”Crisis and Beyond: Theorising Southeast Asia “, file Theorizing SEAsia.doc 10/06/1999 03:00:00, revised 11/07/2003 08:36:00 PM, 10 pages 4 th ASEAN Inter-University Seminar on Social Development, Prince of Songkla University, Pattani, 15-18 June 1999 _____________________________________________________ Crisis and Beyond: Theorising Southeast Asia Hans-Dieter Evers “Knowledge is like light. Weightless and tangible, it can easily travel the world, enlightening the lives of people everywhere” (World Development Report 1998/99, World Bank 1999:1). “We have a clear vision for Malaysia … a civil society… a community which is self-regulating and empowered through the use of knowledge, skills and values incalculated within the people.” (Mahathir, MSC, 1998:8) 1 Introduction: Which Crisis? The Asian Crisis has captured the imagination of the world of business, politics and social science. The ISEAS alone has published six brandnew books on the topic in 1998/99. Nevertheless I should like to pose the question: Which crisis? And: Crisis of what? Southeast Asia has undergone a multitude of crises, economic, political, cultural and social. Most of these have resulted in a fresh look at what course Southeast Asian societies have taken and what concepts and theories can be used to analyse new developments. As a matter of fact, some of the new concepts and paradigms have been exported to other world regions, utilised