Over the past two decades, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has sought to expand beyond its role as an intergovernmental organisation towards strengthening the region as a community of shared aspirations and welfare for the 654 million population of ASEAN. Of particular importance is engagement of the region0́9s youth, which includes enhancing Awareness of ASEAN, promoting ASEAN Values, and fostering a sense of ASEAN Identity among the younger generation in the region. To that end, in 2017, ASEAN launched the ASEAN Youth Development Index (YDI). The ASEAN YDI aims to track key indicators of welfare and affinity for ASEAN among young people across the region.

Over the past two decades, the Association for Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has sought to expand beyond its role as an intergovernmental organisation towards strengthening the region as a community of shared aspirations and welfare for the 654 million population of ASEAN. Of particular importance is engagement of the region0́9s youth, which includes enhancing Awareness of ASEAN, promoting ASEAN Values, and fostering a sense of ASEAN Identity among the younger generation in the region. To that end, in 2017, ASEAN launched the ASEAN Youth Development Index (YDI). The ASEAN YDI aims to track key indicators of welfare and affinity for ASEAN among young people across the region.

In 2007, a survey – the first of its kind – was carried out to gauge young people’s awareness of and attitudes towards ASEAN, following the decision by ASEAN heads of state and government to accelerate the date for accomplishing an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015. Views and attitudes from university undergraduates in the ten ASEAN member states who participated in the survey indicated a nascent sense of identification as citizens of the region as well as their priorities for important aspects of regional integration. An update to the 2007 survey was carried out in 2014–15 among the same target population but with an expanded scope of twenty-two universities and institutes of higher learning across the ten member states. In the updated survey, we found that there are more ASEAN-positive attitudes region-wide, but there are also increases in ASEAN-ambivalent attitudes at country-level in some ASEAN members. Young people’s priorities for important aspects of regional integration have also shifted away from economic cooperation to tourism and development cooperation. New questions in the latest survey also allow us to demonstrate the descriptive vocabulary and cognitive maps students hold for the region and its nations. This book details the key findings of the updated survey compared to the earlier survey. These include nation-by-nation results and a summary of region-wide trends, as well as what they suggest for the prospects of ASEAN integration beyond 2015. These are assessed in a chapter providing broad recommendations for policymakers and educators in the ASEAN member states.

Providing a contemporary discussion of ASEAN, this holistic Companion critically examines the organisation’s characteristics, strengths and weaknesses, politics and policies, internal dynamics, and external relations. This fascinating and informative Companion makes a significant contribution to the literature on ASEAN, providing a comprehensive overview of the organisation and evaluating multidisciplinary perspectives on Southeast Asian regionalism.

In 2007, a survey - the first of its kind - was carried out to gauge young people's awareness of and attitudes towards ASEAN, following the decision by ASEAN heads of state and government to accelerate the date for accomplishing an integrated ASEAN Community by 2015. Views and attitudes from university undergraduates in the ten ASEAN member states who participated in the survey indicated a nascent sense of identification as citizens of the region as well as their priorities for important aspects of regional integration. An update to the 2007 survey was carried out in 2014-15 among the same target population but with an expanded scope of twenty-two universities and institutes of higher learning across the ten member states. In the updated survey we found that there are more ASEAN-positive attitudes region-wide, but there are also increases in ASEAN-ambivalent attitudes at country-level in some ASEAN members. Young people's priorities for important aspects of regional integration have also shifted away from economic cooperation to tourism and development cooperation. New questions in the latest survey also allow us to demonstrate the descriptive vocabulary and cognitive maps students hold for the region and its nations. This book details the key findings of the updated survey compared to the earlier survey. These include nation-by-nation results and a summary of region-wide trends, as well as what they suggest for the prospects of ASEAN integration beyond 2015. These are assessed in a chapter providing broad recommendations for policymakers and educators in the ASEAN member states.

This book investigates the ways in which emerging digital technologies are shaping and changing the worlds of sexuality and gender diverse youth in Southeast Asia. Primarily focused on the Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia, the book examines the potential of digital technologies to enhance wellbeing in and across these contexts. Drawing on multi-site ethnographic field research, interviews, survey data, and online content analysis, the book examines the design and use of websites and content by and for LGBT+ youth. The book innovatively interrogates the design of transnational digital wellbeing initiatives, alongside the digital practices of those the technologies are designed for. It illustrates not only the (im)possibilities of technological design, but also the capacity for design to participate in what Hanckel calls '(trans)national digital wellbeing' processes. He asks us to consider the ways that global technologies are contextual -- a paradox that is explored throughout the book. The analysis extends important discussions in youth research, contributing to a greater understanding of how LGBT+ youth are engaging new technologies to participate in identity-making, health and wellbeing, as well as political action. It also considers implications for digital wellbeing and digital health promotion efforts globally with young people who experience marginalisation. In doing so the book makes a critical contribution to understanding the ways that transnational digital interventions get deployed and (at times) incorporated into youth practices.

This comprehensive volume explores the remarkable expansion of higher education systems and institutions in Asia in recent decades, alongside changing forms of consumerism, mobility and global economic conditions. It demonstrates how recent changes in training, education and employment have sparked new aspirations for possible and desirable livelihoods among the younger generation, while also generating fresh problems and tensions. The authors in this volume critically interrogate the links between education and employment; normative understandings about youth and adulthood; as well as personal, national and regional level aspirations for economic ‘success’. Comparative chapters on Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Laos, Nepal, Singapore and Taiwan illustrate how young people are having to forge innovative pathways into the future, while being confronted with ever increasing insecurities. Offering important insights into the kinds of education and employment landscapes that Asian youth are navigating, reworking or trying to avoid, this collection is an essential reference for students and scholars of Asian Studies, Cultural Anthropology, Development Studies, Human Geography and Youth Studies. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Children’s Geographies.