{"title":"Contemporary Issues In Asia And The Pacific","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"blowback-book-neil-devotta-9780804749244","title":"Blowback","description":"In the mid-1950s, Sri Lanka's majority Sinhalese politicians began outbidding one another on who could provide the greatest advantages for their community, using the Sinhala language as their instrument. The appeal to Sinhalese linguistic nationalism precipitated a situation in which the movement to replace English as the country's official language with Sinhala and Tamil (the language of Sri Lanka's principal minority) was abandoned and Sinhala alone became the official language in 1956. The Tamils' subsequent protests led to anti-Tamil riots and institutional decay, which meant that supposedly representative agencies of government catered to Sinhalese preferences and blatantly disregarded minority interests. This in turn led to the Tamils' mobilizing, first politically then militarily, and by the mid-1970s Tamil youth were bent on creating a separate state.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49536001573137,"sku":"GOR013723190","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50648524128529,"sku":"GOR014023014","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50942737154321,"sku":"CIN0804749248G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007726485777,"sku":"NIN9780804749244","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804749248.jpg?v=1757413161"},{"product_id":"global-futures-in-east-asia-book-ann-anagnost-9780804776189","title":"Global Futures in East Asia","description":"This volume seeks to go beyond single-country area studies to draw together analyses of how globalization and neoliberalism are affecting youth and, as a result, their identities and their futures, in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49801032499473,"sku":"CIN0804776180VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007488065809,"sku":"NIN9780804776189","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804776180.jpg?v=1757413202"},{"product_id":"capital-coercion-and-crime-book-john-t-sidel-9780804737463","title":"Capital, Coercion, and Crime","description":"Drawing on in-depth research in the Philippines, this book reveals how local forms of political and economic monopoly may thrive under conditions of democracy and capitalist development.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49876734607633,"sku":"CIN0804737460G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007435669777,"sku":"NIN9780804737463","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804737460.jpg?v=1757413997"},{"product_id":"japan-s-dual-civil-society-book-robert-pekkanen-9780804754293","title":"Japan's Dual Civil Society","description":"Japan differs from other industrialized democracies in having many small, local groups but few large, professionally managed national organizations. This book provides a comprehensive overview of Japan's civil society and a new theory, based on political institutions, to explain why it has developed as it has.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49889495777553,"sku":"CIN0804754292G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007498912017,"sku":"NIN9780804754293","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804754292.jpg?v=1757416759"},{"product_id":"capital-coercion-and-crime-book-john-t-sidel-9780804737456","title":"Capital, Coercion, and Crime","description":"This book focuses on local bossism, a common political phenomenon where local power brokers achieve monopolistic control over an area's coercive and economic resources. Examples of bossism include Old Corruption in eighteenth-century England, urban political machines in the United States, caciques in Latin America, the Mafia in Southern Italy, and today's gangster politicians in such countries as India, Russia, and Thailand.   For many years, the entrenchment of numerous provincial warlords and political clans has made the Philippines a striking case of local bossism. Yet writings on Filipino political culture and patron-client relations have ignored the role of coercion in shaping electoral competition and social relations. Portrayals of a \"weak state\" captured by a landed oligarchy have similarly neglected the enduring institutional legacies of American colonial rule and the importance of state resources for the accumulation of wealth and power in the Philippines.   The author, by contrast, argues that the roots of bossism in the Philippines lie in the inauguration of formal democratic institutions at a relatively early stage of capitalist development. Poverty and insecurity leave many voters vulnerable to clientelist, coercive, and financial pressure, and the state's central role in capital accumulation provides the basis for local bosses' economic empires and political machines. These contradictions have encouraged bossism in the Philippines, as well as in other countries.   The book elaborates these arguments through case studies of bosses in two Philippine provinces, Cavite and Cebu. The contrast between single-generation gangster politicians in Cavite and enduring commercial dynasties in Cebu reveals variation in the forms of bossism that reflect variations in the local political economies of the two provinces. Comparisons between bosses over successive historical periods highlight the gradual transformation of bossism through capitalist development. In sum, Capital, Coercion, and Crime provides a comparative historical analysis of bossism, drawing conclusions of great interest not only to scholars of Southeast Asia but to students of comparative politics as well.