Material semiotics, ontological politics and im/mobilities of bomb-spoons in Laos

Abstract

Theoretical concepts from Actor-Network Theory can be applied to practical mobilities’ approach resulting in a multi-layered analytical framework for studying spatially and conceptually disparate social phenomena. This article introduces findings from war and tourism–mobilities on The Plain of Jars in the Lao P.D.R., a post-conflict landscape and emerging tourism destination. Discourses centred on war–scrap architecture and artisan traditions, like war–scrap spoon making as well as the involvement of an American ethical fashion social enterprise are used to discuss how the two selected ANT concepts of im/material semiotics and ontological politics can be combined with mobilities’ concepts of the mobilities of people, things and ideas. This study shows how such an analysis based on especially on flat ontologies is intensifying mobilities, how disparate items and ideas “can be caught or not caught” and how these become materially embedded in different places, markets and agendas. It is discussed how this might find practical application for development cooperation.