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The aim of the paper is to discuss and to reflect on the experiences and challenges encountered during the North-South capacity building project on transdisciplinarity, KNOTS (Fostering Multi-Lateral Knowledge Networks of Transdisciplinary Studies to Tackle Global Challenges), which was financed by the EU through the Erasmus+ Capacity Building in Higher Education program. Despite the large body of literature on transdisciplinary approaches and projects, not many studies exist that discuss both the political and the power dimensions within transdisciplinary endeavors, especially not from a social science perspective. Based on the experiences, challenges, and progress over the course of the project, I will analyze how power relations influenced and structured KNOTS. I argue that the success of transdisciplinary North-South collaborations depends very much on awareness of power hierarchies, reflexivity, and positionality as well as different understandings of knowledge. Although differences will be highlighted regarding, for example, the aims of transdisciplinarity or the role of different understandings of science and knowledge, the paper does not aim to increase skepticism regarding transdisciplinarity. Instead, the intent of the reflections is to increase awareness of the influences of power structures and relations in transdisciplinarity projects, especially North-South collaboration projects.

The aim of this paper is to explore ways in which small tourism-based enterprises can offer a crisis-resilient pathway to sustainable development. Based on a mixed-embeddedness framework, this paper explores the multiple strategies that small enterprises in the silver souvenir industry of Kotagede (Yogyakarta, Indonesia) applied to cope with hardship during the Indonesian decade of crisis (1996-2006). The data on which this paper builds stem from qualitative research conducted in Yogyakarta over a time span of 20 years. This paper makes two contributions to the current literature. The first contribution is to offer empirical, longitudinal, primary data on small-firm performances against the background of fluctuations in the tourism industry. The second contribution is conceptual, arguing that an embeddedness approach, sensitive to location-specific characteristics, promises a better understanding of small tourism enterprises as crisis-resilient development path-ways. In doing so, this paper also asserts that small businesses, due to their embeddedness in household economies and subcontracting arrangements that include rural labor, have the capacity to become agents of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Community-Based Tourism (CBT) sites are often seen as a tool for poverty alleviation and eradication, especially in Least Developed Countries like Cambodia. CBT as a development tool has been critically examined in recent years in a development cooperation context, but also in academic literature. Two of the major discussion points are the approaches used both to establish, and ensure the financial sustainability CBT sites. This paper seeks to contribute to these discussions by examining the viability of the classical top-down CBT model in comparison to the bottom up approach to promote sustainable tourism development in Cambodia in consideration of the Sustainable Development Goals. The often-missing financial sustainability frequently happens due to a lack of management skills and a lack of knowledge of pricing in the communities. Based on this notion, this paper also contributes to the discussion by examining the willingness to pay of different target groups (i.e., locals, expatriates, and international tourists), and presents two argu- ments in support of a stronger emphasis of the local and, especially, the expatriate mar- ket. Firstly, expatriates display significantly higher willingness to pay than international tourists, and, secondly, expatriate support allows CBT sites to build an understanding of potential customers’ needs, thereby supporting a more organic and sustainable growth.

The expansion of digital technologies and social media in Indonesia shifts practices of citizenship from a formal institutional level toward a more informal digital space. This paper presents the emerging results of research on digital citizenship in Banten, Indonesia, focusing on how new forms of citizenship are brought into being through digital acts that are defined as speech acts uttered through the use of social media. The paper follows digital acts of citizens in anti-corruption campaigns against the patrimonial and clientelistic regime of Banten’s political dynasty that are predominantly staged on Facebook and other online platforms. These digital acts produce and intensify affective publics through which forms of digital citizenship are enacted in opposition to the corrupt dynasty.

This paper examines the role of mobile technology in the lives of Thai immigrants in Berlin. By using qualitative research methods, this research investigates how new digital and social media applications have affected the organization of Thai immigrants on both individual and institutional levels, with a particular focus on the Royal Thai Embassy in Berlin. Mobile technologies today are widely used in the diaspora, by both individuals and social institutions, to maintain relationships with the homeland and to promote national affairs. Both individual Thai immigrants and official staff of the embassy rely significantly on Internet sites, particularly on social networking sites such as Facebook, to gain information on Thailand and to expand their networks. This paper explores changes in communication and their implications for Thais and their respective institutions in Germany.

Tourism constitutes both an economic activity and a cultural force that involves a dynamic interplay between travelers and their ideas about the societies they visit. This paper traces the construction and negotiation of “tourism imaginaries” (Salazar, 2012) in popular guidebooks and independent travel-blogs, critically examining questions of representation and power relations in a Southeast Asian context. Employing critical discourse analysis, this paper investigates how particular Southeast Asian destinations are represented from a Western perspective. Whereas long-established commercial media such as guidebooks function mainly to communicate destination images to the reader, recent participatory media formats (e.g. travel-blogs) are more experienced-based and enable tourists to form ideas about foreign places in idiosyncratic ways. The preliminary insights of this study show that hegemonic narratives from guidebooks are rather reproduced than critically challenged and subverted in the examples under review.

In the final decade of the New Order regime, Indonesian labor activists turned to international organizations as a key ally in the dangerous work of challenging the state-controlled labor regime. Asthe political context has become more open, international organizations have continued to play an important role in the labor movement. This paper examines the changing role of transnational labor activism in democratic Indonesia. First, the paper describes the emergence of the discourse of global labor rights in response to the challenges of globalization. It then sketches the historical relationship between the Indonesian state, the labor movement, and international activists. Finally, the paper examines an internationally supported union organizing campaign. Drawing upon the literature on discursive framing, the case suggests that while internationally circulating, rights-based discourses remain an important resource for domestic activists, such discourses must be translated and modified for the local political context.

