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Riverine Border Practices: People's Everyday Lives on the Thai-Lao Mekong Border

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This book focuses on the ways in which unofficial modes of border crossings are practised by the Thai Ban, along the Mekong Thai-Lao border. In doing so, the book assesses how these border crossings can be theorised as a contribution to existing literature on borderland studies. With that, the book discusses the importance of the notion of the Third Space and its effects on the pluralities of border-crossings in the borderland by weaving together spatial negotiations, temporal negotiations, and negotiations of political subjectivity.

To illustrate the importance and complexity of the notion of the Third Space, the borderland of Khong Chiam-Sanasomboun, an area composed of quasi-state checkpoints as well as mobile checkpoints, is used as a case study. The author employs an ethnographic approach using the four methods of participant observations, interviews, interpreting visual presentations, and essay readings to examine the everyday practices of the Thai Ban people in crossing the border between the riverine villages in the two nation-states of Thailand and Lao PDR. 

With this, the findings in the fieldwork reveal that people engaged in everyday border-crossings in the riverine area do not simply embrace or reject the existence of Thai-Lao territory. Most of the time, the stance of Thai Ban people is the mixture of subversion, rejection, and acceptance of the boundary resulting in the sedentary assumption in the form of Thai-Lao territory co-existing with people’s everyday mobility.


Author(s): Thanachate Wisaijorn
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2021

Language: English
Pages: 212
City: Singapore

Contents
List of Figures
1 Introduction and Background
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Locating the Research and Methodology
Empirical Grounding/Location
Problem Statement
1.3 General Overview of the Literature in Border and Borderland Studies
The Importance of the Natural Terrain: Origins of Border Studies and Borderland Studies
People on the Move
People’s Deep Placement in the Borderland
1.4 Methodology
A Sedentary World
A Centripetal Approach
Temporal Analysis: Everyday Practices Matter
Political Subjectivities of the Thai Ban
Semantic Fields as Meaning Formulation in Everyday Practices
Riverscape
Methods
The Border of Khong Chiam (Thailand) and Sanasomboun (Lao PDR) as a Research Setting
Methods and Research Participants
1.5 Analysis and Interpretation
1.6 Aims of the Research
Research Questions
1.7 Structure of the Book
References
2 Border Conceptualisation by Academia and the Thai Ban’s Everyday Life in Other Areas of the Thai-Lao Mekong Borderlands
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Border Studies and Borderland Studies
Topography
Topology
Borderland Studies and the Mixture of Topography and Topology
2.3 Third Space: A Concept in Borderland Studies
2.4 Pluralities of Borderland People’s Border-Crossings: Negotiations of Space, Time, and Political Subjectivities
Spatial Negotiations
Temporal Negotiations
Negotiations of Political Subjectivity
References
3 Spatial Negotiations: State Space and Lived Space of the Thai Ban
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Sedentary Assumption of the State: Disciplinary Power and Biopolitics of Border-Crossings
Sedentary Assumption on the Thai-Lao Border
Biopolitics of Border-Crossings at the Formal Checkpoint
3.3 The Thai Ban’s Routine: Thai-Lao Mekong Border as a Life Space
The Semantic Field of the Mekong and Thai Ban’s Everyday Practices
3.4 Spatial Negotiations: Quasi-State Checkpoints and Non-checkpoints in the Third Space
People’s Management in the Borderland
The Thai-Lao Mekong Borderland as a Space of In-betweenness
Endless Spatial Negotiations
3.5 Conclusion
References
4 Temporal Negotiations in the Borderland as a Third Space
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Chronotic Time of the State: Disciplinary Power and Biopolitics
Chronos of the State at Formal Checkpoints
Chronos and Biopolitics on the Thai-Lao Border
Chronos at an Education Institution
4.3 Kairotic Rhythms in the Mekong as a Space of Life
Floating Meaning and Time on the Riverine Border
Negotiations Between the state’s Chronos and Thai Ban’s Kairos
4.4 Negotiations Between Chronos and Kairos at Quasi-State Checkpoints
The Practice of the Chronotic Time of the Thai Ban
In-Between Nature of Chronos and Kairos Time in the Third Space
Temporal Dimensions in Blurred Legal and Illegal Situations
4.5 Conclusion
References
5 Negotiations of Political Subjectivities: Pluralities of Border-Crossings on the Thai-Lao Mekong Border
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Political Subjectivities: The Thai Ban with a Variety of Meanings of the Mekong
Various Political Subjectivities and Meanings Assigned to the Mekong River Border
5.3 The Strategic Political Subjectivities of the Thai Ban
As a Thai Boat Operator
Self-Presentation of Ethnicity as a Lao Person, Not a Lao National
5.4 The Strategic Political Subjectivities: State Officers in the Third Space
As the Owner of a Mekong Fish Restaurant
As a State Officer at the Department of Fisheries
5.5 Conclusion
References
6 Discussion of the Borderland as the Third Space and Conclusion
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Spatial Negotiations
Endless Spatial Negotiations and Pluralities of Border-Crossings
Analysis of Spatial Negotiations in the Third Space
6.3 Temporal Negotiations
Endless Temporal Negotiations and Pluralities of Border-Crossings
Analysis of Temporal Negotiations in the Third Space
6.4 Negotiations of Political Subjectivities
Pluralities of Political Subjectivities in the Third Space
6.5 Conclusion
References
Primary Sources
Annexes
Annex A: List of Interviewees
Annex B: Interview Guide
Example of Interview Questions
Annex C: Example of Participant Sheet Leaflet
Participation Information Sheet Leaflet
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Synopsis
Participants
Bibliography
Index