The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling offers a comprehensive survey of interdisciplinary research related to smuggling, reflecting on key themes, and charting current and future trends.
Divided into six parts and spanning over 30 chapters, the volume covers themes such as mobility, borders, violent conflict, and state politics, as well as looks at the smuggling of specific goods – from rice and gasoline to wildlife, weapons, and cocaine. Chapters engage with some of the most contentious academic and policy debates of the twenty-first century, including the historical creation of borders, re-bordering, the criminalisation of migration, and the politics of selective toleration of smuggling. As it maps a field that contains unique methodological, ethical, and risk-related challenges, the book takes stock not only of the state of our shared knowledge, but also reflects on how this has been produced, pointing to blind spots and providing an informed vision of the future of the field.
Bringing together established and emerging scholars from around the world, The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling is an indispensable resource for students and researchers of conflict studies, borderland studies, criminology, political science, global development, anthropology, sociology, and geography.
Download the whole book at the link below:
http://www.smuggling.page/
Old routes, new rules
Chapter 20 | 14 Pages
Smuggling rice in the porous borders of the Sulu, Celebes, and South China Sea
By Eddie L. Quitoriano
Creating boundaries where there were none transformed the nature of food exchanges across many borders around the world. In Southeast Asia, South Asia, and East Asia, the trading of rice was among the traditional livelihoods affected by the transformation from untrammeled to regulated exchanges in grains, spices, and other food commodities. Rice was, and still is, the staple food of the people in these regions. It spelled food security and political stability rooted in traditional beliefs, rituals and cultural practices that are embedded in social networks and economic arrangements. With the emergence of the Philippine and Malaysian modern states after World War II, rules were subsequently imposed on the previously borderless maritime routes. Informal economic institutions, however, remain vibrant. This study examines the dynamics of rice smuggling through evidence from an in-depth case study of rice smuggling between Tawi-Tawi in the Philippines and Sabah in Malaysia, accompanied by mediated dialogues with smugglers and interviews of both legal and shadow authorities across the Sulu Sea. The study underscores how the desire for food security and political legitimacy, coupled with the salience of traditional and cultural ties and practices, and the taut social and economic networks inherited from the cross-border traders of the past, continue to lubricate rice smuggling in Southeast Asia.
Suggested Citation: Quitoriano, E. (2022). OLD ROUTES, NEW RULES: Smuggling rice in the porous borders of the Sulu, Celebes, and South China Sea, in M. Gallien and F. Weigand (eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Smuggling (pp. 272-285), Routledge.
