Publication

Review of the Research on the Belt and Road Initiative in Myanmar

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is among the largest transnational development initiatives globally. In this article, we review the research on the BRI in Myanmar, a developing country that is of considerable geopolitical importance. To date, the BRI literature has made three central contributions: it has captured much of the complexity of BRI projects, filled a notable research gap in BRI studies, and raised awareness of local voices. In addition, two analytically meaningful topics are worth exploring, namely the contested relations (1) between China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and prospective Chinese BRI investors and (2) between the Myanmar government and local anti-BRI groups. Responding to the current focus of the literature and to advance future research, we recommend that scholars consider the analytical framework of state transformation to disaggregate statehood, account for diverse actors, and explain their contested relations. Because it challenges state-centric frameworks (e.g., realism and Westphalian national sovereignty), the state-transformation model can yield theoretically and empirically stimulating findings.

Online publication: https://brill.com/view/journals/ejea/22/3/article-p229_2.xml

date: 14 Dec 2023

Explaining Challenges That Beset Transdisciplinary Projects in the Global South: The Shift from Methodological Perspectives to a Political- Economic Dynamic Analysis

In this paper, I argue that rigorous attempts to grasp the challenges unique to transdisciplinary projects in the Global South (TPGSs) require an understanding of the target state’s politicaleconomic dynamics, which can undermine TPGSs. In this regard, I harness social-conflict theory to examine how and why Cambodia’s political-economic dynamics affected my own transdisciplinary project, which addressed dam-induced problems in the northeast of the country from 2018 to 2021. The present paper’s findings clarify the relationships among various nonacademic TPGS stakeholders—a topic that has attracted little attention from transdisciplinarians but that can significantly shape TPGS

outcomes.

Chinese Investor Networks and the Politics of Infrastructure Projects in the Eastern Economic Corridor in Thailand

This research examines Chinese investment and the impact of infrastructure projects on the Eastern Economic Corridor project (EEC), a special economic zone linking Thailand with Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Vietnam, and China, which aligns with the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Drawing on Actor Network Theory (ANT), this study analyzes emerging Chinese investor networks and the resulting negotiations between various actors such as the Thai state, Chinese and Thai investors, and local farmers. Many Chinese investors have moved their production bases to avoid the tax barriers raised by the United States or Europe, as well as to expand their markets in Southeast Asia. The Thai state offers tax benefits to foreign investors, allowing them to import raw materials and machinery from China, making their production costs lower than those of Thai investors. The findings reveal that the neoliberal state facilitates foreign investors through deregulation: enacting city planning laws that permit the establishment of industrial estates in agricultural zones, thus dispossessing farmers of their land. These factories can release toxic waste, thus impacting the local environment and livelihoods of nearby farmers. Thai business-people are often unable to compete with Chinese investors to match their bids. In order to maintain their positions in these economic networks, they build affective relations with Chinese investors. In addition, these affective relations attract resistance and indignation from locals dispossessed of land and resources.



When the ‘Buddha’s Tree Itself Becomes a Rhizome’: The Religious Itinerant, Nomad Science and the Buddhist State

This paper considers the political, geo-philosophical musings of Deleuze and Guattari on spatialisation, place and movement in relation to the religious nomad (wandering ascetics and reclusive forest monks) inhabiting the borderlands of Thailand. A nomadic science involves improvised ascetic practices between the molar lines striated by modern state apparatuses. The wandering ascetics, inhabiting a frontier political ecology, stand in contrast to the appropriating, sedentary metaphysics and sanctifying arborescence of statism and its corollary place-making, embedded in rootedness and territorialisation. It is argued that the religious nomads, residing on the endoexteriorities of the state, came to represent a rhizomatic and politico-ontological threat to centre-nation and its apparatus of capture. The paper also theorises transitions and movement at the borderlands in the context of the state’s monastic reforms. These reforms, and its pervasive royal science, problematised the interstitial zones of the early ascetic wanderers in their radical cross-cutting networks and lines, moving within and across demarcated frontiers. Indeed, the ascetic wanderers and their allegorical war machine were seen as a source of wild, free-floating charisma and mystical power, eventually appropriated by the centre-nation in it’s becoming unitary and fixed.

