Re‐encountering resistance: Plantation activism and smallholder production in Thailand and Sarawak,Malaysia

Abstract: The emergence of social and environmental movements against plantation forestry in Southeast Asia positions rural development against local displacement and environmental degradation. Multi‐scaled NGO networks have been active in promoting the notion that rural people in Southeast Asia uniformly oppose plantation development. There are potential pitfalls in this heightened attention to resistance however, as it has often lapsed into essentialist notions of timeless indigenous agricultural practices, and unproblematic local allegiances to common property and conservation. An exclusive emphasis on resistance also offers little understanding of widespread smallholder participation in plantation production across the region. A useful method of approaching the complexity of local responses to plantation development is through the history of legal and informal resource tenure, within an analysis of rural political‐economic restructuring. Drawing on research in Thailand and Sarawak, I suggest that a more nuanced appreciation of both the structural constraints and deployments of agency which characterise the enrolment of rural people into plantation commodity networks, opens up new spaces for analysis and political action, which supports a geographically embedded view of relations of power, rural livelihoods and environmental politics.     

In situ dynamics of Japanese electronic subsidiaries in ASEAN countries: Reflections from a development perspective

This paper contributes to the theory of subsidiary evolution in multinational corporations through utilising a value chain approach. It assesses the changing activities of the branches of Japanese electronics firms located in Southeast Asia (the ASEAN region) since the 1997–1998 financial crisis. In the paper, we argue that a modest development of Japanese subsidiaries has occurred in this region during the past 10 years or so. We connect models of subsidiary development to Michael Porter's value chain in the results of a set of interviews with 37 managers in the factories, sales offices and regional headquarters of Japanese subsidiary companies located in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. We show that decentralisation of management functions from Japan occurred in both primary and support activities of the value chain. However, corporate long‐term research and development did not disperse to Southeast Asia and is unlikely to in the near future. The article interprets these results and highlights the need for further research relating to the evolving geography of Japanese electronics multinational corporations and their subsidiaries in Southeast Asia.     

Institutional frameworks and economic activity: A comparative analysis of regional economies in Thailand,Malaysia and the Philippines

Abstract: It is increasingly recognised that both formal and informal institutions could be important variables in explaining the diversity of capitalist systems. However, less is known about the relative importance of regional institutions for regional economic activity and regional development, especially in developing countries. This article analyses the relative importance of regional institutions to regional capitalist systems in Southeast Asia, using the comparative institutional approach of ‘business systems’. Two comparisons are made that enable an analysis of the relative importance of regional institutions: one between two regional economies in the same country (Cebu and Negros Oriental in the Philippines) and one between two bordering regional economies in different countries (Satun in Thailand and Perlis in Malaysia). We investigate four sets of economic institutions: the extent of alliance coordination of supply and demand, the extent of collaboration between competitors, the extent of alliance coordination of sectors and access to finance. The results suggest that regional economic institutions are stronger in agricultural areas with relatively weak national economic institutions and that the presence of strong and enabling regional economic institutions is one of the factors that lead to taking advantage of favourable agricultural conditions, to economic growth and, ultimately, to catching up.     

When land,water and green‐grabbing cumulate: Hydropower expansion,livelihood resource reallocation and legitimisation in southwest China

Hundreds of hydropower dam projects, of all sizes, have been initiated in Yunnan Province, China, since the late 1990s. This paper frames hydropower‐driven resource reallocations as resource grabs that combine aspects of land, water and green‐grabbing, investigating how two dams built along the Red River have impacted local communities and how corporate and governmental stakeholders have viewed local livelihood changes and considered compensation mechanisms. This research documents how hydropower expansion triggers changes in both land and water availability, in turn depriving riverside communities of a wide range of intersecting livelihood benefits. Villagers were compensated for some losses, but in ways that failed to address how impacts accumulated over time and how hydrologic changes would impact overall livelihood activities. Financial compensation and specific environmental and modernisation agendas legitimised resource reallocations together with the provincial, national and global development campaigns driving them. Considering how different actors experience, frame and address the impacts of hydropower development through a resource‐grabbing lens elucidates the compartmentalised approaches of distant hydropower actors as well as scholars. This study answers recent calls to mobilise the scholarship on resource‐grabbing in the service of shedding light on the socio‐political projects driving resource reallocations and their livelihood impacts.     

