Sverre Molland
Biographic Data
| ID | 3693817 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sverre Molland |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sverre |
| FAMILY NAME | Molland |
| SIGNATURE | MOLLAND S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Australian National University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 65 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 5 |
Drifting as method: Illustrating a concept metaphor for the anthropology of securitised mobility
This article proposes drifting as a conceptual framework for understanding securitised mobility, particularly in maritime and aerial border crossings. Through examples of refugees and migrants in Southeast Asia and Europe, drifting is examined through three interrelated lenses: as an experiential state; as a technology of governance; and as a form of tactical resistance. It demonstrates this first by analysing how the prolonged temporal and spati…
Scalability, Social Media and Migrant Assistance: Emulation or Contestation
Aid agencies have in recent years recalibrated their interventions to encompass social media technologies within their programmes. This uptake can in part be explained by the unprecedented opportunities for connectivity - and therefore scalability - that social media technologies allow for. This is particularly evident amongst aid organisations within the migration policy sector. Whilst the efficacy of such approaches remains contested, less atte…
Safe migration and the politics of brokered safety in Southeast Asia
The book investigates how the United Nations, governments, and aid agencies mobilise and instrumentalise migration policies and programmes through a discourse of safe migration. Since the early 2000s, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies, and governments have warmed to the concept of safe migration, often within a context of anti-trafficking interventions. Yet, both the policy-enthusiasm for safety, as well as how safe migr…
What Happened to Sex Trafficking? The New Moral Panic of Men, Boys and Fish in the Mekong Region
Activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international media have repeatedly singled out the Mekong region as a hotspot for ‘sex trafficking’. Yet, in recent years anti-trafficking campaigns that focus on prostitution have lost momentum, witnessed by a decline in project activity and media attention. This article suggests that a moral panic relating to prostitution has partly been overshadowed by a broader focus on the Thai labour…
Humanitarianized' Development? Anti-trafficking Reconfigured
Over the past three decades humanitarianism has broadened considerably in scope. Humanitarian aid agencies have increasingly moved beyond a traditionally narrow concern with immediate relief aid to engage the wider implications of their work. Humanitarian arguments have also become central to policy legitimation in a range of contexts outside the humanitarian aid sector. By contrast, this article, based on research into anti-trafficking programme…
Capitalism Disrupted: Precarity and Struggle in a Southeast Asian Industrial Zone
Anthropological theorising of migration and labour relations have made important headways in recent years, ranging from ethnographies of labour migration infrastructure, intermediaries in migration, and migration-governance’s spatio-political significance (special economic zones, borders). Building on this body of work, David Campbell’s Capitalism Disrupted examines labour flexibilization in Mae-Sot, one of Thailand’s export-oriented border zones…
Sedentary Optics: Static Anti-trafficking and Mobile Victims
Postpanopticism and the "mobility turn" within the social sciences provide important challenges to territorial constructs, such as Foucauldian panopticism and James Scott's notion of the synoptic. According to these critiques, migration and mobility exemplify social practice that cannot easily be grasped through grid-like technologies of governing. In this paper, I take issue with these arguments by illuminating notable static and territorial way…
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong
For those at the high end of the trafficking chain, the sex trade is an alluring and lucrative business: the supply of girls is constant, the costs of operations are low, and interference from law enforcement is weak to non-existent. Anti-trafficking organizations and governments commonly appropriate such market metaphors of supply and demand as they struggle with the moral-political dimensions of a business involving trade, labor, prostitution, …
Hjorleifur Jonsson, Slow anthropology: Negotiating difference with the Iu Mien
For several decades, ethnic minorities of Mainland Southeast Asia have been subject to considerable attention amongst anthropologists. A key theoretical and empirical concern relates to how ethnic
Anthropology and Development: Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalised World
