“Doing nothing”: the cultural production of inaction in ASEAN

In this talk, Deepak will discuss his in-progress book project on the everyday cultural production of ASEAN. At its broadest, the book examines how seemingly bogus, banal, and empty activity can have powerful political effects. It intervenes in a long-running (and inconclusive) debate on whether ASEAN’s diplomacy matters, and whether it “does anything” other than being a “talk shop.”

Drawing on fieldwork in the everyday circuits of ASEAN’s diplomacy in Jakarta, the book offers a thick description of the forms and sociological make-up of ASEAN’s banal practical activity and offers a novel response to this old debate on ASEAN’s cultural production.  

About the speaker

Deepak Nair is a Senior Lecturer in International Relations at Coral Bell School of Asia-Pacific Affairs, Australian National University. He is a sociologist of diplomacy and international bureaucracy with a regional focus on Southeast Asia. His research has been published in journals like International Studies Quarterly, the European Journal of International Relations (EJIR), International Political Sociology, History and Anthropology, among other venues. He is a recipient of the EJIR Best Article Prize 2020, and the 2022 Antony Deos Young Scholar Award in Diplomatic Studies from the International Studies Association.

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Image credit: Closeup image of mobile device screen with ASEAN logo by ralf used under Adobe Education License