◤Upcoming Colloquium◢ The Future of Rice Farming in Southeast Asia by Jefferson Fox (Senior Fellow, East-West Center) Co-host: Society for Nature and Agriculture in Southeast Asia 🗓️Nov 7 (Fri), 12:00–13:30 JST 📍Seminar Room (213), Inamori Center / Zoom kyoto.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/event/202...

Hi All! The new issue of Journal of Agrarian Change (25:4) is out now with an entirely open access special section on Land and Labour in Indonesia (among other goodies)... please do check it out: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/14710366...

Cropland area nearly doubled in South America between 2000 and 2019 - the largest relative increase in the world. Soybean production replaced rainforests, grasslands & savannas. earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/14962... As China refuses U.S. soybeans, this puts more pressure on natural ecosystems.

Without peasants, the global economy could not function, and our natural systems would collapse. Life still depends on the peasantry, and we are all affected by the fact that it is today in an acute crisis

Enjoyed this post by Masayuki Yanagisawa and agree with his point about asking big questions. I also like the comparative photo arrangements! newsletter.cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp/en/nl-83/yan... @cseas.kyoto-u.ac.jp

My first-ever, single-authored article is out in the Journal of Peasant Studies! Comparing sugar and infrastructure frontiers, it explores how technologies of dispossession shape frontier-making and state power in Indonesia across scale and time. Read it here: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

It’s August, which means a new issue of Mekong Review 🥳 In this issue: young K-pop stans in Myanmar join resistance efforts, the contestation of Indonesia’s history, an interview with Saigon Soul Revival… and more! Order online: ko-fi.com/s/a3e8a4c60d

www.abc.net.au/religion/anu... Good piece by Nick Cheesman from my old department at ANU @ouranu.bsky.social

My first book, Socializing Land: Plantations, Dispossession, and Resistance in Laos (University of Hawai'i Press, 2025), exists in this world! Check it out at: uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/social... 1/4

My take on the recent protests in Indonesia www.newmandala.org/mass-protest...

Honoured to have won this award. Thanks to @edwardaspinall.bsky.social for supervising me, my committee members Ben Kerkvliet and Jim Fox for their continuous support over the years, and the ASAA award panel @asiancurrents.bsky.social

foreignpolicy.com/podcasts/one... Good episode on seed banks and the emergence of seeds as intellectual property. Very much agree on public funding, @adamtooze.bsky.social

Could the origins of macan cisewu's style be from this kind of promotion found in a 1918 edition of Oetoesan Hindia? Or perhaps there are earlier ones? Am I mistaken in seeing the resemblance?

In a day interrupted with meetings it is great to briefly escape to microfilm. Wonder if the Gothic typeface for Oetoesan Hindia's masthead points to organicist influences?

Interesting post on @newmandala.bsky.social www.newmandala.org/instagrammin...

Join our ANU Indonesia Institute for the 2025 Tony and Yohanni Johns Lecture. 🇮🇩 This annual lecture honours the legacies of Tony and Yohanni Johns, who pioneered Indonesian language learning in Australia. Find out more and register via this link: quicklink.anu.edu.au/708x

New working paper from me & some colleagues on East Africa's maize markets from c. 1900 to today, based on a major data collection effort to fill in the long-run history of food prices in one of the world's poorest regions: www.aehnetwork.org/working-pape...

Happy to share this new piece in Food Policy documenting the wide policy uptake of the 6 dimensions of food security framework (incl. agency and sustainability). co-authored with colleagues @williamgmoseley.bsky.social, Paola Termine, & Barbara Burlingame www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

@mklaz.bsky.social Miles Kenney-Lazar's book is out!! 👏🏼 I have to say the cover is one of the coolest I've seen in awhile... uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/social...

In Praise of Floods by James C. Scott was featured in a new review essay from @bostonreview.bsky.social.

New article, with Ibrahim Suffian and Ted Lee: "Malaysia’s Democratic Deficit: Why Youth May Not Be the Answer." (Abbreviated abstract: not all youth are politically "progressive.") This piece was looong in coming – so all the happier to see it finally in print! www.tandfonline.com/doi/epdf/10....

This week we have members of the Agroecology Research-Action Collective ( @adamcalo.bsky.social , Maywa Montenegro de Wit , @beniuliano.bsky.social , @alastairiles.bsky.social ) taking on the productivist roots of the "feed-the-world" approach to food security. spectrejournal.com/the-enduring...

Three years and a movement: how farmers defeated the land grab by India’s Karnataka state peoplesdispatch.org/2025/07/19/t...

An open access paper I wrote on differentiated Suharto nostalgia in rural Java for a Journal of Agrarian Change special issue on land and labour in Indonesia: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

newbooksnetwork.com/for-the-sake... Great to talk with @dresslerwolfram.bsky.social about "For the Sake of Forests and Gods" on @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social !

