What Is in a Rim? : Critical Perspectives on the Pacific Region Idea

This pathbreaking, multidisciplinary work challenges our unthinking acceptance of such terms as 'Asia Pacific' and 'Pacific Rim.' Clarifying the hidden power relationships and hegemonic struggles that are disguised by ideological constructions of the region, the contributors uncover fundamental contradictions\_including the human costs and consequences\_that underlie the much-celebrated economic boom. In evaluating the idea of 'Asia Pacific,' the book shifts our focus from abstract relationships between capital and commodities to the human interactions that have played a formative part in the region's constitution. The contributors agree that it is these interactions that constitute the region, rather than the physical boundaries of the Pacific. This revised and updated edition brings in additional essays focusing on conceptualizations of the Pacific, considers more fully interactions among countries, and strongly emphasizes peoples within the Pacific, who are routinely ignored in most discussions of the 'Rim.' Contents Pari One: Pacific as Concept and Fantasy 1. Introduction: Pacific Contradictions • Arif Dirlik 2. The Asia-Pacific Idea: Reality and Representation in the Invention of a Regional Structure • Arif Dirlik 3. The Asia-Pacific Idea as a Mobilization Myth • Alexander Woodside 4. Rimspeak; or, The Discourse of the “Pacific Rim” • Bruce Cumings 5. On the Outs on the Rim: An Ethnographic Grounding of the “Asia-Pacific” Imaginary • Donald M. Nonini Pan Two: The Political Economy of the Pacific 6. The Northeast Asian Political Economy • Bruce Cumings 7. Global Sourcing and Regional Divisions of Labor in the Pacific Rim • Gary Gereffi 8. Market Dependency in U.S.–East Asian Relations • Meredith Woo-Cumings 9. China’s Growing Integration with the Asia-Pacific Economy • Xiangming Chen 10. Sexual Economies in the Asia-Pacific Community • Neferti Xina M. Tadiar Part Three: Pacific Social and Cultural Formations 11. Latin America in Asia-Pacific Perspective • Evelyn Hu-DeHart 12. The Asia-Pacific in Asian-American Perspective • Arif Dirlik 13. Pacific Island Responses to U.S. and French Hegemony • Glenn Alcalay 14. Blue Hawaii: Bamboo Ridge as “Critical Regionalism” • Rob Wilson 15. There Is More in the Rim Than Meets the Eye: Thoughts on the “Pacific Idea” • Arif Dirlik Index About the Book and the Editor About the Contributors "This pathbreaking, multidisciplinary work challenges our unthinking acceptance of such terms as "Asia Pacific" and "Pacific Rim." Clarifying the hidden power relationships and hegemonic struggles that are disguised by ideological constructions of the region, the contributors uncover fundamental contradictions - including the human costs and consequencesthat underlie the much-celebrated economic boom. In evaluating the idea of "Asia Pacific," the book shifts our focus from abstract relationships between capital and commodities to the human interactions that have played a formative part in the region's constitution. The contributors agree that it is these interactions that constitute the region, rather than the physical boundaries of the Pacific." "This revised and updated edition brings in additional essays focusing on conceptualizations of the Pacific, explores interactions among countries in greater depth, and strongly emphasizes peoples within the Pacific area who are routinely ignored in most discussions of the "Rim.""--Jacket This pathbreaking, multidisciplinary work challenges our unthinking acceptance of such terms as 'Asia Pacific' and 'Pacific Rim.' Revealing the hidden power relationships and hegemonic struggles that are disguised by ideological constructions of the region, the contributors uncover fundamental contradictions that underlie the much-celebrated economic boom. The book shifts our focus from abstract relationships between capital and commodities to the human interactions that the contributors agree constitute the region, rather than any physical boundaries. This revised and updated edition brings in additional essays focusing on conceptualizations of the Pacific, considers more fully interactions among countries, and strongly emphasizes peoples inhabiting the region, who are so often overlooked in most discussions of the 'Rim.'