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Call for papers: Special Issue of Asian Studies Review 

The Banalities and Intimacies of the Lao State

Theme:
Laos is one of the few remaining explicitly Marxist-Leninist nation-states. Observers have noted the authoritarian nature of rule there, the at times surprising stability of the Party, and the commanding role of elites. The state emerges as key in all of the pressing issues in Laos, from ethnicity to resource extraction, from internal migrations to international tourism, and it is often treated critically in scholarship. The state is regularly debated in everyday discourse too, by both civilians and officials. The state in Laos, it seems, captures the passions and projections of scholars and subjects alike. These reveal the varying moralities of statehood: ideas about how states should behave, and implicit or explicit theories about the state’s capacities and authorities. By critiquing the state, just as much as by investing it with hopes and aspirations, critics, disgruntled bureaucrats, cynical civilians, elites, international experts and scholars alike continually bring the state forth into existence, albeit with varying levels of efficacy. This special issue sets out to examine the Lao state through attention to the minutiae of micro-practices, narratives, and moralities of everyday state-making. Refusing an opposition between state and society, this special issue conceives of state not as a social “fact”, but as a social process awaiting empirical, thick and contextual studies This call for papers aims at gathering contributions that engage with innovative topics, methodological pluralism and epistemological reflexivity in addressing the complex and continuous invention of the Lao state through the lens of its tiniest details.

Topics:
-	Ethnographies of bureaucracy: What are the intimate and banal practices of the Lao office? While extraordinary power is often thought to reside with “officials”, this is belied by the often marginal position of the lowest rungs of the line ministries, and the regionalism that so often tempers central control. What are the daily practices that inscribe or contest authority in bureaucratic practice? How can we tackle, from an ethnographic perspective, administrative itineraries, i.e. the ways users cope with public services and civil servants? What are the links between official documents, bureaucratic practice, citizenship, and Lao lifeworlds?

-	Political elites: What are the moralities and modalities of rule among the nation’s most favoured? How is the apparent stability of their power achieved in the teeth of animosity and critique, and what understanding of state does this modality of operation imply? What is the role of kinship, marriage and social networks in the present-day cursus honorum – and does it leave place for any homo novus? However sensitive these topics may be, an analysis of clientelism, regionalism and corrupt practices is necessary in considering the state. Rather than falling back on normative approaches, we aim to investigate how these practices are embedded in social contexts; how they knit together multilayered networks and unveil the morality of an occult economy. 

-	Tales of the state: We think here of the recurring critiques of the state that so often pepper informal conversations. These may take the form of anecdotes, rumour or gossip; urban legends, jokes, and plays on words. Lao people enjoy revealing, under the seal of trust and secrecy, tales of the hidden side of the regime, where bigmen, networks, and clienteles confront for the appropriation of resources. These coexist with no less sincere patriotic statements and a committed defense of national institutions. These might be considered as part morality tales, part pedagogical devices, part popular sociology; as alternate histories or foundational myths; or simply as part of the daily intimacy of state-making.

-	Everyday state formation in marginal areas: In rural or remote parts of Laos, the state is a daily presence. However, this is not a simple case of “full saturation”: rather, there is a continual shoring up of state presence in the face of cynicism, critique and experimentalism. We think here of the so formal regulations that are enforced in so oddly casual ways; of the boring and repetitive rhetoric of village authorities that is met with predictable and no less repetitive non-compliance; and the cynicism that nonetheless allows the investment of the state with hope.  

-	Development as industry and ideal: With its community of experts and local technocrats, the development industry is an essential topic in thinking through the social life of the state in Laos. Development is also a legacy of the socialist rhetoric, a central trope of the present state’s ideology, and a part of local aspirations. Development projects, in turn, have been significant in the negotiations of state in marginal areas.
Submission process
The guest editors are willing to consider proposals for both shorter articles (minimum 5,000 words) and full-length articles (maximum of 10, 000 words). Interested authors should in the first instance send an abstract of not more than 400 words to the guest editors (contact details below). Closing date for submission of abstracts is December 15, 2010. Results of the consideration of abstracts will be announced by January 15. Selected authors will then be invited to submit a full manuscript for consideration by the editors (by end of May 2011). All manuscripts will also go through the regular ASR peer-review process and must conform to ASR submission guidelines. For details see the Asian Studies Review Website: www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/10357823.asp . The editor of ASR will confirm the publication of the special issue only after this stage.


Guest editors
Dr Holly High is a Research Associate at The University of Cambridge, a Research Fellow of Clare Hall and a Lecturer at the University of Sydney. She has conducted fieldwork in the rural south of Laos, and is currently finalizing a book manuscript on poverty and politics in Laos.
Website: http://sydney.edu.au/arts/anthropology/staff/profiles/high.shtml
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Dr Pierre Petit is a Research Associate at the Belgian National Funds for Scientific research and Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles. His current researches in Laos are centred on the topics of ethnicity and migration.
Website: http://lamc.ulb.ac.be/spip.php?article138&lang=en

E-mail: [log in to unmask]

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