Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar (book talk)

For decades, the heartland of Myanmar has been portrayed as a pacified space under military surveillance. However, a closer look reveals how politics was enacted at distance with the state.

Calibrated Engagement: Chronicles of Local Politics in the Heartland of Myanmar weaves together ethnography and history to chronicle the transformation of rural politics in Anya, the dry lands of central Myanmar before the 2021 coup. In this talk, Stéphen Huard (IRD) showed that politics is about how people calibrate the way they engage with each other. Reflecting on the post-coup situation, he asked how the idea of calibrated engagement can help us understand the widespread resistance that emerged in the dry lands against the military.

Speakers & chair biographies

Dr. Stéphen Huard is an anthropologist based at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD). He conducts research on violence, land conflicts, and the transformation of rural areas in Myanmar. His work aims to broaden our understanding of politics through ethnographic practice, focussing on interactions, exchanges, and forms of engagement in areas affected by violence.

Prof. John Sidel is Director of the Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre, and the Sir Patrick Gillam Professor of International and Comparative Politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

*Banner photo by Isabel Retamales on Unsplash

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