[Asia_news] Human Geography Seminars

[Timothy Sharp]

Please note the following two forthcoming seminars

Monday, 16 October, 2006
3.30pm - 5.00pm, Seminar Room C, Coombs Building

Dr Lesley Potter
Visiting Fellow
Department of Human Geography

The Kalimantan/Malaysia borderlands: contested resource periphery or 
conservation heartland?

It has been suggested that analysis of resource peripheries be given 
higher priority in economic geography, in recognition of their 
multi-dimensional nature through the intersections of economic, 
environmental, cultural and political values. The contests over 
resources reveal 'remarkably complex and fragmented global-local 
dynamics in ways not found in cores' (Hayter et al 2003, 21). This 
seminar examines contested production of an export crop (oil palm) in 
the Kalimantan/Malaysia borderlands, particularly the proposed 'oil 
palm corridor' along the border, announced by Indonesian President 
Yudhoyono in May 2005. The announcement surprised and alarmed many 
observers, as it followed the initiation one month earlier of the 
'Heart of Borneo' project, a trans-boundary three country 
conservation endeavour led by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF). 
Close examination of the issue reveals a variety of discourses 
including definition of cores versus peripheries; the 'values' 
attributed to oil palm, forests and national parks; China's demands 
for Indonesian raw materials; the international politics of the 
border, especially smuggling, illegal logging and security; a 
re-centralisation of Indonesian land use planning and the resumption 
of transmigration. The major proponents were the central Agriculture 
Department, their Chinese investors, local estates and the military, 
with collaboration from provincial and district governments. They 
were opposed by the central Forestry Department, WWF and other ENGOS, 
the Center for International Forestry Research and the Alliance of 
Indigenous People. The official ratification of the 'Heart of Borneo' 
project by the countries concerned in March 2006 and more detailed 
studies of the agricultural potential of the borderlands produced a 
major back down by the corridor's proponents two months later. 
However, many questions about the aborted project and the future of 
the border region remain unanswered. Conclusions will be drawn from 
this case study concerning global/local and central/regional dynamics 
in Asia-Pacific peripheries.

Hayter, R, T Barnes and M Bradshaw (2003) 'Relocating resource 
peripheries to the core of economic geography's theorizing: rationale 
and agenda' Area 35(1), 15-23.

Monday, 23 October, 2006
3.30pm - 5.00pm, Seminar Room C, Coombs Building

Michelle Carnegie
PhD Candidate
Department of Human Geography

Re-thinking economic dynamics: contingent livelihoods of sailor-traders in Rote

In this seminar I explore the rapidly transforming livelihoods of 
small-scale sailor-traders in Rote, Eastern Indonesia. I theorise 
their economic practices as overdetermined as opposed to being shaped 
by the unfolding logics of state projects and market forces. This 
kind of theorising cannot assume a priori that sailor-traders are 
co-opted, or too small or powerless in the face of macro-economic and 
environmental challenges. I interpret sailor-traders as operating in 
a differentiated economic landscape that offers freedom and 
opportunity as well as constraint. Some of the economic dynamics that 
have changed their livelihoods over the past few decades include new 
technologies, nationalisation, geopolitical regulation, 
cooperativisation, the redrawing of borders, monopolisation, new 
export market niches and currency fluctuations. These multiple 
dynamics have not produced a uni-linear effect causing a more 
immiserated situation. Rather, the outcomes are often unexpected, 
with unintended feedback loops, and causality moving in different 
directions, instigated by different actors. Two current threats such 
as depleting natural resources and increased competition in trade 
invoke a challenge for the future sustainability of sailing-trading 
livelihoods. I conclude by exploring how a community economy approach 
might be fostered to assist in overcoming such vulnerabilities.

Convenor
Kersty Hobson
Department of Human Geography, Research School of Pacific & Asian Studies
Email: kersty.hobson at anu.edu.au
Tel: 612 54344

Sandra Davenport
Department of Human Geography
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
Canberra  ACT  0200  Australia
Tel: +61-2-612-52205;  Fax: +61-2-6257 1893

http://rspas.anu.edu.au/humgeog/

ANU CRICOS Provider Number 00120C



Department of Human Geography
Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies
The Australian National University
ACT 0200

Phone: (02) 61252233
Email: timothy.sharp at anu.edu.au