Around half of the Mekong Delta’s rural population lacks year-round access to clean water. In combination with inadequate hygiene and poor sanitation this creates a high risk of diseases. Microcredit schemes are a popular element in addressing such problems on the global policy level. The present paper analyses the contradictory results of such a microcredit programme for rural water supply and sanitation in the context of the Mekong Delta, Vietnam, through a qualitative study primarily based on semi-structured interviews in rural communes of Can Tho City. We come to the conclusion that the programme has a positive effect regarding the safer disposal of human excreta as well as surface water quality, but a marginal impact on poverty reduction as it only reaches better-off households already having access to clean water. The paper shows how the outcome of rural water supply and sanitation policies are strongly influenced by the local ecological, technological, and social settings, in particular by stakeholders’ interests. The authors challenge the assumption that water supply and sanitation should be integrated into the same policy in all circumstances. ----- Etwa die Hälfte der ländlichen Bevölkerung des Mekong-Deltas hat nicht das ganze Jahr über Zugang zu sauberem Wasser. Zusammen mit unzureichender Hygiene und mangelnder sanitärer Grundversorgung erhöht diese Situation das Krankheitsrisiko. Auf globaler Ebene sind Mikrokreditprogramme eine gefragte Strategie, um diese Probleme zu behandeln. Der vorliegende Artikel analysiert die widersprüchlichen Ergebnisse eines solchen Mikrokreditprogramms für ländliche Wasser- und sanitäre Grundversorgung im Mekong-Delta in Vietnam im Rahmen einer qualitativen Studie, die auf halbstrukturierten Interviews im Raum Can Tho City basiert. Die Studie kommt zu dem Schluss, dass das Programm eine positive Wirkung in Bezug auf die sichere Entsorgung von Fäkalien und die Qualität des Regenwassers hat, jedoch nur einen begrenzten Beitrag zur Armutsbekämpfung leisten kann, da hauptsächlich finanziell besser gestellte Haushalte erreicht werden, die bereits Zugang zu sauberem Wasser haben. Der Artikel zeigt, dass die Wirkung von ländlicher Wasser- und sanitärer Grundversorgung maßgeblich von lokalen ökologischen, technologischen und sozialen Verhältnissen beeinflusst wird, allen voran von den unterschiedlichen Interessensgruppen. Die AutorInnen stellen die Annahme in Frage, dass Wasser- und sanitäre Grundversorgung unter allen Umständen in die gleiche politische Strategie integriert sein sollten.

Combating the outbreak of infectious diseases is a major public health imperative for the small island-state of Singapore. In this paper we discuss and assess the public health measures taken by the Singaporean government to combat the outbreak of SARS in 2003 and H1N1 in 2009. Most notably, the state introduced a clear line of command and control to monitor the effectiveness and efficacy of public health control measures as well as to oversee their implementation. Meanwhile, it has also employed moral suasion to ensure compliance with draconian health control measures by the population. At the same time, the Singapore government also established a close partnership with the population to ensure the acquiescence of the general public to these measures. Finally, this paper draws on the insights and lessons learned from the two outbreaks to develop a conceptual model for pandemic management. ----- Die Bekämpfung des Ausbruchs ansteckender Krankheiten ist ein zentrales Gesundheitsgebot für den Inselstaat Singapur. Im vorliegenden Artikel erörtern und bewerten wir die Maßnahmen, welche die Regierung Singapurs im Bereich der öffentlichen Gesundheitsversorgung traf, um den Ausbruch von SARS im Jahr 2003 und von H1N1 im Jahr 2009 zu bekämpfen. Besonders bemerkenswert ist in diesem Zusammenhang die Einführung einer klaren Weisungs- und Kontrollstrategie, um die Wirksamkeit und Wirkungen der Maßnahmen zu überprüfen sowie ihre Implementierung beaufsichtigen zu können. Zudem wurden moralische Appelle angewendet, um die Einhaltung von drakonischen Maßnahmen zur Gesundheitskontrolle durch die Bevölkerung zu gewährleisten. Gleichzeitig etablierte die singapurische Regierung eine enge Partnerschaft mit der Bevölkerung, die das Einverständnis der Öffentlichkeit zu diesen Maßnahmen sicherstellte. Zum Schluss wird im vorliegenden Aufsatz ein konzeptionelles Modell, das auf Einsichten und Lehren aus den beiden Ausbrüchen beruft, ausgearbeitet.

This paper is based on an ethnographic enquiry conducted over the last four years and shows the setting of a close interaction between hosts and guests in the White Tai villages in Mai Chau district, in the northwest uplands of Vietnam. The author argues that tourism is utilised as a medium to demonstrate a culture of hospitality. A new trend in tourism production and consumption is brought into discussion; in relation to this, this paper looks at what is really happening in the tourism spaces of the White Tai villages through the experiences not only of tourists but also of villagers. The author identifies several types of host-guest relationships and argues that there is a transformation of the host-guest relationship within these tourist spaces, a transformation evident in the new production and consumption practices of the market. Such relationships must be understood by looking beyond conceptions of commodification and politicisation of ethnicity. --- Basierend auf einer vierjährigen ethnographischen Feldforschung schildert dieser Beitrag die Interaktionen zwischen Bereisten und Reisenden anhand von White Tai-Dörfern im Mai Chau-Bezirk im nordwestlichen Hügelland Vietnams. Die Autorin argumentiert, dass Tourismus als Medium zur Demonstration von Gastfreundlichkeit eingesetzt werde. Neben einer Diskussion zu touristischer Pro- duktion und Konsum, werden in diesem Artikel auch die Erfahrungen und Wahrnehmungen der TouristInnen und DorfbewohnerInnen analysiert sowie verschiedene Typen von Beziehungen zwischen GastgeberInnen und Gästen identifiziert. Es wird dabei argumentiert, dass im Kontext touristischer Räume eine Transformation dieser Beziehungen stattfinde, die in den neuen Produktions- und Konsumpraktiken evident sei. Solche Beziehungen können nur verstanden werden, wenn ein altbekanntes Verständnis von Kommodifizierung und Politisierung von Ethnizität erweitert werde.

