Journal of Southeast Asian Studies - Current Issue

Volume 39 Issue 03

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03

The Journal of Southeast Asian Studies is one of the principal outlets for scholarly articles on Southeast Asia (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, East Timor, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam). Embracing a wide range of academic disciplines in the humanities and social sciences, the journal publishes manuscripts oriented toward a scholarly readership but written to be accessible to non-specialists. The extensive book review section includes works in Southeast Asian languages.

Contextualising fisheries policy in the Lower Mekong Basin

Research Articles
Simon R. Bush,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 329-353

Abstract
Development policies for fishery resources within the Mekong River Basin are increasingly divided between aquaculture and capture fisheries. The modern production orientation of aquaculture has been adopted by government and NGOs and justified by the rhetoric of poverty alleviation and rural development. In contrast, capture fisheries has been subjugated as an activity that reaffirms the dependency of the rural poor on natural resources. This paper critically analyses the division between aquaculture and capture fisheries in Cambodia, Thailand and Lao PDR by tracing the emergence and influence of used to justify contemporary policy and practice.

Reconfiguring rural spaces and remaking rural lives in central Thailand

Research Articles
Jonathan Rigg, Suriya Veeravongs, Lalida Veeravongs, Piyawadee Rohitarachoon,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 355-381

Abstract
Drawing on fieldwork in the central plains of Thailand, the paper traces the transformation of the study villages from agricultural communities, to divided and often fractious dormitory settlements. Agriculture has been largely squeezed out of the local economy and local livelihoods by a raft of economic, environmental and social changes. At the same time, the rural spaces of Thailand have been infiltrated by a range of non-agricultural activities and villagers as well as migrant sojourners from other parts of Thailand have taken up these new opportunities in the non-farm economy. The net result of these processes of agrarian transformation has been that the village, as a community, a unit of production, a site of identity, and a place with a common history, is evaporating.

Strange brew: Global, regional and local factors behind the 1690 prohibition of Christian practice in Nguyễn Cochinchina

Research Articles
Nola Cooke,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 383-409

Abstract
In 1690, the previously sympathetic Nguy trang 89. It argues that to understand what was happening on the ground in Cochinchina, and why, we need to analyse the way global and regional factors intersected with local, and even personal, ones to cause a prohibition of Christian practice in early 1690, an event for which internal Catholic dissention was almost entirely responsible.

Imperial historicism and American military rule in the Philippines' Muslim south

Research Articles
Michael Hawkins,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 411-429

Abstract
When American imperialists seized the Philippines at the dawning of the twentieth century, their guiding philosophy was predicated upon broadly conceived notions of cultural and political historicism. The unwavering self-assurance required to rule over millions of unfamiliar imperial subjects derived its potency from an unquestioned panoptic view of history. This epistemological tool of imperialism found an especially unique and fascinating expression in the United States' politico-military rule over Filipino Muslims. This article explores the creation and processes of imperial taxonomy among Moro populations while accounting for a number of disturbing disruptions and anomalies in the Americans' historical narrative (such as slavery and Islamic civilisation) that threatened to unravel the tightly circumscribed concept of a uniform and interpretable progressive transitional past. It also examines the ways in which American imperialists accounted for these anomalies, and manipulated their own interpretations of the past and the present to maintain the integrity of their philosophical imperial foundations.

Comparing Indonesia's party systems of the 1950s and the post-Suharto era: From centrifugal to centripetal inter-party competition

Research Articles
Marcus Mietzner,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 431-453

Abstract
This article compares Indonesia's party systems of the 1950s and the post-Suharto period. It explores the question of why the party system of the 1950s collapsed quickly, while that of the contemporary polity appears stable. Challenging established assumptions that party systems fail if their individual parties are weakly institutionalised, I submit that the fundamental difference between the party politics of the 1950s and today's democratic system is related to the character of inter-party competition in both periods. While inter-party contestation in the 1950s took place at the far ends of the politico-ideological spectrum, the competition between parties in the contemporary democracy exhibits centripetal tendencies, stabilising the political system as a whole.

The Ethnography of failure: Middle-class Malays producing capitalism in an ‘Asian miracle’ economy

Research Articles
Patricia Sloane-White,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 455-482

Abstract
Since NEP, the ethno-political measure of Malay progress has emphasised Malay capital ownership, leading social scientists who study the Malay middle class to focus almost exclusively on what this article calls the . This ethnography suggests that certain middle-class Malays use a different calculus to mark out their place in contemporary Malay life. It argues that these Malays portray themselves not only in terms of material and entrepreneurial success, but through their frequent experiences of failure. To them, failure becomes, paradoxically, a virtue that can establish their moral and Islamic distance from the Malays they characterise as the poor and the rich.

Asia Archaeology of Asia Edited by Miriam T. Stark Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005. Pp. 364. Illustrations, Maps, Tables, Index.

Book Reviews
John Miksic,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 483-486

Abstract

Asia Elections as popular culture in Asia Edited by Chua Beng Huat New York and London: Routledge Press, 2007. Pp. 197. Index.

Book Reviews
Naomi Hossain,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 486-487

Abstract

Cambodia Cambodge: The Cultivation of a nation, 1860–1945 By Penny Edwards Honolulu:University of Hawai'i Press, 2007. Pp. 349. Illustrations, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Book Reviews
Maurizio Peleggi,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 487-489

Abstract

Indonesia Worshiping Siva and Buddha: The Temple art of east Java By Ann R. Kinney with Marijke J. Klokke and Lydia KievenHonolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003. Pp. 303. Illustrations, Glossary, Bibliography, Index. Violence and serenity By Natasha ReichleHonolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Pp. 289. Illustrations, Notes, Select Bibliography.

Book Reviews
John Miksic,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 489-492

Abstract

Indonesia The Revival of tradition in Indonesian politics: The Deployment of adat from colonialism to indigenism Edited by Jamie S. Davidson and David Henley New York and London: Routledge Press, 2007. Pp. 377. Figures, Maps, Tables, Index.

Book Reviews
Jeroen Adam,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 492-494

Abstract

Indonesia State terrorism and political identity in Indonesia: Fatally belonging By Ariel Heryanto London and New York: Routledge, 2006. Pp. xii, 242. Glossary, Notes, References, Index.

Book Reviews
Sai Siew Min,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 494-497

Abstract

Malaysia Politics in Malaysia: The Malay dimension By Edmund Terence Gomez London & New York: Routledge, 2007. Pp. 160. References and Index.

Book Reviews
Mark Emmanuel,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 497-498

Abstract

Singapore Politics and governance in Singapore: An Introduction By Bilveer Singh Singapore: McGraw Hill Education, 2007. Pp. 201. Figures, Tables, Bibliography, Index.

Book Reviews
Ho Khai Leong,
Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 498-500

Abstract

Books Received May–July 2008

Books Received

Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, Volume 39 Issue 03 , pp 501-507

Abstract