List of Publications

Peer-Reviewed Articles

Lim, Al. 2025. “Experimenting through Sen: The lived networks of Thailand’s cannabis boom.” Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space. https://doi.org/10.1177/25148486251393244

Kanoi, Lav, Paul B. Burow, Yufang Gao, Al Lim, Kaggie Orrick, Evan A. Singer, and Michael R. Dove. 2024. “Re-constructing Restoration: A Critical Review of the Practice, Politics, and Process of Restoration in Diverse Ecologies.” Environment and Society: Advances in Research 15: 23–46. https://www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/environment-and-society/15/1/ares150102.xml

Lim, Al. 2024. “Statue and Mine: Chao Anouvong, Chinese Capital, and Rescaling the Lao Nation.” The Journal of Lao Studies, 8(1), 41–71. https://www.laostudies.org/system/files/subscription/Lim.pdf

Lim, Al. 2024. “The Gendered Allure of Nang Kwak: From Statuettes to NFTs in Thailand.” The Journal of the Siam Society, 112(2), 133–154. https://so06.tci-thaijo.org/index.php/pub_jss/article/view/279293

Lim, Al. 2024. “Tracing the smart virus in a smart city: a discursive analysis of Singapore’s early pandemic surveillance response.” Urban Geography, 45(10): 1780–1798. https://doi.org/10.1080/02723638.2024.2336840

Yamada, Shoko, Lav Kanoi, Vanessa Koh, Al Lim, and Michael R. Dove. 2022. "Sustainability as a Moral Discourse: Its Shifting Meanings, Exclusions, and Anxieties." Sustainability 14(5): 3095. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14053095

Kanoi, Lav, Vanessa Koh, Al Lim, Shoko Yamada, and Michael R. Dove. 2022. “'What is infrastructure? What does it do?': Anthropological perspectives on the workings of infrastructure(s).” Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability, 2: 012002.https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/2634-4505/ac4429

Zhou, Wen, Kaggie Orrick, Al Lim, and Michael R. Dove. 2021. “Reframing Conservation and Development Perspectives on Bushmeat.” Environmental Research Letters 17: 011001. http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ac3db1.

Lim, Al. 2021. “Constructions of Hope: Three Grounds for Unity in African Urban Theory.” The Saharan Journal 1(3): 245–265. National Institute for African Studies (NIAS).

Lim, Al. 2019. “(Un)Global Heritage Sites.” Yale-NUS Undergraduate Journal 3: 105–16.

Book Chapters

Woods, Orlando, Al Lim, and Lily Kong. 2025. “Sedimented Surveillance in Southeast Asia’s ‘Smart’ City-State: The Case of Singapore.” In Dietrich Oberwittler and Rebecca Wickes(eds.), Handbook on Cities and Crime: 468–82. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Lim, Al. 2022. “Rewriting Food Insecurity Narratives in Singapore.” In Hyun Bang Shin, Murray Mckenzie, and Do Young Oh (Eds.), COVID-19 in Southeast Asia: Insights for a Post-Pandemic World: 239–248. London, UK: LSE Press.

Lim, Al, and Feroz Khan. 2020. “Learning to Thrive: Educating Singapore’s Children for a Climate-Changed World.” In Matthew Schneider-Mayerson (Ed.), Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene: Environmental Perspectives on Life in Singapore: 221–240. Singapore: Ethos Books.

Other Writing

Lim, Al. 2021. “Methodological Pivoting in COVID-19: experimenting with critical corpus-based analysis.” LSE Field Methods. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/fieldresearch/2021/06/14/methodological-pivoting-in-covid-19-experimenting-with-critical-corpus-based-analysis/

Chia, Jasmine and Al Lim. 2020. “Rice for Fish: Karen counter-narratives of self-sufficiency and Thainess.” New Mandala. https://www.newmandala.org/rice-for-fish-karen-counter-narratives-of-self-sufficiency-and-thainess/.

Khan, Feroz, and Al Lim. 2020. “Connecting public and planetary health: Transition virtues for a green COVID-19 recovery.” Academia.SG. https://www.academia.sg/academic-views/connecting-public-and-planetary-health-transition-virtues-for-a-green-covid-19-recovery/.

Lim, Al. 2020. “Myanmar Needs to Redefine Its COVID-19 Stimulus Package.” Tea Circle Oxford.https://teacircleoxford.com/2020/06/25/myanmar-needs-to-redefine-its-covid-19-stimulus-package/

Koh, Vanessa, Al Lim, and Jill J. Tan. 2020. “The Singaporean State and Community Care in the Time of Corona.” City & Society. doi: 10.1111/CISO.12297.

Lim, Al. 2020. “Will There Be a Nouveau Poor?” Singapore Policy Journal: A Harvard Kennedy School Student Publication. https://spj.hkspublications.org/2020/04/05/will-there-be-a-nouveau-poor/.

Lim, Al. 2019. “Golden Mile Complex: Not Just Another Space.” Singapore Policy Journal: A Harvard Kennedy School Student Publication, Migrants in Singapore Spotlight. https://studentreview.hks.harvard.edu/golden-mile-complex-not-just-another-space/.

