29 June-1 July 1995 Leiden, the Netherlands EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR SOUTH-EAST ASIAN STUDIES CONFERENCE 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 an advantage. Do not hesitate to apply! PANELS NETWORKS AND SYNCHRONISMS IN EARLY SOUTH-EAST-ASIA CONVENOR: Denys Lombard (EFEO) Ecole Fran‡aise d'Extrˆme-Orient (temporary address) 29, Rue Daviel 75013 Paris France fax: (+33) 1 45809701 ABSTRACT Research integrating the Indo-Chinese Peninsula and 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 contains three lines of approach: 1) the most straightforward 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 evolutions in the various regions in order to detect the similarities while underscoring the differences. THE USES AND REUSES OF TRADITION IN SOUTH-EAST ASIAN LITERATURE CONVENORS: Muhammad Haji Salleh (Leiden University) and Vladimir Braginsky (SOAS) c/o SOAS Thornhaugh Street Russell Square London WC1H 0XG U.K. fax: (+44) 71 4363844 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 of 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 chirographic traditions, the use and reuse of older forms 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 the decolonization of literature and the like. LOCAL TRANSFORMATION AND COMMON HERITAGE IN SOUTH-EAST ASIAN CULTURES CONVENOR: Reimar Schefold (Leiden University) Vakgroep CA/SNWS Leiden University Wassenaarseweg 52 2333 AK Leiden The Netherlands fax: (+31) 71 273619 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 features in a comparative perspective and focus both on patterns common throughout the field of study and on the modifying role of a particular local context. SHORT AND LONG-TERM CYCLES IN THE SOUTH-EAST ASIAN ECONOMY: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES Convenors: Peter Boomgaard (KITLV) and Ian Brown (SOAS) c/o SOAS Thornhaugh Street Russell Square London WC1H 0XG U.K. fax: (+44) 71 4363844 ABSTRACT The panel intends to 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. International trade and investment flows and the development of domestic private enterprise in South-East Asia, 1870-1990 Convenors: Anne Booth (SOAS) and Thomas Lindblad (Leiden University) c/o SOAS Thornhaugh Street Russell Square London WC1H 0XG U.K. fax: (+44) 71 4363844 ABSTRACT This panel will bring together a number of European scholars working in the area of South-East Asian economic development in the 19th and 20th centuries to examine the impact that the increasing involvement of the region in the world economy in the late 19th and 20th centuries has had on domestic economic development, with particular reference to the development of a robust indigenous private sector. RELIGIOUS REVIVAL IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA CONVENOR: Bernard Dahm (University of Passau) South-East Asian Studies University of Passau P.O. Box 2540 94032 Passau Germany fax: (+49) 851 509130 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 or 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 characteristics of earlier and recent revival-movements and inquire whether `national' or `regional' patterns of religious revival movements can be established. HUMAN ENVIRONMENT INTERACTIONS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA: CHANGE AND RESPONSE CONVENOR: Victor King (University of Hull) Centre for South-East Asian Studies University of Hull Cottingham Road Hull HU6 7RX U.K. fax: (+44) 482 466366 ABSTRACT The panel will address major processes of environmental change generated by international, national and local-level human activities in the South-East Asian region. Major issues covered will be forest clearance, the growing pressures on land resources, the exploitation of animal and fish stocks, the increasing demands on freshwater supplies, and environmental pollution. The ways in which local populations have responded to these challenges will be examined, for example in regard to conservation practices, adoption of alternative economic activities, migration and political action; the planning and policy measures instituted by national governments will also be evaluated. THE MIDDLE CLASS IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA CONVENORS: Hans Antl”v (Gotenborg University) and Thommy Svensson (NIAS) c/o Nordic Institute of Asian Studies 84, Njalsgade, DK 2300 Copenhagen S Denmark fax: (+45) 32 962530 ABSTRACT Political theories hold that economic and intrastructural development will result in the development of a middle class which demands political rights and democracy. In South-East Asia today, however, we