The Political Economy of Border Checkpoints in Shadow Exchanges

Ngo, Tak-Wing; Hung, Eva P. W.

doi:10.1080/00472336.2018.1555273

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 42 publications

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“…In line with much of the critical current thinking on contemporary Asian borderlands (Jones and Ferdoush 2018;Kalir and Sur 2012;Ngo and Hung 2019), everyday border practices in the Borneo highlands simultaneously defy and reify the Indonesian-Malaysian border. My companion and I had fetched a ride in the back of a pickup truck travelling from Indonesia to Malaysia.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands

Klem¹

2021

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

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This article studies the life histories of two broker figures from the Borneo highlands to explore the changing borderland dynamics of Krayan, an Indonesian region bordering on Malaysia. Rather than a lagging or rebellious periphery, the region can best be understood as a site of experimentation. Krayan's history is strongly shaped by shifting patterns of infrastructural connectivity and mobile networks. This, I posit, has resulted in an indigenous version of an informal special economic zone which is economically integrated with Malaysia but leverages political clout in Indonesia. The regular cross-border caravan of pick-up trucks has started to receive government attention. The highland elite now seeks to formalise Krayan's constellation into a special administrative status by showcasing its links to Malaysia, thus leveraging the governmental pride and anxiety vested in the border. Rather than evading the state, I argue that this manoeuvring centres on improving the terms of opting in.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 81%

‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands

Klem¹

2021

The Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology

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“…As mentioned above, there is a growing literature on small-scale cross-border trade in the Chinese context that shows how the state is embedded in flourishing illicit economies (cf. Ngo and Hung 2019). Building upon this literature this Chapter has underlined the coexistence of such processes with the establishment and development of large-scale cross-border infrastructure as part of the BRI.…”

Section: From Timber To Ambermentioning

confidence: 99%

Borderland Infrastructures

Rippa¹

2020

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Asian Borderlands presents the latest research on borderlands in Asia as well as on the borderlands of Asia-the regions linking Asia with Africa, Europe and Oceania. Its approach is broad: it covers the entire range of the social sciences and humanities. The series explores the social, cultural, geographic, economic and historical dimensions of border-making by states, local communities and flows of goods, people and ideas. It considers territorial borderlands at various scales (national as well as supra-and sub-national) and in various forms (land borders, maritime borders), but also presents research on social borderlands resulting from border-making that may not be territorially fixed, for example linguistic or diasporic communities.

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“…Most rely, in particular, on what is commonly referred to as shuttle trade (cf. also Karrar 2013Karrar , 2019Ryzhova 2018;Ngo and Hung 2019). In the case of the Karakoram Highway, Pakistani traders generally take small quantities of goods with them on the daily buses to and from Sost, avoiding taxation, which does not apply to this kind of luggage.…”

Section: A Matter Of Custom(s)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recent contributions to this body of literature increasingly look at the material components of such processes of bordering. For instance, passports (Burrell 2008), border gates, and checkpoints (Ngo and Hung 2019) have become objects of scholarly exploration. My interest here, though, is slightly different.…”

Section: Materials Borderingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Borderland Infrastructures

Rippa¹

2020

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Across the Chinese borderlands, investments in large-scale transnational infrastructure such as roads and special economic zones have increased exponentially over the past two decades. Based on long-term ethnographic research, Borderland Infrastructures addresses a major contradiction at the heart of this fast-paced development: small-scale traders have lost their historic strategic advantages under the growth of massive Chinese state investment and are now struggling to keep their businesses afloat. Concurrently, local ethnic minorities have become the target of radical resettlement projects, securitization, and tourism initiatives, and have in many cases grown increasingly dependent on state subsidies. At the juncture of anthropological explorations of the state, border studies, and research on transnational trade and infrastructure development, Borderland Infrastructures provides new analytical tools to understand how state power is experienced, mediated, and enacted in Xinjiang and Yunnan. In the process, Rippa offers a rich and nuanced ethnography of life across China’s peripheries.

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The Political Economy of Border Checkpoints in Shadow Exchanges

Cited by 15 publications

References 42 publications

‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands

‘A Garuda in my Heart, a Tiger in my Stomach’: Brokering an Informal Economic Border Enclave in the Borneo Highlands

Borderland Infrastructures

Borderland Infrastructures

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