Beyond the “Berkeley Mafia” A look at the rise of banker and investor technocrats in Indonesia—and how they’ve eclipsed academic economists as a key source of influence over the direction of economic ...

An ethnography of rural electrification in LaosFrom flickers to full power: when reliable electricity arrived in Banmai Scholarship on the impacts of hydroelectricity often focuses on what it destroys ...

Art in a time of democratic abeyance in Thailand In "Memory Complex", an empty Bangkok shophouse becomes home to artworks that provide a potent reminder of the sacrifices made for the possiblity of ...

Sea space, conflict and state building in Sulawesi In Indonesia, a boom in demand for seaweed from largely China-based industry has transformed seaweed farmers’ relationships with the sea and each ...

Ethnic solidarities in Myanmar: coalitions or movement? The social revolution bound up in the resistance to the coup has opened, in a partial yet meaningful way, avenues for Myanmar to transcend ...

Jokowi broke the ‘Reformasi coalition’ Repression and harassment have played a part in the political marginalisation of reformist civil society. But that marginalisation is also deeply linked to ...

Ethnonationalism and Myanmar’s future The crisis in Myanmar is a fundamental struggle over the identity and structure of the nation-state. Underpinning this conflict are ethnonational politics that ...

Review: “On the Shadow Tracks” In her account of explorations of Myanmar’s railway network, Clare Hammond has produced a travelogue of empire, authoritarianism—and hope.

Indonesia’s killer commodity In the production, sale, and smoking of the ubiquitous kretek clove cigarette, Marina Welker finds many predicaments of post-New Order Indonesia—from inequalities of class ...

The growing contradictions of Singapore’s HDB scheme Singapore's lauded public housing scheme is more than a welfare program—it's a key political and economic institution. But its greatest irony is ...

Reversing reformasi The narrowing field of political contestation in Indonesia is not just being driven by presidential machinations and ruling-coalition infighting—but also the inescapable ...

The Indonesia–China relationship has attained new dimensions over the past few years. The recent opening of the Jakarta–Bandung high speed rail (HSR)—a joint venture between Chinese and Indonesian ...