Lim, Al. 2018. “Mrauk U-NESCO-Cide or Not?” Asia Research Institute: Asian Urbanisms Blog. https://blog.nus.edu.sg/ariurban/2018/04/23/guest-post-mrauk-u-nesco-cide-or-not/.

Lim, Al. 2017. “Singapore: A Climate-Resilient City?” Singapore Policy Journal: A Harvard Kennedy School Student Publication. https://spj.hkspublications.org/2017/12/23/singapore-a-climate-resilient-city/.

Talks and Conference Presentations

Lim, Al. 2026. “More than Mania: Crypto as Lottery in Thailand.” Paper presented at Money Like Things seminar series. Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada.

Lim, Al. 2026. “Navigating the Promises and Perils of Crypto in Southeast Asia.” Discussant for Regional Economic Studies Programme. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), Singapore.

Lim, Al. 2025. “More than Mania: the Social Categories of Crypto in Thailand.” Paper presented at American Anthropological Association annual meeting. New Orleans, USA.

Lim, Al. 2025. “Is Left Curve the New Smart? Crypto, Biohacking, and Emergent Citizen Imaginaries.” Paper presented at Technocratic Governance and the Politics of Smart City Knowledge Transfer. The Urban Institute, Singapore Management University.

Lim, Al. 2025. “Experimenting through Sen: The Lived Networks of Thailand’s Cannabis Boom.” Paper presented at Environmental Humanities Symposium and YSE Research Day. Yale University.

Lim, Al. 2024. “On Science and Sen: Unpacking Thailand’s Cannabis Boom.” Paper presented at The Urbanisation Challenge in Asia: The Pasts, Presents and Futures workshop. The Urban Institute, Singapore Management University.

Lim, Al. 2024. “The Gendered Allure of Nang Kwak: from statuettes to NFTs in Thailand.” Paper presented at the Sin Wai-Kin Fellowship Awardee Webinar Series. Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, Hong Kong.

Lim, Al. 2023. “On Giving a Dam(n): Reframing Bitcoin Mining in Laos.” Lecture at Polytechnic University of the Philippines’ Economic Sociology Webinar Series. Online.

Lim, Al. 2023. “The Allure of Nang Kwak: from amulets to NFTs.” Presented at the International Conference on Amulet Cultures. Pridi Banomyong International College (PBIC), Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand.

Lim, Al. 2022. “Statue and Mine: Chao Anouvong, the Lao Nation, and China’s Copper Gift.” Presented at the 7th International Conference on Lao Studies, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Online.

Lim, Al. 2022. “Bitcoin, a Religion: ambivalent sacrality between hope and environmental degradation.” Presented at the Tropical Resources Institute Symposium and Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology, Yale School of the Environment, New Haven, CT.

Lim, Al. 2021. “Splinters and Care: Regrounding the Future Smart City.” Association of Thai Students in America Conference. Boston, MA.

Lim, Al. 2020. “Speaking Up, Speaking With, Speaking To: how do we communicate equitably in an unequal world?” Activism in Crisis Festival. Online.

Lim, Al. 2020. “Community Research in the Urban Age,” Presented at “30 by 30 in our Next Generation by Maju Collective: Enabling Communities.” Online.

Khan, Feroz and Al Lim. 2020. “How do we Educate for a Climate-Crisis World? A Discussion,” New Narati f, Podcast. https://newnaratif.com/podcast/how-do-we-educate-for-a-climate-crisis-world-a-discussion/.

Lim, Al. 2020. “Burmese Macroeconomics and COVID-19.”Presented at “The COVID-19 Pandemic and Myanmar's Response,” London Burma Studies Group. Online.

Lim, Al. 2020. “The Production and Reproduction of Water Insecurity in a Northern Thai Village.” presented at The 12th Samaggi Samaggom Academic Conference and Careers Fair. Holiday Inn London Kensington Forum, London, UK.

Lim, Al. 2019. “Forest School: Should Singaporean Education Turn Over A New Leaf?” presented at The 1st Singapore Undergraduate Research Conference. Yale-NUS College, Singapore.

Lim, Al. 2018. “Water (In)security: A Case Study in a Northern Thai Village.” presented at the Emerging Civic Urbanisms and Designing for Social Impact Conference, Great Asian Streets Symposium. National University of Singapore, Singapore.

Book Reviews

Lim, Al. 2023. Review of Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region, by Philip Hirsch, Kevin Woods, Natalia Scurrah, and Michael B. Dwyer, eds., Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2022. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews. https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=58563

Lim, Al. 2023. Review of Projectland: Life in a Lao Socialist Model Village, by Holly High, Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai’i Press, 2021. LSE Review of Books and LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre Blog. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2023/02/02/book-review-projectland-life-in-a-lao-socialist-model-village-by-holly-high/

Lim, Al. 2022. Review of Fighting for Virtue: Justice and Politics in Thailand, by Duncan McCargo, Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 2020. LSE Review of Books and LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre Blog. https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/seac/2022/01/13/book-review-fighting-for-virtue-justice-and-politics-in-thailand-by-duncan-mccargo/