singapore. This book sheds light on two key aspects of Singapore's economic history, namely the relationship between economic instability and growth, as well as the government's fiscal policy towards economic growth.
The Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia explores the nature and implications of civil society across the region, engaging systematically with both theoretical approaches and empirical nuance for a systematic, comparative, and informative approach. The handbook actively analyses the varying definitions of civil society, critiquing the inconsistent scrutiny of this sphere over time. It brings forth the need to reconsider civil society development in today’s Southeast Asia, including activist organisations' and platforms' composition, claims, resources, and potential to effect sociopolitical change. Structured in five parts, the volume includes chapters written b...
This Element argues that Southeast Asia's failure to develop stronger social protection systems has been, at its root, a matter of politics and power. It has reflected the political dominance within the region of predatory and technocratic elements, and the relative weakness of progressive elements. From the mid-1980s, democratisation, the emergence of political entrepreneurs seeking to mobilise mass electoral support, and the occurrence of severe economic and social crises generated pressure on governments within the region to strengthen their social protection systems. But while such developments shifted policy in a more progressive direction, they have been insufficient to produce far-reaching change. Rather, they have produced a layering effect. Innovations have built upon pre-existing policy and institutional arrangements without fundamentally altering these arrangements, ensuring that social protection systems continue to have strong conservative, productivist and predatory attributes.