The Costs of Regularization in Southeast Asia

Contexts ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-25
Author(s):  
Maryann Bylander
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Global South ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
The State ◽  
Asian Context

In the Southeast Asian context, legal status is ambiguous; it enlarges some risks while lessening others. As is true in many contexts across the Global South, while documentation clearly serves the interest of the state by offering them greater control over migrant bodies, it is less clear that it serves the goals, needs, and well-being of migrants.

The Politics of Survival: Peasant Response to ‘Progress’ in Southeast Asia

1973 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 241-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Scott ◽  
Ben Kerkvliet
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Freedom ◽  
Local Elites ◽  
Social Basis ◽  
Local Practices ◽  
Local Product ◽  
Normative Justification

… the chief social basis of radicalism has been the peasant and the smaller artisan J i n the towns. From the facts, one may conclude that the wellsprings of human freedom lie not only where Marx saw them, in the aspirations of classes about to take power, but perhaps even more in the dying wail of a class over whom the wave of progress is about to roll.The Southeast Asian peasantry has historically sought, as best it could, to secure its economic and physical well-being against the claims and threats of either the state or local elites. In this context, the defense of peasant subsistence and security needs i s morally underwritten by a “little tradition” that asserts both the priority of local custom over outside law and the priority of local subsistence needs over outside claims on the local product. This aspect of the little tradition amounts to a normative justification for resistence whenever agrarian elites or the state violate important local practices or threaten what villagers consider their minimal ceremonial and subsistence fund.

Levinas and the Responsibility to Provide in Southeast Asia

2019 ◽  
pp. 153-178
Author(s):  
See Seng Tan
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
The Self ◽  
The Other ◽  
Moral Force ◽  
Communitarian Ethics ◽  
Key Features ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
The Relationship

Firstly, this chapter introducesLevinas’ ‘responsibility for the other’ notion as an alternative to the liberal and communitarian conceptions of responsibility and sovereignty. Both liberal and communitarian ethics are problematic because of theirshared assumption that responsibility is first and foremost to the self. The chapter introduces key features of Levinas’ ethics – the place and role of hospitality, reciprocity and justice in the responsibility for the other. It also examines how friendly critiques by interlocutors(Derrida, Ricoeur, Caputo, etc.) help moderate Levinas’ idealism without necessarily taking things in overly pragmatic or realist directions or, worse, blunting its moral force. Secondly, the chapter assesses the relevance of Levinas’ ethics to the questions of responsible sovereignty and the R2Provide in Southeast Asia. With reference to the regional conduct described in Chapters 4, 5 and 6, it is argued that Levinas’ ideas redefine the terms of the relationship between responsible providers and their recipients in three key ways: one, our assumptions and expectations over one’s extension of hospitality to one’s neighbours; two, the rethinking of mutuality and reciprocity between providers and recipients; and three, the ways in which the considerations for justice play out within the Southeast Asian context are concerned.

scholarly journals The Volatile State in Southeast Asia: Evidence from Sumatra, 1600–1800

2003 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 497-529 ◽  
Author(s):  
Freek Colombijn
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Early Modern ◽  
State Formation ◽  
State Power ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
The State ◽  
Central State ◽  
Seminal Work ◽  
Clifford Geertz ◽  
State Capital

The communis opinio of historians is that early modern, or precolonial, states in Southeast Asia tended to lead precarious existences. The states were volatile in the sense that the size of individual states changed quickly, a ruler forced by circumstances moved his state capital, the death of a ruler was followed by a dynastic struggle, or a local subordinate head either ignored or took over the central state power; in short, states went through short cycles of rise and decline. Perhaps nobody has helped establish this opinion more than Clifford Geertz (1980) with his powerful metaphor of the “theatre state.” Many scholars have preceded and followed him in their assessment of the shakiness of the state (see, for example, Andaya 1992, 419; Bentley 1986, 292; Bronson 1977, 51; Hagesteijn 1986, 106; Milner 1982, 7; Nagtegaal 1996, 35, 51; Reid 1993, 202; Ricklefs 1991, 17; Schulte Nordholt 1996, 143–48). The instability itself was an enduring phenomenon. Most polities existed in a state of flux, oscillating between integration and disintegration, a phenomenon which was first analyzed for mainland Southeast Asia by Edmund Leach (1954) in his seminal work on the Kachin chiefdoms. This alternation of state formation and the breaking up of kingdoms has been called the “ebb and flow of power” and the “rhythm” of Malay history (Andaya and Andaya 1982, 35). In this article, I will probe into the causes of the volatility of the Southeast Asian states, using material from Sumatra to make my case.

Religious Resurgence in Contemporary Asia: Southeast Asian Perspectives on Capitalism, the State, and the New Piety

2010 ◽  
Vol 69 (4) ◽  
pp. 1031-1047 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert W. Hefner
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Spiritual Disciplines ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The State ◽  
Insufficient Attention ◽  
Participation Of Women ◽  
The Social ◽  
East And Southeast Asia ◽  
New Varieties ◽  
State Capital

Large portions of East and Southeast Asia are in the throes of a historically unprecedented upsurge in religious observance and association. Many of the new varieties of religiosity are more popular, voluntary, and laity based than the religions of yesteryear. Many are also marked by the heightened participation of women, and an emphasis on inner-worldly well-being as well as otherworldly transcendence. Focusing on Southeast Asia, but with references to developments in China, this article examines the social and moral genealogy of eastern Asia's religious vitalization. Many analysts have emphasized the influence of postcolonial secularisms, neoliberal disciplines, and ascendant civil societies in the religious resurgence. Although these factors have indeed played a role, the macro-narratives of the state, capital, and democratization often give insufficient attention to the micro- and meso-passions of self, family, and neighborhood, all of which have contributed to the popularization and proximatization of once restricted spiritual disciplines.

