Lobner, NadineSeixas, Paulo Castro2024-04-222024-04-222021-11-03Lobner, N., & Seixas, P.C. (2021). Local Perspectives and International Regions in the Making: Timor-Leste as a Case Study. Sojourn: Journal of Social Issues in Southeast Asia 36(3), 477-502. https://www.muse.jhu.edu/article/845160.http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/30830This paper is an exploratory exercise in understanding the construction of international regions using anthropological perspectives, with Timor-Leste as a case study. We propose that 'local beyond-border perspectives' establish a new domain within the world at large as a representation of transnationalism and globalization 'from the bottom-up'. We discuss this using an interdisciplinary approach—anthropology and international relations—to contribute to the study of international regions through a complementary double-ideological system spanning state relations and local perspectives. We argue that the beyond-border perceptions that people from Timor-Leste have of regional organizations are more appropriately understood as projections of their narratives and aspirations. Such situational flexibility, understood as pragmatic transnationalism, builds upon ancient narratives and inside-outside relations.engInternational Regions; Local Beyond-border Perspectives; Globalization; Pragmatic Transnationalism; Timor-Leste.journal article