Thailand experienced dramatic political turmoil from February 2006 to November 2008 culminating in the occupation of the Bangkok International Airport. The demonstrations against then Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his political allies were organised by the People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD). One of the PAD leaders, Major-General Chamlong Srimuang, is an active member of the Buddhist Santi Asoke group. The group is controversial as it is not under the state Buddhist authorities and has implicitly criticised the Thai state Buddhist monks for moral corruption. Known as the ‘Dharma Army’, hundreds of Santi Asoke monks, nuns and lay people participated in PAD demonstrations. This paper analyses what the Santi Asoke Buddhist group represents, what the ‘Dharma Army’ is, how its reality differs from media images, what the ideological reasons for Asoke to initially support Thaksin were, and why the group finally turned against him. The paper argues that the group cannot be viewed as a monolithic community. Instead, it should be considered as an amalgamation of monks and nuns, urban and rural temple residents, lay followers of Asoke monks, practitioners of organic agriculture in Asoke village communities, students and former students of Asoke schools, and supporters of Major-General Chamlong Srimuang. Representatives of all these networks participated in the demonstrations albeit with different intensity. ----- Zwischen Februar 2006 und November 2008 stand Thailand unter dem Zeichen tiefgehender politischer Unruhen, die in der Besetzung des internationalen Flughafens ihren Höhepunkt fanden. Organisiert wurden diese Demonstrationen, die sich gegen den damaligen Premierminister Thaksin Shinawatra und seine politischen Verbündeten richteten, von der Volksallianz für Demokratie (PAD). Einer ihrer Anführer, Generalmajor Chamlong Srimuang, ist aktives Mitglied der buddhistischen Santi Asoke Gruppe. Da sich Santi Asoke nicht der staatlich kontrollierten buddhistischen Ordnung beugt und solche Mönche implizit der moralischen Verdorbenheit beschuldigt, hängt ihr ein kontroverser Ruf an. Unter der Bezeichnung „Dharma Armee“ nahmen hunderte Anhänger von Santi Asoke, darunter Mönche, Nonnen und Laien an den PAD- Demonstrationen teil. Inhalt dieses Artikels ist daher die Analyse der Hintergründe und Ziele der Santi Asoke Gruppe und der „Dharma Armee“, Unterschiede zwischen medialer Darstellung und vorgefundener Realität sowie die Motive der anfänglichen Unterstützung Thaksins durch Santi Asoke und ihre spätere Abkehr von ihm. Dabei wird argumentiert, dass die Gruppe nicht als monolithischer Block verstanden werden kann, sondern in ihrer Vielfalt, zusammengesetzt aus Mönchen, Nonnen, EinwohnerInnen städtischer und ländlicher Tempel, Laien, AnhängerInnen biologischer Landwirtschaft in Asoke-Dörfern sowie UnterstützerInnen von Generalmajor Chamlong Srimuang begriffen werden muss. RepräsentantInnen all dieser Netzwerke nahmen, wenn auch in unterschiedlicher Intensität, an den Demonstrationen teil.

This paper deals with agrofuel policies within the European Union (EU) and the consequences of these policies in Indonesia. That South-East-Asian country is the world leader in the production and exportation of palm oil, which is one of the cheapest feedstocks for the production of biodiesel. Recently, production has expanded significantly due to the incentives of the international energy market. This paper analyses the interests and strategies of the key players in the palm oil and agro- fuels business in Indonesia, looks at the model of development they (re-)produce, and analyses their reactions to the problem of sustainability in relation to deforestation, land conflicts, and biodiversity loss through the expansion of monocultures and industrial agriculture. ----- Dieser Artikel beschäftigt sich mit der Agrartreibstoffpolitik der Europäischen Union (EU) und den Auswirkungen dieser Politik auf Indonesien. Das südostasiatische Land ist weltweit führender Produzent und Exporteur von Palmöl, dem derzeit billigsten Rohstoff für die Produktion von Biodiesel, und dieser Sektor expandiert aufgrund der politischen und ökonomischen Anreize ungehindert weiter. Der Artikel analysiert die Interessen und Strategien der zentralen Stakeholder in der indonesischen Palmöl- und Agrartreibstoffindustrie, beleuchtet das dahinterstehende Entwicklungsmodell und analysiert die Reaktionen zur Nachhaltigkeitsproblematik in Bezug auf die Abholzung von Regenwald, Landkonflikte und Verlust von Biodiversität durch die Expansion von Monokulturen und industrieller Landwirtschaft.

This paper gives an overview on to what extent public activism in the Philippines is still gendered and how far it, therefore, disadvantages women. The paper consists of three major topics: (1) observations on women and the public space, (2) an outline of women and formal politics, and (3) a glimpse into gender within civil society and social movements in the Philippines. ----- Dieser Artikel behandelt die Frage, inwiefern Aktivismus von Frauen im öffentlichen Raum in den Philippinen noch immer geschlechtsspezifisch definiert ist und ob Frauen dadurch benachteiligt werden. Der Artikel ist in drei Abschnitte gegliedert: (1) Beobachtungen zu Frauen und öffentlichem Raum, (2) Überblick über die Rolle der Frauen in der formellen Politik und (3) eine Annäherung an geschlechtsspezifische Fragestellungen in Zivilgesellschaft und sozialen Bewegungen in den Philippinen.

This paper deals with the impact of direct bupati (district head) elections on local politics with regard to land conflicts in the district of Paser, Indonesia. I discuss the position and influence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in this process and their usage of adat-based land claims. The paper is concerned with the internal political context of government-NGO power relations as well as with the position and profi ling of these parties in Paserese society at large. The subject is approached through a discussion of two ‘land’ occupations (one in fact being a sea occupation) by groups claiming adat rights, and of the measures taken by the local government and NGOs alike. The new importance of regional politics and local responsibility of those in power in Paser are reviewed against the background of Indonesian political reform. I argue that results are likely to be determined by a specific local context and momentum rather than by nationwide developments. --- In diesem Artikel untersuche ich die Auswirkungen der Direktwahlen des bupati (Distriktsvorstehers) auf die politische Lage innerhalb des Bezirks Paser, Indonesien. Dabei diskutiere ich die Einflussnahme diverser Nichtregierungsorganisationen (NGOs) auf den Wahlprozess und auf die Lösung lokaler Landkonfl ikte. Die NGOs unterstützen adat-basierte Forderungen der Bevölkerung auf gesicherte Landbesitzverhältnisse. Sowohl der interne politische Kontext als auch die Position und Selbstdarstellung der Regierungs- und Nichtregierungsakteure innerhalb der Gesellschaft Pasers werden untersucht und anhand der Diskussion zweier Landbesetzungen (eine dieser Besetzungen ist faktisch eine ‘Meeresbesetzung’) veranschaulicht. Regionalismus und die Haftbarkeit lokaler Regierungsakteure werden im Zuge der derzeitigen politischen Reformen Indonesiens zunehmend wichtiger. Ich argumentiere, dass lokale politische Ereignisse in erster Linie durch lokale Kontexte bzw. Eigendynamiken und nicht etwa durch landesweite politische Trends verursacht werden.

