L’épaisseur différenciée de la limite : les usages asymétriques de l’espace frontalier isan-lao

Abstract

The literature on borderlands has grown considerably over the past 30 years, particularly in anthropology. The globalist vision of a borderless world has gradually faded away to make way for studies which, on the one hand, particularly in the Southeast Asian context, pointed to the specificity of the border margins characterized by transverse cultural groups and, on the other hand, a literature which underlined the contemporary security turn in the national and international borders management. The border between northeastern Thailand and the Vientiane Plain in Laos, has long been described from the first perspective, perceived as a space made fluid by the common belonging to the Lao ethno-linguistic group of populations of both shores. Based on a fifteen months PhD field research in two border villages, this article aims to question the Isan-Lao border porosity through the practical and daily modalities of its control, the use of the river as a resource and the circulation from one bank to the other. This practical topography of the borderland will show how, despite the informal nature of the passage, it constitutes a densely and differently structured space on both sides.

Keywords

• Thailand
• Laos
• borderland
• border control
• practical topography