Abstract
In this chapter, I introduce ways in which different scholars have approached the concepts of
‘environmental neoliberalism’ and ‘neoliberal natures’. I draw upon a number of examples that
highlight the utility, as well as the limits, of neoliberalism as an ‘ideal type’ concept, and of the
notion of ‘neoliberalization’ as an ongoing political-ecological project, for understanding the
complex environmental transformations ongoing in Asia. Southeast Asia is a particularly fertile
region for studying the application and (partial) uptake of neoliberal modes of environmental
governance and governmentality − not just due to the diversity of places, local social relations
and institutional landscapes (Roth and Dressler, 2012), but also, I suggest, due to the enduring
presence in the region of alternative logics of state power, and modes of political-economic rule.
These alternatives to neoliberalism in Southeast Asia include dominant paternalist and
developmentalist orientations of different regional states, and the persistence of more overtly
illiberal and authoritarian governance formations, as well as the growing dynamism of
East/Southeast Asian state-capitalism. This leads me to highlight the potential for further
grounded research into the relational connections and contradictions between neoliberal
environmental ideologies, actor-networks, institutions and practices on the one hand, and the
consolidation of alternative and hybridized forms of power and authority in Southeast Asia on
the other.
Original language | English |
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Title of host publication | Routledge Handbook of the Environment in Southeast Asia |
Editors | Philip Hirsch |
Place of Publication | London |
Publisher | Routledge |
Pages | 1-19 |
Edition | 1 |
ISBN (Print) | 9781315474892 |
Publication status | Published - 2017 |