Civil society in Southeast Asia

This volume asserts that western conceptions of civil society do not always apply in Asia. The concept of civil society has all the characteristics of an essentially contested concept. As such, despite the numerous discussions of and publications on this concept, no universally agreed-upon definition of civil society is likely to prevail, probably ever. In the non-western countries, ambiguities in both the theories and practices of civil society are invariably generated by the varied and contested meanings of the concept of the western tradition itself. Moreover, the varied non-western contexts that formed and informed the concept differ a great deal from those found in western societies. This volume shows that the Southeast Asian countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam) provide an excellent example where diverse colonial histories, ethnic, religious and cultural mix, economic developments, and state regimes readily offer a crucible to demonstrate how these factors would interact to shape the form and composition of civil society.