NEW 🇹🇭 In "Memory Complex", an empty Bangkok shophouse becomes home to artworks that provide a potent reminder of the sacrifices made for the possibility of democracy in Thailand. By Tyrell Haberkorn (@turtelista.bsky.social) www.newmandala.org/art-in-a-tim...

The same keyword can mean dignity to one group and dispossession to another. Land politics isn’t just about land—it’s about who gets to define the terms. www.tni.org/en/article/p...

New research on the political economy of Nusantara, Indonesia'a new planned capital city. Come for the political economy, stay for the Moby Dick references.

My latest feature is out: As the world has warmed, the regional flaws of climate models have grown apparent. Meanwhile, methods to localize the results of models have proliferated. It all leads to lots of uncertainty -- within a very certain global trend. And cities need answers now.

Reading & enjoying @lesleyhead.bsky.social in her new book Beyond Green. Bold Aust focus esp special possibilities of Indig ways to care for Country. Recommend @finnarne.me @dollyjorgensen.bsky.social

In this piece I look at recent Thai-China activity following the kidnapping of a Chinese celebrity on the Thai-Myanmar border. The measures are unlikely to arrest the growth of the scam centres. @anubellschool.bsky.social eastasiaforum.org/2025/05/22/c...

New working paper, with @a2hicken.bsky.social and @edwardaspinall.bsky.social: "New Patterns of Urban Political Reform in SE Asia." What can 18 SE Asian cities tell us about the likelihood and character of urban reform? We dive in here. Thanks to our fab research team and GLD! tinyurl.com/3eur93v5

Evening stroll view...

Learn about the power of a map in the Dutch East Indies at KITLV’s seminar “Ghost from the past: The Grondkaart and politics of transforming railway land assets in Indonesia” with Dianto Bachriadi, researcher at the Agrarian Resource Center. Details below! May 27 @ 4 pm CET tinyurl.com/2xsruex8

Great new special issue out in South East Asia Research on village politics in Indonesia @edwardaspinall.bsky.social @wardb.bsky.social @kitlv.bsky.social @anubellschool.bsky.social @newmandala.bsky.social www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsou20/3...

Back in Adelaide. Morning walk to the beach and back along the rocks to wake up.

🚨 On behalf of the contributors, Mary Mostafanezhad and I are delighted to announce the publication of our new book, Violent Atmospheres: Livelihoods and Landscapes in Crisis in Southeast Asia, published by the University of Hawaii Press. uhpress.hawaii.edu/title/violen...

NEW 🇻🇳: Khánh Linh Lê argues that postwar Vietnam shows how "state-building is not a purely top-down process—rather, its outcome is shaped by the bottom-up dynamics of settler migration, and the resulting interactions between settlers and indigenous minorities." www.newmandala.org/coffee-confl...

Fun read for sociologists: Apparently Granovetter's "The Strength of Weak Ties," the most cited paper in sociology, was initially rejected from the American Sociological Review. The reviews are a wild slice of disciplinary history. If you're ever dealing w nasty reviews, this could be reassuring...

My latest article for Journal of Agrarian Change asks how a failed land grab still degrades soil ecosystems & increases the labor time of Indigenous women, who are expected to carry the post-conflict rebuilding. Endless thanks to Toba womxn of North Sumatra. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/action/oidcS...

It is a truly great work. It might be worth pointing out Nancy Fraser's "Triple Movement" in NLR that asks why, given structural similarities with the 1920s, hasn't an effective force for protecting society and nature emerged in response?

A great Radiolab episode, "The Age of Aquaticus": one.npr.org?sharedMediaI...

Open access publication! My book is now available open access for everyone to read and download free on the @ucpress.bsky.social website: www.ucpress.edu/books/in-the... A brief thread about the book /1

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/gre... Great piece tracing the formation of Indonesian palm oil production from the colonial era into the present to situate sustainability objectives within the global division of labour by @postcolsandwich.bsky.social on @phenomenalworld.bsky.social

www.phenomenalworld.org/analysis/gre... Great piece tracing the formation of Indonesian palm oil production from the colonial era into the present to situate sustainability objectives within the global division of labour by @postcolsandwich.bsky.social on @phenomenalworld.bsky.social

Crocodile in Singapore's Sungei Buloh wetlands heading towards Johor.

The latest Element in Politics & Society in SE Asia is out: Diana Kim's "Rethinking Colonial Legacies across SE Asia"! Kim explores the significance & legacies of Japan's WWII occupation of SE Asia for understanding colonial legacies. Download FREE through 2 April. www.cambridge.org/core/element...

A hornbill nearby the office.

Call for papers! We are inviting scholars working on public opinion manipulation through social media in SEA to gather in Undip, Semarang in august, to discuss recent findings & steps forward. Do send your abstract by 15 April. www.kitlv.nl/news/online-...