Liberal dreams: Materialism and evolutionary civil society in the projection of nation in Southeast Asia

This article focuses on the introduction of ethnicity into Southeast Asia, as a component of the nineteenth century British projection of empire. The argument is that rather than projecting a cosmopolitan vision of community, British liberalism naturalised ethnicity through the concept of civil society. This presented a global vision of societies being independent and emerging from the local landscape. These liberal notions of civil society represent an early incarnation of self-determination. The British Empire in Southeast Asia emerged within this intellectual climate, and its early construction reflected this vision. In essence, the British Empire in Southeast Asia was founded on the nebulous idea of providing self-determination to Southeast Asian nations. This notion of self-determination was a qualified concept of independence, framed around opening these civil societies to British trading hegemony.     

Deprivation and lifestyles in rural Wales. — I. Towards a cultural dimension

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of research into deprivation in mid-Wales. It argues that the current debate on rural deprivation has left many important questions unanswered. In particular, we still know relatively little about the extent of deprivation, the specific social groups affected by it, the particular experiences of these groups, and the importance of cultural dimensions to that experience. Indeed, the very term deprivation has become somewhat chaotic, and may subsume a number of different ways in which individuals and groups can become marginalised in rural areas. The two case studies in rural Wales discussed here give some indication of the extent and anatomy of marginalisation within particular communities. Perhaps more importantly they highlight the need to consider the importance of cultural marginalisation within a wider understanding of the problems of living in rural areas.