Immer mehr indonesische Autorinnen haben insbesondere seit dem Sturz Präsident Suhartos die literarische Bühne erobert. Viele ihrer Bücher wurden Bestseller, mit bis zu 100.000 verkauften Kopien. Diese zunehmende Popularität hängt vor allem mit Tendenzen der Liberalisierung, Aufhebung der Zensur und einer Redefinition der Rolle der Frau zusammen. Einige Schriftstellerinnen machten in der letzten Dekade durch die offene Thematisierung von Sexualität und Begehren der Frau auf sich aufmerksam, ein Tabuthema, das während der Neuen Ordnung nicht in dieser Weise hätte diskutiert werden können. Die meisten dieser Autorinnen, deren Literatur in den Medien oftmals mit dem umstrittenen Begriff sastrawangi (Duftliteratur) bezeichnet wird, wählen als Handlungsschauplätze ihrer Erzählungen urbane Zentren Javas. Dieses Paper diskutiert den Roman Tarian Bumi (Erdentanz, 2000) von Oka Rusmini, die den Diskurs um den weiblichen Körper und Sexualität de facto noch vor der ‚Pionierin’ der sogenannten sastrawangi eröffnet hat, Ayu Utami. Das Paper möchte einen Beitrag dazu leisten, die Verflechtungen von weiblichen Körperinszenierungen, Tanz und Aspekte der Bewahrung der balinesischen Kultur aufzuzeigen. Ein besonderes Augenmerk liegt auf der Frage, wie die Körperinszenierungen genutzt werden, um die Rolle der Frau in der balinesischen Gesellschaft innerhalb des Spannungsfeldes des hinduistischen Kastensystems, der Hierarchie und vor dem Hintergrund der Problematik von Tourismus, postkolonialer Kritik und Bewahrung balinesischer Kultur im Wandel der Zeit zu charakterisieren.An increasing number of Indonesian women authors have entered the literary stage since the fall of Suharto. Many of their books have become bestsellers, selling up to 100.000 copies. Reasons for this rising popularity of literature by women authors are tendencies of liberalization, lifting of censorship and a redefinition of women’s role. Some female authors have attracted attention by openly discussing female sexuality and desire, a taboo topic, which would not have been able to discuss during the New Order. Most of these writers, whose literature is often termed sastrawangi (fragrant literature), choose urban centres of Java as settings for their narratives. This paper discusses the novel Tarian Bumi (Earth Dance, 2000) by Oka Rusmini, who has opened the discourse about the female body and sexuality even before the ‘pioneer’ of so-called sastrawangi, Ayu Utami. The paper wants to contribute to point out links between female stagings of the body, dance and aspects of preserving Balinese culture. The paper directs special attention to the question, how stagings of the body are used to characterize women’s role in Balinese society between the poles of the Hindu caste system and hierarchy and against the backdrop of tourism, postcolonial criticism and preservation of Balinese culture in the course of time.

This paper reports on heritage fieldwork by the Mahidol Cultural Anthropology Museum, carried out from 2019 to 2020, with a group of four Karen villages in Doi Si Than, or ‘Four Creeks Mountain’, a valley in the remote Northwest of Thailand. The research aimed to find and introduce sustainable business models in Karen ethnic communities using essential heritage products and intangible practices. Additionally, the community offers an example of Thai integrated farming, which we analyzed as a case of innovative, intergenerational heritage practice, and that we helped turn into a more sustainable economic mainstay of the community. The method used throughout the process was participatory action research blended with social design, as well as building on a long-term engagement. As a theoretical framework, we adapted Design Thinking to Paulo Freire’s Education of Liberation model to create an eclectic ‘Four Creek Mountain’ approach in order to do justice to local circumstances and establish a shared set of explicit social values. We compared the results with de Varine’s concept of the ecomuseum to find a suitable action perspective. The findings show that local heritage practices can successfully be used to re-engage communities with today’s broader society on the condition they are embedded in intergenerational co-operation based on trust, and with social designers (urban curators) acting as connectors, thus ensuring the community’s ownership of the process.

The past 20 years have witnessed major shifts in language and education policy in Malaysia. This reflects a range of social, economic, and political forces that influence and shape the policymaking in this multi-ethnic and multicultural country. Past research has suggested that language and education policies in Malaysia tend to have two main stances and are generally related to Malay (the national language), English, Mandarin, and Tamil. One stance is related to issues of globalization and employability, and the other is related to national and ethnic identities. In view of these stances, this paper seeks to contribute to the discussion and debates on these issues by empirically investigating inherent ideological positions in official statements published in two newspapers in the past 20 years. Specifically, it adopts concepts from critical discourse studies, and uses methods from computational linguistics to examine official statements from a total of 30,508 Malaysian newspaper articles published between 2000 and 2020. The findings indicate that the role of Malay and national ideology, and the global positioning of English continue to be central concerns in the discussion of language and education in Malaysia. In addition, the importance of learning Mandarin is also emphasized. However, indigenous and minority languages are largely absent in the discourses on education policies in the country. The effects of this exclusion are already apparent in the shift to languages like Malay, Mandarin, and English as a first language, and the increasing number of languages considered to be under threat in Malaysia.

