For decades, large dam projects have been undertaken by both nations and international agencies with the aim of doing good: preventing floods, bringing electricity to rural populations, producing revenues for poor countries, and more. But time after time, the social, economic, and environmental costs have outweighed the benefits of the dams, sometimes to a disastrous degree. In this volume, a diverse group of experts-involved for years with the Nam Theun 2 dam in Laos-issue an urgent call for critical reassessment of the approach to, and rationale for, these kinds of large infrastructure projects in developing countries. In the 2000s, as the World Bank was reeling from revelations of past hydropower failures, it nonetheless promoted the enormous Nam Theun 2 project. NT2, the Bank believed, offered a new, wiser model of dam development that would alleviate poverty, protect the environment, engage locally affected people in a transparent fashion, and stimulate political transformation. This was a tall order. For the first time, this book shows in detail why, despite assertions of success from the World Bank and other agencies involved in the project, the dam's true story has been one of substantial loss for affected villagers and the regional environment. Nam Theun 2 is an important case study that illustrates much broader problems of global development policy.

This volume presents a contemporary analysis of the impact of China's rise on the Mekong Region at a critical point in Southeast Asian history. As the most populated country and the second largest economy in the world, China has become an increasingly influential player in global and regional affairs in recent decades. Economic ties between China and her southern neighbors are particularly strong. Yet relations between China and the Mekong region are embedded in complex socio-cultural and political issues. China's accelerated growth, increasing economic footprint, rapid military modernization, and global search for energy, natural resources, and food security have created a wide range of new challenges for smaller countries in Southeast Asia. These new challenges both encourage and limit cooperation between China and the emerging ASEAN Economic Community (AEC). The authors pay close attention to these challenges with particular focus on the impact of Chinese investment, trade, foreign aid, and migration.

This collection examines the historically and geographically specific form of economic organization of the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and how it has adapted to the different historical and socio-political contexts of Southeast Asian countries. Moving beyond cultural explanations and traits to focus on the process of evolution and dynamism of situated practices, it argues that Chinese Capitalism is rapidly becoming a form of 'hybrid capitalism' and embodies the interdependent of culturally and institutionally specific dynamics at local and regional level, evolving and adapting to different institutional contexts and politico-economic conditions in the host Asian economies. This text also explores the social organization and political economy of the so-called overseas Chinese by examining the changing dynamism of Chinese capitalism in relation to forces of globalization. Focusing on key actors, primarily Chinese entrepreneurs in their business practices, and situated practices as well as cultural, political, social and economic factors under globalizing conditions, it provides providing a broad understanding without fixating or homogenizing Chinese capitalism, contributing to the understanding of the contexts that give rise to the emergence and transformation of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia.

This book examines contemporary Chinese transnational mobile practices with special focuses on the ethnographic exploration of the lives, experiences, views, and narratives of the Chinese mobile subjects in three ASEAN countries: Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, and their interactions with the ethnic Chinese communities in these countries. This book is based on recent and updated original ethnographic research carried out by leading scholars in China and Southeast Asia. The work addresses questions of integration and social embeddedness, interrogating the possibility of whether the transnational Chinese diaspora can be simultaneously embedded into two or more nation-states and geopolitical spheres. It contends that in moving in the transnational space, the Chinese diaspora may experience a strong yearning for a cultural home that may not be in one space for bicultural or multicultural diaspora. It also asks whether the transnational Chinese diaspora is motivated to negotiate cultural membership and social belonging in a new country. Shedding new light on the ways in which the transnational diaspora negotiates cultural membership to adapt to situational requirements, this volume is relevant to scholars researching in China studies, anthropology, international relations, and in Asian, Southeast and East Asian regional studies.

Set within the context of ASEAN integration, this book considers how Capitalism from China interacts with the ASEAN Economic Community, considering the issue from a variety of sociological, cultural and economic perspectives. It examines some of the creative strategies - de-sinicization, re-sinicization and re-balancing - employed by local Chinese communities and ASEAN countries to cope with the pressures of Chinese capitalism. The book addresses the phenomenon of Chinese ethnic economic migration, particularly the social capital of being Chinese in South East Asia, as well as community building, the interplay between domestic politics and globalization, and the rise of Chinese tourism related entrepreneurship.

This collection examines the historically and geographically specific form of economic organization of the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia and how it has adapted to the different historical and socio-political contexts of Southeast Asian countries. Moving beyond cultural explanations and traits to focus on the process of evolution and dynamism of situated practices, it argues that Chinese Capitalism is rapidly becoming a form of 'hybrid capitalism' and embodies the interdependent of culturally and institutionally specific dynamics at local and regional level, evolving and adapting to different institutional contexts and politico-economic conditions in the host Asian economies. This text also explores the social organization and political economy of the so-called overseas Chinese by examining the changing dynamism of Chinese capitalism in relation to forces of globalization. Focusing on key actors, primarily Chinese entrepreneurs in their business practices, and situated practices as well as cultural, political, social and economic factors under globalizing conditions, it provides providing a broad understanding without fixating or homogenizing Chinese capitalism, contributing to the understanding of the contexts that give rise to the emergence and transformation of Chinese Capitalism in Southeast Asia.

Set within the context of ASEAN integration, this book considers how Capitalism from China interacts with the ASEAN Economic Community, considering the issue from a variety of sociological, cultural and economic perspectives. It examines some of the creative strategies - de-sinicization, re-sinicization and re-balancing - employed by local Chinese communities and ASEAN countries to cope with the pressures of Chinese capitalism. The book addresses the phenomenon of Chinese ethnic economic migration, particularly the social capital of being Chinese in South East Asia, as well as community building, the interplay between domestic politics and globalization, and the rise of Chinese tourism related entrepreneurship.

In northern Thailand, Laos, and southern China, marginal fishing communities along the Mekong River and its tributaries are experiencing the adverse effects of changing ecosystems on their fish stocks, local economies, lifestyles, and cultural practices. Transnational mega-projects are causing great environmental degradation and endangering people's livelihoods. While depicting a stark future for less advantaged Mekong communities, this book sees reasons for hope in the communities' capacity to respond to these changes.

Using their knowledge and experience to cope with evolving historical realities such as erratic water levels, many local communities have devised conservation measures for fishing. The author advocates bottom-up planning and transnational civil society alliances between local groups and regional and international organizations to bring about more balanced development and sounder natural resource management in the region.

Appendixes contain an extensive inventory of fish species, habitat, conservation status, and fishing techniques.

Yos Santasombat is professor of anthropology at Chiang Mai University.