CFP: Workshop on Ethnographic Approaches to Cross-Border Livelihoods and Networks in Mainland Southeast Aia

December 18-19, 2014, Hanoi

Organized by the Australian National University and the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Studies, Vietnam National University, Hanoi.

Supported by recent ASEAN and ADB policies and investments, mainland Southeast Asia's socially and environmentally significant border landscapes are becoming more politically and economically connected. In these rapidly changing environments, social actors negotiate complex social relations and livelihoods, new markets and the opportunities and risks of greater connectivity. Cross-border commodity flows, movements and infrastructure are central to this. Smaller scale flows of commodities and people may not be well covered in national statistics, but their aggregated impacts on local economies and landscapes may be substantial.

This workshop aims to facilitate scholarly comparative discussion on mainland Southeast Asia's cross-border flows (of commidities, people), their connection to borderland livelihoods and identities, and their role in connection border regions to wider national and transnational domains. The workshop will consider the significance of small to medium scale cross-border trade for local livelihoods, landscapes and mainland Southeast Asia's dynamic societies.

Paper proposals are invited on the following workshop themes: 

• borderland livelihoods
• migration and mobility
• gendered trade
• border networks and minority ethnicity in SEAsia
• timber and land-based commodity flows
• cross-border wildlife trade

Proposals should be no longer than 300 words and should be accompanied by a brief 1-2 page curriculum vitae. Please send these to sango.mahanty@anu.edu.au by 15 August 2014.

Travel grants are available for a limited number of regional  and Vietnam-based presenters, and will be discussed after abstracts are selected.