Brings together current research on labour in Southeast Asia, offering theoretical insights and detailed empirical case-studies drawn from a variety of contexts.

Given the transformations taking place in many parts of Southeast Asia, the question of labour remains as pertinent today as it ever has been. Labour issues are central to the social tensions marking the transformations taking place in both rural and urban areas, and underscore the myriad ways people have responded to economic and political crisis. In seeking to understand the multiple and specific dimensions of labour across a range of time-frames (colonial and contemporary), economic sectors, labour processes and community contexts. In seeking to provoke debate, the book reveals the variety of experiences evident in countries and regions marked by capitalist and (post) socialist regulatory frameworks, and contrasting labour regimes, histories and cultures. The contributions show the importance of critically examining both the complex nature of global-local links and the particular ways economic processes are around the themes of labour regimes, labour processes, labour mobility and labour communities, the essays show how economic development is not only shaped by market forces but is also interlocked in systems of meaning.

Preface List of Tables and Figures Contributors 1. Studying Labour in Southeast Asia: Reflections on Structures and Processes Ratna Saptari and Rebecca Elmhirst Part I: The Regulation of Labour and Labour Regimes 2. Labour Dynamics in the Plantation and Mining Sectors in Southeast Asia, 1840-1950: A Historical Perspective Amarjit Kaur 3. Constructing Child Labour: Attitude to Juvenile Work in Indonesia, 1900-2000 Benjamin White 4. Trade Unions in Vietnam in Historical Perspective: The Transformation of Concepts Irene Norlund 5. Local Politics and Labour Relations in the Philippines: The Case of Subic Bay Chan Fong Yin and Philip F. Kelly Part II: Labour Processes: Old Forms, New Meanings 6. Are They Incompatible? Modern Farming and Non-Market Labour in the Northern Philippine Uplands Edsel E. Sajor 7. From Resource Managers to Secondary Farm Hands: Changing Gender Divisions of Labour in a Philippine Upland Village Bernadette P. Resurreccion 8. Labour Practices Outside the Factory: Modern Forms of Household Production in Java Jennifer Alexander and Paul Alexander 9. Transforming Industrial Relations: the Case of the Malaysian Auto Industry Peter Wad Part III: Labour Mobility and Work Transformations 10. Labour Relations and Mobility in Provincial Thailand Daniel Arghiros 11. Labour Relations in a Changing Rural World: The Evolving Thai Experience Jonathan Rigg 12. Labour Restructuring in Vietnam since the Economic Reform Xavier Oudin 13. Domestic Workers and Transnational Migration: Perspectives from the Philippines and Singapore Shirlena Huang, Brenda S.A. Yeoh and Richard T. Jackson Part IV: Reproducing Workers: The Boundaries of Community 14. Labouring Communities: Women's Roles in the Ombilin Coal Mines of Sumatra (1892-1965) Erwiza Erman 15. Labour Politics in Migrant Communities: Ethnicity and Women's Activism in Tangerang, Indonesia Rebecca Elmhirst Index