Debates about the nature of globalisation have often taken a very abstract turn and have often failed to address the specificities of urban cultures and of the sociological as well as economic changes created by globalising forces. This paper examines the relationship between class, consumer culture and civil society in contemporary south-east Asian cities, particularly in the light of the region-wide economic crisis beginning in 1997. It attempts to place the relationship between class and civil society participation in the bigger framework of consumption behaviour, arguing that this both creates the primary cultural context in which the new middle classes in Asia operate and provides the linkage between globalisation and local urban cultures. In doing so, it attempts to provide a fresh perspective on south-east Asian urban social processes and to suggest an avenue for more accurately theorising the nature of urban social movements from a comparative perspective and specifically in the ethnically, religiously and culturally complex urban societies of contemporary Asia.
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