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To be Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands: identity formation through the prism of a human rights discourse

To be Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands: identity formation through the prism of a human rights... Current debates on Karen identity have tended to focus on the development of a nationalist construct of a pan-Karen community. This article moves beyond this notion to explore a Karen identity that is being recast in the form of a human rights discourse where the Karen construct, adapt, and reify the social aspects of their political identity in order to establish a claim to a political self, where they protest the persecution and discrimination waged against them as well as larger claims around governance and political representation. This human rights discourse is framed by increased emphasis in the Thai–Burma borderlands on a human rights framework to address Burma’s ongoing conflict. Such an argument has the potential to move current debates beyond the more militant ethno-nationalist discourses of the Karen identity and develop an adequate framework for the practices of identity, which occur among displaced Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asian Ethnicity Taylor & Francis

To be Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands: identity formation through the prism of a human rights discourse

Sharples, Rachel
Asian Ethnicity , Volume 18 (1): 21 – Jan 2, 2017
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To be Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands: identity formation through the prism of a human rights discourse

Abstract

Current debates on Karen identity have tended to focus on the development of a nationalist construct of a pan-Karen community. This article moves beyond this notion to explore a Karen identity that is being recast in the form of a human rights discourse where the Karen construct, adapt, and reify the social aspects of their political identity in order to establish a claim to a political self, where they protest the persecution and discrimination waged against them as well as larger claims...
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Publisher
Taylor & Francis
Copyright
© 2015 Taylor & Francis
ISSN
1469-2953
eISSN
1463-1369
DOI
10.1080/14631369.2015.1088378
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Current debates on Karen identity have tended to focus on the development of a nationalist construct of a pan-Karen community. This article moves beyond this notion to explore a Karen identity that is being recast in the form of a human rights discourse where the Karen construct, adapt, and reify the social aspects of their political identity in order to establish a claim to a political self, where they protest the persecution and discrimination waged against them as well as larger claims around governance and political representation. This human rights discourse is framed by increased emphasis in the Thai–Burma borderlands on a human rights framework to address Burma’s ongoing conflict. Such an argument has the potential to move current debates beyond the more militant ethno-nationalist discourses of the Karen identity and develop an adequate framework for the practices of identity, which occur among displaced Karen in the Thai–Burma borderlands.

Journal

Asian Ethnicity – Taylor & Francis

Published: Jan 2, 2017

Keywords: human rights; identity; persecution; militant-nationalism; borderlands

References

  • Human Rights Discourse and the Development of Democracy in a Multi-ethnic State
  • Seeing ‘Karen’ in the Union of Myanmar
  • Searching for Home: Explorations in New Media and the Burmese Diaspora in New Zealand
  • On the Karens
  • Sacred Networks and Struggles among Karen Baptists across the Thailand Burma Border
  • Scattered but Connected: Karen Refugees’ Networking in and beyond the Thailand-Burma Borderland
  • Ethnic Politics in Eighteenth-Century Burma
  • Refugees and Exile: From ‘Refugee Studies’ to the National Order of Things
  • Fences and Neighbours in the Postmodern World: Boundary Narratives in Political Geography
  • ‘A Nation of Intent’ in Burma: Karen Ethno-Nationalism, Nationalism and Narrations of Nation
  • Karen Nationalist Communities: The ‘Problem’ of Diversity
  • Ariya and the Golden Book: A Millenarian Buddhist Sect among the Karen