FRONTIER ENVIRONMENTS AND DEVELOPMENT IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Day 2 May 31, 2008

Saturday 31 May 9:30 – 3:30 pm SFU Burnaby Mountain, RCB 6152 [across the road from the Diamond Alumni Centre, close to the first bus stop coming up to the mountain]; a workshop on frontier environments, borders and boundaries in Southeast Asia

Mainland Southeast Asia provides a rich context to understand and theorize the connections between frontiers, borders, governance, ethnicity and development. Edmund Leach called northern Burma a “frontier” whose multiethnic population did not cohere into a nation. Central governments often conceive of frontiers as emptiable spaces, ripe for colonization, development and resource extraction. In this region, borders often constrict or impinge on the everyday movements of people, goods, and ideas. Yet, in other ways, these borders are more porous and flexible than commonly understood, and to some people they offer a potential, not just a limit; they offer cooperation as well as conflict. Development projects provide a lens through which to understand how local, domestic and international aspirations and intentions intersect with and are transformed in the conjunctures of governance, ethnicity, borders and frontiers in Southeast Asia, and beyond. [this workshop’s detailed program will be available on request].

This lecture is FREE!
Call 778 782 5100 to make a reservation!