Alexander Horstmann is Associate Professor of Modern Southeast Asian Studies at the School of Humanities, Tallinn University. He is a senior research partner with the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity in Goettingen, Germany and he is affiliated with BICC, Bonn, Germany, collaborating on organizing common projects, workshops and publications. Address: School of Humanities, Uus-Sadama 5, 10120 Tallinn, Estonia
Introduction: Refugees and Religion Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung PART I 1. What is a Ref... more Introduction: Refugees and Religion Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung PART I 1. What is a Refugee Religion? Exile, Exodus and Emigration in the Vietnamese Diaspora Janet Hoskins 2. Religious Imaginary as an Alternative Social and Moral Order: Karen Buddhism across the Thai-Burma Border Mikael Gravers 3. Refugee and Religious Narratives: The Conversion of North Koreans from Refugees to God's Warriors Jin-Heon Jung 4. Ritual Practice, Material Culture, and Wellbeing in Displacement: Ka-thow-bow in a Karenni Refugee Camp in Thailand Sandra Dudley PART II 5. Secular and Religious Sanctuaries: Interfaces of Humanitarianism and Self-Government of Karen Refugee-Migrants in Thai Burmese Border Spaces Alexander Horstmann 6. Conflicting Missions? The Politics of Evangelical Humanitarianism in the Sahrawi and Palestinian Protracted Refugee Situations Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 7. Humanitarian Adhocracy, Transnational New Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-Dependency in a Haitian Refugee Camp Elizabeth McAlister PART III 8. Palestinian Steadfastness as a Mission Leonardo Schiocchet 9. Conversion and Community among Iu Mien Refugee Immigrants in the United States Hjorleifur Jonsson 10. Faith in Ethnicity: The Homeland Ties and Diasporic Formation of Vietnamese Caodaists in the United States and Cambodia Thien-Huong Ninh
Revitalization of religious and cultural traditions is taking place in nearly all contemporary As... more Revitalization of religious and cultural traditions is taking place in nearly all contemporary Asian societies and beyond. Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religions and Cultural Traditions in Asia provides a comparative analysis of the key features and aspirations of revitalization movements and assesses their scope for shaping the future trajectories of societies in all parts of the world.
This paper examines the interfaces of local community based humanitarian organizations with displ... more This paper examines the interfaces of local community based humanitarian organizations with displaced Karen people in Thai-Burmese border spaces and their claims for cultural rights. It argues that Karen people have to organize themselves in a context where they do not have access to social welfare of the state and in which the state is hostile and oppressive to them. Applying Merry’s thesis on the localization and vernacularization of international rights frameworks in the local context, the paper explores the context of power in which different humanitarian actors intervention in the local conflict zone. The author finds that Karen displaced people have differentiated access to humanitarian assistance and that powerful organizations like the Karen National Union are able to benefit while essentializing Karen culture and suppressing internal difference among the Karen to position itself towards the international donor community, thereby becoming “liked” or “preferred” refugees. The...
Displaced persons in and from Myanmar employ a wide array of coping and navigational strategies t... more Displaced persons in and from Myanmar employ a wide array of coping and navigational strategies to secure their livelihoods and to find physical protection. Placing these in the context of the security situation in Myanmar, the paper demonstrates that organised violence and related concerns for safety are not only the main cause of displacement, but constitute an important factor that continuously shapes livelihood options and strategies for those who find themselves in cycles of protracted violence and displacement. The array of strategies is situated between or beyond the classic paradigms promoted by international refugee organisations: return, local integration and resettlement. Beyond aid and non-aid related strategies, we observed such vital coping mechanisms as cyclical return movements, the establishment of transnational networks and webs, and the development of self-established infrastructure. Return and local integration are two options in a continuum of strategies compris...
Building on Wimmer (2012) and other critical scholarship on ethnic nationalism, I explore the rep... more Building on Wimmer (2012) and other critical scholarship on ethnic nationalism, I explore the reproduction and increase what I like to call here a humanitarian or refugee nationalism of the Karen in the context of a humanitarian civil society in the borderland of Thailand and Myanmar. While this ethno-nationalism is of course tied to the parochial and local image of Karen cultural identity fi rmly rooted in the rural and mountain landscape of Southeastern Burma, I argue that Karen ethno-nationalism is very cosmopolitan in that the revitalization of this idea of an imagined homeland for the Karen (Kawthoolei= land of the free, without evil) is fabricated and socially embedded in the wider globalized networks of organizations in Southeastern Burma, in the refugee camps, the many Karen civil society organizations on the Thai border, and not least in the growing diaspora resettled to the many countries in the West.