Poverty in rural areas remains a major concern for developing countries. In order to improve the lives of poor rural people, it is important to identify the key factors behind their poverty. Over the past two decades, rural development policy and research have focused on livelihood perspectives that help to explain intertwining factors affecting the way rural residents make a living. Yet, critics point out that the livelihood perspective focuses heavily on the livelihoods of households at the micro level and does not recognize the impact of wider socioeconomic contexts in the lives of rural people. The livelihood literature also gives little attention to power relationships, particularly gender issues. This paper seeks to address these knowledge gaps by investigating the livelihoods of poor women in Ca Mau province, a coastal region of Vietnam. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methods with questionnaire surveys, in-depth interviews, observations, and focus group discussions. Research findings show that women in the area possess poor livelihood capitals, particularly in human capacity and financial capacity. Moreover, some rural development policies are still not accessible, and they do not provide sufficient inputs for farming. The findings presented here uncover the deep interlinkages between livelihood capitals and the impact of the wider socioeconomic contexts on household livelihood activities and outcomes.

This paper deals with a Facebook-group named Malaysia-News. This group was founded in August 2019 and saw a rapid increase in members, especially in Southeast Asia. The analysis of the development of this group is based on data from Facebook and concerns the expansion of membership and the motivation to join. It shows that membership increased significantly after incisive events took place in Malaysia in early 2020 and that users are primarily looking for trustworthy information.

Drawing on neo-institutionalism in policy studies, this paper aims to demonstrate that transdisciplinarity is a new logic that could challenge the existing institutional logic of the knowledge production system in Vietnam. This institutional interplay is examined by analyzing the institutional response, interactions, and choices of stakeholders participating in an EU Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project. The analysis shows that the transdisciplinarity concept can be used as a potential framework for the develop- ment path of the dominant logic characterized by the shift from a traditional statist to a market-oriented model for knowledge production. Nevertheless, there are challenges like power relations in the interplay processes among actors who try to reproduce existing institutional logic and those who support transdisciplinary logic, as well as regarding relevant decision-makers to make institutional choices. The discussion shows that when applying transdisciplinarity, one should consider the motivation and barriers regarding state control, transdisciplinary readiness, hybrid models, funding, and experience.

In this paper, we reflect upon our role as researchers embedded in humanities in the KNOTS project. In the course of the project, we noticed various misapprehensions among both staff and students stemming, among others, form different cultural, political, and educational backgrounds. While a diversity of inputs and perspectives is considered an advantage for transdisciplinary projects, cooperation among actors with various backgrounds can also be challenging. Based on our observations and previous experience living and working in Vietnam, we created a session focusing on ethics for the last summer school in Ho Chi Minh City. We decided to bring participants’ attention to research ethics and issues of cross-cultural communication, and suggested reflection and discussion as a coping strategy. In the course of a three years long mutual learning process, we realized that striving to create a common understanding of research ethics and cross-cultural awareness is an indispensable element of teaching and doing transdisciplinary research in a multicultural environment.

Volunteer tourism is an ever-growing phenomenon and a multi-million-pounds industry, particularly in developing countries. Despite the manifold criticism for its neo-colonial nature – self-centered volunteers who romanticize the Global South as ‘poor but happy’ and short-term projects that create dependency rather than local capacity – it can, at the same time, be seen as a key engine for socio-economic development. The privatization and neo-liberalization of development has led to governments and development agencies increasingly delegating responsibilities to the volunteer, who takes on the role of an agent of development – continuing in times of the SDGs-driven Agenda 2030. However, little research to date tries to understand volunteers’ perceived developmental impact to link it with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that characterize the current development agenda. This paper, therefore, offers one of the first attempts to bridge the gap between volunteers’ experiences, their felt impact, and the SDGs by drawing on ethno- graphic data gathered in a volunteer project teaching English in the North of Bali. Its aim is to start a discussion as to whether and under which conditions volunteer tourism can be a viable instrument in line with Agenda 2030. Findings identify a range of obstacles for volunteer tourism in the Balinese context to be in line with the SDGs. These include a lack of needed skills and feeling of uselessness on volunteers’ part, expectations that are set too high through marketing, a lack of coordination, and the fact that projects don’t focus on the marginalized. However, there are also indications that volunteer tourism holds strong potential to put the SDGs’ universality into practice, and hence dissolve some of the bina- ries between North and South, and rich and poor – thereby creating true reciprocal partnerships, rather than encounters that are characterized by neo-colonial Othering.

A recognized desire is noticeable within ASEAN nations to develop more sustainable approaches to urban development and tourism. One solution has been to promote the expansion of both smart cities and smart tourism practices. Recently, these smart approaches have been implemented across a variety of different cities and locales. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the potential for further research in developing relation- ships between ‘smart cities’ and ‘smart tourism’ practices in Southeast Asia. Rather than present a review of the entire region, three potential case studies located in Myanmar, Lao PDR, and Thailand are discussed. These include Yangon as a case of smart approaches in a primary city, Vientiane as a case of smart approaches in a smaller city, and Phuket as a case of smart approaches in an area which suffers from overtourism. The authors maintain that this type of case study research within ASEAN states can provide critical insights and local solutions to the advancement of smart and sustainable tourism destinations.

Some communities in Indonesia’s margins have adopted indigenous identities to overcome stigmatization as 'backward'. Following recent government efforts to develop Indonesia’s peripheral areas, these communities can also identify as entrepreneurs because they can now apply for land titles – a change that government officials hope will boost local economies. The question of who is 'indigenous' has thus become an area of political controversy that the state must address. Through analysis of legal documents and political processes, this paper focuses on state-indigenous relations in Indonesia, with an emphasis on economic processes. Participatory observations and interviews have been carried out to gain better insights into ongoing recognition of indigenous communities. Preliminary findings suggest that indigenous activists are disappointed, as the government is not pushing forward crucial legislation, and recognition of land titles is slow. Therefore, activists have instead turned their attention to means of rec- ognition in the regencies. The example of Enrekang, South Sulawesi, provides insights into these developments and into the current relations between the state and indigenous peoples.

