Bangkok has been at the frontier of capitalism's drive into the global south for three decades. Rapid development has profoundly altered public and private life in Thailand. In her provocative study of contemporary commerce in Bangkok, Ara Wilson captures the intimate effects of the global economy in this vibrant city.The Intimate Economies of Bangkok is a multifaceted portrait of the intertwining of identities, relationships, and economics during Bangkok's boom years. Usi...

What the struggle over the Indonesian rainforests can teach us about the social frictions that shape the world around usRubbing two sticks together produces heat and light while one stick alone is just a stick. It is the friction that produces movement, action, and effect. Anthropologist Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing challenges the widespread view that globalization invariably signifies a clash of cultures, developing friction as a metaphor for the diverse and conflicting ...

The Will to Improve is a remarkable account of development in action. Focusing on attempts to improve landscapes and livelihoods in Indonesia, Tania Murray Li carefully exposes the practices that enable experts to diagnose problems and devise interventions, and the agency of people whose conduct is targeted for reform. Deftly integrating theory, ethnography, and history, she illuminates the work of colonial officials and missionaries; specialists in agriculture, hygiene, and credi...

A significant contribution to political ecology, Conservation Is Our Government Now is an ethnographic examination of the history and social effects of conservation and development efforts in Papua New Guinea. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted over a period of seven years, Paige West focuses on the Crater Mountain Wildlife Management Area, the site of a biodiversity conservation project implemented between 1994 and 1999. She describes the interactions between those who ran ...

Can tourism help a poor remote community to develop? How much does tourism change a village? How can a village have the benefits tourism offers without the problems it can cause? These are the questions that lie at the core of this text. Using an anthropologist’s eye and a high degree of trust, this book uncovers the story of tourism development in two small villages on a remote island of Eastern Indonesia.The ethnography provides a rich description of life in a non-western marginal commun...

Singapore remains one of the few countries in Asia that has yet to decriminalize homosexuality. Yet it has also been hailed by many as one of the emerging gay capitals of Asia. This book accounts for the rise of mediated queer cultures in Singapore’s current milieu of illiberal citizenship. This collection analyses how contemporary queer Singapore has emerged against a contradictory backdrop of sexual repression and cultural liberalisation. Using the innovative framework of illiberal pragm...

What is the philosophy that should drive native education policy and practice? In July 1997 a group of native educational leaders from the United States (including Alaska and Hawai'i), Canada, Australia, and New Zealand gathered to define a potential solution to this question. This book passes on the individual educational philosophies of the participants and captures the essence of each in a dynamic, transformational, and holistic model--"Go to the Source"--which forwards a collective vis...

Many of the world's islands are dependent on tourism as their main source of income. It is therefore imperative that these destinations are managed for long-term viability. The natural appeal of a destination is typically one of its main tourism related assets, yet the natural environment is also the feature most directly threatened by potential overexploitation.Sustainable Tourism in Island Destinations builds on existing literature in the subject by providing innovative discussio...

Life in twenty-first century Tonga is rife with uncertainties. Though the postcolonial island kingdom may give the appearance of stability and order, there is a malaise that pervades everyday life, a disquiet rooted in the feeling that the twin forces of "progress" and "development"—and the seemingly inevitable wealth distribution that follows from them—have bypassed the society.Niko Besnier's illuminating ethnography analyzes the ways in which segments of this small-scale society ...

Bangkok is one of Asia's most interesting, varied, controversial and challenging cities. It is a city of contradictions, both in its present and past. This unique book examines the development of the city from its earliest days as the seat of the Thai monarchy to its current position as an infamous contemporary metropolis. Adopting insights from anthropology, urban studies and human geography, this is a powerful account of the city and its dynamic spaces. Marc Askew examines the city's var...

After the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1999 Marshall decision recognized Mi’kmaw fishers’ treaty right to fish, the fishers entered the inshore lobster fishery across Atlantic Canada. At Burnt Church/Esgenoôpetitj, New Brunswick, the Mi’kmaw fishery provoked violent confrontations with neighbours and the Canadian government. Over the next two years, boats, cottages, and a sacred grove were burned, people were shot at and beaten, boats rammed and sunk, roads barricaded, and the local wharf occ...

By January 2015 the world’s richest 80 people had as much wealth as the poorest 50 per cent of the world’s population. It is a global unevenness through which the barriers to in-migration of Third World migrants to wealthy First World nations go ever higher, while the barriers to travel in the reverse direction are all but extinct.So how exactly does tourism contribute to narrowing this glaring inequality between the rich and poor? Are ever-expanding tourism markets a smoke-free, s...