Shona Loong (University of Zurich), Alex Manby (University of Oxford), and Fiona McConnell (University of Oxford)
This paper makes the case for a geographical analysis of self-determination. In setting out how and why self-determination is an inherently spatial right and principle, we bring literature on self-determination into dialogue with scholarship on postcolonial geographies and relational space, so as to propose a geographical approach to self-determination. By examining how three communities – the Nagas, the Tibetans, and the Karen – have recently re-articulated self-determination, we illustrate how self-determination is a relationally constituted claim, informed by interactions across various sites and scales, even as it is claimed with reference to a homeland. Please email the coordinator if you would like a copy of the paper to be discussed ahead of attending this session.