From Southwest China into Upper Indochina: an overview of Hmong (Miao) migrations

From southern China through mountainous Vietnam, Laos and eventually as far south as the Chao Phraya basin in Thailand, groups of Hmong swiddeners were seen migrating during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. When, and under what circumstances did large chunks of this sub-group of the Miao from Guizhou and its periphery move their settlements to the southern part of the continental Southeast Asia Massif? Who were they? What was their history before these migrations? This paper makes use of early evidence to shed some light on the main causes of that march into the mountain ranges of the Peninsula.     

Research Note: Industry outsourcing and regional development in Northeast Thailand

Industry outsourcing has become a significant feature of industrialisation in Southeast Asia. This study presents the findings of a study of smaller industrial enterprises in Northeast Thailand that outsource some of their operations to workers in rural villages. It was found that social relationships rather than formal contracts are critical in the management and spread of such outsourcing and that industries use outsourcing primarily as a flexible strategy to lower costs of production.     

Seeing farmers for the trees: Community forestry and the arborealisation of agriculture in northern Thailand1

Abstract: The campaign for community forestry in upland areas of northern Thailand reflects an ‘arborealised’ perspective on upland agriculture. Arborealisation – which I define as the process whereby upland livelihoods are recast as forest livelihoods – is evident in the main elements of NGO and academic advocacy for the resource rights of upland peoples. As a result of this arborealised perspective, securing rights to forest resources has come to be seen as the key to enhancing the livelihood security of upland farmers. However, the emphasis of the proposed community forest legislation on communally managed forest resources means that it will do little to enhance the tenure security of farmers in relation to agricultural land.      

The patterns and driving forces of uneven regional growth in ASEAN countries: A tale of two Thailands' path toward regional coordinated development

Uneven development has long been a critical issue in geography and urban studies, leading to economically inefficient urbanization, environmentally unbalanced regions, and socially unequal livelihoods. As one result, primate cities and urban primacy form within a hierarchical urban system, to which urban and regional planning must positively respond. It is worth noting that Thailand has experienced a number of important urbanization issues related to developing countries, such as semicolonialism and internal colonialism. This study aims to investigate regional uneven development based on primacy theory and the rank‐size rule, which are common in most Asian and developing countries. We examined the urbanization processes in Thailand, from 2000 to 2015, by looking at factors of population, GDP, land use, transportation networks, and nighttime light, which provide very recent regional development patterns. The second set of analyses explained the degree of primacy among different provinces and their ranking hierarchies. By presenting the persistent disparities of contemporary urbanization in Thailand and exploring its driving forces, this study offers insights into planning and policy and underscores the importance of regional coordinated development for achieving sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asian countries.     

The expansion of Chinese banks along the routes of the Belt and Road Initiative: Following customers and geopolitical relations

Existing studies on the global expansion of banks have been mostly based on the experience of the banks from more developed economies, while little is known about the geographies of internationalization of banks from less developed countries. The expansion of Chinese banks, with state-owned commercial banks in the lead, has been accelerating since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed in 2013. This study contributes to existing research by providing new evidence and explanations based on the case of expansion of Chinese banks along the BRI routes. Chinese banks started to expand from Hong Kong and Macao, then expanded to Southeast Asia and the Arabian Peninsula, and finally reached Central Asia and other regions. The branches of Chinese banks are mainly clustered in Southeast Asian countries rather than other regions. Similar to their Western counterparts, Chinese bank branches are inclined to agglomerate in international or regional financial hubs. The regression analysis shows that two factors are crucial in explaining the spatial distribution of Chinese banks along the routes of the BRI. First, Chinese banks are likely to follow their customers, namely, state-owned firms from the non-financial sectors making direct investments in overseas regions. Second, Chinese banks are more inclined to open branches in countries that have good geopolitical relations with China reflecting the challenging international environment for Chinese banks to seek global expansion.     

