This essay considers ways in which China and an “East Asia” which includes Southeast Asia can both be compared to Europe in ways that help us appreciate the limitations of conceptualizing political processes largely through practices pioneered in European history. Contrasts between political institutions in China and Europe historically and today in turn suggest the flexible ways in which “region” can mediate between the global and the local levels of analysis. Through historical and comparative arguments this essay simultaneously reframes the debates on area studies and on regionalism and regional integration in ways that open up new lines of inquiry and a new agenda for research under the rubric of “East Asia.” The essay argues that we need to attend to patterns of spatial similarities and connections, as well as differences, to better understand how regions were historically constructed and how these constructions shape the possibilities and limits of region-thinking and making.

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This paper analyzes the occupational changes and upward mobility of urban low-income residents in Bangkok, using macro and micro data including field survey. In traditional theory, the image of upward mobility tends to be linear; that is, it assumes movement from the Informal Economy to the Formal Economy, from informal to modern sectors. However, analysis shows that the actual pattern of occupational paths and people’s perceptions of upward mobility is different from the assumptions found in traditional theory. First, the occupational opportunity of lower-class changes within a macro context and people choose their occupations by interacting with these changes. Therefore, their occupational paths are not linear. Second, for most workers, the final goal is not participation in the Formal Economy but the Informal Economy.

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Cardamom (Amomum kravanh) has been used as a medicinal plant, a food and as a source of revenue in the Cardamom Mountain region in south west Cambodia, from at least the late 19^th century. Harvesting of this plant entailed a ceremony to open the season, conducted by a harvest leader (dângkhaw), who took responsibility in leading the harvest group in harvest activities. Production of this plant was also controlled by the then French colonial government in order to secure state revenue by reforming the taxation system and organizing a marketing cooperative system managed by local administration which used a similar system in 1950s and 1960s.
 However, the use of cardamom was interrupted in 1970s and 1980s due to civil war that broke out under the Pol Pot regime. Although its use and management restarted after the establishment of a new government in 1990 alongside the creation of protected forest in 2002 through conservation activities, the author has observed that its use has changed and diversified between both the northern and southern part of the central mountains. That is in the north, ceremony, harvest and selling is still practiced, whereas in the south, people don't practice ceremony and are inclined to refrain from harvest and selling.
 This paper will explore how the use of cardamom differed and changed due to historical transitions and social and environmental conditions between the two research sites correlating it with the harvesting leader, marketing system and conservation activities. It then discusses factors effecting its continuous use.
 The following two points were the core internal factors that supported the continuous use of cardamom in the northern part of the mountains. (1) A fundamental system for practicing harvest custom formed by interaction between characteristics of dângkhaw (a. Commitment to on the ground activity, b. A hereditary role in transferring knowledge and experiences among kin, c. The adjustment of the harvesting period to collect well ripened fruits with a good market price) and the environmental setting of the area where cardamom was abundant. (2) The dângkhaw and his family who managed this system reconstructed and maintained harvest customs even under conditions of rapid social change and historical transitions. In addition to this, (3) External intervention through the introduction of a marketing system and conservation activities that linked with the internal harvesting system, formed a system connecting both the inside and outside world of the community through maintaining conditions for selling the harvest.

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