Recent years have seen a notable revival of the academic study of ‘frontiers’. Using Frederick Jackson Turner’s (1893) classic concept of the moving frontier line (and its significance for the development of American democracy) as a point of departure, the study of frontiers has been diversified to include (re)conceptualizations of the frontier as an abstract space of territorial expansion, exploration, and exploitation.

Projects under this research cluster engage with the academic study of ‘frontiers’ as “edge[s] of space and time: a zone of not yet – not yet mapped, not yet regulated” (Tsing 2003: 5100). Southeast Asia, the regional scope of the cluster, provides diverse avenues for an engagement with the spatial and temporal qualities of frontiers. Members of the cluster will initially investigate three different sub-projects, including a “heritage frontier” at the upper Mahakam in Central Borneo, organizational aspects of cultural entrepreneurship at “business frontiers”, and the “frontier communities” of KMT villages in Northern Thailand. The output of these projects attempts to combine academic products with reports and recommendations for policy makers to foster a dynamic dialogue between the academic world and the public realm.