Copenhagen ADI Conference 2016
8th annual international ADI conference
Asian Dynamics Initiative
University of Copenhagen 20-22 June 2016

Migration and Territorialisation: Asian Connectivity and Transnational Flows

Conveners:  Edyta Roszko and Birgitte Schepelern Johansen, Dept. of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies, University of Copenhagen

In modern states territoriality is a technology that enables states to control territory, people and things by delimiting and distributing them in a geographic area (Scott 1998; Stuart 2009). However, in spite of visible signs and objects that mark state borders, for many people everyday life continues to take place in a social space that transgresses national borders. While borders play important role in forming identity and national cultures, transgressing national borders creates opportunities as well as inequalities for men and women whose chances for social mobility vary across class, ethnic and gender boundaries. By looking at the intersection of migration and territorialisation in the form of Asian connectivity and transnational flows this panel seeks to go beyond the notions of bounded state territoriality and takes a broader view of people’s perception of social space. Local projections of territoriality are grounded in negotiations that rest on multiple views originating within states and people’s experiences. These vernacular notions of space could be defined in terms of people’s relations with ancestors, their religious practices, kinship networks, experience of migration or trade networks. Therefore, this panel explores the entanglement of territory, nation and mobility by taking the existing plurality of positions, perceptions and interests in relations to spaces as a point of departure.