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ANR AltLife-SSEA (2026 - 2028)

Alternative life projects in rural South & Southeast Asia: Reflecting on post-development through diverse emplaced collectives – AltLife-SSEA

Carte des projets de l'ANRANR PRC 25-CE55-0805

 

The rise of social inequality and disenchantment with Western modernity have sparked experiments in alternative lifestyles around the world. Climate change and the necessary “environmental transition” have only made these projects more urgent. In the quest for a more related existence, indigenous peoples and non-Western grassroots movements recurrently appear as sources of inspiration. AltLife-SSEA sheds light on alternative life projects in the context of rural South and Southeast Asia, where such initiatives have so far received little attention. It brings together the study of different types of emplaced collectives that tended to be siloed ; “cosmopolitan” ones, involving people from a diversity of places such as in Auroville, India, “preservationist endogenous” ones, existing in a place for generations, like indigenous Bunong in Cambodia, or “reconverting endogenous” ones, which locally adopt a different way of living, as Javanese trained in eco-religious Coranic schools.

 

Research Objectives :

We consider that these admittedly very different types of emplaced collectives are all affected by both the consequences of unrestricted development and by critical discourses on such development. Relying on a transdisciplinary approach, it deploys a three-fold analysis of

  1. the material arrangements and spatial (re)rooting,
  2. the social and institutional reconfigurations of collectives and
  3. the (cosmo)political imaginaries and subjectivities that shape them.

The aim is to examine how collectives are influenced by national, regional, and global norms and structures—and, in turn, how their life projects can have an impact at different levels. Through a two-level collaborative approach, the research is not only informed by the thoughts of members of emplaced collectives but also aspires to foster dialogue between collectives including through artistic mediation. AltLife-SSEA seeks to broaden the scope of regional studies, as well as to provide critical but constructive insights to global reflections on post-development.

 

 

Sites :

  • Highlands of Cambodia
  • India (Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu)
  • Indonesia (Java)
  • Thailand (Chiang Mail)

 

Team :

PI : Xavier Guillot (EFEO/ENSA Marseille)

Co-PIs :

  • Gabriel Facal (UMIFRE IRASEC)
  • Frédéric Landy (UMIFRE IFP/Université Paris Nanterre-UMR LAVUE)
  • Catherine Scheer (EFEO/UMR CASE)

 

Other researchers :

  • Jérôme Ballet (UMR Passages)
  • Aurélie Carimentrand (UMR Passages)
  • Venkatasubramanian Govindam (UMIFRE IFP)
  • Olivier Tessier (EFEO)
  • Delphine Thivet (UMIFRE IFP)

 

Postdoctoral researcher : Maria Chauveau (EFEO)

Support :

  • Caroline Abela (UMR Passages)
  • Léa Ménard (UMR Passages)
  • Samuel Corgne (UMIFRE IFP)

 

Partner institutions :

 

Contact : xavier.guillot efeo.net