This book shows the impact of globalization on Southeast Asia, which over a few decades has evolved from a loose set of war-torn ex-colonies to being a centre of global manufacturing. Focusing on cities, Howard Dick and Peter J. Rimmer explain the emergence of modern Southeast Asia and its increasing integration into the world economy by showing how technological change, economic development and politics have transformed the flows of goods, people and information.

Surabaya is Indonesia's second largest city but is not well known to the outside world. Yet in 1900, Surabaya was a bigger city than Jakarta and one of the main commercial centers of Asia. Collapse of sugar exports during the 1930s depression, followed by the Japanese occupation, revolution, and independence, brought on a long period of stagnation and retreat from the international economy. Not until the export boom of the 1990s did Surabaya regain prominence as Southeast Asia's leading non capital city industrial area.
Previous thinking on Indonesia is being reassessed in light of recent...