Movements across space : a conceptual framework for the Thai-Burma borderlands

The Thai-Burma borderlands is a site of political and social transformation. This transformation is informed by an interchange that occurs across the national border"”people, ideas, culture, information, resources, and identity. This articulation of a borderlands space challenges the geo-political narrative of the state and the bounded nature of state mechanisms. In particular, the tendency of states to treat borders as static and stable and to use borders as a means of determining belonging and not belonging. Instead, the Thai-Burma borderlands is a microcosm of human society, defined by processes of contestation and transformation that give alternative meanings to the space.