The Militancy of Kinship, Intimacy, and Religion: New Approaches for the Study of Social Movements in Contemporary Southeast Asia

What are the distinctive features of dissent in Southeast Asia? In this arti- cle, we examine the rise of social activism in contemporary Southeast Asia, drawing on examples of popular protest from countries as diverse as Myanmar, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Our analysis highlights the importance of examin- ing situational power dynamics in specific locales, with particular focus on areas often considered apolitical in modern philosophy: intimacy, religion, and kinship. We argue that Southeast Asia is not merely a site for the reception of resistance theories, but a source of theoretical production in its own right.