Asia Pacific Viewpoint

One of the most important aspects of China's economic development is the accompanying rapid urbanisation. China's growth has, however, been marked by unbalanced regional development in the past three decades as most of the coastal cities and regions are spearheading rapid growth while inland and rural areas are lagging behind.

The changing role of the Chinese state in urban and regional development is the key theme underlying this special issue. The assembled papers address different aspects of this multifaceted process that is still unfolding.

Aiming to continue the high standards of scholarship set by Pacific Viewpoint since 1960, Asia Pacific Viewpoint continues to address the economic, social and political geography of change in the Asia Pacific region. Maps and photographs are encouraged.

The editors would like to encourage papers on:

• economic and social development of countries in the region, including international investment and migration
• economic relationships between those countries, including the consequences of industry, service and resource developments
• the relationship between the environment and development
• the interaction of countries in the region
• the concept of the Asia Pacific region as an economic and socio-political entity
• the environmental preconditions and consequences of development initiatives in the region
• the impacts of globalisation on the social, economic, cultural and environmental systems of the Asia Pacific region and the implications of this for geographical theory and practice.

All papers will be subject to double-blind refereeing. Detailed instructions on how to submit your manuscript are available online.

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Rural livelihoods have undergone a metamorphosis in the Asia–Pacific with the rapid expansion of the oil palm industry in the region. Complex socio-economic and environmental issues have also emerged, with varying degrees of importance across the region. In this special issue, leading academics examine how the oil palm industry has transformed the region. They also provide new insights into the regional processes of agrarian change and rural development associated with the oil palm boom.

You can listen to Professor George Curry, co-guest editor, discuss some of the issues surrounding oil palm on Radio Australia.

Oil palm and rural livelihoods in the Asia-Pacific region: An overview
Rob Cramb and George N. Curry

In the name of poverty alleviation: Experiments with oil palm smallholders and customary land in Sabah, Malaysia
Fadzilah Majid Cooke

Participation and power in Indonesian oil palm plantations
Piers Gillespie

New transmigration ‘paradigm’ in Indonesia: Examples from Kalimantan
Lesley Potter

Oil palm, food security and adaptation among smallholder households in Papua New Guinea
Gina Koczberski, George N. Curry and Veronica Bue

Informal formalisation in a hybrid property space: The case of smallholder oil palm production in Solomon Islands
Matthew Allen

Patronage politics as a driver of economic regionalisation: The Indonesian oil palm sector and transboundary haze
Helena Varkkey

Precarious lives: Transnational biographies of migrant oil palm workers
Oliver Pye, Ramlah Daud, Yuyun Harmono and Tatat

Read the top Asia Pacific Viewpoint articles online:

The challenge of sustainable tourism development in the Maldives: Understanding the social and political dimensions of sustainability
Regina Scheyvens

Governing sex workers in Timor Leste
Carol Harrington

A new inequality? Privatisation, urban bias, migration and medical tourism
John Connell

China's changing regional development: Trends, strategies and challenges in the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011–2015) period
Peter T.Y. Cheung

The tyranny of taste: The case of organic rice in Cambodia
Maylee Thavat

Asia Pacific Viewpoint is a journal of international scope, particularly in the fields of geography and its allied disciplines. Reporting on research in East and South East Asia, as well as the Pacific region, coverage includes:

• the growth of linkages between countries within the Asia Pacific region, including international investment, migration, and political and economic co-operation
• the environmental consequences of agriculture, industrial and service growth, and resource developments within the region
• first-hand field work into rural, industrial, and urban developments that are relevant to the wider Pacific, East and South East Asia
• theoretical research demonstrating the utility of concepts and frameworks for understanding of development patterns within the Asia Pacific region.