Sex work is part of Thailand’s tourism-based economic development model. The country’s global reputation as a ‘queer paradise’ is an important factor shaping Thailand’s sex tourism and linking it to the global sex industry. This paper addresses transnational routes and networks of the global sex trade through Thai transsexual (male to female) sex workers who travel out of the country to Singapore for short periods to meet global demand. The research is based on in-depth interviews with 75 Thai transsexual sex workers who are working in districts such as Orchard Towers, Little India, and Geylang in Singapore. For some informants, Singapore is a final destination; for others, it is just a stop along the way to other places abroad. The findings show that the commercial sex trade involving these individuals is global in every sense, including the way it is funded, developed, structured, and organized.

Southeast Asian countries host significant numbers of forcibly displaced populations, both within countries and across borders. This brief review paper provides a basic overview on recent forced migration research in Southeast Asia for the period 2013 to 2018. To this end, a keyword search with two predefined sets of search terms was carried out in the Web of Science database in September 2018. The identified research literature corpus was then analyzed regarding persons of concern, study site(s) (country/ies) as well as main drivers of migration. The results show that the major part of studies focuses on refugees and asylum seekers in the region’s main host countries, namely Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. This correspondence between current research trends and the distribution of refugees and asylum seekers in Southeast Asia could, however, not be identified for internally displaced persons (IDPs). Although Southeast Asian countries account for a substantial share of worldwide IDPs, only a very limited number of identified studies focus on this group of persons of concern.

Thailand and Malaysia together host hundreds of thousands of refugees and asylum seekers even while neither of the two countries has signed international refugee conventions and there exist little or no formal national asylum frameworks for distinguishing refugees and asylum seekers from other undocumented migrants. Scholars who have explored this situation and the precarious condition of refugees and asylum seekers have yet to question how refugees and asylum seekers are identified in light of this legal ambiguity. This paper follows the cases of registration exercises along the Thai-Myanmar border and mobile registration in Kuala Lumpur until around 2013 in order to explore the mechanisms and technologies employed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in cooperation with non-governmental organizations for registering and identifying refugees from Myanmar. It argues that both the registration and non-registration of refugees and asylum seekers can be understood in terms of competing rationalities of the various actors involved, their incongruent programs, and uneven technologies that serve to make refugees both appear and disappear, that is, to actively construct and assert knowledge and information concerning the existence of refugees, or to conceal, deny, if not altogether dispense of the presence of refugees.

In Palembang in South Sumatra, Indonesia, Maulid celebrations are considered an important religious event in the lives of many Muslims. Over the past twenty years, there has been an expansion of activities, the driving force behind which has been a young generation of Alawiyin in Palembang. Maulid celebrations organized by the Alawiyinin Palembang are separated along gender lines. In this paper, I show how female-onlyMaulid celebrations enable Muslim women, and especially the sharifat, to express their emotions and allow for bodily expressions during the actual Maulid event. I will argue that, in women-only celebrations, women express religious emotions which they wish to show but also which are expected from them as the expression of love for the Prophet Muhammad is part of the Islamic understanding internalized by the Alawiyin.

Taking into consideration three levels of government (regional, national, and sub-national) that potentially offer protection to refugees, this paper is concerned with changes initiated by the 2016 Presidential Regulation on Handling Foreign Refugees. This regulation has delegated more responsibility for managing refugees to the sub-national levels of administration in Indonesia, which, like other nations in the Southeast Asia, has been reluctant to provide protection for refugees or any options for their integration into society. The reason for this is that, despite many vociferous demands in favor of a ‘regional solution’ in the aftermath of the 2015 Andaman Sea Crisis, most attempts ended up in abeyance. Following suit with the so-called ‘local turn’ in migration studies, which increased attention to the local dimensions of refugee protection due to the receding capacities in the major actors involved both in global refugee protection and international migration management, we direct attention to the sub-national level of refugee management in Indonesia using as a case study the city of Makassar, which has hitherto enjoyed a fairly positive reputation for welcoming refugees. By examining the current living conditions of asylum seekers and refugees in Makassar and comparing them to other places in Indonesia, we ask whether the concept of ‘sanctuary city’ is applicable to a non-Western context and, in doing so, hope to enhance current discussions of creating alternative models for refugee protection beyond the national and regional level.

Environmental and social transformations in Jambi province, Indonesia, are inextricably interlinked. Large-scale agro-industrial development and nature conservation policies equally alienate local communities from their agricultural lands and turn land into a scarce resource. Consequently, access to agricultural land becomes increasingly contested, not only between communities and state institutions or companies but also among communities themselves. To secure or restore local ‘indigenous’ land rights against land grabbing and green grabbing by states and companies, indigenous land titling has become a powerful tool all over the world. Ongoing activities of indigenous land titling in Indonesia have been largely perceived as an act of justice by indigenous and land rights activists and affected communities. Yet, a challenging step towards titling is the identification of who is and who is not ‘indigenous’. This highly political process creates ethnicity-based identities tied to rights and possibilities around land as a contested resource. Based on a case study of a national park in central Jambi, this paper shows that what is perceived as an act of justice against the state can also produce injustice among local communities by heavily impacting and transforming local social structures and relations.

This study explores the relationships of subjective happiness and self-perceived health with leisure time activities and sociodemographic variables among Filipinos. It uses data from the International Social Survey Programme 2007: Leisure Time and Sports (ISSP 2007), and is the first paper that specifically investigates the case of the Philippines. Ordinary least square and multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted in this study. Age was found to have significant negative relationships with leisure time activity engagement, subjective happiness, and self-perceived health. Body Mass Index was found to significantly predict a better self-perceived health. Cultural, TV/music, and social leisure activities were found to be significant predictors only in some of the outcome categories of happiness and health, whereas physical leisure activities were not found to be significant. Notably, subjective happiness and self-perceived health were significantly predicted by subjective socio-economic status, but not by actual family income. Implications of the results are discussed in terms of the Philippines’ context as a ‘developing country’ together with possibilities for an improved perception of quality of life among Filipinos.

