01 December, 2025

Colonial rekening: what does the Netherlands owe Indonesia?

Pierre van der Eng

Measuring "colonial drain" isn't a straightforward business

In Bangkok, whose heritage counts?

The battle over Chao Mae Thapthim Shrine

The pesantren archipelago

Introducing a new dataset on Indonesia’s Islamic boarding schools

Insurgent planning versus discretionary urbanism in Jakarta

Jakarta’s informal settlements are finding new ways to assert their rights and reshape their city

EMERGING SCHOLARS

From flickers to full power: when reliable electricity arrived in Banmai

An ethnography of rural electrification in Laos

Coffee, conflict, and inadvertent state-building in Vietnam

How state-building can work from the bottom up

Gender, dynasticism and representation in the Philippine Congress

Surprising evidence in support of the case for gender quotas

THE PHILIPPINES

PHILIPPINES ARCHIVES

Will Pekanbaru become Indonesia’s Cox’s Bazar?

The treatment of refugees in Indonesia sees a serious setback

OTHER COUNTRIES

OUR ARCHIVE

Attapeu’s new city pillar: worship, develop, unite!

Enshrining spiritual, political and economic powers in Southern Laos

“Playing” with labour: on collective cleaning in Lao PDR

Tidying up for socialism—or socialising?

Don’t believe Marcos: the ICC is needed for drug war justice

Duterte’s resilient political influence and the institutional shortcomings of the Philippine justice system hamper domestic processes

REVIEWS & NEWS

Jim Scott in memoriam, Southeast Asian studies in perpetuum

“The field of Southeast Asian studies has come to resemble the region as he saw and celebrated it, warts and all”

Review: “On the Shadow Tracks”

“This is a book with a whole lot of heart for Myanmar and her people.”

Review: “Thai Diplomacy”

Edited interviews with Tej Bunnag provide "unvarnished insights" and "nuanced history" for students of Thai foreign policy.

ARTSEA

The land moves west

Artists at the Makassar Biennale grapple with the social and environmental consequences of land reclamation.

Carl Josef Kleingrothe: capturing the colonial life of Deli, Sumatra

A look at the life of the photographer whose work captivated European audiences' looking for images of the 'exotic' Indies.

Memories of Burma’s art scene in the 1970s

Andrew Selth recalls an era of flourishing artistic expression amid heavy-handed censorship.