Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

Only a small number of individual papers will be selected. We therefore encourage you to submit a full panel proposal. We will consider proposals for panels and roundtables that have a thematic focus, are of a comparative character, and involve scholars or practitioners affiliated with different institutions.

To submit a proposal click on a Submission Type

[ Organised Panel ]

[ Roundtable ]

[ Individual Paper ]

Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

The multiple crises facing our world today warrant critical reflection of how we think of bordering, sovereignty, belonging and solidarity. Today, borders are transforming in multiple forms as communities, technologies, infrastructures, and natural forces interact, blending physical and virtual boundaries together. Borders are negotiated in new ways, on the ground, across the oceans, and “in the cloud”, with profound implications on our understanding of actors, displacements, multiplicities, and sovereignties. Maritime borders and island geographies reveal the in-betweenness of sovereignty, where borders are shaped not only by political institutions but also by oceanic connections, historical flows, and lived experiences. The fluidity of bordering complicates fixed notions of territorial sovereignty, highlighting how movement, exchange, and historical entanglements challenge rigid border structures. The tactics people use to navigate contemporary borders, the historical linkages and narratives of borders, and alternative visions of borders and borderlands are all important parts of these transformations. Tracing historical linkages and dynamics can unveil diverse narratives on borders and sovereignty, inviting voices, memories, and imaginaries towards alternative visions of the present and future.

Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

Over the last four years, the geopolitical landscape of the world, and of Asia in particular, witnessed fundamental shifts marked by concurrent and overlapping crises. From rising tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea to the impacts of economic and security realignments across the region; from extreme weather events to the displacement and scattering of refugee communities across international boundaries – these crises are reshaping how people live their lives, negotiate their identities, recall their pasts and imagine futures. In coastal and island regions, maritime borders have become key sites where geopolitical fault lines are redrawn, as sovereignty disputes, security concerns, and economic interests intersect across oceanic spaces. At the same time, nation-states have reinforced borders, both physical and virtual, through heightened surveillance and defence Yet shared values of freedom and peace continue to foster transnational solidarities that transcend land-based divides, connecting diverse actors across borders, seas, and more-than-human worlds. 

The multiple crises facing our world today warrant critical reflection of how we think of bordering, sovereignty, belonging and solidarity. Today, borders are transforming in multiple forms as communities, technologies, infrastructures, and natural forces interact, blending physical and virtual boundaries together. Borders are negotiated in new ways, on the ground, across the ocean, and “in the cloud”, with profound implications on our understanding of actors, displacements, multiplicities, and sovereignties. The tactics people use to navigate contemporary borders, the historical linkages and narratives of borders, and alternative visions of borders and borderlands are all important parts of these transformations. How people navigate and make sense of these turbulent times remains a key question to be answered. Tracing historical linkages and dynamics can unveil diverse narratives on borders and sovereignty, inviting voices, memories, and imaginaries towards alternative visions of the present and future.      

The theme of the 8th ABRN conference is “Negotiating Borders” across Asia. The four sub-themes offer specific points of engagement, with broader possibilities of cross-fertilisation of ideas and research directions. Exploratory questions are listed under each sub-theme as a starting point for conversation:   

 Actors/Actants

1. Who are the main actors negotiating borders and boundaries, in human and more-than-human worlds? Who is excluded from these processes and how?
2. How are these actors profiled, imagined, networked, managed, and controlled?
3. How do diverse actors negotiate their voices and echoes, their presence and impact, their visibility and invisibility, strategies, and practices?
4. How do different actors navigate, contest, and enforce maritime borders, and what strategies emerge in response to shifting sovereignties at sea?
5. What are the hopes and visions of different actors, and what are the possibilities for creating borderland commons (e.g. around shared habitats, waterways, energy resources, specific trades, and technologies?)

Displacements

1. How does the forced displacement of populations transform borderlands?
2. How are these processes shaped by gender dynamics as well as different age cohorts, particularly among youth?
3. What are the political/legal and economic responses of state and other authorities to large-scale displacement and how do they reflect in wider bordering dynamics as well as social empowerment and integration?
4. How do maritime borders shape experiences of displacement, and how do displaced peoples navigate legal, political, and ecological uncertainties across the seas?
5. How do transborder solidarities, loyalties and belonging of displaced people impact upon socio-economic and (potentially) social-ecological developments in borderlands?