Since 2010, Facebook has become a battleground between competing political camps in Thailand. Facebook groups like the Social Sanction group, tellingly abbreviated as SS, and the Rubbish Collector Organization, which was founded in 2014 and has attracted more than 200,000 members, have played a crucial role in the process of political radicalization. The aim of these groups is to expose political opponents by accusing them of lèse-majesté, which can result in a prison sentence of 15 years or more. The groups also serve as fora for hate speech and are increasingly used as a tool of mobilization for state-sponsored mass events by the authoritarian regime that came to power with the coup d’état of May 2014. Contrary to its popular perception as a tool for democratization, Facebook has been successfully used by political groups reminiscent of fascist vigilante groups. This paper analyses the genesis of these groups and discusses the phenomenon in a broader political and historical context.

Post-coup Thailand has witnessed a troubling shift toward censorship, surveillance, and suppression in cyberspace. With cyber security ranking prominently on the military’s agenda and the expansion of the military’s cyber intervention, the country’s online infrastructure has undergone politicization, securitization, and militarization. This paper argues that the militarization of cyberspace in Thailand represents the process in which cyber warfare capabilities have been integrated with other military forces and with support from the masses. This process has been effective through at least three significant mechanisms, including mass surveillance, surveillance by the masses, and normalization of surveillance. Social media have been turned into an absolute digital panopticon. Cyber dystopia, created by the 2014 coup and supported by the masses, has served to sustain a ‘state of exception’ not only within the territorial borders of the state, but also more importantly, within the virtual space of civil society. Cyber surveillance by the military and the masses has continued to jeopardize the already vulnerable Thai democracy.

This paper presents an ethnographic case study of a palm oil land conflict in a Malay community in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The conflict occurred in the preparatory phase of a large-scale plantation, before any oil palms were planted. After protest from local communities, the project was abolished. This case enables an empirical enquiry of land tenure as well as the meaning of land and associated resources for people’s livelihoods in a pre-plantation situation. The article aims to understand how people’s responses to the oil palm plantation project are rooted in the way they give meaning to the land that is targeted for conversion. Using a functional analysis of property relations, the article shows that people value multiple functions of land, including food security, income security over generations, flexibility to respond to crises and opportunity, and the ability to retain autonomy and identity as farmers. One of the factors that contributed to the conflict was the expectation that a conversion of diversified agricultural land and forest into a monoculture plantation, run by a company, would change the functionality of land and associated resources in a way that would negatively impact livelihood opportunities, lifestyles, and identity.

Participatory mapping has recently become an instrument used by NGOs to advocate for adat (customary) land in Indonesia. Maps produced from participatory mapping are expected to support legal recognition through land formalization or titling. In order to stop land grabbing through the Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE) project, this strategy has also been applied in Merauke district, Papua. However, the pitfalls of communal participatory mapping have brought negative impacts to adat communities. This paper analyzes the land grabbing and mapping processes in three villages in the MIFEE area to show the unexpected consequences of participatory mapping. These mapping processes have caused fragmentation and conflict among adat communities. Furthermore, the legal recognition of communal adat land ownership is facilitating the buy-out of adat land by companies and/or the state.

Over the past two decades, Myanmar’s upland areas have gradually turned into formally administered, legible, and governable state-territory. Following decades of armed conflict, a series of ceasefire agreements since the 1990s opened the door for the central state’s expansion of territorial control in the upland areas through the exploitation of natural resources and land concessions. New civil society coalitions are being formed inside Myanmar to resist the states strategy of accumulation by dispossession in conjunction with enclosures and the formation of state territory. This paper provides a brief outline of an ongoing research project which takes a socio-spatial perspective on state building processes and links the concept of the resource frontier with emerging discourses on indigenous rights in Myanmar.

Although social marketing has been demonstrated to be an effective tool of behavior change in a variety of contexts, its poverty reduction potential in tourism development has captured limited research attention. This paper explores the potential contribution of social marketing to tourism-related poverty alleviation in Sapa, Vietnam. It does so by creating an understanding of how local residents perceive poverty, then exploring whether social marketing could be a potential solution in the case of Sapa. Through participant observations and semi-structured interviews, this study reveals that local people perceive poverty as a lack of rice and/or income and ascribe it to both internal and external factors. Local women often follow tourists to sell handicrafts, causing discomfort for tourists and driving them away from certain destinations. Insufficient capital and farming land are also identified as a critical barrier to poverty reduction. This study argues that by understanding the poor people’s perspectives on poverty, we can identify meaningful approaches to poverty alleviation. Thereby, social marketing can be one of the tools to bring the marginalized voice of poor people to the attention of decision-makers.

Tourism is often pinpointed as a sector of growth for countries in the developing world, and this perspective has been readily accepted in Indonesia. Government officials in poorer sections of the country, such as Nusa Tenggara Timur province (NTT) in eastern Indonesia, have high hopes for the role that tourism can play in developing these poorer regions. This is not surprising, given the increasing renown of the Komodo National Park, just west of the island of Flores, where the world famous Komodo dragons reside. However, how exactly tourism is supposed to raise the standard of living and aid in development in NTT province is often unclear. In this paper I want to critically look at ideas about tourism and development in NTT, by focusing on the ‘Sail Komodo’ yacht rally, a major tourism event that took place from August to September 2013. Sail Komodo was as a marine tourism event expected to boost tourist numbers, lift the standard of living of people in this province and lower poverty levels. I critically analyze this event within the context of a ‘mega event’, and show how the contradictory ideas about how the event was meant to lead to prosperity for the poor can indicate the sometimes misguided relationship posited between tourism and development.

This article offers a contribution to the anthropology of tourism by investigating the tourism encounter in community-based tourism (CBT) in Northern Thailand. It does so by discussing MacCannell’s (1992) idea of the Empty Meeting Grounds and Said’s Orientalism (1978), two works that contributed to research on power inequalities between tourists and residents in the developing world. By establishing a relationship between the two and embedding these in the wider literature on the tourism encounter, this article suggests moving away from binaries towards understanding the space of the tourism encounter and its potential for change. Building on empirical research conducted in Ban Mae Kampong, a CBT village in Northern Thailand, findings suggest that CBT shows signs of resident-host interactions that are based on understanding and learning rather than exploitation. While also in CBT friendships and meaning take time to emerge and the ‘Other’ is used as attraction, villagers’ agency and control over tourism are acknowledged. This paper therefore calls for a revisiting of the theoretical grounding that influences our understanding of the tourism encounter and argues for an investigation of community power relations in connection to the tourism encounter and its potential for residents’ empowerment in CBT.

