New Research - “The centrality of the margins: Borderlands, illicit economies and uneven development”
This new SOC ACE research by Professor Jonathan Goodhand and Dr Patrick Meehan at Centre for the Study of Illicit Economies, Violence & Development (CIVAD), is seeking to understand whether concentrations of violence, environmental stress, poverty and illicit activities in borderlands are a result of how these regions have been integrated into national, regional, and global political economies, rather than their 'lack' of integration. The research posits that maintaining borderlands as zones of liminality and illicitness can become functional for political and economic elites (in metropoles and borderlands), but in ways that continue to work to the disadvantage of borderland populations.
Challenging traditional thinking, the research will undertake a detailed case study of the illicit corridor connecting Myanmar's north-eastern border and China to explore how conflict-affected borderlands are connected to development processes and wealth accumulation in metropolitan centres. It will address an important knowledge gap – in substantive and comparative terms – about how supply chains operate at the global margins, and what ‘work’ they do in shaping processes of development in metropolitan centres.
The research, completing in late 2025, seeks to inform agency responses to borderland illicit economies, transnational organised crime and their impact on development and security.