“Capitalism, Conflict and Contradiction: Southeast Asia’s Development and the Reorganisation of Production” (DOI: 10.1080/00472336.2020. 1734227) is a new and important article authored by JCA co-editor Toby Carroll of the Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong.
The abstract for the paper states:
This article locates the political economy of Southeast Asia’s highly uneven and constrained development within the context of capitalism generally and, in particular, capitalism in its most recent “world market” stage. It concentrates upon development in a classically modernist sense, beyond narrow contemporary methodologically nationalist delimitations situated around growth, governance and official development assistance. It is argued that Southeast Asian development (much like the “developing world” generally) must be understood, first and foremost, in relation to key historical dynamics beyond the nation-state, including colonialism, superpower relations and, crucially, perpetually shifting relations of production. Importantly, each of these facets has played an important role in conditioning opportunities for social forces to realise their interests.