In this short introduction, we would like to underline a few recurring characteristics in the articles that we present, characteristics that were identified through common discussion in our fieldwork: the relevance of regimes of visibility and the invisible, the fundamental role of emplaced emotions, the extent to which a specific site works as a symbolic organisation and the symbolic value of material infrastructures. Through the people who were involved in the sites as workers, residents or planners, we intended to study how different and often competing regional visions become not only relevant, but also consciously relevant in people’s life.
The two sites were part of developmental plans that very explicitly targeted world standards and Asian ideals and reflected local policies, national economic trends and massive transnational investments they were also the scene of long-term social conflict. Monika Arnez focused on the development of a luxury neighbourhood entirely built on reclaimed land in Melaka, and Silvia Vignato singled out a declining extractive location in North Aceh.
As anthropologists in the team, we chose to study social objects defined by the interplay of capital, the environment and work. The idea of this volume was born within a multidisciplinary research on regional dynamics in Southeast Asia which considered both micro and macro levels of analysis.
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