Pierre PETIT
Mobilities of highlanders in Laos
Pierre Petit is an anthropologist and art historian. His PhD dissertation, on the rituals of the Luba of Katanga, led him eventually to investigate issues of material culture, ethnicity, and urban anthropology in Congo. Since 2003, he works on Laos and more especially on the mobilities of highlanders involved in a rural exodus to the capital-city Vientiane, or to the Mekong plain. This project also investigates the relations between the state and the ethnic minorities, as well as the local conceptions and practices related to modernity. His ethnographic film, Return Trip : Portraits of Tai Dam migrants, explores the situation of rural youths caught in between their village and the city. His recent monograph, History, Memory, and Territorial Cults in the Highlands of Laos: The Past Inside the Present (Routledge 2020) triggers new questions in the field of historical anthropology. Pierre Petit is also the editor of Civilisations, the main journal of anthropology in Belgium.
Publications
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“Public spaces in Late Socialist East Asia: Interactions, Performativity, Citizenship”, Special issue of the journal Civilisations, vol. 69.
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"Public spaces in late socialist East Asia : Introduction", Special issue of the journal Civilisations, vol. 69.
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“Emerging public spaces in rural Laos”, Special issue of the journal Civilisations, vol. 69.
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“Land, state, and society in Laos: Ethnographies of land policies”, World Food Policy Journal, 3(2)-4(1), pp. 83-104.
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“Les évolutions récentes des sociétés rurales au Laos. Exode rural, jeunesse et ancestralité à Houay Yong (province de Houaphan)”, Bulletin de l’Académie royale des sciences d’outre-mer, 63(1), pp. 49-69.
GENEsYs Events
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GENEsYs Final Online Conference: East Asian Youth in Public Spaces
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Exhibition "Asian Youth in Public Spaces"
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East Asian Youth in Public Spaces - exhibition launch at the International Institute of Social Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam
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GENEsYs Full Lecture Cycle on "Espaces Publiques en Asie". Spring Semester 2019, Université Libre de Bruxelles
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GENEsYs Lecture - "Jeunes migrants hmongs à Vientiane (Laos) : comprendre le rôle des espaces publics virtuels dans la définition de leur identité". 17 Février 2018, Université Libre de Bruxelles
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GENEsYs Lecture - "No Time to Waste – Chinese Youth and the Politics of Precarity". 5 October 2017, Université Libre de Bruxelles
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GENEsYs Lecture - “Quand les jeunes bousculent l’espace public : manifestations amoureuses, politiques et nouvelles pratiques culturelles à Hanoi“. 16 March 2017, Université libre de Bruxelles
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GENEsYs Methods Workshop - Presentation of existing project on "Hanoi Youth in Public Spaces". 16-17 March 2017, Université libre de Bruxelles
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GENEsYs Keynote - “Changing places, changing youth ?“ by Roy Huijsmans (Erasmus University Rotterdam). 10 November 2016, Université libre de Bruxelles
Other events
- "L’exode rural au Laos : L’exemple des jeunesses tai du village de Houay Yong". Communication presented at INALCO for the Comité de Coopération pour le Laos. Paris, 7 March 2018.
- "City excitement, rural virtues.:Enchantment and public discourse among rural youths in Laos (Tai Vat, Houa Phan)". Communication presented on 16/8/2017 in the workshop “Disenchantment and Re-enchantment of Social and Natural Landscapes in the Southeast Asian Hinterlands”, 9th conference of the EuroSEAS (Oxford, 15-18/8/ 2017).
- “Continuity, resilience, and invention. Domestic and village rituals among the Tai Vat of Laos”. Communication presented on 14/10/2016 during the workshop “Comparative Approaches to Ritual in Mainland SE Asia: Emergence or Resurgence?”, Paris, CASE-EHESS.
- “Learning from past migrations. The opportunities and anxieties of mobility among Tai Vat (Laos)”. Communication presented on 23/7/ 2016 for the 14th Conference of the European Association of Social Anthropologists, Anthropological legacies and human futures, University de Milano-Bicocca, 20-23 July 2016. Workshop 62: Moving Southeast Asia: circulations, mobilities, and their contemporary entanglements.
