Rural areas and rural people have been centrally implicated in Southeast Asia's modernisation. Through the three entry points of smallholder persistence, upland dispossession, and landlessness, this Element offers an insight into the ways in which the countryside has been transformed over the past half century. Drawing on primary fieldwork undertaken in Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and secondary studies from across the region, Rigg shows how the experience of Southeast Asia offers a counterpoint and a challenge to standard, historicist understandings of agrarian change and, more broadly, development. Taking a rural view allows an alternative lens for theorising and judging Southeast Asia's modernisation experience and narrative. The Element argues that if we are to capture the nature – and not just the direction and amount – of agrarian change in Southeast Asia, then we need to view the countryside as more than rural and greater than farming.
The Concept Of Ird And The Objectives And Strategies Adopted By The Developing Countries Of Asia In General And South And South East Asian Countries In Particular, Form The Basis Of Discussion In This Book Leading To Comparative Analysis Of The Rationale, Content Of Integration, Structure Of Implementation And Monitoring And Evaluation Of Ird In These Countries. A Statistical Profile Of South And South East Asian Countries On Development Parameters Adds To The Utility Of The Book.
Bill Pritchard provides an important update on how current trade methodologies are implemented as China becomes one of the world’s largest fresh fruit importers from countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.
