Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands

Centering the Margin: Agency and Narrative in Southeast Asian Borderlands
ISBN-10
1845455916
ISBN-13
9781845455910
Category
Social Science
Pages
248
Language
English
Published
2008-10-01
Author
Alexander Horstmann

Description

In a completely new approach to borders and border crossing, this volume suggests a re-conceptualization of the nation in Southeast Asia. Choosing an actor approach, the individual chapters in this volume capture the narratives of minorities, migrants and refugees who inhabit and cross borders as part of their everyday life. They show that people are not only constrained by borders; the crossing of borders also opens up new options of agency. Making active use of these, border-crossing actors construct their own live projects on the border in multiple ways against the original intention of the nation-state. Based on their intimate knowledge of the interaction of communities, anthropologists from Europe, the USA, Japan and Southeast Asia provide a vivid picture of the effects of state policies at the borders on these communities.

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