Introduction: Refugees and Religion Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung PART I 1. What is a Ref... more Introduction: Refugees and Religion Alexander Horstmann and Jin-Heon Jung PART I 1. What is a Refugee Religion? Exile, Exodus and Emigration in the Vietnamese Diaspora Janet Hoskins 2. Religious Imaginary as an Alternative Social and Moral Order: Karen Buddhism across the Thai-Burma Border Mikael Gravers 3. Refugee and Religious Narratives: The Conversion of North Koreans from Refugees to God's Warriors Jin-Heon Jung 4. Ritual Practice, Material Culture, and Wellbeing in Displacement: Ka-thow-bow in a Karenni Refugee Camp in Thailand Sandra Dudley PART II 5. Secular and Religious Sanctuaries: Interfaces of Humanitarianism and Self-Government of Karen Refugee-Migrants in Thai Burmese Border Spaces Alexander Horstmann 6. Conflicting Missions? The Politics of Evangelical Humanitarianism in the Sahrawi and Palestinian Protracted Refugee Situations Elena Fiddian-Qasmiyeh 7. Humanitarian Adhocracy, Transnational New Apostolic Missions, and Evangelical Anti-Dependency in a Haitian Refugee Camp Elizabeth McAlister PART III 8. Palestinian Steadfastness as a Mission Leonardo Schiocchet 9. Conversion and Community among Iu Mien Refugee Immigrants in the United States Hjorleifur Jonsson 10. Faith in Ethnicity: The Homeland Ties and Diasporic Formation of Vietnamese Caodaists in the United States and Cambodia Thien-Huong Ninh
Revitalization of religious and cultural traditions is taking place in nearly all contemporary As... more Revitalization of religious and cultural traditions is taking place in nearly all contemporary Asian societies and beyond. Faith in the Future: Understanding the Revitalization of Religions and Cultural Traditions in Asia provides a comparative analysis of the key features and aspirations of revitalization movements and assesses their scope for shaping the future trajectories of societies in all parts of the world.
This paper examines the interfaces of local community based humanitarian organizations with displ... more This paper examines the interfaces of local community based humanitarian organizations with displaced Karen people in Thai-Burmese border spaces and their claims for cultural rights. It argues that Karen people have to organize themselves in a context where they do not have access to social welfare of the state and in which the state is hostile and oppressive to them. Applying Merry’s thesis on the localization and vernacularization of international rights frameworks in the local context, the paper explores the context of power in which different humanitarian actors intervention in the local conflict zone. The author finds that Karen displaced people have differentiated access to humanitarian assistance and that powerful organizations like the Karen National Union are able to benefit while essentializing Karen culture and suppressing internal difference among the Karen to position itself towards the international donor community, thereby becoming “liked” or “preferred” refugees. The...
Displaced persons in and from Myanmar employ a wide array of coping and navigational strategies t... more Displaced persons in and from Myanmar employ a wide array of coping and navigational strategies to secure their livelihoods and to find physical protection. Placing these in the context of the security situation in Myanmar, the paper demonstrates that organised violence and related concerns for safety are not only the main cause of displacement, but constitute an important factor that continuously shapes livelihood options and strategies for those who find themselves in cycles of protracted violence and displacement. The array of strategies is situated between or beyond the classic paradigms promoted by international refugee organisations: return, local integration and resettlement. Beyond aid and non-aid related strategies, we observed such vital coping mechanisms as cyclical return movements, the establishment of transnational networks and webs, and the development of self-established infrastructure. Return and local integration are two options in a continuum of strategies compris...
Building on Wimmer (2012) and other critical scholarship on ethnic nationalism, I explore the rep... more Building on Wimmer (2012) and other critical scholarship on ethnic nationalism, I explore the reproduction and increase what I like to call here a humanitarian or refugee nationalism of the Karen in the context of a humanitarian civil society in the borderland of Thailand and Myanmar. While this ethno-nationalism is of course tied to the parochial and local image of Karen cultural identity fi rmly rooted in the rural and mountain landscape of Southeastern Burma, I argue that Karen ethno-nationalism is very cosmopolitan in that the revitalization of this idea of an imagined homeland for the Karen (Kawthoolei= land of the free, without evil) is fabricated and socially embedded in the wider globalized networks of organizations in Southeastern Burma, in the refugee camps, the many Karen civil society organizations on the Thai border, and not least in the growing diaspora resettled to the many countries in the West.
Building Noah's Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities examines the way refugees a... more Building Noah's Ark for Migrants, Refugees, and Religious Communities examines the way refugees and migrants use religion to reconstruct the broken worlds they leave behind as they build new lives during the Diaspora. Drawing the focus away from victimization, the spiritual and material use of religion sheds new light on the agency of refugees in reconstructing their lives and positioning themselves in hostile environments. Mirroring Noah's ark as a Christian image for rescue in stormy waters, Horstmann and Jung examine how religion is crucial for the identity formation of refugees, their sense of community and belonging, and their social mobility in hostile environments as they attempt to rise above their hardships.
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Papers by Alexander Horstmann
• Guest Editor’'s Introduction to the Special Issue | Alexander Bukh
| ARTICLES
• “"We Want a State of Our Own!”"
Reconstructing Community Space in Bordering Areas of Central Asia | Timur Dadabaev
• Uneasy Pairs :
Revitalizations of Karen Ethno-Nationalism
and Civil Society across the Thai-Burmese Border | Alexander Horstmann
• Illegality & Alterity :
Preliminary Notes on SEZ, Civil Society,
and the Thai-Burmese Borderland | Decha Tangseefa
• Intersections between Civil Society, Insurgency, and Development:
Case of the Subnational Confl ict in the South of Thailand | Ora-orn Poocharoen
• Assessing Local Responses to Chinese-Backed Resource Development
Projects in Myanmar and Cambodia: A Critical Survey | Pichamon Yeophantong
• Japanese Activists, the Environment,
and Border-Crossing Movements in Asia | Simon Avenell
| BOOK REVIEWS
• Translating Critical Border Studies in East Asia | Jason Young
• A Critical Development of Border Studies | Fuminori Kawakubo