Agriculture has not only been fundamental in shaping Southeast Asia's landscape, economy and social organisation over the longue duree, but is still very important today - both economically, for the region's countries are among the world's major cash crop producers, and politically, as the frequent source of conflict between rural communities, national governments and transnational companies. Reflecting the continuing relevance of land use and agrarian change and renewed academic interest in it, this issue of the Journal of Southeast Asian Studies features six research articles that examine relevant themes in both historical and contemporary perspective. The articles highlight significant analogies and continuities between the colonial era and the present times with regard to land dispossession, the conflict between customary land tenure versus land titles, the aversion of central states to shifting cultivation by ethnic minorities and the consequences of cash crop substitution.
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