Upland Geopolitics: Postwar Laos and the Global Land Rush

by Michael B. Dwyer, K. Sivaramakrishnan (Editor), K. Sivaramakrishnan (Foreword by)

Overview

In the twenty-first century, land deals in the Global South have become increasingly prevalent and controversial. Transnational access to arable land in impoverished "land-rich" countries in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and Southeast Asia highlights the link between the shifting geopolitics of economic development and problems of food security, climate change, and regional and international trade. Drawing on ethnographic and archival research, Upland Geopolitics uses the case of Chinese agribusiness investment in northern Laos to study the unbalanced geography of the new global land rush. Connecting the current rubber plantation boom to a longer trajectory of foreign intervention in the region, Upland Geopolitics reveals how legacies of Cold War conflict continue to pave the way for transnational enclosure in a socially uneven landscape.

Upland Geopolitics is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem) and the generous support of Indiana University.

DOI: 10.6069/9780295750507

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295750507
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	09/13/2022
Series:	Culture, Place, and Nature
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	250
Sales rank:	743,372
File size:	24 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Michael Dwyer is assistant professor of geography at Indiana University Bloomington.

What People are Saying About This

Robin Biddulph

"A strong contribution to the geopolitics of land grabbing in Southeast Asia, Upland Geopolitics provides vital insights into the dynamics of dispossession."

Tania Li

"A corporate land concession is not simply a legal contract. It is complex geo-political and social operation in which governance, rent seeking, and promises of development intersect and collide on particular terrain. Intrigued by the chronic opacity of global land deals, Dwyer explores their making with insight and skill."

Jonathan Rigg

"Adds historical depth as well as geographical nuance to how scholars have sought to understand Laos's recent territorialization."

Saturnino M. Borras Jr.

"An original and brilliant book that is embedded in geopolitics and global capitalism. It will appeal to scholars and activists alike who are deeply concerned about the future of humanity and our planet."

Editorial Reviews

"This book and its focus not only raise critical questions about the stories of Laos but about how scholars can contribute to a lineage of attempts at understanding Southeast Asia in the world. This book and the questions it raises will be of interest to scholars and students focusing on natural resource governance, land grabbing, transnational investment, political ecology, and geopolitics, within and beyond Southeast Asia."

Eurasian Geography and Economics

"To the land grab literature, Michael Dwyer brings the fruits of theoretical innovation and long-term research on an embattled resource frontier. . . Upland Geopolitics seems not only to capture the rural situation in Laos but also to convey its significance for contexts across the global south. Indeed, Dwyer's excellent book deserves a broad audience beyond those interested in the land rush, including also scholars working on highland Southeast Asia, hot zones in the Cold War, rural development, and agrarian studies."

Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

"With an innovative methodology which accepts complexity rather than obliterating it, Upland Geopolitics epitomizes the difficulties and the struggles that state administrators face in their strive to project state power on a territory over which they proclaim sovereignty."

Asia Major

"Michael Dwyer’s engaging analysis of upland geopolitics shows that Laos has been the mother of many outlandish ideas, but these ideas have had real, material, environmental and political consequences."

Journal of Peasant Studies

Michael Dwyer's engaging analysis of upland geopolitics shows that Laos has been the mother of many outlandish ideas, but these ideas have had real, material, environmental and political consequences.

-- "Journal of Peasant Studies"

This book and its focus not only raise critical questions about the stories of Laos but about how scholars can contribute to a lineage of attempts at understanding Southeast Asia in the world. This book and the questions it raises will be of interest to scholars and students focusing on natural resource governance, land grabbing, transnational investment, political ecology, and geopolitics, within and beyond Southeast Asia.

-- "Eurasian Geography and Economics"

With an innovative methodology which accepts complexity rather than obliterating it, Upland Geopolitics epitomizes the difficulties and the struggles that state administrators face in their strive to project state power on a territory over which they proclaim sovereignty.

-- "Asia Major"

From the Publisher