Asian Studies Series Monograph, no. 9. Acton, ACT: ANU Press, 2017. ix, 280 pp. (Figures, coloured photos, illustrations.) AUD$50.00, paper. ISBN 978-1-760460-90-7.
In Northeast Asia, as in many parts of the world, politics is in crisis. Alienation from formal politics in many of the region’s democracies may appropriately explain the crisis of democracy. This region is now facing a time like no other in its history, with an exceptionally high demand for an alternative way of politics. Coping with perceived threats to their livelihood and cultural survival, people often take politics into their own hands for problem solving. Despite the increased activities beyond formal political processes, little attention is given to specific local responses to the crisis of democracy through the informal politics of everyday life. This book seeks to fill this gap in the existing research.
Tessa Morris-Suzuki, one of the two editors of the book, provides a theoretically challenging starting point for a better understanding of the neglected dimensions of the political space of Northeast Asia. To this end, she proposes a conceptual framework, “informal life politics,” which is defined as “an act of collected self-protection in the face of the profound deficits of institutional politics” (2). To introduce this innovative conceptual framework, New Worlds from Below shows how the actions of informal grassroots groups in Northeast Asia are creating new ideas and practices at the grassroots level. They are called “survival politics” in the face of threats to their life. In the book, the autonomous collective responses in various parts of East Asia are empirically illustrated by scholars and activists from various disciplines. A small number of the cases explored in this book are quite diverse in practice, yet the editors nicely place the stories side-by-side to highlight the commonalities of informal life politics.
This book offers empirical insights for less visible political activities at the grassroots level and is a must read for those working on civic space in Asia. In chapter 1, Sho Konishi examines the historical origins of the ideas and experiments associated with informal life politics by exploring the manifestation of these ideas on the cooperatist movement in early twentieth-century Hokkaido. Chapters 2 and 3, by Ou Ning and Tessa Morris-Suzuki, respectively, describe how villagers sought to autonomously reconstruct village life at the Bishan commune in China and in the mountainous areas of Nagano Prefecture against endless economic expansion. These chapters show how the ideas of rural revival movements have spread across time and space. In chapter 4, Simon Avenell highlights the “translocal” links among local environmental struggles and activists in the 1970s and 1980s in Asia. Shoko Yoneyama and Adam Broinowski examine grassroots responses to environmental disasters in Minamata and Fukushima in chapters 5 and 6, respectively, and in chapter 7 Cho (Han) Haeojong investigates the Sewol ferry disaster in South Korea. Olivier Krischer discusses artistic activities as a form of informal life politics in chapter 8, through the case of Hong Kong’s Wooferten art space. Chapter 9, by Eun Jeong Soh, is an intriguing story of people in North Korea who tried to use the power of a commercial system against state repression. The final chapter, authored by the Hope Institute, brings the collected stories in this book into a broader comparative perspective, exploring common characteristics of Asian grassroots social innovation.
As the editors acknowledge, the works collected in the book offer “starting points on a journey to a deeper understanding” (14) of informal life politics in Northeast Asia. The theoretical perspective and empirical insights offered in this book allow a dialogue that provides an alternative way of imagining the production of political space in Northeast Asia. Further research is expected to provide a trenchant response to important issues concerning the leverage of informal life politics vis-à-vis the contemporary state in an era of globalization. Research questions that go beyond the scope of this book will enhance the importance of research in this area. To what extent can informal life politics perform a state function? Does the field of effective political power at the grassroots level need to be shared by diverse forces at national, regional, and global levels? Is there a way for informal life politics to bridge policy gaps among local action, national policy, and global strategies? How can informal life politics be accountable to stakeholders? Why do some experiments in informal life politics succeed and others fail? Is the action of informal life politics likely to be more successful on some issues than on others? How do domestic structures and culture explain variations in success and failure? Given the book’s focus on links between “locals” and “outsiders” in wider processes of social and political change, it will be useful to connect the debate of decentralization and governance from below with its effects on democracy building across state borders. This book is essential as a starting point to understanding the path between traditional institutional reforms and social innovation practices that exist in Northeast Asia. As Morris-Suzuki suggests, the focus of this research project will play a significant role in enhancing “the development of integrated and theoretically informed Northeast Asian studies” (https://informallifepolitics.wordpress.com/).
Yasuo Takao
Curtin University, Perth, Australia