“This timely volume chronicles and analyses the intersection of rice policies and the pandemic through case studies of a diverse range of Southeast Asian countries: rice exporters, rice importers and city-states. There is no group of eminent researchers better suited to carrying out this work, and they conduct the analysis by illuminating the historical context that is essential to an understanding of rice policies in the region. This volume is a must-read for anyone interested in rice policies and politics in contemporary Southeast Asia.”--David Dawe, Former Senior Economist with the International Rice Research Institute and the Food and Agricultural Organization. “This is highly recommended reading for those interested in an up-to-date and in-depth treatment of the political economy of rice policies in five major ASEAN countries, one chapter per country. While the book title indicates a topical focus on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on Southeast Asia’s rice sector, these chapters are much more than this, giving considerable historical context leading up to the outbreak of the pandemic and looking forward after the pandemic.”--Howarth Bouis, Laureate, World Food Prize; Emeritus Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute

“We live in paradoxical times. Traditionally, the West has led the world in theory and practice. Yet, recent developments, from COVID-19 to the storming of the US Capitol, show how lost the West has become. This loss of direction has deep roots. In their usual thoughtful and incisive fashion, Lim Mah-Hui and Michael Heng Siam-Heng, draw out the deeper origins of our current crises and show us a new way forward. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand our strange times." -- Kishore Mahbubani, founding Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, is the author of Has China Won? “A powerful and compelling critique of neoliberal globalization and its potentially devastating, but long underestimated, consequences for financial stability, the environment, social equity and democracy. COVID-19 has laid bare these dysfunctions and stresses. But this is not a pessimistic book. The authors argue, correctly, that we may be on the cusp of another Great Transformation. The choices we make today to make markets more resilient, improve social protection, and preserve our freedoms could lay the foundations for a sustainable globalization that works for future generations.” -- Donald Low, Professor of Practice in Public Policy and Director of the Institute for Emerging Market Studies, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology “This fascinating book highlights the interplay between financial and health crises that the COVID-19 pandemic exposed. Financialized capitalism is bad for the planet, bad for human health, and creates more unequal and insecure societies. The authors make a strong and convincing case for re-embedding markets into society and finance into the real economy.” --Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics, University of Massachusetts at Amherst, USA “Lim and Heng’s ambitious volume argues that 2020 was the year of the global ‘perfect storm’ of multiple crises, with the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbating financial, economic, socio-political and environmental breakdowns. They extend Karl Polanyi’s original insights to appeal for a sustainable global New Deal. While the reader may not agree with all their theses, the scope of their coverage and ambition will set the stage for debates over the annus horribilis.” -- Jomo K.S., Founder-chair, IDEAS www.network.ideas; former United Nations Assistant Secretary General "This book provides plenty of food for thought for many pondering if the COVID-19 crisis could lead to a major transformation of the global economic system shaped by unfettered market forces and policies of governments in their service."-- Yilmaz Akyuz, former Director, UNCTAD, Geneva

Beginning in December 2019, the coronavirus swept quickly through all regions of the world. COVID 19 has wreaked social, political and economic havoc everywhere and has shown few signs of entirely abating. The recent development and approval of new vaccines against the virus, however, now provides some hope that we may be coming to the beginning of the end of the pandemic. This volume collects papers from a conference titled Economic Dimensions of COVID 19 in Indonesia: Responding to the Crisis, organised by the Australian National University’s Indonesia Project and held online 7–10 September 2020. Collectively, the chapters in this volume focus for the most part on the economic elements of COVID 19 in Indonesia. The volume considers both macro- and micro-economic effects across a variety of dimensions, and short- and long-term impacts as well. It constitutes the first comprehensive analysis of Indonesia’s initial response to the crisis from an economic perspective.

This publication offers a comprehensive regional-level analysis of Southeast Asia’s fragile recovery from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that damaged some core economic drivers and sank millions into poverty. It gives a rundown of how eight Southeast Asian countries have dealt with the pandemic and are now beginning to recover. It looks at how countries have reshaped their economies to cope with the crisis and considers the impact of job losses as COVID-19 sent development gains into reverse. Against a backdrop of global economic headwinds and looming climate change, it offers a range of recommendations for how policymakers can best weave lessons from the pandemic into their drive for a resilient and inclusive recovery.

COVID-19 has presented huge challenges to governments, businesses, civil societies, and people from all walks of life, but its impact has been highly variegated, affecting society in multiple negative ways, with uneven geographical and socioeconomic patterns. The crisis revealed existing contradictions and inequalities in society, compelling us to question what it means to return to “normal” and what insights can be gleaned from Southeast Asia for thinking about a post-pandemic world. In this regard, this edited volume collects the informed views of an ensemble of social scientists – area studies, development studies, and legal scholars; anthropologists, architects, economists, geographers, planners, sociologists, and urbanists; representing academic institutions, activist and charitable organisations, policy and research institutes, and areas of professional practice – who recognise the necessity of critical commentary and engaged scholarship. These contributions represent a wide-ranging set of views, collectively producing a compilation of reflections on the following three themes in particular: (1) Urbanisation, digital infrastructures, economies, and the environment; (2) Migrants, (im)mobilities, and borders; and (3) Collective action, communities, and mutual action. Overall, this edited volume first aims to speak from a situated position in relevant debates to challenge knowledge about the pandemic that has assigned selective and inequitable visibility to issues, people, or places, or which through its inferential or interpretive capacity has worked to set social expectations or assign validity to certain interventions with a bearing on the pandemic’s course and the future it has foretold. Second, it aims to advance or renew understandings of social challenges, risks, or inequities that were already in place, and which, without further or better action, are to be features of our “post-pandemic world” as well. This volume also contributes to the ongoing efforts to de-centre and decolonise knowledge production. It endeavours to help secure a place within these debates for a region that was among the first outside of East Asia to be forced to contend with COVID-19 in a substantial way and which has evinced a marked and instructive diversity and dynamism in its fortunes.

This book started with an objective to understand the impact of high inflation on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia. However, the global economy moved quickly into recession in 2008. Anticipating that the impact of global recession would be more severe than that of high inflation in Southeast Asia, we re-focused the title of the book to Poverty, Food, and Global Recession in Southeast Asia. By early 2010, people were already optimistic that the global recession was over or would be over soon. However, the evidence was mounting that the poor had suffered and were still suffering from the current global crisis, even if the richer individuals may have recovered. Therefore, an important question arises, Is the crisis really over for the poor? This then became the sub-title of this book. This book aims to contribute a better understanding on poverty and food security in Southeast Asia during the recent global recession considering both recent developments and the previous major crisis of 1997-98.

This report examines the impacts of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic on labor markets in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Viet Nam. Labor markets in Southeast Asia were particularly hit hard in 2020, when government containment measures were most severe. COVID-19 has exacerbated growing inequalities in the region—hurting not just low-skilled workers but also middle-skilled workers whose jobs were already at risk from automation even before the pandemic. Large gaps in social protection coverage were also exposed. While the policy response has been significant, a narrowing fiscal space and the protracted nature of the pandemic still pose major challenges for recovery. The report aims to help policymakers identify priorities, constraints, and opportunities for developing effective labor market strategies for economic recovery and beyond.