Environment, development and change in rural Asia-Pacific: between local and global

This volume examines the economic, political, social and environmental challenges facing rural communities in the Asia-Pacific region, as global issues intersect with local contexts. Such challenges, from climatic change and volcanic eruption to population growth and violent civil unrest, have stimulated local resilience amongst communities and led to evolving regional institutions and environment management practices, changing social relationships and producing new forms of stratification. Bringing together case studies from across mainland Southeast Asia and the Island Pacific, an expert team of international contributors reveal how communities at the periphery take charge of their lives, champion the virtues of their own local systems of production and consumption, and engage in the complexities of new structures of development that demand a response to the vacillations of global politics, economy and society. Inherent in this is the recognition that 'development' as we have come to know it is far from over. Each chapter emphasizes the growing recognition that ecological and environmental issues are key to any understanding and analysis of structures of sustainable development. Providing diverse multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical perspectives, Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Pacific makes an important contribution to the revitalization of development studies and as such will be essential reading for scholars in the field, as well as those with an interest in Asia-Pacific studies, economic geography and political economy.

1. Between global and local : the contest for development / Eric Waddell and John Connell -- 2. Volcanic eruption as metaphor of social integration : a political ecological study of Mount Merapi, Central Java / Michael R. Dove -- 3. Pacific island rural development : challenges and prospects in Kiribati / Frank R. Thomas and Kautoa Tonganibeia -- 4. Agricultural landscapes of Kadavu : persistence and change on the Fijian periphery / Robert Kuhlken -- 5. Tree crops and the cultivated landscapes of the southwest Pacific / Jean Kennedy and William Clarke -- 6. Land reform and the state in Vietnam's northwestern mountains / Thomas Sikor -- 7. Seeds of discontent : oil palm and the changing production strategies among smallholders in Papua New Guinea / George N. Curry and Gina Koczberski -- 8. Holding on to modernity? Siwai, Bougainville, Papua New Guinea / John Connell -- 9. Oil palm expansion in Sarawak : lessons learned by a latecomer? / Niels Fold and Tina Svan Hansen -- 10. Can Indonesia's complex agroforests survive globalisation and decentralisation? Sanggau District, West Kalimantan / Lesley Potter and Simon Badcock -- 11. Seeing 'water blindness' : water control in agricultural intensification and environmental change in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam / Fiona Miller -- 12. Rethinking watershed science : lessons from Thailand / Tim Forsyth -- 13. Civil society and interdependencies : towards a regional political ecology of Mekong development / Philip Hirsch.

This volume examines the economic, political, social and environmental challenges facing rural communities in the Asia-Pacific region, as global issues intersect with local contexts. Such challenges, from climatic change and volcanic eruption to population growth and violent civil unrest, have stimulated local resilience amongst communities and led to evolving regional institutions and environment management practices, changing social relationships and producing new forms of stratification. Bringing together case studies from across mainland Southeast Asia and the Island Pacific, an expert team of international contributors reveal how communities at the periphery take charge of their lives, champion the virtues of their own local systems of production and consumption, and engage in the complexities of new structures of development that demand a response to the vacillations of global politics, economy and society. Inherent in this is the recognition that 'development' as we have come to know it is far from over. Each chapter emphasizes the growing recognition that ecological and environmental issues are key to any understanding and analysis of structures of sustainable development. Providing diverse multidisciplinary theoretical and empirical perspectives, Environment, Development and Change in Rural Asia-Pacific makes an important contribution to the revitalization of development studies and as such will be essential reading for scholars in the field, as well as those with an interest in Asia-Pacific studies, economic geography and political economy.