ABSTRACT
When people outside the region think of Southeast Asia they often think of it as a place steeped in rural tradition. Paddy farmers are imagined to be labouring with water buffalos under hot suns to grow crops that will be harvested by communities in ways that have changed little over generations. While this type of Asian rural idyll is still very relevant to parts of modern Southeast Asia, it is underlain by processes of transformation that are just as significant, albeit often less visible, than urban changes. For example, farmers are much more likely to be growing crops for sale rather than for household consumption and the varieties grown are likely to have been bred by global agribusiness corporations rather than derived from local sources. Fields are inundated with chemical inputs from pesticides, fertilisers and herbicides, and are likely to be owned by distant wealthy landowners rather than those working the fields. People are pursuing new non-farm income earning opportunities; seeking work in the factories that have sprung up on the improved roads that lead to town, or embarking on their own small scale enterprises within rural communities and using cash incomes to buy food and other goods. Still others are leaving rural spaces altogether, attracted by the bright lights, higher incomes, improved services, and modern lifestyles afforded by local and foreign cities.
