Centering Peripheries : Flows and Interfaces in Southeast Asia

Abstract

The aim of this concept paper is to explore the spatial ecology of Southeast Asia. I do so from the perspective of cultural-geographical materialism in order to uncover some of the base structures and deep transformations of the region. This paper specifically looks into proto-typical binary oppositions between upland and lowland and the general socio-cultural features attached to the two geo-ecological niches. The paper first attempts to deconstruct the epistemological fixity derived from the static juxtaposition of social characteristics attributed to the two opposing niches, and then proposes alternative epistemology to better comprehend the dynamics of social change; the effect of the organizational power of the territorial state and the structural power of mercantilism and capitalism, which penetrate and connect hills and plains, and eventually destroy the structural binary between the two niches.