THE AREA(S)

Case studies

Our team is undertaking a comparative study of the use of and contestations over road networks and wireless communication technologies by marginalised communities in four case study sites in rural and urban India and Vietnam. These local projects will inform our larger analysis in the context of a rapidly modernizing urban and rural Asia.

Our comparative research project will ask if migrant workers in Hyderabad and Hanoi use roads, cellphones, and the internet for the same objectives and under the same conditions while they selectively participate in urban markets.

In parallel, and by comparing the local realities of the Sino Indian and Sino Vietnamese borderlands, our project will uncover if ethnic groups similarly adapt their livelihoods to the road networks and wireless communication technologies reshaping the landscape of rural highlands in India and Vietnam.