Elsing, Sarah (2016) Border Regulars : an Ethnographic Enquiry Into the Becomings of the Thai-Lao Border from the Vantage Point of Small-Scale Trade
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Elsing, Sarah (2016) Border regulars : an ethnographic enquiry into the becomings of the Thai-Lao border from the vantage point of small-scale trade. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/23641 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. BORDER REGULARS – AN ETHNOGRAPHIC ENQUIRY INTO THE BECOMINGS OF THE THAI-LAO BORDER FROM THE VANTAGE POINT OF SMALL-SCALE TRADE Sarah Elsing Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD 2016 Department of Anthropology SOAS, University of London DECLARATION FOR SOAS PHD THESIS I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the SOAS, University of London concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part, by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work which I present for examination. Signed: ____________________________ Date: 27th May 2016 ABSTRACT This thesis is an ethnographic enquiry into how the nation-state border between Thailand and Laos comes into being. Southeast Asian borders, and no less the Thai-Lao border, are known to be porous and their porosity is often associated with ineffective government policies and poor border control management. This thesis looks beyond such state-centric perspectives by highlighting the interstices between the legal and illegal, the formal and informal, and the state and society in the context of small-scale cross-border trade. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in the Thai province of Loei, it unravels the Thai-Lao border as historically contingent, multi-layered, and as constantly in flux. My findings reveal that the border is not only a prerogative of the state but that it is also produced through the practices of non-state actors as well as through the interactions of state and non-state actors. Female small-scale traders reproduce the border by engaging in diverse practices of arbitrage. They replicate the social hierarchy between Thailand and Laos through their terminology and bargaining practices. The border is also entrenched in the social memory and imaginaries of border residents including state actors. The social embeddedness of state actors in the local community and cross-border culture allows social relationships to form and convolute stringent categories of state and society. Combined with a flexibility of legality and local conceptualisations of licitness, such relationships facilitate the movement of people and goods while at the same time they increase the state’s control over the border. They also give rise to cooperative forms of regulation that involve the giving of goods and money. Instead of construing these as corrupt practices that destabilise the border, they can also be understood to strengthen the state’s authority and to reinforce the border. The thesis concludes by arguing that non-state perspectives are a sine qua non in an attempt to comprehend the nature of a border throughout space and time. TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures (including maps) ....................................................................................... 7 List of Images .................................................................................................................... 8 Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................... 9 Notes on Language and Names ....................................................................................... 10 INTRODUCTION 11 A scene from the border .................................................................................................. 11 Research aims and questions ........................................................................................... 13 Small-scale trade across nation-state borders ................................................................. 16 Research area and methodology...................................................................................... 22 The border as process ...................................................................................................... 28 The role of state actors .................................................................................................... 34 Overview of thesis chapters ............................................................................................ 38 PART I - HISTORY AND MEMORY CHAPTER 1: HISTORICAL BECOMINGS OF THE BORDER .......................... 42 Breaks in history and reality on the ground .................................................................... 42 On the periphery of the mueang ...................................................................................... 45 Bordering through nation-state building ......................................................................... 54 Life along the River during the civil war in Laos ........................................................... 64 On the periphery of contestation ..................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 2: TRADING DESPITE AND BECAUSE OF THE BORDER ........... 75 Impacts and experiences of changing border policies..................................................... 75 “You cannot simply close the border!” ........................................................................... 77 The Golden Age of small-scale trade .............................................................................. 82 The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge and its effects ............................................................. 89 Trade as a continuum throughout space and time ......................................................... 103 PART II - EVERYDAY LIFE OF SOCIAL ACTORS CHAPTER 3: MOTHERS OF TRADE .................................................................... 107 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 107 Integrating entrepreneurship and family life ................................................................. 108 Social networks and hierarchies .................................................................................... 117 Cross-border mobility ................................................................................................... 125 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 131 CHAPTER 4: IN SEARCH OF THE STATE .......................................................... 134 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 134 The local Thai administration: phuyaiban .................................................................... 137 the situation and life of Thai paramilitaries .................................................................. 140 The social embeddedness of thahan phran ................................................................... 147 The situation and life of Lao state officials ................................................................... 152 Imaginaries of the Thai and Lao state ........................................................................... 154 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 157 PART III - STRATEGIES AND INTERACTIONS CHAPTER 5: NAVIGATING MOBILITY IN THE BORDERLAND ................. 160 Malee’s different routes to the Thai side ...................................................................... 160 Border-crossing strategies and encounters with the state ............................................. 161 Trust and risk at unmarked border-crossings ................................................................ 166 The (in)significance of documents at customary border checkpoints ........................... 173 Decision-making at the Thai-Lao friendship Bridge .................................................... 183 The social life of sovereignty ........................................................................................ 186 CHAPTER 6: INTRICACIES OF REGULATING SMALL-SCALE TRADE ... 189 Fifty shades of trade ...................................................................................................... 189 Flexible legality around small-scale trade..................................................................... 194 The imbrication of the legal and the licit ...................................................................... 198 Social relationships, tributes, and bribes ....................................................................... 201 Collaborative and predatory