The Theatre of Human Trafficking

A Global Discourse on Lao Stages

Dados Bibliográficos

ID7299161
AutoresR Huijsmans (0000-0003-1684-2694, autor correspondente)
Ano2011
Volume1
Fascículo2
Data de publicação2011-01-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoInternational Journal of Social Quality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1757-0344 • E-ISSN: 1757-0352
EditoraBerghahn Books (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.3167/ijsq.2011.010206
OpenAlexW2331206936
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas9
Referências citadas9

Using the Lao PDR as a case study, this paper analyses human trafficking as discourse. Human trafficking is identified as a global discourse that is globalized through a set of powerful relations and actors. Following Appadurai, it is argued that this global discourse is not passively received by local actors such as the Lao state. This demonstrated by unravelling the global–local interactions through which it has entered the Lao social landscape. This is complemented with an analysis of a series of events in which the human trafficking discourse is staged on Lao soil. On this basis, the paper argues that the global human trafficking discourse is actively indigenized through, amongst other things, the social practice of staging. In addition, the paper argues that this indigenized discourse is employed by actors in more localized power struggles; in this case, by the Lao state as a response to boundary crises triggered by the phenomenon of cross-border migration into Thailand as an important manifestation of the overarching process of transition

Boundary (topology · Criminology · Epistemology · Human trafficking · Phenomenon · Political science · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography · Sex work and related issues · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies