Rights refused: grassroots activism and state violence in Myanmar (1st edition.)

"For decades, the outside world mostly knew Myanmar as the site of a valiant human rights struggle against an oppressive military regime, predominantly through the figure of Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. And yet, a closer look at Burmese activism and grassroots sentiments reveals a significant schism between elite human rights cosmopolitans and subaltern Burmese subjects maneuvering under brutal and negligent governance.

These divergences became starkly apparent during Burma's much-lauded, decade-long "transition" from military rule that began in 2011, a period of massive and rapid political and economic change that saw an explosion of activism around social causes like education reform, environmental protection, and land reclamation.

As one Burmese activist remarked: "We are in the time of protests." How do people conduct politics when they lack the legally and symbolically stabilizing force of "rights" to guarantee their