This research project (2015-2019) studies the making of a banana plantation in the conflict-affected region of Muslim Mindanao, southern Philippines. The plantation serves as an entry point to scrutinize the interplay between, on the one hand, broader processes of social transformation in the countryside under global capitalism, and on the other hand, the agency, identity politics and power dynamics that are rooted and produced in Muslim Mindanao’s frontier zone. Furthermore, I explore the social and political effects of imaginative geographies and pay particular attention to how Mindanao’s frontier history shapes present-day frontier processes.

• Funded by: Special Research Fund (BOF), Ghent University
• Contact: Steven Schoofs
• Staff involved: Steven Schoofs (PhD student); Jeroen Adam (supervisor)