Abstract

This article examines the centrality of infrastructure connectivity within the post-2008 ‘retroliberal’ global aid regime. Through the critical interrogation of connectivity and development discourse within Southeast Asia, as well as longitudinal field research examining repeated bouts of dispossession in Laos, I argue that all Southeast Asian states, regionally operating multilateral development banks and leading regional bilateral aid providers consider transnational infrastructure connectivity essential to development. Following this, I contend that large-scale infrastructure projects frequently increase disadvantaged communities’ exposure to intersectional forms of structural violence, epistemic violence, slow violence and infrastructural violence. Having made these arguments, I suggest that the normalisation of infrastructure connectivity as constitutive of development is producing increasingly violent development outcomes, and that intersectional interrogations of infrastructure violence are needed to better understand such outcomes. The argument presented is based on more than 20 months of in-country fieldwork in Laos and 40 interviews with 18 displaced residents. Fieldwork commenced in 2009 and remains ongoing.

摘要

本文探讨了 2008 年后“反自由主义”全球援助制度中基础设施连通性的核心地位。通过对东南亚互联互通和发展话语的批判性审问，以及对老挝反复发生的掠夺事件进行的纵向实地研究，我认为所有东南亚国家、区域运营的多边开发银行和领先的区域双边援助提供者都考虑跨国基础设施互联互通发展必不可少。在此之后，我认为大型基础设施项目经常会增加弱势社区对结构性暴力、认知暴力、缓慢暴力和基础设施暴力的交叉形式的暴露。提出这些论点后，我建议将基础设施连接的正常化作为发展的组成部分正在产生越来越暴力的发展结果，需要对基础设施暴力进行交叉审讯以更好地理解这些结果。提出的论点基于在老挝 20 多个月的国内实地考察和对 18 名流离失所居民的 40 次采访。实地工作于 2009 年开始，目前仍在进行中。