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49911234396433,"sku":"CIN0804737452G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804737452.jpg?v=1757413230"},{"product_id":"southeast-asia-in-political-science-book-erik-martinez-kuhonta-9780804761529","title":"Southeast Asia in Political Science","description":"This book argues that Southeast Asian political studies have made important contributions to theory building in comparative politics through a dialogue involving theory, area studies, and qualitative methodology. The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49989353373969,"sku":"CIN0804761523A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50418858557713,"sku":"CIN0804761523G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53362530582801,"sku":"NIN9780804761529","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804761523.jpg?v=1757414461"},{"product_id":"protest-and-possibilities-book-meredith-l-weiss-9780804752954","title":"Protest and Possibilities","description":"Protest and Possibilities explores the pursuit of political reform in Malaysia, an illiberal democracy, and contrasts coalition-building and reform processes there with those of electoral authoritarian Indonesia. The study considers the roles of civil society agents (CSAs) in promoting alternative (especially noncommunal) political norms and helping to find common ground among opposition political actors, and compares recent reformist initiatives with past political trajectories. The nature of illiberal democracy encourages a combination of contained and transgressive contention, with CSAs and political parties performing distinct but complementary roles. Enough space has been allowed over time for CSAs and political parties to accumulate coalitional capital, or the mutual trust and understanding necessary for groups to find common cause and work in coalition. In addition, shifts in political opportunities and threats encourage both CSAs and political parties to alter their strategies and thinking to take advantage of windows for change, facilitating long-term normative as well as institutional change.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50293460533521,"sku":"CIN0804752958VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804752958.jpg?v=1757414480"},{"product_id":"opposing-suharto-book-edward-aspinall-9780804748452","title":"Opposing Suharto","description":"Opposing Suharto presents an account of democratization in the world's fourth most populous country, Indonesia. It describes how opposition groups challenged the long-time ruler, President Suharto, and his military-based regime, forcing him to resign in 1998. The book's main purpose is to explain how ordinary people can bring about political change in a repressive authoritarian regime. It does this by telling the story of an array of dissident groups, nongovernmental organizations, student activists, and political party workers as they tried to expand democratic space in the last decade of Suharto's rule.   This book is an important study not only for readers interested in contemporary Indonesia and political change in Asia, but also for all those interested in democratization processes elsewhere in the world. Unlike most other books on Indonesia, and unlike many books on democratization, it provides an account from the perspective of those who were struggling to bring about change.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362332709137,"sku":"CIN0804748454VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014012559633,"sku":"NIN9780804748452","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804748454.jpg?v=1757413402"},{"product_id":"beyond-the-middle-kingdom-book-scott-kennedy-9780804769587","title":"Beyond the Middle Kingdom","description":"This book breaks new ground by systematically examining China's capitalist transformation through several comparative lenses. The great majority of research on China to date has consisted of single-country studies. This is the result of the methodological demands of studying China and a sense of the country's distinctiveness due to its grand size and long history. The moniker Middle Kingdom, a direct translation of the Chinese-language word for China, is one of the most prominent symbols of the country's supposed uniqueness.   Composed of contributions from leading specialists on China's political economy, this volume demonstrates the benefits of systematically comparing China with other countries, including France, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Doing so puts the People's Republic in a light not available through other approaches, and it provides a chance to consider political theories by including an important case too often left out of studies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50362627358993,"sku":"CIN0804769583G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804769583.jpg?v=1757416922"},{"product_id":"making-majorities-book-dru-c-gladney-9780804730488","title":"Making Majorities","description":"Majorities are made, not born. This book argues that there are no pure majorities in the Asia-Pacific region, broadly defined, nor in the West. Numerically, ethnically, politically, and culturally, societies make and mark their majorities under specific historical, political, and social circumstances. This position challenges Samuel Huntington’s influential thesis that civilizations are composed of more or less homogeneous cultures, suggesting instead that culture is as malleable as the politics that informs it.    The fourteen contributors to this volume argue that emphasis on minority\/majority rights is based on uncritically accepted ideas of purity, numerical superiority, and social consensus. Emphases upon multiculturalism can become ways of masking serious political, ethnic, and class differences merely in terms of cultural difference, and affirmative-action policies can isolate, identify, and stigmatize minorities as often as they homogenize, unify, and naturalize majorities.   This book analyzes how minorities are made and marked across cultural, regional, and national boundaries from Hawai‘i to Turkey, a region that encompasses extraordinarily diverse populations and political developments and that is often regarded as composed of relatively homogeneous majorities.   