Over the course of the last half century, the growth economies of Southeast Asia - Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam - have transformed themselves into middle income countries. This book looks at how the very success of these economies has bred new challenges, novel problems, and fresh tensions, including the fact that particular individuals, sectors and regions have been marginalised by these processes.

Contributing to discussions of policy implications, the book melds endogenous and exogenous approaches to thinking about development paths, re-frames Asia's model(s) of growth and draws out the social, environmental, political and economic side-effects that have arisen from growth. An interesting analysis of the problems that come alongside development's achievements, this book is an important contribution to Southeast Asian Studies, Development Studies and Environmental Studies.

About the Author

Jonathan Rigg is Professor of Geography at the National University of Singapore. His previous publications include An everyday geography of the Global South (2007), Living with transition in Laos: market integration in Southeast Asia (2005), Southeast Asia: the human landscape of modernization and development (2003) and Asian cities, migrant labor and contested spaces (co-edited, 2011), all published by Routledge.

Reviews

"[This book] has the potential to reshape how we see Southeast Asian development, and the development process more generally." Mike Parnwell, Leeds University, UK

"This book goes well beyond the dichotomised world of celebrating economic growth or commiserating with its victims. Instead, it takes success as a given, but seeks to understand the new problems that arise out of it. Professor Rigg's latest contribution certainly needs to be read by those critical of mainstream development, but especially by those working in institutions and agencies that are implicated one way or another not just in the neglect of development's underbelly, but also in its creation." Philip Hirsch, University of Sydney, Australia.

"In clear and persuasive terms, Rigg shows how 'the poor' are not just those left behind by development, as conventional discourses would have it - they are also the collateral victims of development who are dispossessed by, or excluded from, economic change and restructuring. Drawing on evidence from across the region, Challenging Southeast Asian Development does exactly what the title suggests, providing a comprehensive and critical corrective to conventional thinking." Philip Kelly, York University, Canada

Book Information
ISBN 9780415711586
Author Jonathan Rigg
Format Paperback
Page Count 254
Imprint Routledge
Publisher Taylor & Francis Ltd
Weight(grams) 430g