On 20 November, Doi Ra successfully defended her PhD thesis investigating how contemporary land rushes shape and are reshaped by the political economy of labour in Myanmar.
In her thesis, Doi Ra traced the political economy of historical evolution around land and labour relations under different regimes in Myanmar, starting from the pre-colonial era in the 1800s to the period of democratic transition and liberalization under the quasi-military/quasi-civilian government between 2011 to 2021.
She then analyzed the contemporary land rushes that emerged after the 1994 ceasefire era and the 2010 state regime change. She examined how various features such as ceasefire capitalism, state territorialization, Burmanization, legacies of colonialism, geopolitics and development schemes came to form the 'historical present' landscape.
Her conclusion is that contemporary land politics must go beyond 'merely environmental', purely agrarian and localist perspectives to struggle for a socially just future for all rural working people.
- Researcher