Ever-transient FDI and ever-polarizing regional development: Revisiting conventional theories of regional development in the context of China,Southeast and South Asia

In this new age of globalization, regions attempt to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) in order to achieve regionally balanced development. We revisit existing theories of regional development and FDI by analyzing recent data sets on FDI, employment, and trade in China, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Using Chinese provincial data in 2004, 2008, and 2013 and applying panel estimations, our econometric results demonstrate that FDI remarkably influenced the concentration of employment in manufacturing, financial, and business services industries within the three Chinese macro-regions. We also find that FDI is ever transient, always moving away from high-cost to low-cost production bases across different regions. This transient nature of FDI is spatially selective and biased, and not able to generate the trickle-down effects to other neighboring regions. That is why FDI recently moved from China to Southeast and South Asia rather than from its coastal to inland regions. Furthermore, we show that this nature of FDI generally leads to polarization development for regions. As a synthesis or extension of the existing theories, we propose a leapfrog polarization pattern and strategy for vast developing countries in considering their regional development strategies.     

New sources of rice blast resistance obtained from Thai indigenous upland rice germplasm

Upland rice production plays an important role in both household consumption and crop rotation. Until now, a blast resistant upland variety has not been released in Thailand. The bimodal pattern of rain distribution in Thailand’s upland rice production areas create a favorable environment for the outbreak of leaf blast when seedling-tillering, and neck blast within the heading stage. The use of genetically resistant cultivars has proven to be an effective way to cope with this problem. In this study, 256 indigenous upland rice plants were screened for blast resistance under greenhouse and field conditions. Ten indigenous upland rice varieties, ULR292, ULR242, ULR219, ULR162, ULR161, ULR134, ULR109, ULR098, ULR081, and ULR066, were identified as resistant to leaf blast disease in both natural infection and artificial inoculation, under greenhouse conditions. Additionally, six of the ten varieties, ULR162, ULR161, ULR134, ULR109, ULR098, and ULR081, were found to be resistant to neck blast under field conditions. These new sources of blast resistance identified from indigenous upland rice varieties proved more resistant than the check varieties, depicting their potential for further use in Thailand’s rice blast resistance improvement program.     

Sustainable urbanization in Southeast Asia and beyond: Challenges of population growth,land use change,and environmental health

As economic growth centres, the Southeast Asian cities feature high population pressure, unsustainable land use, environmental degradation, and large ecological footprints. It is difficult to manage environmental health and basic services for urban dwellers, and ensure optimum flow of ecosystem services in the context of rapid, unplanned, and haphazard urbanization. These challenges are particularly multifaceted in the developing countries of Southeast Asian region. This study, based on secondary sources, adopted multidisciplinary lenses, such as geographical information systems, socio‐economic perspective, and sustainability science to examine the population situation, land use change pattern, and drivers of environmental degradation in the Southeast Asian cities as well as the Dhaka megacity, and brought forth a fresh perspective to look into contemporary urban ecosystems, population dynamics, environmental health, and sustainability. It also focused on identifying the commonalities among the cities under study to create a common understanding towards promoting collaborative urban development. This study shows that the urbanization process in the Southeast Asia region is taking place mostly in an unplanned and haphazard manner. With little concern for nature, life‐supporting ecological systems, and the environment, urban spatial growth continues unabated. The data surveyed and discussed in this paper shows that the current style of urbanization in Southeast Asia can best be called unsustainable. The findings also suggest that the general wellbeing and welfare of the current and future generations in Southeast Asian cities as well as in Dhaka is at risk. The paper recommends concerted efforts towards making the urbanization process sustainable, including better urban planning, policymaking, and international and regional cooperation.     

Between positionality and nudging: A rising China and Chinese voluntary associations in Southeast Asia

Drawing upon cases studies from Southeast Asia, especially Singapore and Malaysia, this article addresses the following questions pertaining to the rise of China and its impact upon Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) in the region over the past two decades. By employing theoretical insights of positionality, nudging and de-territorialisation and by focusing on various strategies pursued respectively by CVAs and the state, we conclude: (i) the growing economic ties between China and Southeast Asia serve as the platform through which the reconstruction of the CVAs take place; (ii) the reconstitution of the CVAs has been significantly driven by their own initiatives to compete in a new economy, in which knowledge of and connection with a rising China as an expanding market and a culture has advantages; (iii) the states in both China and Southeast Asia have played a part in the reconfiguration of the CVAs, motivated by their respective political and economic agendas; and (iv) it is imperative to go beyond the conventional approaches in understanding CVAs (internal structure and external connections) that have dominated much of the existing literature; and we argue that it is in the interactions and intersections between the internal dynamics and external political economy that a new type of CVAs has emerged.     

Beyond as bridges: The role of the Chinese voluntary associations in Chinese outward foreign direct investment in Southeast Asia

With the implementation of the ‘Go Global’ strategy and the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese enterprises have gradually grown into the main force of outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) around the world. Overseas and domestic Chinese voluntary associations (CVAs) have actively promoted inward foreign direct investment in China, while their role in helping Chinese enterprises invest abroad has not been fully revealed. To address this lacuna, we explore the role of CVAs in the foreign direct investment of Chinese enterprises in Southeast Asia and the heterogeneity of their roles based on different types of associations. Our main argument is that CVAs play an intermediary role in shaping Chinese OFDI by facilitating bilateral information exchange and resource matching to enable enterprises' global–local interactions. This research contributes to verifying the impact of CVAs on Chinese enterprises' OFDI and providing implications for both host countries to attract investment and multinational enterprises from China and other developing countries to achieve internationalisation.     

The throughgoing urbanisation of East and Southeast Asia

The image of East and Southeast Asia is of a predominantly rural region, with the exception of Japan. This image no longer reflects reality. Although in 2000 the proportion of the population living in areas officially defined as urban will still be below 40 percent, this understates the degree to which populations throughout the region have, in terms of employment, ease of transport and communications, been brought into a close relationship with urban areas. Not only this, but the region already has eight of the world’s 21 megacities — cities with populations exceeding eight million. Urbanised corridors are emerging in parts of the region, in some cases cutting across national boundaries. Some implications for the future are discussed: the growth of a truly urban proletariat, the influence of megacities on political change, the ending of rural isolation, and regional development and income inequality issues.     

Commuting distances to local non‐farm workplaces and out‐migration: The case of Northeast Thailand

The relationship between commuting distances and where people work has been studied for urban contexts in both developed countries and developing countries. However, few studies have examined the situation in rural areas, and none look at commuting distances to non‐farm workplaces in rural areas of developing countries. This paper investigates how commuting distance, and thus accessibility, to local non‐farm work influences non‐farm employment and out‐migration from rural villages in Northeast Thailand. The main issues examined are: (i) the distance that rural residents travel to work in local non‐farm jobs; and (ii) the influence that local non‐farm employment has on the number of outmigrants from rural villages. The study finds: (i) distance between villages and non‐farm work sites impact the number of villagers who are employed in regular wage work; (ii) beyond 20 km villagers are less likely to travel to non‐farm employment using their own means of transportation; and (iii) employment in regular wage work decreases outmigration. The findings from this study contribute to the debates over the drivers of rural out‐migration, rural livelihood changes, and agrarian changes that are taking place in Southeast Asia.     

