IN THE NEWS: Book review of Knowing the Salween River

A book review has been written by Stew Motta in Water Alternatives journal on “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River” edited by Carl Middleton and Vanessa Lamb. The book was the result of a research project co-organized by CSDS and the York Center for Asian Research (see here). The book is published as open access and is available for download here.

The review identifies the book as “the first book of its type on the Salween River and represents a landmark contribution in understanding the diverse knowledge types and complex governance issues at play in that region.”

Read the full review in Water Alternatives here.

UPCOMING ONLINE PANEL DISCUSSION: Confronting the Triple Trap in the Mekong Region: The Pandemic, Economic Downturn, and Climate Crisis

This panel is convened by the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University for the Seventh South-South Forum on Sustainability (SSFS7) hosted by Lingnan University, Hong Kong.

Thursday 16 July 2020, start from 14:00-16:00 GMT+7/Thailand Time

In this session, we will discuss how the ‘triple trap’ - the pandemic, economic downturn, and climate crisis – have affected communities across the Mekong region, and how these challenges have been responded to by them, as well as by civil society and state. We also examine the long-term implications of the triple trap, asking what transformations have already occurred and what could happen in the future.

Speakers:

• "The Implications of Covid 19's Disruption of Global Supply Chains for Southeast Asia" by Walden Bello, Focus on the Global South

• "Inequality, migration and Covid 19 in Thailand and the Mekong Region" by Naruemon Thabchumpon, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• "The pandemic in Northeast Thailand and implications for communities and (post)development” by Kanokwan Manorom, Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University

• "The impact of Covid 19 in rural Myanmar: Community, civil society, and state responses" by Nwet Kay Khine, Paung Ku, Myanmar

Discussant: Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers, Thailand

Moderator: Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED.

This panel will be an online panel discussion hosted via Zoom and is a public session of the SSFS7 conference. Registration is required on the link below:

ZOOM WEBINAR REGISTRATION

On the registration page, please choose 'No Registration Fee Required' and 'Invited Participant' and choose the ’16 July: Workshops on Venezuela, Mexico and Mekong Region‘ to receive the Zoom link for this session.

For more information about this conference, please visit the conference website here.

IN THE NEWS: Book Review 'Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River' from Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

By Coleen Fox [Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography]

In the last chapter of Knowing the Salween River, Nang Shining, a Shan woman living and working near the site of a proposed dam in Myanmar, writes of the frustration that communities feel when they are not consulted about projects affecting their lives and livelihoods. She discusses her efforts to create networks of young people across borders and basins, which is part of an effort to bring more voices to the decision-making process in the pursuit of social justice and sustainable development. Nang Shining’s story captures well the tensions that characterize resource politics in the Salween—while powerful national and regional actors push development and exclude local communities from meaningful participation, those same communities, supported by academics and civil society, work tirelessly to have their concerns acknowledged.

Knowing the Salween River sheds light on exactly these sorts of dynamics, revealing the multiple ways that institutions, academics, communities, and civil society organizations research and understand the river basin.

***

Read the full review here.

Carl Middleton of CSDS is co-editor and co-author of this book (see here)

Get the book: Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River (Springer Open, 2019)

NEWS: Submission of the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement to the UN High Level Panel on Internal Displacement

In 2017, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law initiated a regional thematic study on internal displacement in the context of disasters and climate change across Asia and the Pacific as part of its wider programme on human rights and environment. Focusing on law, policy and practice in ten countries, and collaborating with academic partners from China, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar, the Philippines, Indonesia, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, the study adopted an expressly human rightsbased approach grounded in the 1998 Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement.

Academics involved in the regional thematic study have formed the Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement, in whose name this submission is made. The following submission is based on insights gained from the study, including through consultations with international, regional and national actors. Some of the insights highlighted in this submission were also presented in various regional and national fora to validate them and gather feedback.

Center for Social Development Studies is part of the "Asia Pacific Academic Network on Disaster Displacement" and is a co-signatory of this submission. To read the Academic Submission, please visit the link here.

You can also visit the research project related to this submission, “Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response in Hat Yai”.

UPCOMING EVENT: "Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River"

Saturday, 7 September 2019, Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Utthayanin Building (อาคารเกษม อุทยานิน), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (guide to the venue here)

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) and Salween Studies Network

The Salween River, shared by China, Myanmar, and Thailand, is increasingly at the heart of pressing regional development debates. The basin supports the livelihoods of over 10 million people, and within it there is great socioeconomic, cultural and political diversity. The basin is witnessing intensifying dynamics of resource extraction, alongside large dam construction, conservation and development intervention, that is unfolding within a complex terrain of local, national and transnational governance. With a focus on the contested politics of water and associated resources in the Salween basin, in this seminar we will explore the possible futures of the Salween basin through the lens of: resource politics; politics of knowledge making; and reconciling knowledge across divides. The seminar will also launch the new book: “Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River”.

For more information about this seminar, please contact communications.csds@gmail.com.

