SOAS, University of London (The School of Oriental and African Studies)

Shatter Zones and Lines of Flight: How Philippine History Shapes the Global Market for Caring Labour

This presentation draws together work from my recent book, Global Filipinos, with that I have in progress for my next, Archipelago of Care.  My argument extends James C. Scott's analysis of the emergence of shatter zones in Southeast Asia's uplands through a Philippine case study. I combine Scott's theorization of the ongoing repression of the emergent state with my own ethnographic exploration of personhood and care in non-state contexts, informed by the work of anthropologist Marilyn Strathern. Doing so enables me to explain the successes of migrant workers from the Philippine periphery in the global informal economy of care.