The revised edition of Southeast Asia provides a grounded account of how people in the region are responding to - and being affected by - the changes sweeping through the region.

At a time when the world’s wealthiest nations struggle to make health care and medicine available to everyone, why do resource-constrained countries make costly commitments to universal health coverage and AIDS treatment after transitioning to democracy? Joseph Harris explores the dynamics that made landmark policies possible in Thailand and Brazil but which have led to prolonged struggle and contestation in South Africa. Drawing on firsthand accounts of the people wrestling with these issues, Achieving Access documents efforts to institutionalize universal healthcare and expand access to life-saving medicines in three major industrializing countries. In comparing two separate but related policy areas, Harris finds that democratization empowers elite professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, to advocate for universal health care and treatment for AIDS. Harris’s analysis is situated at the intersection of sociology, political science, and public health and will speak to scholars with interests in health policy, comparative politics, social policy, and democracy in the developing world. In light of the growing interest in health insurance generated by implementation of the Affordable Care Act (as well as the coming changes poised to be made to it), Achieving Access will also be useful to policymakers in developing countries and officials working on health policy in the United States.

With accelerating urbanization and growing inter-dependence of rural and urban dwellers on the markets and resources they each offer, rural urban linkages have become a very important focus in recent years for research and policy relating to local and national economic development, poverty reduction and governance. The emergence of new livelihoods based on diversified income sources and mobility reflects profound social, cultural and economic transformations, and new forms of resource allocation and use. This volume collects the key contributions in the field, covering the conceptual background, the key issues and the current debates, locating different approaches in their wider intellectual and historical contexts. It also includes important recent empirical work from all the relevant geographical regions that that will be the basis for future thinking. Fifteen papers are clearly organized around the principal themes and accompanied by a valuable editorial introduction clearly setting out the issues, the arguments and the evidence. Suggestions for further reading and additional information sources are also included. Published with IIED.

This volume looks at the origins and consequences of the accelerated growth of the Thai economy since the mid-1980s, and explores the factors that set Thailand apart from other Asian, African and Latin American countries.

This critique of World Bank operations examines the effects of this organization on the societies in which it operates. Highly critical of the Bank's practices in its 50 years of operation, the author demonstrates how the Bank has become virtually unaccountable and a law unto itself. He describes how the Bank has supported oppressive regimes and loaned money to support large projects which have displaced local populations. He argues further that the Bank's current policies of structural adjustment are arresting the development of Third World countries.

Written by an established expert on Thailand, this is one of the first books to fully investigate the Thai media’s role during the Thaksin government’s first term. Incorporating political economy and media theory, the book provides a unique insight into globalization in Southeast Asia, analyzing the role of communications and media in regional cultural politics. Examining the period from the mid 1990s, Lewis makes a sustained comparison between Thailand and its neighbouring countries in relation to the media, business, politics and popular culture. Covering issues including business development, tourism, the Thai movie industry and the war on terror, the book argues that globalization as it relates to media, can be patterned on Thai experiences.

In this book Brown argues that workers in East and Southeast Asia are significant actors in political change. Critically examining the themes of labour weakness, political exclusion and insignificance of 'class factors' he aims to bring workers back from the margins, demonstrating that both in the present and past the state has been entangled in processes that determine the forms of their struggles. This book presents new empirical data, important historical material and an innovative approach to workers and politics.

Focuses on three interrelated aspects: the impact of evolving international and regional dynamics on national development strategies; the rethinking of national and regional development models after the crisis; and the analysis of the socio-economic transformations produced in East Asian countries during the period of accelerated economic growth an

This highly topical book exposes the tensions between state policies of broadcasting regulation and practices of civil society in the Asian region which is struggling with its incorporation into a new globalised, electronic information and entertainment world. Kitley critically compares Western principles of broadcasting, civil society and cultural regulation with alternative 'Asian' practices of regulation and organisation. Over the past forty years Asian states have used television as a normative cultural force in nation building, but more recently many states have deregulated their television sectors and introduced national commercial and international satellite services. As Asian states wrestle with a perceived loss of cultural control and identity through deregulation, this book considers their viewpoints and the question of whether the television public sphere offers space for the representation of popular sovereignty, and transversal concerns about human rights, press freedom, gender, environmental and world trade issues.