This article gives an overview on Indonesian student activism in Berlin, Germany. Based on documents (published and unpublished), interviews, and conversations with former and current student activists, the paper scrutinizes the trajectory of activism of Indonesian students in the capital of Germany since the 1960s and asks about the evolution of specific student organizations, the issues and topics they tackled, and their media and networking strategies. The article illustrates the activities of the PPI Berlin as a dominant example of Indonesian students’ political activism abroad and the activities of Indonesian Muslim students as a prominent example of religious-based activism which has gained significance since the fall of Suharto. These examples indicate the diversity of Indonesian student activists in Berlin that are nevertheless united in their aspirations to challenge politics back home.

The emergence of Salafi Islam within Indonesia has shifted the imaginary boundaries of Islamic identity. Although relatively small in numbers, Salafis propagate a religious discourse linked to scholars in Saudi Arabia. While it cannot be regarded as merely a type of ‘Saudization’, the kingdom is frequently exemplified as a model for a pious society as well as pragmatic solutions on how to deal with contemporary issues ranging from justice to terrorism. Indeed, Saudi Arabia plays a pivotal part in the Salafi imaginary, balancing a historical Islamic past with a modernist religious present and future. Based on fieldwork conducted from 2011 to 2012 in Yogyakarta, this paper builds upon this premise, offering both a description and an analysis of the importance of the kingdom as a source of educational sponsorship but also, more interestingly, as a source of religious authority and social ideals, articulated within contemporary religious literature and the movement’s study sessions (kajian). More pointedly, I argue that actors use Saudi Arabia to construct an imaginary ideal through which social and religious issues are contemplated and compared to apparent Indonesian ‘social corruption’.

In the lowland areas of Sumatra, conflicts over land and natural resources are increasing as fundamental land use transformation processes take place and the region is gradually integrated into globalized markets. Set against the background of the conflict arena of Bungku village, Jambi province, this paper describes and analyzes the struggle for land between a group of indigenous people, the Batin Sembilan, and an oil palm company, PT Asiatic Persada. By highlighting the path dependency of land conflicts, the article shows that access to land results from concurring but ambivalent institutional regimes and power asymmetries, leading to an ostensible state of equilibrium in a post-frontier area.

This paper examines two cases of separatist conflict, namely the conflict in Southern Thailand and the conflict in the southern Philippines. Both conflicts have been long-lasting, extremely violent, and embedded in ethnic and religious sentiments. The comparison shows that there are structural analogies in both conflict cases that indicate similar root causes. State-internal conflicts of this scale are not purely a matter of national politics. States and non-state actors have influenced – and are still influencing – both separatist conflicts in various ways and towards different outcomes. It becomes apparent that non-traditional security issues that are linked to state-internal conflicts demand a more proactive role of ASEAN in the field of conflict management.

In my paper, I offer a brief analysis of just some of the ways in which certain members of the Akha transnational minority group are redefi ning Akhaness amidst the Upper Mekong Region’s ongoing transition from “battlefields to markets”. Drawing on 32 months of research in the region, I bring attention to the efforts of certain Akha elite to promote a more formal pan-Akha sense of belonging of a profoundly religious nature. I highlight the complex ways in which certain local Akha actors are reshaping culture by way of multiple and shifting orientations to the past as well as the nationaland transnational in the contexts of social gatherings, communal rituals, linguistic productions, multimedia engagements, and cross-border travel. I argue that by virtue of these simultaneously multi-sited representations of Akhaness, certain Akha are composing their own theories of culture that in part challenge and incorporate dominant models of nationalism and globalization, all the while reproducing and claiming a distinctly Akha way of being in the world.

This paper discusses the efforts of the royal family to moralise the environmental behaviour of their subjects in the name of the Sufficiency Economy philosophy solicited by King Bhumibol since the 1990s in Thailand. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Nan province, Northern Thailand, in 2008 and 2009, I focus particularly on Royal Projects recently promoted to correct the rural practices of the ethnic minority groups living in the hills of Nan. In the past, many of these ethnic groups took part in the Maoist insurgency while at present, they represent a key basin of support- ers for the reformist Red Shirts movement which is currently threatening the role of the monarchy in Thai politics. The research suggests that the recently increased trend of staging new projects for sustainable agro-forestry management in a ‘red’ area as Nan does not only aim at improving the conditions of mountain peoples and of the environment, but simultaneously increases the political influence of the conservative forces over this ‘ungovernable’ territory in times of political crisis. ----- Dieser Artikel diskutiert die Bemühungen der königlichen Familie in Thailand seit den 1990-er Jahren, das Umweltverhalten ihrer Subjekte im Namen der Sufficiency Economy Philosophie von König Bhumibol zu moralisieren. Mit Bezug auf ethnografische Forschung in der Provinz Nan in Nordthailand in den Jahren 2008 und 2009 fokussiere ich insbesondere auf Royal Projects, die in letzter Zeit gefördert werden, um ländliche Praktiken ethnischer Minderheiten in den Bergen von Nan zu korrigieren. In der Vergangenheit waren viele dieser ethnischen Gruppen am maoistischen Aufstand beteiligt, während sie heute ein zentrales Auffangbecken für UnterstützerInnen der reformistischen Rothemden, die derzeit die Rolle der Monarchie in der thailändischen Politik in Frage stellen, darstellen. Die Forschung deutet an, dass der Trend zur Einführung von neuen Projekten für nachhaltigen Feldwaldbau in einem „roten“ Gebiet wie Nan nicht nur die Bedingungen von Bergvölkern und ihrer Umwelt verbessern will, sondern gleichzeitig den politischen Einfluss von konservativen Kräften über „unregierbare“ Gebiete in Zeiten politischer Krisen erhöht.