UPCOMING EVENT: “Land into Capital” book launch and discussion [6 December 2022]

Book launch and discussion on “Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region”

6 December 2022, Chulalongkorn University Social Innovation Hub, Bangkok, and via Facebook Live 

Hosted by the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

The issue of land falling into the hands of those with economic might has never been more topical than at present, reflected in the current debate over foreign land ownership in Thailand. Expanding the issue to the wider regional context, Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region addresses ways in which reversals of earlier agrarian reforms have rolled back "land-to-the-tiller" policies created in the wake of Cold War–era revolutions. This trend, marked by increased land concentration and the promotion of export-oriented agribusiness at the expense of smallholder farmers, exposes the convergence of capitalist relations and state agendas that expand territorial control within and across national borders. The book examines the contradictions produced by superimposing twenty-first-century neoliberal projects onto diverse landscapes etched by decades of war and state socialism.

Chapters in the book explore geopolitics, legacies of colonialism, ideologies of development, and strategies to achieve land justice in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. The resulting picture reveals the place-specific interactions of state and market ideologies, regional geopolitics, and local elites in concentrating control over land.

A commentary will first be provided by Emeritus Professor Pasuk Phongpaichit, followed by responses and reflections from the editors/ authors of the book, and then open floor discussion.

Commentator:

• Dr. Pasuk Phongpaichit is an Emeritus Professor in Political Economy with the Faculty of Economics, Chulalongkorn University, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Thailand, and co-laureate of the Fukuoka Grand Prize, 2017. Professor Pasuk’s publications include: Unequal Thailand (2016); We the People Revolutionize Tax for Equality (2020) and Land Governance in Thailand (forthcoming in 2023).

Moderator:

• Dr. Naruemon Thabchumpon is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and Director of the Asian Research Center for Migration

Book editors/ chapter authors

• Dr. Philip Hirsch is an Emeritus Professor in human geography at the University of Sydney and coauthor of Powers of Exclusion: Land Dilemmas in Southeast Asia

• Dr. Kevin Woods is a Fellow at the East-West Center in Honolulu. 

• Natalia Scurrah is an independent researcher based in Thailand and coauthor of The Mekong: A Sociolegal Approach to River Basin Development. 

Chapter author

• Dr. Carl Middleton is Director of the Center for Social Development Studies and Deputy Director on the MA and PhD graduate program in International Development Studies in the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.

Venue: First floor, Visid Prachuabmoh Building, Chulalongkorn University

Further details on the book are on the publishers website here.

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Carl Middleton.

Please register to join the event here.

UPCOMING EVENT: Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights [24 November 2022]

Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights: ‘Slow-onset’ Environmental Change and Displacement in the Mekong Region

24 November 2022, Online (broadcast on CSDS Facebook page; participate via Zoom with registration) and in-person at Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand 

Co-organizers: Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Chulalongkorn University; Chulalongkorn University UNESCO Chair in Resource Governance and Futures Literacy; Raoul Wallenberg Institute Regional Asia Pacific Office; and Office of the United Nations High Commissioner of Human Rights

Please download the final agenda with speakers here.

Please register to join the event here.

The connection between climate change and peoples’ mobility is increasingly recognized in academic and policy circles, and popular media. Most visible are the impacts of disasterous events such as flooding on forced displacement, but slow onset environmental changes such as sea level rise and changing seasonal weather patterns are nowadays also crucial in shaping human mobility (or ‘environmental migration’) in various ways. In slow-onset processes, the changing climate intersects with other ongoing economic and social development activities and their associated environmental impacts which influence situations of vulnerability, for example the construction of large hydropower dams. As a result, there is significant debate on how to understand the relationship between pre-existing conditions, slow-onset climate change and human mobility. This lack of consensus has implications for law and policy, as well as responses on-the-ground. 

Climate change poses threats to human rights, including the right to life, the right to health, the right to shelter, and the right to food, and many others amplifying the impacts of structural inequalities and injustices. There is a growing recognition within human rights literature, international and national law, and among practitioners, of the connection between environmental change including climate change, mobility and human rights. These studies are now establishing a framework for determining the duties of states, and the entitlements of rights-holders. Governments in mainland Southeast Asia are increasingly making commitments and policies on climate change mitigation and adaptation, yet human mobility due to ‘slow-onset’ climate change seems to be less acknowledged and addressed.

This full day hybrid public seminar will address the following questions, with a focus on mainland Southeast Asia.