Changes in Transport Organisations within Southeast Asian Cities: Petty Producers to Statutory Corporations

1986 ◽  
Vol 18 (12) ◽  
pp. 1559-1580 ◽  
Author(s):  
P J Rimmer
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Public Transport ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
South American ◽  
Early 19Th Century ◽  
Corporate Growth ◽  
Urban Public Transport ◽  
Asian Context ◽  
And Performance ◽  
American Cities

A spate of studies of West European and North American cities have charted and interpreted the remarkable and rapid transformation of public transport since the early 19th century. The question arises as to whether the attempts to superimpose metropolitan culture via public transport structures in African, Asian, and Central and South American cities were as spectacular and speedy. Attention, in tackling this question, focuses upon the transfer of public transport technological — organisational structures to Southeast Asia since the 1860s. Rather than accept the transitional process of competition through oligopoly to state-monopoly as given, a test is made of whether the basic prerequisites of these phases can be sustained in a Southeast Asian context, from an analysis of core technologies and the structure, conduct, and performance of individual firms. Past corporate growth paths of urban public transport in Southeast Asia can then be mapped out and future directions suggested.

Race, Language, and National Cohesion in Southeast Asia

1980 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 122-138 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lee Yong Leng
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
The State ◽  
The Political ◽  
National Group ◽  
Two Factors ◽  
Independent States ◽  
Newly Independent States ◽  
State Form

Southeast Asian states are often referred to as “nations” (for example, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations or ASEAN), thus implying that the peoples of each state form only one national group and are easily distinguished and characterized. In fact, more often than not, each population of the various states shows not only differences of nationality but also many other differences. Among these factors of differentiation, the political geographer attaches particular importance to the two factors of language and nationality. These two cultural factors are elements of the “state-idea” and can affect the cohesion and strength of a state. All the newly independent states of Southeast Asia are seeking to establish their state-ideas and, i n the analysis of each state's population, these two factors can throw much light on the cohesion, functioning, and viability of that particular state.

How Statelessness, Citizenship, and Out-migration Contribute to Stratification Among Rural Elderly in the Highlands of Thailand

Social Forces ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 99 (1) ◽  
pp. 333-365
Author(s):  
Amanda Flaim ◽  
Lindy B Williams ◽  
Daniel B Ahlquist
Keyword(s):  
Rural Communities ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Global South ◽  
Rural Elderly ◽  
Work Outcomes ◽  
Land Access ◽  
Financial Benefits ◽  
State And Market

Abstract In rural communities across the Global South, families are relying on temporary and permanent out-migration for work to navigate destabilizing agrarian transformations. While research indicates that success of this household livelihood strategy may depend on the legal status of international migrants, precarious legal status is not solely a problem relegated to people who cross national borders. Indeed, millions worldwide are stateless in the countries of their birth. In this mixed-method study, we assess the importance of legal status for elderly well-being among highlanders in Northern Thailand—rural communities that are experiencing both extensive out-migration and protracted statelessness. We find that elderly wealth and work outcomes are shaped by the legal status of both out-migrants and of the rural elderly themselves. Specifically, we show that when rural elderly or their migrant relatives are stateless, the elderly are more likely to engage in wage work and less likely to gain financial benefits of out-migration to the extent that citizens do. Through ethnographic engagement, we locate the contributions of legal status to rural stratification in its complex entanglements with land access and ethno-nationalism in the region, and in the ways that state and market infrastructures deploy citizenship to surveil highlanders and other minorities in Thailand. Amidst growing calls to resolve statelessness in the Global South, our research suggests that the combination of out-migration and uneven extension of citizenship in rural communities is likely to exacerbate stratification, both for migrants and for those who rarely leave home.

Charting Socio-Legal Scholarship on Southeast Asia: Key Themes and Future Directions

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
pp. 5-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynette J. Chua
Keyword(s):  
Southeast Asia ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Southeast Asian ◽  
Law And Development ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Research Directions ◽  
Legal Scholarship ◽  
Emerging Trends ◽  
Women's Equality ◽  
Dispute Processing

AbstractThis article discusses the state of socio-legal scholarship on Southeast Asia and situates the special journal issue in relation to its key patterns, emerging trends, and future directions. Southeast Asian literature in leading socio-legal journals exhibits an imbalanced geographical coverage and tends to cluster around research on state law’s intersection with Islamic and/or customary norms, women’s equality and legal status, and land and the natural environment. These prevailing patterns lead to uneven attention paid to Southeast Asia. However, growing bodies of work along the major themes of legal pluralism, law and development, and dispute processing show the potential of Southeast Asian research to advance important debates and sub-fields in the scholarship at large. Proposals from a December 2012 workshop initiative further identified research directions that could enrich this field of study as well as understandings of law-society relations in Southeast Asia.

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