Studies of development aid have been growing within anthropology for several years, witnessed by a proliferation of undergraduate and postgraduate courses within universities, as well as a booming
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong
Tandem ethnography: On researching 'trafficking' and 'anti-trafficking
How can an elusive phenomenon such as human trafficking be studied anthropologically? Recent anthropological research has problematized and destabilized bound territory and sitedness. UN agencies, governments, and NGOs attempt to combat trafficking in persons, but find it hard to pinpoint traffickers and their victims for programmatic purposes. Similar to anthropology's relativization of site, displaced locality is central to the anti-trafficking…
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong: Anti-trafficking and the sex trade along the Mekong
For those at the high end of the trafficking chain, the sex trade is an alluring and lucrative business: the supply of girls is constant, the costs of operations are low, and interference from law enforcement is weak to non-existent. Anti-trafficking organizations and governments commonly appropriate such market metaphors of supply and demand as they struggle with the moral?political dimensions of a business involving trade, labor, prostitution, …
Safe Migration, Dilettante Brokers and the Appropriation of Legality: Lao-Thai "Trafficking" in the Context of Regulating Labour Migration
This paper sets out to explore the interrelations between safeguarding migration flows between Laos and Thailand and dual models of migrant brokers' subjectivity. Within the anti-trafficking community in the Mekong region there is a tacit dual imagery of
The Trafficking of Scarce Elite Commodities: Social Change and Commodification of Virginity along the Mekong
Trafficking literature often mentions underage prostitution, where paedophilia and virginity sale are considered particularly appalling examples of sex trafficking. At the same time it is ubiquitously assumed that underage prostitution, epitomised by the sale of virgins as elite commodities within sex trafficking, results in considerable profits for traffickers and exploiters. I argue that such views reflect a tacit projection of classic economic…
The Perfect Business: Human Trafficking and Lao-Thai Cross-Border Migration
Over the past few years some governments and development organizations have increasingly articulated cross-border mobility as 'trafficking in persons'. The notion of a market where traffickers prey on the 'supply' of migrants that flows across international borders to meet the 'demand' for labour has become a central trope among anti-trafficking development organizations. This article problematizes such economism by drawing attention to the oscil…
Safe Migration, Dilettante Brokers and the Appropriation of Legality: Lao-Thai "Trafficking" in the Context of Regulating Labour Migration
This paper sets out to explore the interrelations between safeguarding migration flows between Laos and Thailand and dual models of migrant brokers' subjectivity. Within the anti-trafficking community in the Mekong region there is a tacit dual imagery of
What Happened to Sex Trafficking? The New Moral Panic of Men, Boys and Fish in the Mekong Region
Activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international media have repeatedly singled out the Mekong region as a hotspot for ‘sex trafficking’. Yet, in recent years anti-trafficking campaigns that focus on prostitution have lost momentum, witnessed by a decline in project activity and media attention. This article suggests that a moral panic relating to prostitution has partly been overshadowed by a broader focus on the Thai labour…
The Perfect Business: Human Trafficking and Lao-Thai Cross-Border Migration
Over the past few years some governments and development organizations have increasingly articulated cross-border mobility as 'trafficking in persons'. The notion of a market where traffickers prey on the 'supply' of migrants that flows across international borders to meet the 'demand' for labour has become a central trope among anti-trafficking development organizations. This article problematizes such economism by drawing attention to the oscil…
Tandem ethnography: On researching 'trafficking' and 'anti-trafficking
How can an elusive phenomenon such as human trafficking be studied anthropologically? Recent anthropological research has problematized and destabilized bound territory and sitedness. UN agencies, governments, and NGOs attempt to combat trafficking in persons, but find it hard to pinpoint traffickers and their victims for programmatic purposes. Similar to anthropology's relativization of site, displaced locality is central to the anti-trafficking…
Sedentary Optics: Static Anti-trafficking and Mobile Victims