Aligning global health policy and research with sustainable development: A strategic market approach

Attaining Sustainable Development Goal 3 (SDG 3: Health and Well-Being) faces a dual challenge of diminishing returns of established intervention designs, and a threat to future gains from complex inter-connected global health challenges like antimicrobial resistance and global biodiversity loss. The growing movement of contextsensitive approaches could help realise yet untapped potential for intervention designs, but contemporary global health policy and research still remain dominated

by a model of individual market style choices. This paper therefore aims to support the development of global health planning processes that are more grounded and integrative across the SDGs. Reiterating calls for disruptive policy change is unlikely

to impact the modus operandi of global health policy and research. This paper therefore builds on a logic that already finds widespread and intuitive application in their underlying planning processes: ‘the market’. However, it challenges the dominant

supply-and-demand approach to healthcare markets and redefines them from a strategic marketing perspective. Translated to the interface of populations and health systems, the strategic market is a site for solving problems that are defined by people

with multidimensional health needs. This framework offers four guiding questions to define the strategic market and six premises as a simple intellectual starting point and checklist for more grounded and inter-sectorial action across the SDGs. The analysis of data from one of the largest behavioural survey data sets, covering 6683 villagers across China, India, Lao PDR and Thailand, demonstrates the relevance of the premises empirically.

Community-level incidence and treatment seeking during febrile illness: Insights from health behaviour surveys in rural Thailand and Laos

Objective:

Critical gaps remain in understanding community perceptions and treatment-seeking behaviours in case of fever. This is especially relevant considering global antimicrobial resistance, where fever is assumed to provoke non-judicious antibiotic use. Our study objective was therefore to document the community-level incidence of fever, the resulting treatment-seeking processes, and their underlying behavioural drivers.

Methods:

In a cross-sectional observational design, we used descriptive and inferential statistics and multivariable regression analysis to estimate the population-level incidence of fever and individual and socio-economic factors associated with treatmentseeking process characteristics. We utilised a detailed publicly available survey of community-level treatment-seeking behaviour (collected in 2017/2018), comprising a representative sample of 2130 rural adults in Thailand (Chiang Rai Province) and Lao PDR (Salavan Province).

Results:

Fever was reported by 7.1% of the rural adult population in Chiang Rai (95% CI: 5.1%–9.0%) and 7.5% in Salavan (95% CI: 4.5%–10.5%) during a 2-month recall period. Treatment-seeking patterns varied by socio-economic characteristics like precarious employment. 69.3% (95% CI: 60.8%–77.7%) of fever episodes involved access to formal (public/private) healthcare providers, 11.0% (95% CI: 4.5%–17.5%) involved informal providers, and 24.3% (95% CI: 16.6%–32.1%) took place without either formal or informal healthcare access. Febrile patients had on average 0.39 antibiotic use episodes when accessing formal healthcare settings, compared to 0.05 otherwise (p < 0.01).

Conclusion:

Treatment-seeking behaviour during fever varies according to population characteristics. Clinical studies would benefit from contextualising quantitative outcomes. Treatment algorithms for non-malarial febrile illnesses should involve outreach to informal healthcare and community settings to support patients in precarious circumstances, and antibiotic resistance interventions should prioritise formal healthcare facilities.

The Role of Civil Society Networks in Promoting Organic Food as A Path to Food Security in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Food security is an important topic involving people’s everyday lives. In recent decades, organic food consumption has been touted as a path to food security. As such, civil society networks in Chiang Mai have been working to support the movement toward organic food. Organic food networks linking producers and consumers are critical to building food security. This research article aims to understand civil society networks' roles and working styles on organic food issues in Chiang Mai province, Thailand. The working styles and outcomes of the civil society network (CSN) are analyzed as the intermediary between food producers to urban consumers in the food system. Four CSNs in Chiang Mai were selected as the case studies and compared with Chiang Mai’s Young Farmer Group. This study, based on observation techniques and in-depth interviews with key informants, investigates the working styles of CSNs and networks of food producers. The questionnaires were distributed to consumers to study consumer knowledge and perceptions of food security issues. The focus group meetings were organized to obtain feedback from food producers, consumers, and CSN’s staff. The authors found that each CSN linked with food producer networks according to the working styles of the CSN’s staff and that the key actors in each CSN knew each other personally. CSNs can introduce organic farming to local communities. However, many CSNs are struggling to connect with urban consumers.

