The Nordic Asia Podcast

In this fascinating episode, Jacob Ricks joins Petra Desatova to talk about the politics of rice and rice prices in Thailand. Why is rice such a politically significant subject in Thailand? How have the different incarnations of the state rice policy shaped Thailand's political direction since the Second World War? And what role did rice play in the country's latest 2014 military coup? 

In this episode, Stig Toft Madsen from NIAS - the Nordic Institute for Asian Studies joins Kenneth Bo Nielsen from the University of Oslo to talk about the liberalization of Indian agriculture and the ongoing farmers’ protests that have seen tens of thousands of Indian farmers laying siege to the national capital New Delhi for more than a month.

In this podcast, Friederike Trotier talks to Petra Desatova about her recent book titled ‘Nation, City, Arena: Sports Events, Nation-Building and City Politics in Indonesia’ published by NIAS Press. Friederike shares her insights into why sports events matter, how she researched them in Indonesia and how they helped to transform the previously grim image of South Sumatra’s capital city, Palembang. 

In this episode, Edyta Roszko joins Adela Brianso from NIAS Press to talk about her latest book Fishers, Monks, and Cadres: Navigating State, Religion, and the South China Sea in Central Vietnam published by NIAS Press in October 2020. Edyta Roszko and Adela discuss the fascinating geopolitics of the South China Sea, religion in Vietnam, and the pragmatic ways in which people navigate the Vietnamese state in their daily lives. To learn more and buy Roszko’s timely book, visit https://www.niaspress.dk/book/fishers-monks-and-cadres/

Following the resignation of Japan’s Abe Shinzo in September 2020, Suga Yoshihide became the country’s first new Prime Minister in nearly 8 years. Suga served under Abe as his Chief Cabinet Secretary for many years, but what does this change mean for Japan? In this episode, Benedicte Irgens talks to Paul Midford and Dick Stegewerns about Japan’s direction after Abe including domestic politics, foreign policy, the role of the media, immigration, and environmental and energy policy.

Stephen Ranger of the European Centre for International Political Economy speaks with Satoko Naito about his recent publications on the early twentieth century Japanese film industry. Stephen explains the state of the Japanese, European, and American film industries of the time, including the decline of British influence on the international film market and subsequent Hollywood domination. He also discusses the role of Japanese governmental entities in select restrictions on films, as well as the global political and economic factors that brought about the situation.

In this recording from a book launch that NIAS arranged together with FREIA (Aalborg University), Researcher Pauline Stoltz and Director of NIAS, Duncan McCargo, discuss her latest book: “Gender, Resistance and Transnational Memories of Violent Conflicts”. In the book, Stoltz analyses the politics of memories of three violent conflicts that took place in Indonesia, covering the period between 1942 and 2015. By highlighting how people’s memories and experiences of injustices are related to gender, ‘race’, sexuality, nationality, and generation, she addresses not only how these historical conflicts were the result of inequalities, but also how these inequalities still hurt today both in Indonesia and in other parts of the world. In the book launch, McCargo and Stoltz discuss her use of innovative transnational and gender approaches in the research fields of transitional justice and memory politics and an original approach to the narrative analysis of four major Dutch and Indonesian novels.

What has been the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on international and Japanese NGO communities? How has Japanese humanitarian and development NGOs responded to the crisis both at home and abroad? How did Japanese NPOs step up to help vulnerable communities in the country and provided support in cases when governmental measures were not sufficient or absent? In this episode Silja Keva speaks with Kamila Szczepanska and Yoko Demelius to look beyond the response of PM Abe's administration to the pandemic and highlight contributions made by Japanese civil society actors to the ongoing struggle against socio-economic fallout from the COVID-19.

Art historian Minna Valjakka speaks with Satoko Naito to discuss her concept of Socially Engaged Creativity, which aims to both broaden and complicate the notion of civic participation through art and creativity. The conversation focuses on her research on protests in Hong Kong as well as various forms of urban hacking and environmental art, highlighting the wide range of protagonists that actively participate in civil discourse and the diverse expressions of their engagement. Dr. Valjakka also shares her approach to on-site fieldwork, stressing the prioritization of respect for the protagonists.

How did American imperialism affect Thai scholarship? And what does Buddhist cosmology got to do with the Thai royal tours to Burma and the United States in the 1960s? In this fascinating episode, Matthew Phillips talks to Petra Desatova about moving beyond binary readings of Thai history, avoiding existing preconceptions and using images to get a more holistic understanding of the past.