• How are climate change, people’s mobility and human rights connected?

• What is the experience on the ground?

• Is current law and policy adequate to address emerging vulnerabilities, especially regarding ‘slow onset’ environmental change?

• What are the actionable polices and on-the-ground approaches to protect and promote human rights?

• What are the implications for ‘loss and damage’ claims and climate justice?

For enquiries, please contact Dr. Carl Middleton.

UPCOMING EVENT: Water politics and policy in Thailand and beyond [Hybrid, 22 July 2022]

Date and time: 13:30 – 15:00, Friday 22nd July 2022 [ICT]

Panel at the 7th International Conference on International Relations and Development (ICIRD), Chiang Mai, Thailand

 This panel will be hybrid

Panel description: In Thailand, contested access, use and control of water underpins many broader issues in visions, policies and plans for ‘development’. Tension has emerged between centralized management at the national level, the associated partial implimentation of state-led river basin organizations, and local level governance practices, as well as the role and authority of government and non-state actors such as community-based organizations, civil society and other stakeholders. Overall, accelerating processes of economic modernization have shifted Thailand’s ‘waterscape’ via the construction and operation of large-scale water infrastructures such as irrigation schemes and hydropower dams as human demand for water for agriculture, industry, hydroelectricity and domestic consumption has grown. This has also transformed pre-existing local water management practices and cultures.

This panel presents four papers on water policy and its politics in Thailand. We situate the panel within recent academic and civil society research in Thailand and globally that draws attention to how multiple worldviews underpin contrasting visions for rivers and related resources. The papers detail a range of key issues at stake in contemporary water governance in Thailand, emphasizing the social, economic, political, and cultural specificities associated with their case studies. This includes how competing demands for water have emerged in recent decades, the formal and informal decision-making processes that have occurred and its politics, the outcomes including in terms of those who have benefited most and those who have lost out, and approaches that could make water governance in Thailand more inclusive, sustainable, and just.

Further details on ICIRD7 can be found here, including for registration: https://icird7.soc.cmu.ac.th/?page_id=30

Papers on the panel are as follows:

“The Politics of Water Governance in Community Water Distribution/Management: Implications from Local Communities’ Practices in Surin and Chiang Rai Provinces, Thailand” by Yuppayao Tokeeree and Chuanpit Jarat (Program of Environmental Science, Faculty of Science and Technology, Surindra Rajabhat University), Suebsakun Kidnukornand (Area-based Social Innovation Research Center (Ab-SIRC), The School of Social Innovation, Mae Fah Luang University), and Jitraporn Somyanontanakul (College of Politics and Governance, Mahasarakham University).

“Human Rights in Accessing Water Resource for Livelihoods: A Case Study in the Eastern Area of Thailand” by Jakkaphun Nanuam (Burapha University) and Somnuck Jongmeewasin (EEC Watch)

“Unheard Voices in Thailand's Water Policy and Practices” by Malee Sitthikriengkrai (Center for Ethnic Studies and Development, Chiang Mai University)

“Dealing with the Unpredictable River and Ontological Differences of the Ing River” by Thianchai Surimas (Graduate Research in International Development (GRID), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University)

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

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Moving beyond ‘sustainable hydropower’ in the Mekong basin [15-30 June 2022]

What role should large hydropower dams play in future electricity systems? At the UNFCCC COP 26 in November 2021, the International Hydropower Association (IHA) sought to further the industry's role – and access to climate financing – by advocating 'sustainable hydropower' as vital to achieving net zero emissions targets. Civil society groups, meanwhile, countered that hydropower should be excluded from UN climate finance mechanisms, citing the industry's human rights and environmental impacts.

This policy analysis contends that the claimed benefits of 'sustainable hydropower' are rarely seen in practice, especially in the global south where most new large dams have been built, and that this low-carbon argument glosses over the industry's associated ecological and social costs while better electricity alternatives exist. It argues that healthy rivers are a foundation of climate change resilience, and highlights new and existing principles towards this goal.

Please read the full policy analysis at “The Water Dissensus – A Water Alternatives Forum” and post your responses and analysis in the online forum that is open from 15-30 June.

The policy analysis is written by Dr. Carl Middleton, Director of the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) in the Faculty of Political Science of Chulalongkorn University, Thailand.

