ATI5061 South East Asian creative economy

This research-led capstone unit seeks to equip students with conceptual and methodological tools for the analysis and understanding of the variety of functions of culture and creative industries across the geography and various polities of South East Asia. Seeking to ‘de-Westernise’ cultural economy approaches, it pays particular attention to the character and needs of emergent economies of Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam etc. The unit approach encompasses theory and methods drawn from political economy, sociological, cultural and urban studies to identify and interrogate local policy, practice and organisation in the contemporary and historical creative sector of South East Asia. The unit is formulated to nurture an inter-disciplinary research community through a workshop-based pedagogy, predicated on local fieldwork and digital connection and exchange with a community of Monash scholars and students in Australia and Malaysia.

The unit equips students with skills to formulate practical agendas for CCI research and activity and communicate them to a variety of constituencies and interests in general and specific South East Asian contexts.