Postpanopticism and the "mobility turn" within the social sciences provide important challenges to territorial constructs, such as Foucauldian panopticism and James Scott's notion of the synoptic. According to these critiques, migration and mobility exemplify social practice that cannot easily be grasped through grid-like technologies of governing. In this paper, I take issue with these arguments by illuminating notable static and territorial way…
Safe migration and the politics of brokered safety in Southeast Asia
The book investigates how the United Nations, governments, and aid agencies mobilise and instrumentalise migration policies and programmes through a discourse of safe migration. Since the early 2000s, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies, and governments have warmed to the concept of safe migration, often within a context of anti-trafficking interventions. Yet, both the policy-enthusiasm for safety, as well as how safe migr…
Humanitarianized' Development? Anti-trafficking Reconfigured
Over the past three decades humanitarianism has broadened considerably in scope. Humanitarian aid agencies have increasingly moved beyond a traditionally narrow concern with immediate relief aid to engage the wider implications of their work. Humanitarian arguments have also become central to policy legitimation in a range of contexts outside the humanitarian aid sector. By contrast, this article, based on research into anti-trafficking programme…
The Trafficking of Scarce Elite Commodities: Social Change and Commodification of Virginity along the Mekong
Trafficking literature often mentions underage prostitution, where paedophilia and virginity sale are considered particularly appalling examples of sex trafficking. At the same time it is ubiquitously assumed that underage prostitution, epitomised by the sale of virgins as elite commodities within sex trafficking, results in considerable profits for traffickers and exploiters. I argue that such views reflect a tacit projection of classic economic…
Scalability, Social Media and Migrant Assistance: Emulation or Contestation
Aid agencies have in recent years recalibrated their interventions to encompass social media technologies within their programmes. This uptake can in part be explained by the unprecedented opportunities for connectivity - and therefore scalability - that social media technologies allow for. This is particularly evident amongst aid organisations within the migration policy sector. Whilst the efficacy of such approaches remains contested, less atte…
The Perfect Business: Human Trafficking and Lao-Thai Cross-Border Migration
Over the past few years some governments and development organizations have increasingly articulated cross-border mobility as 'trafficking in persons'. The notion of a market where traffickers prey on the 'supply' of migrants that flows across international borders to meet the 'demand' for labour has become a central trope among anti-trafficking development organizations. This article problematizes such economism by drawing attention to the oscil…
The Trafficking of Scarce Elite Commodities: Social Change and Commodification of Virginity along the Mekong
Trafficking literature often mentions underage prostitution, where paedophilia and virginity sale are considered particularly appalling examples of sex trafficking. At the same time it is ubiquitously assumed that underage prostitution, epitomised by the sale of virgins as elite commodities within sex trafficking, results in considerable profits for traffickers and exploiters. I argue that such views reflect a tacit projection of classic economic…
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong: Anti-trafficking and the sex trade along the Mekong
For those at the high end of the trafficking chain, the sex trade is an alluring and lucrative business: the supply of girls is constant, the costs of operations are low, and interference from law enforcement is weak to non-existent. Anti-trafficking organizations and governments commonly appropriate such market metaphors of supply and demand as they struggle with the moral?political dimensions of a business involving trade, labor, prostitution, …
Safe Migration, Dilettante Brokers and the Appropriation of Legality: Lao-Thai "Trafficking" in the Context of Regulating Labour Migration
This paper sets out to explore the interrelations between safeguarding migration flows between Laos and Thailand and dual models of migrant brokers' subjectivity. Within the anti-trafficking community in the Mekong region there is a tacit dual imagery of
Tandem ethnography: On researching 'trafficking' and 'anti-trafficking
How can an elusive phenomenon such as human trafficking be studied anthropologically? Recent anthropological research has problematized and destabilized bound territory and sitedness. UN agencies, governments, and NGOs attempt to combat trafficking in persons, but find it hard to pinpoint traffickers and their victims for programmatic purposes. Similar to anthropology's relativization of site, displaced locality is central to the anti-trafficking…
Anthropology and Development: Culture, Morality and Politics in a Globalised World
