What Is in a Rim?

by Arif Dirlik

This pathbreaking, multidisciplinary work challenges our unthinking acceptance of such terms as "Asia Pacific" and "Pacific Rim." Clarifying the hidden power relationships and hegemonic struggles that are disguised by ideological constructions of the region, the contributors uncover fundamental contradictions - including the human costs and consequencesthat underlie the much-celebrated economic boom. In evaluating the idea of "Asia Pacific," the book shifts our focus from abstract relationships between capital and commodities to the human interactions that have played a formative part in the region's constitution. The contributors agree that it is these interactions that constitute the region, rather than the physical boundaries of the Pacific. This revised and updated edition brings in additional essays focusing on conceptualizations of the Pacific, explores interactions among countries in greater depth, and strongly emphasizes peoples within the Pacific area who are routinely ignored