NM Bloggers
We will provide anecdote, analysis and new perspectives on mainland southeast Asia.
Andrew Walker is an Australian anthropologist with a particular interest in rural development and resource management in Thailand and Laos.
Andrew’s original work in the region involved the exploration of cross-border trading links between northern Thailand, northern Laos and southern China. This resulted in the publication of The Legend of the golden boat: regulation, trade and traders in the borderlands of Laos, Thailand, China and Burma. For the past 10 years he has been working on issues of rural development, resource management and modernisation in northern Thailand. Key publications include “The Karen consensus: ethnic politics and resource-use legitimacy in northern Thailand”; “Agricultural transformation and the politics of hydrology in northern Thailand” and “Seeing farmers for the trees: community forestry and the arborealisation of agriculture in northern Thailand.” He is currently undertaking ongoing ethnographic fieldwork in Baan Tiam, a northern Thai village in Chiang Mai province. Recent papers from this research are available here (”Matrilineal spirits, descent and territorial power in northern Thailand”) and here (”The rural constitution and the everyday politics of elections in northern Thailand”). And there are numerous posts on New Mandala itself about his research in Baan Tiam.
Andrew has an ongoing interest in environmental issues. A book exploring these issues in the Thai context, co-authored with Tim Forsyth of the London School of Economics, was published by the University of Washington Press in early 2008. The book is called: Forest guardians, forest destroyers: the politics of environmental knowledge in northern Thailand.
Nicholas Farrelly graduated from the Australian National University’s Faculty of Asian Studies in 2003. He is currently a doctoral student at Balliol College, Oxford, where he studies international development. Before commencing his studies in the United Kingdom, he worked in various positions at the Australian National University and taught widely in Asian Studies subjects.
His current research, which focuses on trans-border linkages in upper mainland Southeast Asia, has developed from years living, travelling and working in the region. Nicholas welcomes feedback and comments via e-mail. An article he wrote about New Mandala, published in late 2007, is available here.