UPCOMING EVENT: Embracing Multiple Water Worlds: Policy and Practice of Water Governance in Thailand and Beyond [Online, 31 May 2022]

Date and time: 9:00 – 116:45, Tuesday 31st May 2022 [ICT]

Co-hosted by The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development, Chiang Mai University (RCSD); Chulalongkorn University Social Research Institute (CUSRI); Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University; Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University (CSDS); College of Politics and Governance , Mahasarakham University; Faculty of Science and Social Sciences, Burapha University Sakaeo Campus

Simultaneous Thai-English translation will be available

This event will be hosted online via Zoom. Join here:

• https://chula.zoom.us/j/95373038221?pwd=VGVsSnpVVTJWWStyQzNiMko2NC9WUT09

• Meeting ID: 953 7303 8221 

• Password: 150026

Historically until the present day, rivers are central features in rural and urban community culture and livelihoods in Thailand, including for agricultural practices, fishing and harvesting other aquatic and wetland resources, and transportation. In recent decades, rivers in Thailand have been transformed by accelerating processes of economic modernization, including by the construction and operation of large-scale water infrastructures such as irrigation schemes and hydropower dams as human demand for water for agriculture, industry, hydroelectricity and domestic consumption has grown.  Large-scale water infrastructure has progressively transformed river basins at the local to basin-wide scale, bringing benefits to some and harm to others. Transformations have also occurred in terms of how water is governed, with earlier community governance practices being replaced by more centralized management in river basin organizations and at the national level. 

The difficulty of reconciling healthy rivers and sustainable development is not unique to Thailand. Globally, the challenges for rivers are profound, which range from the declining biodiversity of increasingly modified river systems, to declining water quality due to polluting human activity, to the impacts of climate change. Recent academic and civil society research conducted in Thailand has drawn attention to how multiple worldviews underpin contrasting visions for rivers and their role in ‘development.’ This mirrors a comparable recognition in some other regions of the world where the diverse meanings and values of rivers have been viewed as important to governing water and creating policies towards achieving just and inclusive development. These approaches have ranged from revitalizing the commons, to critical reflections on the ‘nexus’ between water, food and energy, to recognizing the ‘rights of rivers.’

The purpose of this seminar is to share recent research on the water policy and practices and its impacts especially on community livelihoods and culture in Thailand, and to contextualize the findings by engaging in discussion with innovative approaches beyond Thailand.

Agenda

UPCOMING EVENT: Pathways to a Sustainable and Just Transformation of the Mekong Region’s Electricity Sector [Bangkok, 2 June 2022]

Date and time: 9:00 – 12:00, Thursday 2nd June 2022 [ICT]

Co-hosted by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University and the Australia – Mekong Partnership for Environmental Resources and Energy Systems (AMPERES)

Please see the Facebook Live broadcasting here.

How electricity is generated, and how it is accessed, is of central importance to sustainable development in the Mekong Region, including in terms of environmental impacts, social wellbeing, and economic growth. As electricity demand continues to rise across the Mekong Region, the dominant approach to meeting this demand has been predominantly new supply generated by large-scale coal-fired and gas-fired power stations, or large hydropower dams. Yet, there are a growing number of reasons to suggest that the current technologies and practices of the electricity sector in the region could be on the cusp of transformation, that in general result in less risk of environmental and social harm, and are gaining momentum even as their full potential has not been realized.

Until recently, electricity planning was largely perceived to be the domain of technical experts, although some projects proposed would attract controversy, public protest and debate. Yet, given the complexity and range of environmental and societal issues, the provision of safe, reliable and affordable electricity is clearly more than a technical planning challenge – although it can certainly be this. Furthermore, there is now growing recognition that electricity policy planning – and the principles and processes by which it is conducted – is an important dimension of attaining sustainable development.

About the report

From mid-2021 to early-2022, CSDS and AMPERES collaborated with 24 researchers from academic institutions, think tanks and civil society organizations to prepare thirteen ‘thinkpieces’ that explore the opportunities and challenges to sustainable and just electricity transformation in the Mekong Region. Each think piece contributes a layer of evidence and insight to understanding the dynamics of electricity in practice in the Mekong Region, ranging from analysis on the regional scaled plans for electricity trade, to examination of the national level processes on power development planning and its outcomes, to local level opportunities and challenges for decentralized off-grid electricity solutions. The aspiration of this collaborative initiative was not to assemble a consensus report, but rather to gather diverse viewpoints on the opportunities and challenges in attaining ‘sustainable and just electricity transformation’ in the Mekong Region. To this end, the report aims to set out some new terrains for the electricity debate at scales that range from the local to the regional, and is intended to stimulate public debate on the wide-ranging social, ecological and economic implications of electricity planning.

