Roads that Separate: Sino-Mongolian Relations in the Inner Asian Desert

People usually think of roads as tools of social and material connection which serve to enchain places, things and people that have not before been as directly, or intensely, linked up. Yet, in the sparsely populated grasslands and deserts of the Sino-Mongolian border zone, it is equally much the other way around. Rather than facilitating more interaction between local Mongolians and the growing number of Chinese employed in mining and oil companies, the many roads that are now being built or upgraded to transport natural resources, commodities and labor power between Mongolia and China serve to curb both the quantity and the quality of interactions taking place between Mongolians and Chinese. Thus, roads here act as technologies of distantiation, which ensure that the two sides become less connected as time passes.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1080/17450101.2012.718938
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/17450101
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Abstract reprinted with permission from Taylor and Francis.
• Authors:
  • Pedersen, Morten
  • Bunkenborg, Mikkel
• Publication Date: 2012-11

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References;
• Pagination: pp 555-569
• Serial:
  • Mobilities
  • Volume: 7
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Routledge
  • ISSN: 1745-0101
  • EISSN: 1745-011X
  • Serial URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmob20

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Border regions; Communications; Deserts; Natural resources; Roads; Social impacts; Technology
• Geographic Terms: China; Mongolia
• Subject Areas: Highways; Society; I72: Traffic and Transport Planning;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01499254
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 21 2013 9:15AM