Studies of development aid have been growing within anthropology for several years, witnessed by a proliferation of undergraduate and postgraduate courses within universities, as well as a booming
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong
The Perfect Business? Anti-Trafficking and the Sex Trade along the Mekong
For those at the high end of the trafficking chain, the sex trade is an alluring and lucrative business: the supply of girls is constant, the costs of operations are low, and interference from law enforcement is weak to non-existent. Anti-trafficking organizations and governments commonly appropriate such market metaphors of supply and demand as they struggle with the moral-political dimensions of a business involving trade, labor, prostitution, …
Hjorleifur Jonsson, Slow anthropology: Negotiating difference with the Iu Mien
For several decades, ethnic minorities of Mainland Southeast Asia have been subject to considerable attention amongst anthropologists. A key theoretical and empirical concern relates to how ethnic
Sedentary Optics: Static Anti-trafficking and Mobile Victims
Postpanopticism and the "mobility turn" within the social sciences provide important challenges to territorial constructs, such as Foucauldian panopticism and James Scott's notion of the synoptic. According to these critiques, migration and mobility exemplify social practice that cannot easily be grasped through grid-like technologies of governing. In this paper, I take issue with these arguments by illuminating notable static and territorial way…
What Happened to Sex Trafficking? The New Moral Panic of Men, Boys and Fish in the Mekong Region
Activists, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the international media have repeatedly singled out the Mekong region as a hotspot for ‘sex trafficking’. Yet, in recent years anti-trafficking campaigns that focus on prostitution have lost momentum, witnessed by a decline in project activity and media attention. This article suggests that a moral panic relating to prostitution has partly been overshadowed by a broader focus on the Thai labour…
Humanitarianized' Development? Anti-trafficking Reconfigured
Over the past three decades humanitarianism has broadened considerably in scope. Humanitarian aid agencies have increasingly moved beyond a traditionally narrow concern with immediate relief aid to engage the wider implications of their work. Humanitarian arguments have also become central to policy legitimation in a range of contexts outside the humanitarian aid sector. By contrast, this article, based on research into anti-trafficking programme…
Capitalism Disrupted: Precarity and Struggle in a Southeast Asian Industrial Zone
Anthropological theorising of migration and labour relations have made important headways in recent years, ranging from ethnographies of labour migration infrastructure, intermediaries in migration, and migration-governance’s spatio-political significance (special economic zones, borders). Building on this body of work, David Campbell’s Capitalism Disrupted examines labour flexibilization in Mae-Sot, one of Thailand’s export-oriented border zones…
Safe migration and the politics of brokered safety in Southeast Asia
The book investigates how the United Nations, governments, and aid agencies mobilise and instrumentalise migration policies and programmes through a discourse of safe migration. Since the early 2000s, numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs), UN agencies, and governments have warmed to the concept of safe migration, often within a context of anti-trafficking interventions. Yet, both the policy-enthusiasm for safety, as well as how safe migr…
Scalability, Social Media and Migrant Assistance: Emulation or Contestation
Aid agencies have in recent years recalibrated their interventions to encompass social media technologies within their programmes. This uptake can in part be explained by the unprecedented opportunities for connectivity - and therefore scalability - that social media technologies allow for. This is particularly evident amongst aid organisations within the migration policy sector. Whilst the efficacy of such approaches remains contested, less atte…
Drifting as method: Illustrating a concept metaphor for the anthropology of securitised mobility
This article proposes drifting as a conceptual framework for understanding securitised mobility, particularly in maritime and aerial border crossings. Through examples of refugees and migrants in Southeast Asia and Europe, drifting is examined through three interrelated lenses: as an experiential state; as a technology of governance; and as a form of tactical resistance. It demonstrates this first by analysing how the prolonged temporal and spati…
Political science (13 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Sex work and related issues (10 works) · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (10 works) · Criminology (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (7 works) · Economics (6 works) · Geography (6 works) · Human trafficking (6 works)