For the most updated information, you can also visit the event’s landing page here.

UPCOMING PUBLIC SEMINAR: "Conflicts and Resource Politics in Myanmar" [Helsinki, 15 August 2018]

Conflicts and resource politics in Myanmar

Discussion on the complex resource politics and its implications for the peace process in Myanmar

Wednesday 15th August, 10:00-13:30 at Think Corner (Tiedekulma), University of Helsinki, Yliopistonkatu 4, Helsinki, Finland

Organized by: Development Studies, University of Helsinki in collaboration with Felm and Siemenpuu Foundation

Myanmar is experiencing a complicated process of transition towards a civilian government, multi-party democratic elections, and peace negotiations. At the same time, the recent opening of the country has resulted in an accelerating rush for the rich natural resources, including a boom in extractive industrial and agribusiness projects. Most of these resources are located in the ethnic states and many of the grievances of the various ethnic communities are entangled with the questions of access to and control over resources. In this event researchers, NGO representatives and social movement activists discuss the ways that land and other resource rights should be addressed as a part of conflict resolution towards sustainable peace in Myanmar.

The recent political changes in Myanmar has also meant a rush of different international development organisations to the country. Recently Finland too has decided to focus its support in Southeast Asia to Myanmar. The event includes a panel discussion on the Finland’s future role in Myanmar with perspectives from civil society, ministry officials and private sector.

Speakers:

• Carl Middleton, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University
• Khu Khu Ju, Land in Our Hands, Transnational Institute
• Kyi Phyo, Mekong Energy and Ecology Network

*This event is a side event of the 4th Annual World-Ecology Research Network Conference that takes place this year in Helsinki (15-18 August).

Event details are available here.

UPCOMING CONFERENCE: International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies [16-18 February]

CSDS Researchers head to the 2nd International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies

16-18 February 2018, University of Mandalay, Myanmar

On 16 February, Mandalay University in collaboration with Chiang Mai University will host the International Conference on Burma/Myanmar Studies. The three day conference will welcome scholars, researchers, journalists, NGO workers and observers from all over the world to present and debate on all topics surrounding the country of Myanmar/Burma. CSDS researchers will organize a series of panels and paper presentations for the conference, focusing on a variety of topics ranging from the new political and economic landscape of Myanmar, to local livelihoods along the Salween River. Below are the details (and links for individual abstracts) of the three panels being co-organized and led by CSDS, as well as an individual paper that is part of a series of presentations on Chin State.

Local Livelihoods and Change in the Salween Basin (Convener: Carl Middleton)

• Ethnobotanical Study on Plants Growing Along the Thanlwin River in Lashio District, Northern Shan State, Myanmar (Mar May Aye)
• Geographical Analysis on the Impact of Land Cover Changes on Socio-Economic Conditions of Bawlakhe District, Kayah State in Myanmar: A Case Study of Four Villages (Khin Sandar Aye) 
• Gender Inclusion Is Key to Social Justice: A Case Study of Two Villages Downstream of the Proposed Mongton Dam, Shan State (Hnin Wut Yee)
• Assessing Potential Threats to Fisheries and Socio-Economy in the Thanlwin Estuary, Mon State, Myanmar (Cherry Aung)

Thanlwin-Khong-Nu-Salween River in a Cultural and Political Perspective (Convener: Vanessa Lamb)

• Rights and Rites for Water Justice: A Case Study of the Proposed Hatgyi Dam on the Salween River (John Bright)
• What Else Do Floods Do? Climate Change, Beneficial Flooding and Everyday Agricultural Practice in Monsoon Myanmar (Vanessa Lamb)
• Redefining the Rules of Water: Contestation and the Production of Scale in Water Governance in Myanmar (Johanna M. Goetz)
• Which Path to Take?: A Political Economy Analysis of Salween River Pathways in Myanmar (Alec Scott and Carl Middleton)

Development and Transition in Myanmar: Exploring a New Political and Economic Landscape Since 2010 (Convener: Nauremon Thabchumpon)

• Law, Development and Transnationalisation of the State in Myanmar (Wolfram Schaffar)
• Transitional Relation of China and Myanmar: a New Economic Geography Approach to Mandalay-Ruili Road Connection (Nattapon Tantrakoonsap)
• Understanding Myanmar’s Economic Transition Through Policies and Practices (Zaw Aung)
• Economic Development in Myanmar’s Transition to Democracy and the Politics of Changes in Public Sphere and Civil Society Movement (Naruemon Thabchumpon)
• Top Down or Bottom up Development? : The Dawei Road Link Project and the Reconfiguration of Social Relations (And Social Movements) (Carl Middleton, Naruemon Thabchumpon, Fransiskus Adrian Tarmedi, and Surada Chundasutathanakul)

Water Insecurity in Hakha Town, Chin State, Myanmar: Structural Violence and the Production of Water Scarcity (Paper presentation) (Carl Middleton)

For more information about the conference and full schedule, please visit http://burmaconference.com/.