Description
Book SynopsisExamines the different trajectories of landscape change and land use among communities who call themselves Akha in political contexts. Drawing on anthropological debates on the state in Southeast Asia, this book shows how people live in a state of negotiated boundaries - political, social, and ecological.
Trade Review"The way that Sturgeon brings both social and ecological data to bear on her research situates the book squarely in the burgeoning field of political ecology. But Border Landscapes is an exemplar of how this approach can be productive in answering questions that go well beyond environmental politics."
* Canadian Geographers *
"This is a highly interesting and multi-layered study. . . . based on diligent fieldwork and careful review of relevant historical literature. It engages a range of social science theories in a vigorous dialog. Its multinational comparative approach effectively opens a new vista for our understanding of interethnic affairs in both human and natural milieus."
* Agricultural History *
"This book is a rich and thoughtful analysis..Moreover, it should be noted that the book is attractively produced, with photographs and diagrams inserted in appropriate locations throughout. It should be read as an example of how both political and landscape changes are occurring in the real world, and as a groundbreaking analysis of the implications of these changes for people living in border regions."
* Progress in Development Studies *
"This book exemplifies political ecology that far surpasses the 'chains of expectations' associated with progressive contextualization..an impressively balanced account of biophysical and socioeconomical variables and how they are intertwined..yet never loses its focus on the linkages between environmental change and human agency at local, regional, national, and international scales."
* The Geographical Review *
"This book should certainly be read by anyone who cares about natural resource management, ethnic minorities, and issues of territory and state power in China, Thailand, and Myanmar. . . Sturgeon's comparative research design and methods serve as a model for the potential of interdisciplinary research."
* Annals of the Association of American Geographers *
"Border Landscapes is without doubt an important and very timely work.. But the significance of Sturgeon's work extends far beyond this fascinating region, to areas of cultural, political, and biological complexity worldwide."
* Human Ecology *
"Sturgeon admirably demonstrates how local people live with the reality of continually negotiated political, social and ecological boundaries between China and Thailand. . . . A scholarly, interesting and timely treatment of an important issue, the ever-changing and local nature of political and environmental transformation of a minority culture not just in a single political setting, but on the boundaries of multi-state formation and resource control."
* Pacific Affairs *
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments
Introduction
1. The Production of Border Landscapes
2. The Production of Marginal Peoples and Landscapes: Resource Access on the Periphery
3. The Production of Borders: Sites for the Accumulation and Distribution of Resources
4. Small Border Chiefs and Resource Control, 1910 to 1997
5. Premodern Border Landscapes under Border Principalities
6. Landscape Plasticity versus Landscapes of Productivity and Rule: Akha Livelihoods under Nation-States
Conclusion
Appendix 1: Trees and Shrubs of Mengsong, China
Appendix 2: Trees and Shrubs of Akhapu, Thailand
Notes
Glossary
Bibliography
Index
