Asia Research Institute (NUS)

Singapore imports almost all of its fruits and vegetables, but producing more food locally is not the only answer to food security. Part of the answer is much simpler: reducing waste. Food waste happens across the supply chain, from wholesalers to households. Cutting that waste means less food needs to be imported. @fridgerestockcommunitysg volunteer @jeffreyseuntjens has been helping recover surplus produce at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre. FRC now rescues more than 10 tonnes of fruits and vegetables every week, with plans to grow further. Link to full talk in bio.

We're proud to share that Stefan Heuber's new book 'Earth's Amphibious Transformation: The History and Present of the Oceanic Anthropocene' has been published by @cambridgeuniversitypress and is available to download via Open Access on their website: Link in bio. Stefan is a Senior Research Fellow in @ari.nus ' Science, Technology and Society cluster and President of the Society of Floating Solutions (Singapore) / SFSS and the Vice-Chair of the International Scientific Committee for the annual World Conference on Floating Solutions. 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗽𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 In the first history of the oceanic Anthropocene, Stefan Huebner explores the twentieth-century extension of human habitats into oceanic spaces. He shows how the effects of this amphibious transformation have followed a very different trajectory from human-driven change on land, in terms of both socioeconomic development and environmental degradation. The extension of the human habitat through artificial islands such as seabed-fixed and floating structures has granted vertical access to Earth's different spatial layers, from the fossil fuels beneath the seabed to outer space. Huebner asks why this transformation occurred; how it has been shaped by political, economic, and environmental factors; and how it has altered marine environments. A deeper understanding of Earth's amphibious transformation compels us to reconsider the history and future of climate change, sea level rise, energy transitions, human–marine species interactions, globalization, and even urbanization, including floating cities. This title is also available as open access on Cambridge Core. Congratulations Stefan!

Indonesia’s new capital is being built as a model sustainable city. But the materials needed to construct it tell another story. Drawing on fieldwork in Kalimantan and Sulawesi, this article follows the movement of extracted rock across Indonesia to show how the promise of a green future in Nusantara is tied to environmental damage, extraction, and risk elsewhere. In doing so, it reveals the hidden geographies and uneven realities behind official visions of sustainable urban development. Open Access. By ARI Research Fellow Bosman Batubara, Kei Otsuki, Femke van Noorloos, Michelle Kooy and Annelies Zoomers. Batubara, B., Otsuki, K., Van Noorloos, F., Kooy, M. and Zoomers, A. (2026), REPRODUCING OPERATIONAL LANDSCAPES: The Rock Mining for Indonesia's New Capital City. Int. J. Urban Reg. Res..

How do Singaporean households navigate the risks of food-contact plastics in everyday life, and what does this reveal about how health concerns, practical trade-offs, and the limits of precaution shape efforts to avoid plastics in an environment already 'awash with microplastics and plastic additives?' Co-authored by Qian Hui Tan and Brenda S.A. Yeoh. Tan, Q. H., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (2026). Plastic materialities in everyday geographies: Precautionary consumption, compromise and communicabilities in Singapore. 𝘎𝘦𝘰𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘶𝘮, 173. /10.1016/j.geoforum.2026.104658 This open-access research is supported by the @moesingapore under its Academic Research Fund Tier 2, [MOE-T2EP40121-0005; PI: Brenda Yeoh].

📣 Call for Papers: Urbanization Beyond the City We are inviting proposals for a workshop exploring how ideas of urbanization extend beyond the traditional boundaries of the city—and how these concepts emerge, evolve, and travel across regions. Southeast Asia (SEA) has been, and remains, fertile ground for research that unsettles any neat dichotomy of city versus non-city, and association of urbanization only with the former. This has given rise to work on the urban beyond the city, most famously “desakota” (McGee, 1991). What other concepts, terms or ideas emerge from the region alongside (or perhaps in the shadow of) desakota? Where specifically have these terms emerged from and where (beyond as well as within the region) have they travelled to? How does Southeast Asia relate to the wider traffic in ideas around burgeoning literatures on planetary urbanization and planetary ruralization? These are the overarching questions that frame this urban/rural studies workshop on the making and mobility of concepts from Southeast Asia. We are especially interested in work examining: 1. SEA as a region of historical and ongoing efforts to conceptualize urbanization beyond the city or the rural in the city 2. How concepts derived from SEA have been taken up and developed in other regional contexts 3. Ways in which concepts from elsewhere are, in turn, drawn upon to conceptualize the urban beyond the city in SEA 4. Approaches to studying conceptualization from SEA in comparison or relation to elsewhere 5. Appraisal of conceptual resources and frontiers with respect to urbanization beyond the city, and future prospects 📅 Workshop dates: 24–25 September 2026 📍 Location: @nus_singapore 🗓️ Deadline for proposals: 29 May 2026 We welcome interdisciplinary perspectives and innovative approaches to rethinking urbanization beyond the city. 🔗 More details available via the workshop page or link in bio.

In mid-2010s, a REDD+ project was piloted with the aim of seeking continuous finance from the voluntary carbon market. Despite project verification, the carbon credits were never issued and sold. New on ARIscope: The case of the unsold carbon credits: Lessons from an early-REDD+ project in Southern Laos. By @yingshan.lau , khamsing keothoumma, Yunrui Ren and Sithong Thongmanivong 🔗Link in bio.

New Open Access research in the International Journal of Urban and Regional Research explores how the emergence of Silk Road urbanism signals a significant shift in the focus of Anglophone urban studies, challenging the longstanding dominance of the NY-LON (New York and London) axis. Co-authored by Tim Bunnell, leader of ARI's Asian Urbanisms cluster, Han Cheng, PhD and Wenn Er Tan. FROM NY-LON TO SILK? Shifting Centres of Attention in the World's Urban Fabric: /10.1111/1468-2427.70090. Published by @wiley_global Link in bio

Congratulations to Jamie S. Davidson, leader of ARI's Food Politics and Society cluster, on his new book 𝘙𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘗𝘰𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘚𝘰𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘈𝘴𝘪𝘢: 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘢𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘙𝘦𝘷𝘰𝘭𝘶𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯, published by Cambridge University Press & Assessment. Rice is the foremost foodstuff in terms of caloric intake for Southeast Asians and for bolstering national food security, yet writings on the region's politics have overlooked the crucial role rice production programs have played in shaping signal political and development outcomes. In this comparative historical analysis, Prof Davidson argues that the performance legitimacy stemming from the Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, along with the formation of rice import regimes, best explain durable rice protectionism in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the region's large rice importers. This innovative account and its conclusions will be of interest to scholars and students of development studies, comparative political economy and Asian studies. 🔗Link in bio

🎮 Gaming Asia Asian Nationalism through the Lens of Video Games 📅 29–30 April 2026 📍 @nus_singapore @Kent Ridge Campus (AS8, Seminar Room 04-04) Hosted by @ari.nus Over the past several years, Gaming Asia has emerged as a captivating cultural phenomenon. While established global centres of video games—the United States, Europe, and Japan—remain vibrant, Asia has become the world’s largest market and a core locus of production, innovation, and contestation in digital culture: video games are produced, modded, played, streamed, circulated, archived, and competed over at scales unmatched elsewhere. Yet Gaming Asia is not only about entertainment or economic revenue; it has also become a focal arena where national forces are entangled in projects of remapping—especially against the backdrop of a fragmented imagination of Asia, splintered into reified national categories and resurgent, reactionary nationalisms. This workshop explores: • How video games reflect and shape nationalism across Asia • The role of gaming in geopolitics, heritage, and cultural identity • Tensions between national agendas and global gaming cultures • How players and communities reinterpret and challenge dominant narratives 👥 Convenors @zezhou_yang , @ari.nus Rani Singh, @ari.nus Tim Winter, @ari.nus 🎟 Free admission Register to attend. Programme & abstracts available. Link in bio

𝘋𝘩𝘢𝘬𝘢, 𝘌𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘐𝘮𝘢𝘨𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘚𝘶𝘣𝘫𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘊𝘪𝘵𝘺 by Tabassum Zaman explores how everyday experiences and imagination shape urban life, revealing the hidden “soft” dimensions of the city alongside its physical form. Tabbassum was a Postdoctoral Fellow at ARI between 2015-2016, where this work was supported and developed. /book/10.1007/978-981-95-6429-3

Transforming Informality: Redevelopment and Urban Governance in China and India Yue Zhang, Associate Professor @thisisuic 📅 6 May 2026 🕓 16:00–17:30 (SGT) 📍 Hybrid (Zoom & NUS @ KRC) How do China and India redevelop informal settlements—and why do outcomes differ so sharply? Yue Zhang explores how urban governance shapes transformation in urban villages in Guangzhou and squatter settlements in Mumbai. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻:: Prof Tim Bunnell, @ari.nus , and Department of Geography, @nus_singapore Free admission. Link to register in bio.

𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗲 Awarded the ARI–FASS Book Manuscript Award (2020) to support work on the manuscript during her time as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Asia Research Institute, Michelle H. S. Ho’s new book 𝘌𝘮𝘦𝘳𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘎𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴: 𝘓𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘛𝘰𝘬𝘺𝘰'𝘴 𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘬 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘰𝘮𝘪𝘦𝘴 is now out. The book will be launched at an in-person event @fassnus tomorrow. “By rethinking identitarian models of gender and sexuality... I offer new ways of examining how trans and gender nonconforming individuals may survive and flourish under capitalism.” Prof Ho is Assistant Professor of Feminist and Queer Cultural Studies at @cnmnus , @nus_singapore . 📅 16 April 2026 (Thursday) 🕓 4.00pm – 6.00pm 📍 NUS FASS AS8 Level 4, Seminar Room 04-04 Register at the link in bio (or scan QR code in poster) Light refreshments provided.