Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia

The Routledge Handbook of Civil and Uncivil Society in Southeast Asia explores the nature and implications of civil society across the region, engaging systematically with both theoretical approaches and empirical nuance for a systematic, comparative, and informative approach.
The handbook actively analyses the varying definitions of civil society, critiquing the inconsistent scrutiny of this sphere over time. It brings forth the need to reconsider civil society development in today's Southeast Asia, including activist organisations' and platforms' composition, claims, resources, and potential to effect sociopolitical change. Structured in five parts, the volume includes chapters written by an international set of experts analysing topics relating to civil society:
Spaces and platforms
Place within politics
Resources and tactics
Identity formation and claims
Advocacy
The handbook highlights the importance of civil society as a domain for political engagement outside the state and parties, across Southeast Asia, as well as the prevalence and weight of 'uncivil' dimensions. It offers a well-informed and comprehensive analysis of the topic and is an indispensable reference work for students and researchers in the fields of Asian Studies, Asian Politics, Southeast Asian Politics and Comparative Politics.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license. Funded by The Research Foundation for State University of New York, USA and The Stockholm Center for Global Asia, Sweden.

Eva Hansson is a Senior Lecturer in Political Science and International Relations at Södertörn University, Sweden and Coordinator of the Stockholm Center for Global Asia, Stockholm University, Sweden. She has co-edited, with Meredith L. Weiss, Political Participation in Asia (Routledge, 2018). Meredith L. Weiss is a Professor of Political Science in the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany, SUNY, USA. She is author most recently of The Roots of Resilience: Party Machines and Grassroots Politics in Southeast Asia (2020) and previously edited the Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Malaysia (2015).

1. Civil society in politics and Southeast Asia in civil society: Conceptual foundations Part I. Spaces and platforms 2. From activist media to algorithmic politics: The internet, social media, and civil society in Southeast Asia 3. Contemporary arts in and for civil society 4. Spatial perspectives: Civil society activism as struggles for space in urbanising Southeast Asia 5. Legal mobilization and civil society: On the use and usefulness of strategic litigation in Southeast Asia Part II. Place within politics 6. Civil society and efforts at regime change in Southeast Asia 7. Civil society and the contentious politics of democratization and autocratization in Myanmar 8. Civil society activism beyond the nation-state: Legitimating ASEAN? Part III. Resources and tactics 9. Failing financing of civil society in Southeast Asia, Rosalia Sciortino 10. Civil society leadership 11. Violence and civil society in Southeast Asia Part IV. Identity formation and claims 12. Civic society and gender advancement in Thailand 13. The LGBT movement in Vietnam 14. Indigenous groups and ethnic minorities 15. Religion and civil society in Southeast Asia Part V. Advocacy 16. Organized labour and autocratization in Southeast Asia 17. Business associations and civil society in Southeast Asia 18. Vernacularising human rights in Southeast Asia 19. Civil society and environmentalism: Crossing frontiers of activism 20. Multi-level migrant civil society activism in Southeast Asia 21. Southeast Asia's glocalized civil society landscapes: National topographies and transnational contours