Multiplicities

1. How are borders evolving to form new and surprising assemblages?
2. How to trace multiple connections of global supply chains, just-in-time (and now “just-in-case”) logistics, offshoot and proxy enterprises, physically and virtually?
3. How do fast-evolving technologies such as generative AI simulate and stimulate novel understanding of complex social-ecological systems in and beyond borderlands?
4. How do maritime borders and/or islands create shifting assemblages of governance, trade, and technology, and what do they reveal about the multiplicities of bordering?
5. What roles do borderlands play in overlapping socio-economic and social-ecological systems in Asia?     

Sovereignties

1. How can we better understand multiple and intersecting forms of sovereignty that transform politics and imaginations? e.g. cyber sovereignty, health or biosovereignty, energy/resource sovereignty, air/water/climate sovereignty, data sovereignty, volumetric sovereignty etc.
2. How are borders reconstituted, gained, evaded and undermined, as ideas and practices around sovereignties evolve?
3. How do maritime borders and/or islands complicate notions of sovereignty, as territorial control intersects with ocean governance, security regimes, and transnational economies?
4. How do multiple forms of sovereignty shape research methodologies?
5. How do evolving sovereignties influence or pose any implications for the ethical conduct of research?

• Po-Yi Hung - National Taiwan University, Taiwan
• Juan Zhang - University of Bristol, United Kingdom
• Willem van Schendel - Amsterdam University, The Netherlands
• Tina Harris - Amsterdam University, The Netherlands
• Henryk Alff - Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development (HNEE), Germany
• Busarin Lertchavalitsakul - Naresuan University, Thailand 
• Hasan Karrar - Lahore University for Management Sciences (LUMS), Pakistan
• Duncan McDuie-Ra - Monash University, Malaysia 
• Ruba Al Akash - Yarmouk University, Jordan

The 8th ABRN conference is organised by the Department of Geography, National Taiwan University (NTU), International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) and the Asian Borderlands Research Network (ABRN).

Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

Format Description - Organised Panel

A full panel proposal submitted by a convenor with 3-5 paper presentations

Organised Panel is a submission format composed of a group of individual scholars (from different backgrounds, institutes, countries). Convenors of organised panels are asked to submit the full panel proposal (panel title, panel abstracts, participants details, paper abstracts etc.). They are also required to include the contact details of each of the participants. Each participant is only allowed to present one paper during the conference.

• The organised/institutional panel should consist of a chair, discussant (optional) and 3–5 presenters.
• If you would like to submit multiple panels, please submit a separate form for each panel. The titles of the panels can be the same, but please number them separately (e.g. Law and Order I, Law and Order II). 
• The maximum number of words for a panel title is 20 words. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible.
• The maximum number of words for a panel abstract is 400 words. The abstract has to be included in the proposal form and cannot be sent separately. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible.
• The maximum number of words for a paper abstract is 300 words. The abstract has to be included in the proposal form and cannot be sent separately.
• We only accept complete panel proposals. Please make sure that you have gathered the details of all participants (including paper abstracts and contact details for each presenter) before you start filling in the form.
• After submitting your proposal, a notification email will be sent to your email address informing you that the proposal has been successfully submitted.

I have read and understood the format description.

Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

Format Description - Roundtable

A roundtable can have a maximum of 6 participants - a total of 8 including the roundtable convenor and chair. The participants present briefly their take on a theme, and discuss it among themselves and with the people attending.

• We only accept complete roundtable proposals. The roundtable proposal should be submitted by the convenor. Please make sure that you have gathered the details of all participants before you start filling in the form.
• The maximum number of words for a roundtable title is 20 words. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible.
• The maximum number of words for a roundtable abstract is 500 words. The abstract has to be included in the proposal form and cannot be sent separately. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible. 
• After submitting your proposal, a notification email will be sent to your email address informing you that the proposal has been successfully submitted.

I have read and understood the format description.

Negotiating Asian Borders: Actors, Displacements, Multiplicities, Sovereignties

Format Description - Individual Paper

An individual paper presentation, if accepted, will be grouped into a panel with other individual papers by the ABRN Committee. Each participant is only allowed to present one paper during the conference.

• The maximum number of words for a paper title is 20 words. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible.
• The maximum number of words for a paper abstract is 300 words. The abstract has to be included in the proposal form and cannot be sent separately. Please avoid the inclusion of diacritics or non‐Roman characters as much as possible. 
• After submitting your proposal, a notification email will be sent to your email address informing you that the proposal has been successfully submitted.

I have read and understood the format description.