Regional Seminar of Water Politics and Water Governance in the Mekong Countries

SUMMARY

The Regional Seminar on Water Politics and Water Governance in the Mekong Countries was hosted by the Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD), in collaboration with the Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University from November 22nd to November 24th, 2023 at the Bisirimaya Hotel in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

During the first two days of the seminar, participants engaged panel discussions and paper presentations covering a wide range of topics. Key themes revolved around water management politics and governance of countries situated along the Mekong and Salween Rivers, along with in-depth exploration of hydro-sociology concepts. The discussions also covered the role of the MRC, considerations of environmental justice in the context of large-scale development projects, the interplay of local knowledge with food security, the participation of women and

ethnic groups in water governance, business and human rights in cross-border water management, and the impact of sedimentation and its accumulation on lifestyle. On the final day of the seminar, insightful presentations and exchanges on cross-border social networks were held, along with discussions on scientific research methods aimed at strengthening local initiatives in water management. The inclusion of a photo exhibition and film screenings added to the overall value of the event.

The seminar featured 71 participants, including 35 presenters comprising senior and junior scholars, and practitioners with experience in studying and researching the transformation of the Mekong and Salween Rivers, as well as the role of international organizations in water management. Presenters, participants and observers from Cambodia, Vietnam, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, the Philippines, Myanmar, Australia, the USA, France, Singapore, and Thailand actively joined and contributed their findings and perspectives to the seminar. The event was supported by International Rivers, and the Mekong Culture Well, Henry Luce Foundation.

This report covers the summary of the presentations, debates, and analyses shared during the two and a half-day meeting. The concept note and seminar agenda can be found in the ANNEX.

ทบทวนอคติทางชาติพันธุ์ในปริมณฑลรัฐไทย

มุกดาวรรณ ศักดิ์บุญ. 2565. "ทบทวนอคติทางชาติพันธุ์ในปริมณฑลรัฐไทย" ในหนังสือ "ส่องอคติทางชาติพันธุ์." กรุงเทพฯ: ศูนย์มานุษยวิทยาสิรินธร. หน้า 104-125. 

หนังสือ ส่องอคติทางชาติพันธ์ุ 1 นี้ ได้รวบรวมบทความของนักวิชาการหลายท่านที่เสนอวิธีคิด การตรวจสอบ และแนวทางการวิเคราะห์ปัญหาอคติทางวัฒนธรรมในมิติต่าง ๆ อย่างกว้างขวาง ทั้งอคติที่สัมพันธ์กับความเป็นชาติ ศาสนา เชื้อชาติ ชาติพันธุ์ แรงงานข้ามชาติ อคติต่อคนไร้ที่อยู่อาศัย คนต่างรุ่นต่างวัย คนหลากหลายทางเพศ การกลั่นแกล้งกันในโรงเรียน อคติในยุทธศาสตร์และนโยบายของรัฐ การลำเอียงของสื่อมวลชน และการนำเสนอชีวิตของคนอีสานและเพศทางเลือกในภาพยนตร์ไทย คนเหล่านี้ล้วนเผชิญกับการดูหมิ่นเหยียดหยามด้วยคำพูด การล้อเลียนเสียดสีด้วยกิริยาท่าทาง การตีตราว่าร้าย และการประณามทางสังคม ที่เป็นการลดคุณค่าและศักดิ์ศรีของควมเป็นมนุษย์..."

