This book provides a sophisticated, yet accessible, overview of the key political, economic and social challenges facing contemporary Myanmar and explains the complex historical and ethnic dynamics that have shaped the country.
With clear and incisive contributions from the worlds leading Myanmar scholars, this book assesses the policies and political reforms that have provoked contestation in Myanmars recent history and driven both economic and social change. In this context, questions of economic ownership and control and the distribution of natural resources are shown to be deeply informed by longstanding fractures amongst ethnic and civil-military relations. The chapters analyse the key issues that constrain or expedite societal development in Myanmar and place recent events of national and international significance in the context of its complex history and social relations. In doing so, the book demonstrates that ethnic and cultural diversity is at the core of Myanmars society and heavily influences all aspects of life in the country.
Filling a gap in the market, this research textbook and primer will be of interest to upper undergraduates, postgraduates and scholars of Southeast Asian politics, economics and society and to journalists and professionals working within governments, companies and other organisations.
Recenzijos
"[ ...] a must-read for scholars on contemporary Myanmar and fascinating for anyone interested in broader processes of political and economic transformations. [ ...] the book is a welcome addition to studies of contemporary Myanmar and deserves to be read widely."
--Marco Bünte, European Journal of East Asian Studies
This excellent survey of Myanmar politics, economy, and society over 17 short chapters is obviously marred by the coup détat of 1 February 2021. As an edited volume, the editors introduce and conclude the volume while assigning the meat of the book to various experts on salient issues related to Myanmars politics, economy, and society. [ ] this book is a valuable survey of the issues and challenges facing contemporary Myanmar. While presenting the proximate causes of post-Thein Sein disappointment, it also touches upon and articulately explains the underlying forces, perceptions and prejudices that make achieving peace, let alone democracy, unlikely in this fiendish brew of a country.
--Adam McCarty and Callum Furness, Asian-Pacific Economic Literature, 2022.
1. Interrogating Contemporary Myanmar: The Difficult Transition Part 1:
Politics
2. Elections and Political Reform: New Hopes, Old Fears
3. The
Military: Institution and Politics
4. Law, Lawyers and Legal Institutions
5.
Ethnic Politics: Diversity and Agency Amidst Persistent Violence
6. Democracy
and Human Rights: In the Shadow of Myanmars National Security State
7.
Foreign Policy and International Engagement: Strategic Realities, Domestic
Priorities Part 2: Economy
8. Political Regimes and Economic Policy:
Isolation, Consolidation, Reintegration
9. Industrial Policy and Special
Economic Zones: Engaging Transformation in a Globalised World
10. Agriculture
and the Rural Economy: The Struggle to Transform Rural Livelihoods
11.
Natural Resources: Wealth and Conflict Part 3: Society
12. Art and Heritage:
Creating and Preserving Cultural Histories
13. Women's Rights: Change and
Continuity
14. Myanmars Contested Borderlands: Uneven Development and
Ongoing Armed Conflict
15. Ethnicity, Culture and Religion: Centralisation,
Burmanisation and Social Transformation
16. Journalism and Free Speech:
Freedom and Fear
17. The Rohingya Crisis: Nationalism and its Discontents
Adam Simpson is Program Director of the Master of Communication in UniSA Justice & Society, at the University of South Australia. He is the co-editor, along with Nicholas Farrelly and Ian Holliday, of the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Myanmar (2018) and author of Energy, Governance and Security in Thailand and Myanmar (2014, 2017).
Nicholas Farrelly is Professor and Head of Social Sciences at the University of Tasmania, Australia. He was previously Associate Dean of the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University.