This volume details discourses of majority and minority, allowing exploration of a number of questions of more general concern in the humanities and social sciences, including: How does one become officially “ethnic” in many states in Asia? How are understandings of majority and minority cultures created and shaped in specific political and historical contexts? How does the state shape the way people think of themselves? How do people resist, transform, and appropriate these official representations?","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50366792565009,"sku":"CIN0804730482G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804730482.jpg?v=1757415897"},{"product_id":"rise-of-the-red-engineers-book-joel-andreas-9780804760782","title":"Rise of the Red Engineers","description":"Rise of the Red Engineers explains the tumultuous origins of the class of technocratic officials who rule China today. In a fascinating account, author Joel Andreas chronicles how two mutually hostile groups—the poorly educated peasant revolutionaries who seized power in 1949 and China's old educated elite—coalesced to form a new dominant class. After dispossessing the country's propertied classes, Mao and the Communist Party took radical measures to eliminate class distinctions based on education, aggravating antagonisms between the new political and old cultural elites. Ultimately, however, Mao's attacks on both groups during the Cultural Revolution spurred inter-elite unity, paving the way—after his death—for the consolidation of a new class that combined their political and cultural resources. This story is told through a case study of Tsinghua University, which—as China's premier school of technology—was at the epicenter of these conflicts and became the party's preferred training ground for technocrats, including many of China's current leaders.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50367536791825,"sku":"CIN0804760780A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50832647815441,"sku":"GOR014089875","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50922616520977,"sku":"CIN0804760780VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007632474385,"sku":"NIN9780804760782","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51424481804561,"sku":"CIN0804760780G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804760780.jpg?v=1757413037"},{"product_id":"political-legitimacy-in-southeast-asia-book-muthiah-alagappa-9780804725606","title":"Political Legitimacy in Southeast Asia","description":"Despite the end of the Cold War, security continues to be a critical concern of Asian states. Allocations of state revenues to the security sector continue to be substantial and have, in fact, increased in several countries. As Asian nations construct a new security architecture for the Asia-Pacific region, Asian security has received increased attention by the scholarly community. But most of that scholarship has focused on specific issues or selected countries. This book aims to lay the groundwork for a comprehensive, in-depth understanding of Asian security by investigating conceptions of security in sixteen Asian countries. The book undertakes an ethnographic, country-by-country study of how Asian states conceive of their security. For each country, it identifies and explains the security concerns and behavior of central decision makers, asking who or what is to be protected, against what potential threats, and how security policies have changed over time. This inside-out or bottom-up approach facilitates both identification of similarities and differences in the security thinking and practice of Asian countries and exploration of their consequences. The crucial insights into the dynamics of international security in the region provided by this approach can form the basis for further inquiry, including debates about the future of the region.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007514411281,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007516868881,"sku":"NIN9780804725606","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804725608.jpg?v=1757416298"},{"product_id":"localising-power-in-post-authoritarian-indonesia-book-vedi-hadiz-9780804768535","title":"Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia","description":"This book is about how the design of institutional change results in unintended consequences. Many post-authoritarian societies have adopted decentralization—effectively localizing power—as part and parcel of democratization, but also in their efforts to entrench \"good governance.\" Vedi Hadiz shifts the attention to the accompanying tensions and contradictions that define the terms under which the localization of power actually takes place. In the process, he develops a compelling analysis that ties social and institutional change to the outcomes of social conflict in local arenas of power.   Using the case of Indonesia, and comparing it with Thailand and the Philippines, Hadiz seeks to understand the seeming puzzle of how local predatory systems of power remain resilient in the face of international and domestic pressures. Forcefully persuasive and characteristically passionate, Hadiz challenges readers while arguing convincingly that local power and politics still matter greatly in our globalized world.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51007566610705,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007569428753,"sku":"NIN9780804768535","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804768536.jpg?v=1757416693"},{"product_id":"beyond-bilateralism-book-ellis-s-krauss-9780804749091","title":"Beyond Bilateralism","description":"This is the first comprehensive analysis of the ways in which changes in the geopolitical context have altered the nature of the long-stable U.S.-Japan relationship: much of what had once been a bilateral and relatively exclusive relationship has been transformed in the past two decades. The authors present eleven case studies of important domains—ranging from increased flows of private capital to international security concerns to the growing importance of multilateral organizations—in which the relationship has been altered to a greater or lesser degree.    Individual chapters present new ways of understanding international financial flows, U.S.-Japan trade relations, and U.S.-Japan manufacturing rivalry. Others present very cogent synthetic analyses of the changing context of U.S.-Japan relations. Together they provide an account of the bilateral, regional, and global institutions—political, military, and financial—that dominate the geopolitics of U.S.