รายงานการละเมิดสิทธิในที่ดินของกลุ่มเป้าหมาย ภายใต้คำสั่งนายกรัฐมนตรีที่ 66/2523 กรณีกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ม้ง

มาลี สิทธิเกรียงไกร, เล่าฟั้ง บัณฑิตเทอดสกุล, สุมิตรชัย หัตถสาร. (2565). "รายงานการละเมิดสิทธิในที่ดินของกลุ่มเป้าหมาย ภายใต้คำสั่งนายกรัฐมนตรีที่ 66/2523 กรณีกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ม้ง". เครือข่ายชาติพันธุ์ พรรคก้าวไกล, ศูนย์ศึกษาชาติพันธุ์และการพัฒนา คณะสังคมศาสตร์ มหาวิทยาลัยเชียงใหม่, ศูนย์พิทักษ์และฟื้นฟูสิทธิชุมชนท้องถิ่น. วนิดาการพิมพ์. 102 หน้า. 

หนังสือเล่มนี้เป็นผลจากการทำงานร่วมกันระหว่างกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ม้งที่ได้รับผลกระทบจากคำสั่งฯ 66/2523 ศูนย์ศึกษาชาติพันธุ์และการพัฒนา คณะสังคมศาสตร์ มช. ศูนย์พิทักษ์และฟื้นฟูสิทธิชุมชนท้องถิ่น และเครือข่ายชาติพันธุ์ (พรรคก้าวไกล)

ผลการศึกษานี้ สะท้อนถึงปัญหาที่ดินในอีกรูปแบบหนึ่ง "ที่ดินมีความหมายที่สลับซับซ้อน เป็นปัจจัยในการผลิต เป็นทุนในการดำเนินชีวิต และที่ดินยังเป็นประเด็นความขัดแย้งระหว่างประชาชนและรัฐมาอย่างต่อเนื่อง โดยเฉพาะอย่างยิ่งประชาชนบนพื้นที่สูง ความขัดแย้งนี้ยังไม่ได้รับการเอาใจใส่อย่างจริงจัง จึงทำให้ปัญหานี้ยึดเยื้อและมีความซับซ้อนมากขึ้น

กรณีกลุ่มชาติพันธุ์ม้งในภาคเหนือของประเทศไทย ซึ่งเป็นที่มาของกรณีศึกษาในหนังสือเล่มนี้ เป็นตัวอย่างหนึ่งที่แสดงถึงสิทธิที่ดินทำกินที่ถูกลิดรอนกลายเป็นปมปัญหาที่ยังไม่มีความพยายามที่จะแก้ไขปัญหาอย่างจริงจัง ส่งผลให้ปัญหานี้เรื้อรังมาร่วม 40 ปี"

Imagining Ethnic Communities: Resource Conflicts and Development in Thailand

Vaddhanaphuti, Chayan, Sitthikriengkrai, Malee, Trenk- Hinterberger, Charlotte. (2022).  “Imagining Ethnic Communities: Resource Conflicts and Development in Thailand”. Center for Ethnic Studies and Development (CESD), Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University, 216 pages.  

หนังสือเล่มนี้เป็นงานศึกษาเชิงชาติพันธุ์วรรณนาในชุมชนชาติพันธุ์ 3 ชุมชน คือ

1. ชุมชนกะเหรี่ยงบ้านห้วยหินลาดใน อ.เวียงป่าเป้า จ.เชียงราย

2. ชุมชนดาราอาง บ้านนอแล ชายแดนไทย-เมียนมา อ.ฝาง จ.เชียงใหม่

3. ชุมชนชาวเล หาดราไวย์ อ.เมือง จ.ภูเก็ต

ทั้งสามชุมชนชาติพันธุ์นี้เผชิญปัญหาการเข้าถึงทรัพยากรธรรมชาติที่แตกต่างกัน กรณีชุมชนบ้านห้วยหินลาดใน ถูกประกาศเป็นพื้นที่เขตวัฒนธรรมพิเศษภายใต้มติครม. 3 สิงหาคม 2553 และเป็นชุมชนที่มีภูมิปัญญาการดูแลทรัพยากรอย่างเข้มแข็ง แต่อุทยานแห่งชาติขุนแจก็ยังมีความพยายามที่จะขยายพื้นที่ครอบคลุมชุมชนแห่งนี้ กรณีดาราอาง บ้านนอแล ชายแดนไทย-เมียนมา เนื่องจากเป็นผู้อพยพมาใหม่ ไม่มีที่ดินทำกินของตนเอง แต่ได้พึ่งพิงโครงการหลวง สถานีเกษตรดอยอ่างขาง ขณะเดียวกัน ชาวดาราอางก็ไม่มีสัญชาติไทย จึงทำให้ชาวดาราอางไม่สามารถดำรงชีพได้เต็มศักยภาพ แม้ว่าลูกหลานพวกเขาจะเกิดในประเทศไทย แต่ขั้นตอนกระบวนการยื่นขอสัญชาติก็เต็มไปด้วยความลำบาก กรณีชาวเล หาดราไวย์ ปัญหาด้านที่อยู่อาศัยและที่ทำกินที่ถูกรุกคืบจากนายทุน ทำให้ชาวเลกลายเป็นคนจนเมือง และกลายเป็นผู้บุกรุก ชาวเลไม่เพียงแต่เผชิญกับการเข้ายึดครองที่ดินเท่านั้น แต่ชาวเลกำลังเผชิญกับความทันสมัยรอบด้าน ราคาที่ดินที่พุ่งสูงอย่างรวดเร็วจึงเป็นแรงจูงใจให้นายทุนต้องการถือครองที่ดิน

ทั้งสามชุมขนนี้ต่างพยายามต่อรองกับอำนาจรัฐ ทุน และอื่น ๆ ที่เข้ามาคุกคามวิถีการดำรงชีพ และสิทธิในที่ดินทำกิน ซึ่งพยายามที่จะผลักไสให้พวกเขาเป็นคนชายขอบ งานวิจัยนี้ไม่ใช่การศึกษาเชิงเปรียบเทียบ แต่หนังสือนี้ต้องการแสดงให้เห็นว่า ทั้งสามชุมชนนี้อยู่ภายใต้บริบทความขัดแย้งด้านทรัพยากรและการพัฒนาที่แตกต่างกัน และทั้งสามชุมชนนี้ได้ร่วมกันสร้างชุมชนจินตนาการผ่านปฏิบัติการในชีวิตประจำวันอย่างไร เพื่อให้พวกเขาเผชิญกับแรงกดดันภายใต้คำว่า “การพัฒนา”และการเปลี่ยนแปลงด้านเศรษฐกิจ สังคมที่ดำเนินไปอย่างรวดเร็ว

Masculinity for Sale: Shan Migrant Men Sex Workers in Thailand and Questions of Identity

Jirattikorn, A., Tangmunkongvorakul, A., Ayuttacorn. (2022) Masculinity for Sale: Shan Migrant Men Sex Workers in Thailand and Questions of Identity. Men and Masculitnities. (Scopus), Volume 25, Issue 5, page 782- 801. 

Abstract

The Thai sex industry sector catering to sex between men has recently shifted to a predominately migrant workforce, particularly in northern part of the country. The majority of sex worker men in Chiang Mai, a metropolitan center in northern Thailand, are Shan migrants from Myanmar. This research explores the lives of Shan men engaged in sex work in Chiang Mai, examining how engaging with queer sexual commodification shapes their gender and sexual identities. As Shan sex worker men in this research identify as heterosexual men, selling sex to men might impact their sense of (hetero)masculinity. Based on 20 in-depth interviews with Shan migrant sex worker men living and working in Chiang Mai city, this research explores, on the one hand, how Shan sex worker men negotiate, redefine, and reconstruct their masculinities, and on the other, how the identities of being a masculine man, sex worker, and non-citizen migrant intersect and shape their experiences and identities.