see economically prosperous groups emerging within the state (Indonesia, Burma, and Vietnam are conspicuous cases). Many nations 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 middle class is an 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 intends to examine the historical and contemporary trends in indigenous entrepreneurship and leadership within the framework of theoretical and analytical problems related to the concept of middle class and leadership in Southeast Asia as a whole. STATE AND MARKET ROLES IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN DEVELOPMENT: A REVISITING CONVENORS: Jean-Luc Maurer and Philippe Regnier (IUED) Institut Universitaire d'Etudes du D‚veloppement 24, rue Rothschild, P.O. Box 136 Ch-1211 GenŠve 21 Switzerland fax: (+41) 22 7383996 ABSTRACT It is believed that a fairly sound equilibrium between the public and private sectors is one of the main reasons of the recent and rapid economic development of Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia, whereas the imbalance between those two - weakness of market forces in Vietnam and Burma, and state intervention in the Philippines - is generally blamed for regional development failures. This panel intends to question the validity of these assertions by a detailed analysis of the economic and social sectors or sectoral policies (agriculture, industry, education, health, housing, transport and communication, environment, and so on). The discussion should throw new light on the capacity of each country to meet economic demands and social needs related to the recent accelerated industrialization. The nature of current South-East Asian capitalist development will be part of the debate. UNEVEN DEVELOPMENT IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH-EAST ASIA CONVENORS: David Drakakis-Smith and Chris Dixon (Keele University) Department of Geography Keele University Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG U.K. fax: (+44) 782 584144 ABSTRACT Although South-East Asia has experienced rapid economic growth, such development has been uneven both spatially and socially. This unevenness has generated tensions that threatened regional and national unity. The panel will consider these tensions at three levels: first, at the international level by examining economic and political links within South-East Asia and beyond to other sectors of the global economy; second, at the national level, particularly at the impact of development which is heavily focused on one extended metropolitan area (EMA); third, at the social inequalities generated within these EMAs. THE CINEMA IN SOUTH-EAST ASIA CONVENORS: Henk Schulte Nordholt (University of Amsterdam) and Michael Kaden (University of Berlin) c/o ASC/UvA Oudezijds Achterburgwal 185 1012 DK Amsterdam The Netherlands ABSTRACT This panel is intended to put the south-East Asian cinema on the academic agenda of European South-East Asianists. The panel will discuss the following themes: 1) the imagination of freedom (1945-1995), with a special focus on Indonesia; and 2) the anxiety of the middle classes in the context of the rapid social changes taking place in modern South-East Asia. The panel coincides with the second South-East Asian film festival (June 20-30, 1995) organized by the Asian Cinema Centre of the University of Amsterdam. The festival is based in Amsterdam but most of the films will be shown in other places in Holland as well, including Leiden. It is the intention to invite a few film directors for this festival who will also attend the panel of the conference. The Asian Cinema Centre will try to offer participants of the conference a discount on tickets for the festival. More information on this matter will be given in due time. URBAN SOUTH-EAST ASIA: ETHNIC INTERACTION, HETEROGLOSSIA AND EMERGING LIFE-STYLES IN PRIMATE CITIES AND BEYOND CONVENOR: Christoph Antweiler (Universit„t zu K”ln) Institut fr V”lkerkunde Universit„t zu K”ln Albertus Magnus Platz D-50931 K”ln Germany fax: (+49) 221 4705117 ABSTRACT This panel will address recent trends in urban South-East Asia as yet little reflected in the literature. These trends are e.g. an increasing ethnic interaction, a decreasing ethnic residential segregation despite clear ethnic boundaries, intra-urban residential mobility, emerging city-based regionalisms, a city versus country symbolism, new urban life-styles, increasing heteroglossia and new local conceptions of urbanization and urban culture as such. The panel tries to compare such recent trends and asks especially of such trends in regional and provincial cities.