THE 1995 CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOUTH-EAST ASIAN STUDIES (EUROSEAS) EUROSEAS is organizing its first European conference in 1995. The conference will be held in Leiden and will run for 3 days, from June 29th up to and including the 1st of July. The conference will be open to non-members, but membership will be advantage. Do not hesitate to apply! CALL FOR PANELS Those wishing to organize a panel with a range of subjects covered by EUROSEAS are requested to forward an abstract to the EUROSEAS-secretariat. CALL FOR PAPERS Those who want to present a paper on one of the panels listed below are requested to send an abstracy of their topic to the secretariat. PANEL The middle-class in South-East Asia CONVENORS Hans Antl”v and Tommy Svensson ABSTRACT Political theories hold that economical and intrastructural development will result in the development of a middle class which demands political rigths and democracy. In South-East Asia today, however, we see economically prosperous groups emerging with the state (Indonesia, Burma, and Vietnam are conspicious cases). Many nation in South-East Asia, indeed, follow paths of development which do not correspond with western models. The support or not of the middle class will be a crucial test of these paths. What are the prospects for entrepreneurial activities? What new lifestyles are embraced? These questions get increasingly important when the planned economies of Indochina, which are now promoting a market economy, is brought into the picture. Also here, the middleclass is the important agent and will be put on pressure from both the Communist parties and international entrepreneurs. Its position within the existing one-party systems is a recommended study. The panel seeks pepers which examine the historical and contemporary trends in indigenous enterpreneurship and leadership within the framework of theoretical and analytical problems related to the concept of middle class and leadership in South-east Asia as a whole. PANEL Short and long-term cycles in the South-East Asian economy: Historical and contemporary perspectives CONVENORS Peter Boomgaard and Ian Brown ABSTRACT The panels seeks papers which examine the origins and nature of the cycles of growth and recession, both short and long-term, in the economy of South-East Asia from the early modern period to the present-day. The central theme will be a comparison between those circumstances in which the origins of growth or contraction were external to the region and those in which there was a dominant internal dynamic. The focus will be on the South-East Asian Economy, not economies, partly to provoke intra-regional comparisons but principally in order to encourage consideration of the extent to which, from the perspectives of economic history and economics, South-East Asia can said to be a distinct region. PANEL Religious revival in South-East Asia CONVENOR Bernhard Dahm ABSTRACT The struggle for independence and the quest for ones own identity in the confrontation with the colonial powers brought about a variety of manifestations of religious revival in a number of South-East Asian countries in the early decades of the twentieth century. In more recent times, religious revival-movements can again be observed in the region. Some interpret them as a reaction to the process of rapid modernization, others see them as an essential part of the struggle for power of survival of traditional religious authorities and others, again, emphasize the impact of influences coming from revivalist movements outside of South-East Asia. The panel Religious revival in South-East Asia will discuss essential characreristics of earlier and recent revival movements and inquire whether `national' or `regional' patterns of religious revival movements can be established. Papers are welcome which focus on a particular movement or which attempt at a comparative analysis of religious revival movements in one or more countries of South-East Asia. PANEL Network and synchronisms CONVENOR D. Lombard ABSTRACT Research integrating the Indo-Chinese Peninsula nad the Indonesian Archipelago comes will be highlighted in the 1995 conference which will be dedicated to the topic of South-East Asia in general (otherwise called the `South-East Asian Mediterranean'). Theoretically this research containts three lines of approach: 1). the most straigthtforward one consists of a juxtaposition of information concerning themes which transcend borders (such as `nationalism', religious revivalism' and so forth), 2) historic descriptions of actual contacts experienced (premodern and modern, even contemporary), such as travel accounts, diplomatic relations, commercial exchanges, cultural influences, and also supranational networks like tarekat, overseas Chinese, Christian communities, and the like; 3) a moderate type of comparative analysis through the study of synchronisms. in other words by comparing the evolution in thr various religions in order to detect the similarities while underscoringthe differences. This panel (actually a double one) seeks papers relevant to the line of approach defined in 2 and 3. PANEL The uses and reuses of tradition in South-East Asian Literature CONVENORS Muhammad Hadji Salleh and Vladimir Braginsky ABSTRACT It is the nature of literature to create and grow from its traditions. These traditions are further strengthened through a dialogue with the past and with the new, whether local or foreign origin. What is new in the process of time also becomes tradition. The literature panel is interested both in the primary or native traditions and also how these traditions are embellished, experimented with and extended in the special ways chosen by the various writers. Thus it covers various aspects, including oral literature and primary or secondary orality, the chiographic traditions, the use and reuse of older foms and genres, traditional and contemporary concepts of the author, text, audience, identity, aesthetics, the relationship between literature and history, the rise of the `individual' writer, movements towards decolonization of literature and the like. PANEL Local transformation and common heritage in South-East Asian cultures CONVENOR Reimar Schefold ABSTRACT The societies of South-East Asia display a great variety of local cultural forms which are historically related by an ancient common ancestry and which can be compared in a mutually interpretative way. The contributions to the panel shall present descriptions of specific cultural fetures in a comparative perspective and focus both on patterns common throughout the field of study and the modifying role of a particular local context. For further information and if you want to present a paper at one of the abovementioned panels, please contact: SECRETARIAT EUROSEAS c/o KITLV P.O. Box 9515 2300 RA Leiden The Netherlands Tel: (32) 71272295 Fax: (32) 71272638