A tale of two networks

Market formation on the Cambodia–Vietnam frontier

Bibliographic Data

ID8962890
AuthorsSango Mahanty (0000-0003-0382-5879, Crawford School of Public Policy The Australian National University Acton ACT Australia, corresponding author)
Year2019
Volume44
Issue2
Pages315-330
Publication date2019-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTransactions of the Institute of British Geographers (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0020-2754 • E-ISSN: 1475-5661
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/tran.12286
OpenAlexW2913566626
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited54

Although South‐East Asia's trading networks have existed for millennia, recent decades have seen markets dramatically intensify in the region's frontiers, bringing social and environmental upheaval. Within political ecology, such transitions are framed as frontier incorporation into global capitalism – a process that has been ongoing since European colonisation. This paper, however, responds to recent calls for commodity network studies to better account for specific material and social variances in “actually existing capitalism.” My analysis focuses on Mondulkiri province in north‐eastern Cambodia, where a boom in cassava cultivation has produced two distinct commodity networks. The first network supplies dried cassava chips to trans‐border markets that serve bioethanol and livestock production. The second network supplies fresh cassava to Vietnamese starch and processed food factories. In order to understand why two market networks have evolved from one crop, I analyse the social, material and spatial relationships in each network. Comparative analysis shows that both networks involve land and labour commodification and respond to global demand. Yet subtle geographical variations in transport networks, migration patterns and the availability of uncleared land, support dried cassava production in some areas and fresh cassava in others. The cassava case shows that although frontier markets are propelled by globally connected processes of commodification, they ultimately take form through co‐productive networks that mould to and shape frontier landscapes. Furthermore, market networks are not only mobilised, but also can be demobilised by environmental, economic and social pressures – a point that frontier incorporation perspectives may overlook. The paper therefore argues for an understanding of frontier geographies as dynamic and constitutive in market formation

Boom · Capitalism · Commodification · Commodity · Commodity chain · Economic geography · Economics · Economy · Frontier · Geography · Market economy · Political science · Politics · Production (economics · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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