-Asia relations. Although written to a consistently high intellectual level, the chapters in this timely volume are intended for a nonspecialist audience and will be useful to practitioners in business and government, as well as to students and teachers.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51090906054929,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090909397265,"sku":"NIN9780804749091","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804749094.jpg?v=1757416346"},{"product_id":"fourth-circle-book-john-f-mccarthy-9780804752114","title":"The Fourth Circle","description":"This book analyzes the political, legal, and economic dynamics shaping environmental outcomes across two districts in Aceh, one of the richest and most expansive areas of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia.  Its central theme is that the present cycle of ecological decline can best be understood in terms of the way political, economic and social forces operate at the district level.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51090906480913,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090909888785,"sku":"NIN9780804752114","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804752117.jpg?v=1757412760"},{"product_id":"southeast-asia-in-political-science-book-erik-martinez-kuhonta-9780804758109","title":"Southeast Asia in Political Science","description":"This book argues that Southeast Asian political studies have made important contributions to theory building in comparative politics through a dialogue involving theory, area studies, and qualitative methodology. The book provides a state-of-the-art review of key topics in the field, including: state structures, political regimes, political parties, contentious politics, civil society, ethnicity, religion, rural development, globalization, and political economy. The chapters allow readers to trace the development of Southeast Asian politics and to address central debates in comparative politics. The book will serve as a valuable reference for undergraduate and graduate students, scholars of Southeast Asian politics, and comparativists engaged in theoretical debates at the heart of political science.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51090908021009,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090910970129,"sku":"NIN9780804758109","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804758107.jpg?v=1757415218"},{"product_id":"constructing-china-s-jerusalem-book-nanlai-cao-9780804770804","title":"Constructing China's Jerusalem","description":"Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth life history interviews, this illuminating book provides an intimate portrait of contemporary Chinese Christianity in the context of a modern, commercialized economy. In vivid detail, anthropologist Nanlai Cao explores the massive resurgence of Protestant Christianity in the southeastern coastal city of Wenzhou—popularly referred to by its residents as \"China's Jerusalem\"—a nationwide model for economic development and the largest urban Christian center in China.    Cao's study of Chinese Christians delves into the dynamics of activities such as banqueting, network building, property acquisition, mate selection, marriage ritual, migrant work, and education. Unlike previous research that has mainly looked at older, rural, and socially marginalized church communities, Cao trains his focus on economically powerful, politically connected, moralizing Christian entrepreneurs. In framing the city of Wenzhou as China's Jerusalem, newly rich Chinese Christians seek not only to express their leadership aspirations in a global religious movement but also to assert their place, identity, and elite status in post-reform Chinese society.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090913624337,"sku":"NIN9780804770804","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804770808.jpg?v=1757415208"},{"product_id":"constructing-china-s-jerusalem-book-nanlai-cao-9780804773607","title":"Constructing China's Jerusalem","description":"Drawing on extensive ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth life history interviews, this illuminating book provides an intimate portrait of contemporary Chinese Christianity in the context of a modern, commercialized economy. In vivid detail, anthropologist Nanlai Cao explores the massive resurgence of Protestant Christianity in the southeastern coastal city of Wenzhou—popularly referred to by its residents as \"China's Jerusalem\"—a nationwide model for economic development and the largest urban Christian center in China.    Cao's study of Chinese Christians delves into the dynamics of activities such as banqueting, network building, property acquisition, mate selection, marriage ritual, migrant work, and education. Unlike previous research that has mainly looked at older, rural, and socially marginalized church communities, Cao trains his focus on economically powerful, politically connected, moralizing Christian entrepreneurs. In framing the city of Wenzhou as China's Jerusalem, newly rich Chinese Christians seek not only to express their leadership aspirations in a global religious movement but also to assert their place, identity, and elite status in post-reform Chinese society.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51090913788177,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51090916573457,"sku":"NIN9780804773607","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804773602.jpg?v=1757413658"},{"product_id":"on-the-edge-of-the-global-book-niko-besnier-9780804774062","title":"On the Edge of the Global","description":"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 grapple with their growing anxiety and hold on to different understandings of what modernity means. How should it be made relevant to local contexts? How it should mesh with practices and symbols of tradition? In the day-to-day lives of Tongans, the weight of transformations brought on by neoliberalism and democracy press not in the abstract, but in individually significant ways: how to make ends meet, how to pay lip service to tradition, and how to present a modern self without opening oneself to ridicule. Adopting a wide-angled perspective that brings together political, economic, cultural, and social concerns, this book focuses on the interface between the different forms that modern uncertainties take.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51180621988113,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51180622315793,"sku":"CIN0804774064VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0804774064.jpg?v=1757414667"},{"product_id":"rising-china-and-asian-democratization-book-daniel-c-lynch-9780804753944","title":"Rising China and Asian Democratization","description":"This book argues that states democratize through a process of socialization to a liberal global culture. This can be seen in Taiwan and Thailand, whereas in China the Communist party resists democratization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":52099467313425,"sku":"CIN0804753946A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804753944.jpg?v=1757416310"},{"product_id":"opposing-suharto-book-edward-aspinall-9780804748445","title":"Opposing Suharto","description":"Opposing Suharto presents an account of democratization in the world's fourth most populous country, Indonesia. It describes how opposition groups challenged the long-time ruler, President Suharto, and his military-based regime, forcing him to resign in 1998. The book's main purpose is to explain how ordinary people can bring about political change in a repressive authoritarian regime. It does this by telling the story of an array of dissident groups, nongovernmental organizations, student activists, and political party workers as they tried to expand democratic space in the last decade of Suharto's rule.   This book is an important study not only for readers interested in contemporary Indonesia and political change in Asia, but also for all those interested in democratization processes elsewhere in the world. Unlike most other books on Indonesia, and unlike many books on democratization, it provides an account from the perspective of those who were struggling to bring about change.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52433558831377,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52433559716113,"sku":"NLS9780804748445","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804748445.jpg?v=1759178364"},{"product_id":"population-change-and-economic-development-in-east-asia-book-andrew-mason-9780804743228","title":"Population Change and Economic Development in East Asia","description":"What role did population change play in East Asia's rapid economic development? A reliable answer to the question is important because the extraordinary economic record of East Asian countries during their high-growth era (1960-90) is central to current development policy debates. This book argues that previous studies have neglected the fundamental ways in which demographic forces have influenced economic growth and regional economic integration. Consequently, the significance of East Asia's remarkable decline in childbearing, the diminished rates of population growth, and the accompanying changes in age structure are not fully appreciated by policymakers.   The fifteen essays in this volume address two broad sets of issues. First, did rapid demographic change contribute to East Asian economic development? Specifically, what aspects of the region's development were influenced by such demographic trends as economic growth, inequality, and the economic status of women? Second, what was the role of population policy in East Asia? What policies and programs were implemented, and which of them achieved their goals? Were demographic outcomes a product only of the region's rapid economic development, or did population policies accelerate the transition to low fertility and slower population growth?   These questions are addressed through a detailed examination of the experience between 1960 and 1990 of six East Asian economies: Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, and Indonesia. The essays compare the countries' distinctive approaches to population policies and examine the important channels through which population change has affected economic development. Among the topics covered are the impact of population on productivity and innovation; economic structure; saving, investment, and international capital flows; international labor migration; human resource development; distribution of income; and the economic status of women.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740128080145,"sku":"NIN9780804743228","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804743228.jpg?v=1763481549"},{"product_id":"rising-china-and-asian-democratization-book-daniel-c-lynch-9780804761048","title":"Rising China and Asian Democratization","description":"This book argues that states democratize through a process of socialization to a liberal global culture. This can be seen in Taiwan and Thailand, whereas in China the Communist party resists democratization.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740134568209,"sku":"NIN9780804761048","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804761048.jpg?v=1763481577"},{"product_id":"beyond-bilateralism-book-ellis-s-krauss-9780804749107","title":"Beyond Bilateralism","description":"Beyond Bilateralism analyzes how, and to what extent, crucial global and regional security, finance, and trade transformations have altered the U.S.-Japan relationship and how that bilateral relationship has in turn influenced those global and regional trends.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740171661585,"sku":"NIN9780804749107","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804749107.jpg?v=1763481726"},{"product_id":"fourth-circle-book-john-f-mccarthy-9780804752121","title":"The Fourth Circle","description":"This book analyzes the political, legal, and economic dynamics shaping environmental outcomes across two districts in Aceh, one of the richest and most expansive areas of tropical rainforest in Southeast Asia. Its central theme is that the present cycle of ecological decline can best be understood in terms of the way political, economic and social forces operate at the district level.