Problems of tertiary education and regional academic journals: A view from Southeast Asia

While this article accepts the idea of regional Journal cooperation within the context of establishing an ASEAN Integrated Journal Publishing Network as a positive and pertinent step, it explores three major hurdles that regional universities need to contend with. These include firstly, the dominance of English as the major academic language which puts vernacular languages and communication at a distinct disadvantage and resurrects a neo‐colonial academic mindset; secondly, tertiary education is generally weak in the region and in most cases universities are focused on teaching and service to government rather than academic research. Thirdly, universities in Southeast Asia, both in terms of academic salaries and the research infrastructure (libraries, laboratories) is financially handicapped and poorly supported. Regional academic journals cater to their 'home' informed audiences and respond less to international standards which makes universal or regional benchmarking difficult.     

Scaling the environmental commons: Broadening our frame of reference for transboundary governance in Southeast Asia

The transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia are normally conceived in terms of shared resources and environmental impacts that transcend national borders. The Mekong's ‘fugitive resources’ of water, fish and sediment and the issue of Indonesia's smoke haze drift into Malaysia and Singapore dominate discussion. Assumed national interests shape actors and institutional arrangements for transboundary commons governance. Failure to address the governance challenges is explained in terms of their politico‐cultural failings (e.g. the ‘ASEAN Way’ of non‐interference), the weak regulatory remit of agencies with a specific transboundary governance role (Mekong River Commission), the dominant developmental agenda of subregional cooperative arrangements (Greater Mekong Subregion) or the geopolitical dominance of China (Lancang–Mekong Cooperation). This article builds on these critiques by considering the relationship between the local commons impacted by transboundary projects and the framing of the commons at an inter‐governmental level. It shows that neglect of the local commons and the impacts on them of projects with transboundary effects is partly to be explained by the institutional scaling of the transboundary commons at a country‐to‐country level. It also argues for an expanded notion of transboundary, including investment and governance flows as well as the material environmental footprint of large‐scale investments.     

Southeast Asia's transboundary haze pollution: Unravelling the inconvenient truth

This paper examines the political intricacies inherent in the management of Southeast Asia's transboundary haze pollution. It argues for a scalar perspective in understanding the complexities of the haze problem. The so‐called ‘inconvenient truth’ is unravelled by teasing out some issues in the national and regional political ecologies, and the challenges of synchronising co‐operation at the national, regional and global scales. Discussion shows that the ‘environment’ takes on different meanings at each scale, and both Indonesia and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) need to recognise this in order to engage more effectively with the transboundary environmental issue. Specifically, inadequate management of forest resources in Indonesia, ASEAN's principle of ‘non‐interference’ and a lack of a holistic ecosystem perspective are amongst some of the interconnected issues addressed. The paper calls for a greater awareness of structural weaknesses in the management of forest resources and a change in ASEAN's environmental paradigm to a more holistic ecosystem perspective that prioritises not just environmental and human health, but also a healthy and sustainable ecosystem.     

ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour: A space for civil society in migration governance at the regional level?

The aim of this article is to discuss and substantiate new spaces for the political participation of migrant civil society at the regional level in Southeast Asia through the lens of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Forum on Migrant Labour (AFML). The AFML process is shaped by the International Labour Organisation and mirrors its tripartite format, essentially bringing together governments, employers’ and workers’ organisations. Crucially, migrant support and self‐organisations also have access, even if somewhat restricted, to regularly held deliberations. In light of the ASEAN consensus on migration that was agreed upon at the end of 2017, the article situates the AFML within the ongoing process of migration governance in the region and focusses especially on the role of migrant civil society as an important stakeholder. Based on the specific experience of civil society organisations (CSOs) from Malaysia, the article discusses which spaces the forum provides for civil society actors and how the latter use them for their advocacy. The major argument of the article is that the development of migration policies at the regional level can benefit from the inclusion of migrant civil society in the process. The governance of migrants could thus be complemented by governance for and by migrants.