Implementation of the COP 26 Declaration to Halt Forest Loss Must Safeguard and Include Indigenous People

Haenssgen, M.J., Lechner, A.M., Rakotonarivo, S. et al. Implementation of the COP26 declaration to halt forest loss must safeguard and include Indigenous people. Nat Ecol Evol, Volume 6, Issue March 2022, 235–236 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01650-6

Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene

Feral Atlas: The More-Than-Human Anthropocene sets the gold standard for 21st-century digital humanities scholarship. Spearheaded by Anna Tsing with Jennifer Deger, Alder Keleman Saxena, and Feifei Zhou, and published by Stanford University Press, this innovative, interactive website-as-multimedia-book gives readers a cornucopia of thought-provoking yet accessible materials. With over 100 contributors, 80 field reports, dozens of artworks, videos, maps, teaching materials, and more, Feral Atlas – exclusively online – presents empirically and conceptually rich offerings from a multidisciplinary knowledge-making community that goes beyond the linear constraints of a traditional book, using hyperlink connectivities to afford readers multiple possible forking paths through the fecund garden of materials that can be read diffractively against and with one another. Focusing on how the entanglement of human with extra-human forms of agency shapes our shared world – entanglements overlooked by most social science and science alike – the aim is to create new knowledges and forms of remediation of the Anthropocene condition. As Asia is a zone in the Global South where the worst effects of the Anthropocene are being felt sooner and more intensely than the Global North and “developed” world of the West, this publication is of enormous relevance to scholars of Asia.

Intimate Relationships and HIV Infection Risks Among Shan Female Sex Workers From Myanmar in Chiang Mai, Thailand: a Qualitative Study

Ayuttacorn Arratee, Tangmunkongvorakul, Arunrat, Jirattikorn, Amporn, Kelly Matthew, Banwell Cathy, Kriengkrai Srithanaviboonchai (2021), “Intimate Relationships and HIV Infection Risks Among Shan Female Sex Workers From Myanmar in Chiang Mai, Thailand: a Qualitative Study”. AIDS Education and Prevention, 33(6), The Guilford Press. pp. 551- 576. 

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate HIV risks among female sex workers (FSWs) who were from the Shan ethnic group, and how they relate to complex relationships with inconsistent condom use. The study was conducted using in-depth interviews with 17 Shan FSWs (aged 18–45 years old) in Chiang Mai. Intimate relationships between participants and regular clients/steady partners were found to facilitate inconsistent condom use. Participating Shan FSWs sustained intimacy with regular clients not only for economic ends but also for emotional support. Gender norms and male power dominated condom use decision making. Some participants lacked proper HIV preventive knowledge regarding condom breakage and HIV risks. Effective intervention and proper HIV preventive practices should address these intimate contexts. Capacity building among women would assist FSWs to make choices that protect them from HIV/STDs infections. Couples-based HIV interventions addressing emotional intimacy is an urgent need for HIV communication and service delivery in Thailand.

Shan Migrant Sex Workers Living with HIV Who Remain Active in Sexual Entertainment Venues in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Jirattikorn, Amporn, Tangmunkongvorakul, Arunrat, Ayuttacorn Arratee, Banwell Cathy, and Kelly Matthew, Lebel Louis, Kriengkrai Srithanaviboonchai (2021), “Shan Migrant Sex Workers Living with HIV Who Remain Active in Sexual Entertainment Venues in Chiang Mai, Thailand”. Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities. Published online 6 July 2021. [Online]. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34231161/ [accessed 9 August 2021].

Abstract

Migrant female sex workers (MFSW) are at a high and increasing risk of HIV infection and may also be a source of transmission. In Northern Thailand, most MSFW are Shan ethnic nationals from Myanmar. This study aims to understand how the risks of HIV infection and transmission are perceived and acted upon by Shan MFSW living with HIV who remain active in sex work. The paper employs a narrative approach, offering insight into the lives of eight Shan MFSW living with HIV in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Their risk behaviors are examined, from when they first entered sex work through to becoming HIV-positive and adopting antiretroviral treatment, as well as the reasons for continuing sex work. The findings reveal several ways in which stigmatized identities and life conditions influence risk perceptions and behaviors of Shan MFSW. Shan MFSW exemplify biopolitical vulnerability as female migrants, and sex workers in addition to living with HIV and the constraints of poverty, and limited education and skills. Understanding the complexities in their life conditions suggested several ways to improve care for them.