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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

Short Articles & Commentaries

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/.

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/.

Talks and Conference Presentations

More than Mania: Crypto as Lottery in Thailand

  • Money Like Things lecture series. Simon Fraser University, 2026.

  • Haunted by the Market panel. American Anthropological Association annual meeting, New Orleans, 2025.

Navigating the Promises and Perils of Crypto in Southeast Asia

  • Discussant, Regional Economic Studies Programme. Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS), 2026.

Is Left Curve the New Smart? Crypto, Biohacking, and Emergent Citizen Imaginaries

  • Technocratic Governance and the Politics of Smart City Knowledge Transfer. The Urban Institute, Singapore Management University, 2025.

Experimenting through Sen: The Lived Networks of Thailand’s Cannabis Boom

  • Environmental Humanities Symposium. Yale University, 2025.

  • YSE Research Day. Yale University, 2025.

  • TheUrbanisation Challenge in Asia: The Pasts, Presents and Futures workshop. The Urban Institute, Singapore Management University, 2024.

The Gendered Allure of Nang Kwak: from statuettes to NFTs in Thailand

  • Sin Wai-Kin Fellowship Awardee Webinar Series. Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 2024.

  • International Conference on Amulet Cultures. Pridi Banomyong International College (PBIC), Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, 2023.

On Giving a Dam(n): Reframing Bitcoin Mining in Laos

  • Economic Sociology Webinar Series. Polytechnic University of the Philippines, 2023.

  • Tropical Resources Institute Symposium. Yale University, 2022.

  • Graduate Conference in Religion and Ecology. Yale University, 2022.

Statue and Mine: Chao Anouvong, the Lao Nation, and China’s Copper Gift

  • 7th International Conference on Lao Studies. Deakin University, 2022.

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/