Southeast asia, untul the Asian economic crisis of 1997-2000, was a high economic growth area,. However, despite the neo-liberal and globalizing logic of capitalism, local conditions, and cultures determine that capitalism will spread in ways not etirely consonant with its Western origins. Capitalism is not a free-floating entity--it is a socially embodied phenomenon that needs to function in various cultural contexts. Consequently, the tension between the universal status that some claim capitalism now occupies in the post-Cold Warr world and the particularities of the local cultures it enters should be of great concern.
This book examines how states may re-tool local culture to fit capitalism’s cultural specificities., and also how local cultures may resist or enable the development process. Alternatively, something that simultaneously co-operations and resistance may transpire in order for particular cultural form to survive economic restructuring. Given the crisis, there should be a re-assessment of the forces connected with what now seems an inescapable desire for rapid econmic growth. (text from the publisher)