ABSTRACT
The so-called 'Asian Crisis' has been constructed and explained from many viewpoints: two of the most popular are the specific defects of national 'crony capitalisms' and weaknesses in the global financial architecture. This chapter offers a critique of these accounts and suggests an alternative, 'material-discursive' approach to the 'crisis' that pays careful attention to its structural, strategic, and discursive dimensions. This approach examines: 1. the structural background to the 'crisis' in terms of the material
2. the conjunctural factors precipitating the 'crisis' and its implications for the current economic disorder;
4. the subsequent interplay between these various material and discursive aspects in shaping the 'crisis' as it has developed since 1997.
