Foreword

Summary

This book is the outcome of the fourth LSE Asia Forum which the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) co-hosted in Singapore on 11 April 2008. Global trends as well as more recent developments in the domestic politics of regional countries have made a forum on the politics of knowledge most timely.

As much as we will need to deepen our knowledge of politics, the politics of knowledge aided and abetted by the ceaseless changes in information technology will increasingly be part of the wider political contestations of our times. Whether all this will have liberating, democratizing and enfranchising effects on peoples and societies remains to be fully explored. To some, knowledge may not necessarily bring with it power — instead a sense of powerlessness.

Sustained economic growth can be attributed to good governance and openness to trade but undoubtedly too, knowledge and technology meld into a powerful driver of growth as evidenced by the success of the East Asian economies particularly China's. At the same time the commercialization of scientific knowledge can also lead to multiple conflicts between commercial interests and perceptions of the common good. Such conflicts need to be addressed, managed and governed. In modern society, access to and delivery of knowledge — in pursuit of “the truth” — is often subordinated to political contest. Does the Asian condition and “Asian values” provide any contextualization to the right of free speech in furtherance of the truth? New avenues to the dissemination of knowledge have in Asia and elsewhere created new opportunities for those who seek to pose challenges within established structures of religious knowledge and authority. Finally with respect to the pressing problems of our times posed by climate change and environmental degradation not just to Asia but to mankind as a whole, the need for sound analysis, understanding and knowledge culled from many disciplines is a crucial underpin to informed policy making.