LSE Southeast Asia Forum

Our flagship event, the annual LSE Southeast Asia Forum (SEAF) brings together leading Southeast Asia experts to engage with some of the region's most critical and pressing issues, as well as showcases the high-quality research on Southeast Asia conducted at LSE.

Southeast Asia Forum 2023: Southeast Asia Futures

How do past and current trends inform the future of Southeast Asia? What can we learn from Political, Economic, and Urban approaches about how Southeast Asia is changing? In 2023 the Southeast Asia Forum will focus on Southeast Asia Futures, considering the questions from a variety of approaches and lenses. The events will offer a unique opportunity to learn from cutting-edge research and gain insight from experts working in and on Southeast Asia. We look forward to seeing you there. 

The Future of Sand: the Comparative Geopolitics of Land Reclamation, the Environment, and Social Change

Wednesday 15 February, 4:00pm - 5:45pm

The Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre is pleased to host the screening of two insightful documentaries: Flow of Sands which showcases the life of people and the disruption to the environment caused by land reclamation projects in Malacca, Malaysia; and City of Sand which captures the lives of sand in the city of Accra, providing an intimate insight into the environmental and social changes underway in the expanding metropolis.

The screening will be followed by conversations with the documentary producers, Dr Monika Arnez and Dr Kate Dawson, to broadly discuss the socio-ecological changes and the complexities of urbanisation the flow of sand symbolises. This event will take place in a hybrid format and be followed by light refreshments.

Southeast Asia Urban Futures

Thursday 16 February, 9:30am - 10:45am

Southeast Asia has been known for its rapid urbanisation. One of the emergent critical urban questions that call for urgent attention in Southeast Asia is how cities are planned and governed in climate emergencies and if the current pace of urbanisation can be sustained without endangering the lives of urban inhabitants. Against this backdrop, the panellists bring diverse perspectives to consider the urban futures of Southeast Asia, especially concerning the urban-nature nexus in light of the mounting pressure of climate change-induced urban challenges.

Southeast Asia’s Political Futures 

Thursday 16 February, 11:00am - 12:30pm

Southeast Asia is notable for the diversity of its political regimes, its political problems, and its patterns of political change. Today Southeast Asia faces uncertainty as to its political future(s) amidst heightened tensions between the United States and China, with democracy and human rights seemingly in decline in some countries and authoritarianism apparently entrenched in others, but popular struggles and violent conflicts remaining largely unresolved across the region, and young Southeast Asians demonstrating strong appetites for political change.

Southeast Asia Economic Futures: Climbing up global value chains: leveraging FDI for economic development in Asia

Thursday 16 February, 2:00 - 3:30pm 

How can policymakers leverage global value chains to advance regional economic dynamism? What are the specific strategies that national and local policymakers can adopt to attract FDI and foster participation in GVCs? How to move Asian local economies into higher value-added parts of a value chain, or ‘upgrade’? The panel will address these questions and further engage with the audience in a discussion on the future of sustainable development at the local level in Asia. Particularly of interest is what can and should be targeted with the available policy tools when harnessing GVCs for regional development.