This book provides a comprehensive understanding of the struggles of youth in India, Myanmar, and Thailand towards the creation of a freer, more inclusive, plural, and equal society. Chapter contributions in the book include analytical explanations and insightful debates on key issues, progress, and challenges, by a team of international and local researchers.
The world is currently witnessing a surge in innovative, networked, and technology-driven freedom movements across Asian societies. Youth and community-driven initiatives in India, Myanmar, and Thailand are being adapted and localized to foster much-needed development, human security, stability, and social progress in a responsible, objective, and selfless manner. These movements, characterized by the unwavering participation of youth including Gen Z, are being continuously tested and implemented across Asian societies, highlighting a promising trend in the evolution of grassroots social movements.
In this context, this book explores the strengths of South/Southeast Asia, examining grassroots changes through various case studies, and the emergence of broader possibilities for societal transformation across multiple chapters. Chapter contributors address several critical issues, including the spirit and practice of the responsibility to protest that drives youth uprisings against authoritarian regimes, the struggles of highland communities, environmental justice, resistance movements, anti-coup efforts, generational change, peace prospects, democratic foreign policy, and grassroots democracy. The book serves as a valuable resource for students, policy analysts, and anyone seeking a comprehensive understanding of the nature, processes, and challenges faced by youth for their societies.
Table of Content
Part I: Voices for Societal Change.- Chapter 1: Youth Movements in Authoritarian Asia: The Responsibility to Protest.- Chapter 2: Rising Up in Thailand: Youth-led Protests and State Repression since 2020.- Chapter 3: “As a Karen, I have no Leader”: Youth, Conflict, and Generational Change in Hpa-An, Karen State.- Chapter 4: Discarding Objects: The Transition to a Consumer Society and the Littering Problem among the Naga, Northeast India.- Chapter 5: The Limits of Political Situation for Societal Change in Thailand.- Chapter 6: Impact of Climate Change and Anthropogenic Pressure on Agro-based Riverine System: The Lower Floodplain of Ganga, India.- Chapter 7: Ecological Democracy and Environmental Justice: Political Ecology of Disasters in India.- Chapter 8: Highland Community Development and Sustainable Opium Reduction: The Case of Northern Thailand.- Chapter 9: Financial Stability of Microfinance Institutions in the Post-Global Financial Crisis: A Case of South Asia.- Part II: Democratic Struggle and Impact.- Chapter 10: Homo Diplomaticus and the Power of Demos: The Paradox and Progress of Democratic Foreign Policy in the Cold War Thailand.- Chapter 11: What Does it Mean When Burma is a Sideshow in World Politics.- Chapter 12: A Political Marathon With(out) Happy Ending: Poland’s Democratization and Conclusions for Burma/Myanmar.- Chapter 13: Ne Win’s Burmanization Narratives and the Prospects for Peace in Today’s Myanmar.- Chapter 14: The Career Prospects of Sadists: Attrition, Collapse, and Myanmar’s Military.- Chapter 15: Myanmar: A Totalitarian State.- Chapter 16: The Ancient Origins of Democracy in India.- Chapter 17: Civil Society Organizations and Their Role in Building Democracy in Myanmar: The Case of the Kachin Women’s Association Thailand.- Chapter 18: Rethinking: Foreign Aid and Democratic Dilemma.
About the author
Chosein Yamahata, a Professor at the Graduate School of Policy Studies at Aichi Gakuin University, Japan, coordinates the Academic Diplomacy Project (ADP) and the Burma Review and Challenges International Forum (BRACIF). His most recent co-edited volumes include ASEAN and Regional Actors in the Indo-Pacific (2023), Myanmar’s Changing Political Landscape: Old and New Struggle (2023), and Demystifying Myanmar’s Transition and Political Crisis (2022).
Makiko Takeda is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Policy Studies, Aichi Gakuin University, Japan. She recently co-edited Myanmar’s Changing Political Landscape: Old and New Struggle (2023), and Social Transformations in India, Myanmar, and Thailand: Social, Political and Ecological Perspectives (2021).
More ebooks from the same author(s) / Editor
15,839 Ebooks in this category
