Drugs and extractivism: opium cultivation and drug use in the Myanmar-China borderlands

This paper explores the intersections between two phenomena that have shaped eastern Kachin State in Myanmar's northern borderlands with China since the late 1980s: the transformation of once-remote spaces into resource frontiers shaped by overlapping and cumulative forms of export-oriented res...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inThe Journal of peasant studies Vol. 51; no. 4; pp. 922 - 959
Main Authors Meehan, Patrick, Dan, Seng Lawn
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published London Routledge 06.06.2024
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Subjects
borderlands
Borders
Cultivation
Drug abuse
Drugs
Extraction
Extractivism
frontiers
Insecurity
Kachin State
Myanmar
Opium
Plantations
Political economy
Transformation
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:This paper explores the intersections between two phenomena that have shaped eastern Kachin State in Myanmar's northern borderlands with China since the late 1980s: the transformation of once-remote spaces into resource frontiers shaped by overlapping and cumulative forms of export-oriented resource extraction, and the upsurge of opium cultivation and drug use. Through the analytic of extractivism, we examine how the modalities surrounding logging and plantations in the Myanmar-China borderlands offer critical insights into how drugs have become entrenched in the region's political economy and the everyday lives of people 'living with' the destruction, violence and insecurity wrought by extractive development.
ISSN:0306-6150
1743-9361
DOI:10.1080/03066150.2023.2271403