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Upland Geopolitics: Back Cover

Upland Geopolitics
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table of contents
  1. Series Page
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  5. Foreword by K. Sivaramakrishnan
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. Note on Lao Spelling and Pronunciation
  8. Map of Key Locations
  9. Introduction: Governing the Global Land Rush
  10. Chapter One: Where the Rubber Meets the Road: Uneven Enclosure in Northwestern Laos
  11. Chapter Two: A Real Country? Denationalizing the Lao Uplands, 1955–1975
  12. Chapter Three: The Geography of Security: Population Management Work, 1975–2000
  13. Chapter Four: Micro-Geopolitics: Turning Battlefields into Marketplaces, 2000–2018
  14. Chapter Five: Paper Landscapes: State Formation and Spatial Legibility in Postwar Laos
  15. Conclusion: The Politics of Spatial Transparency
  16. Notes
  17. Bibliography
  18. Index
  19. Series List

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. Michael Dwyer is assistant professor of geography at Indiana University Bloomington. “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.” - Tania Li, coauthor of Plantation Life: Corporate Occupation in Indonesia’s Oil Palm Zone “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.” - Saturnino M. Borras Jr., coeditor of Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land “Adds historical depth as well as geographical nuance to how scholars have sought to understand Laos’s recent territorialization.” - Jonathan Rigg, author of Rural Development in Southeast Asia: Dispossession, Accumulation and Persistence “A strong contribution to the geopolitics of land grabbing in Southeast Asia, Upland Geopolitics provides vital insights into the dynamics of dispossession.” - Robin Biddulph, coeditor of Inclusive Tourism Development Cover design by Silas Chen. Cover illustration based on a Lao upland village zoning map. Culture, Place, and Nature University of Washington Press Seattle uwapress.uw.edu

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