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52740177068305,"sku":"NIN9780804752121","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804752121.jpg?v=1763481747"},{"product_id":"chiefs-today-book-geoffrey-m-white-9780804728515","title":"Chiefs Today","description":"Thirty-five years after the first new Pacific states gained their independence, traditional leaders remain important political actors throughout the region. The political environs of the South Pacific, freshly populated with presidents, prime ministers, members of parliament, and local judiciary officers, are also increasingly crowded with newly visible chiefs. Far from being premodern relics, the chiefs who operate within modern Pacific states today figure significantly in attempts to fashion national identities and manage the direction of political and economic development. This volume presents detailed analyses of the accommodations between chiefs and states in thirteen Pacific societies. In some states, traditional perquisites and political authority have overlapped so that the state is a contemporary form of chiefdom. Elsewhere, chiefs operate as a mechanism of local accommodation to centralized state authority, facilitating state operations in the local community. In still other states, local chiefs have risen up against central authority, leading their communities in opposition to the state and its deprecations. In each case, the chief is a focus for cultural struggle in the border zones of local, national, and transnational politics.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":52960447267089,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52960447299857,"sku":"NIN9780804728515","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804728515.jpg?v=1766324131"},{"product_id":"beyond-the-middle-kingdom-book-scott-kennedy-9780804769570","title":"Beyond the Middle Kingdom","description":"This book breaks new ground by systematically examining China's capitalist transformation through several comparative lenses. The great majority of research on China to date has consisted of single-country studies. This is the result of the methodological demands of studying China and a sense of the country's distinctiveness due to its grand size and long history. The moniker Middle Kingdom, a direct translation of the Chinese-language word for China, is one of the most prominent symbols of the country's supposed uniqueness.   Composed of contributions from leading specialists on China's political economy, this volume demonstrates the benefits of systematically comparing China with other countries, including France, Russia, Japan, South Korea, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and South Africa. Doing so puts the People's Republic in a light not available through other approaches, and it provides a chance to consider political theories by including an important case too often left out of studies.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53014027174161,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014027862289,"sku":"NIN9780804769570","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804769570.jpg?v=1768142907"},{"product_id":"localising-power-in-post-authoritarian-indonesia-book-vedi-hadiz-9780804768528","title":"Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia","description":"This book provides an important statement on the underlying social dynamics of local politics in Indonesia following the end of the New Order in 1998. It represents the culmination of a substantial and influential body of work by Hadiz on the political economy of Indonesia's post-authoritarian transition.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53014028976401,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014029402385,"sku":"NIN9780804768528","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804768528.jpg?v=1768142912"},{"product_id":"on-the-edge-of-the-global-book-niko-besnier-9780804774055","title":"On the Edge of the Global","description":"This book explores the malaise present in post-colonial Tonga, analyzing the way in which segments of this small-scale society hold on to different understandings of what modernity is, how it should be made relevant to local contexts, and how it should mesh with practices and symbols of tradition.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014034546961,"sku":"NIN9780804774055","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804774055.jpg?v=1768142925"},{"product_id":"global-futures-in-east-asia-book-ann-anagnost-9780804776172","title":"Global Futures in East Asia","description":"This volume seeks to go beyond single-country area studies to draw together analyses of how globalization and neoliberalism are affecting youth and, as a result, their identities and their futures, in China, Taiwan, Japan, and South Korea.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53014039134481,"sku":"NIN9780804776172","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804776172.jpg?v=1768142937"},{"product_id":"reconfiguring-families-in-contemporary-vietnam-book-danile-blanger-9780804760584","title":"Reconfiguring Families in Contemporary Vietnam","description":"Reconfiguring Families in Contemporary Vietnam chronicles and analyzes the most significant change for families in Vietnam's recent past - the transition to a market economy, referred to as Doi Moi.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53376934576401,"sku":"NIN9780804760584","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804760584.jpg?v=1775312340"},{"product_id":"roots-of-the-state-book-benjamin-read-9780804775656","title":"Roots of the State","description":"Focusing on the capital cities of Beijing and Taipei, this book provides a detailed discussion of state-sponsored neighborhood organizations in China and Taiwan. It is grounded in the comparative scholarship on neighborhood organizations, civil society, and state-society relations, particularly in East Asia.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53376934936849,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":53376935035153,"sku":"NIN9780804775656","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9780804775656.jpg?v=1775312363"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/en-gb\/collections\/contemporary-issues-in-asia-and-the-pacific-book-series.oembed?page=2","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}