The report is available for download from 2 June 2022 from the CSDS here and AMPERES here websites.

About the report launch

This event is aimed towards interdisciplinary researchers, civil society groups, opinion formers, and electricity planners and decision makers with an interest in exploring a sustainable and just energy transition in the Mekong.

The launch event will be joined by many of the thinkpiece authors who will share their analysis and recommendations in a panel discussion format. Three overarching themes are covered:

• Rethinking electricity narratives: How are different electricity options narrated and justified? How do they reflect visions for the electricity transformation? What are the implications for a just electricity transformation in the region?

• Rethinking electricity planning: Beyond changes in generation technology, in what ways could/should electricity systems in the region change in the near future? What are the challenges and opportunities to do so? What are the economic, social and environmental implications?

• Rethinking scale and design: Why does scale matter in electricity planning and practice? Are different scaled technologies and practices mutually exclusive options? What are the trends and the region and what are the consequences?

Join the discussion

This event will be hosted online via Zoom and in-person (limited seats available) at the Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University.

Please register to join the event here.

 Contact us

For all enquiries, please contact Carl Middleton (CSDS; Carl.M@chula.ac.th) or Tarek Ketelsen (AMPERES; Tarek.Ketelsen@amperes.com.au).

Agenda

UPCOMING EVENT: Mekong undercurrents amidst the US- China geostrategic rivalry: post- pandemic trends and prospects [Online, 14 December 2021]

9:00- 11:00 Thailand time (ICT), Tuesday 14 December 2021 via online.

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the speakers.

The Institute of Security and International Studies (ISIS) Thailand will organize an online/ virtual public forum on the Mekong Mekong Region and mainland Southeast Asia in view of the intensifying United States-China geostrategic rivalry in pandemic times.

Speakers;

Mr. Yang Yi, Secretary General, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) Amb. Pou Southirak, Executive Director, Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace (CICP) Dr. Jittipat Poonkham, Associate Professor in International Affairs, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University Dr. Daved Capie, Director, Center for Strategic Studies (CSS), Professor, School of History, Philosophy, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington, Newzealand Dr. Liu Chang, Assistant Research Fellow, Dept. of American Studies, China Institute of International Studies (CIIS) Amd. Nguyen Duy Hung, Former Ambassador of Vietnam to Cambodia and Thailand, Diplomatic Academy of Vietnam (DAV) Dr. Carl Middleton, Director, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University Mr. Simon Draper, Executive Director, Asia Newzealand Foundation (ANZF), Newzealand

Please click here to join this online forum and for more information about the organizer’s Facebook page.

IN THE NEWS: Dams and droughts, data and diplomacy in the Mekong

The 2019-2020 drought-affected huge numbers of riparian fishers and farmers in the Mekong Basin. Fishers in northeast Thailand and Cambodia reported drastic declines in fish catches in the Mekong’s tributaries while many farmers in Cambodia and Vietnam deserted their farms to find jobs in urban areas.

“Water diplomacy is emerging in the region, but it is very state-centric and downplays the role of non-state actors including civil society groups and local community groups”, said Dr. Middleton, director of the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

For the full article please click the link here.

UPCOMING EVENT: The Belt and Road Initiative, hydropolitics, and hydropower [Online, 7 June 2021]]

16.00-17.30 am BKK Time, Monday, 7 June 2021 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the speakers

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the speakers for the webinar "Contrasting China's Relationship with South and Southeast Asia: the Belt and Road Initiative, Hydropolitics, and Hydropower."

Carl will speak on ‘Reworking the Mekong River Regime: The Geopolitics and Hydropolitics of Competing Regionalisms’.

About the webinar:

"In this webinar we examine the role of new and planned hydropower projects financed by China in shifting geopolitics between China and South and Southeast Asia. We ask how hydropolitics and dams are enabling new forms of economic, social and political regional institutionalisation through the Belt and Road Initiative, how these play out differently in South and Southeast Asia and what these mean for local communities and nature in particular locales across South and Southeast Asia."

To join this webiner, you can register on the organizer’s webpage here, or register via Zoom on this link https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_vBmdcT0nRXCLne0iWFlD8A.

UPCOMING EVENT: The Mekong, China, & SE Asian Transitions Series-Mekong Dams: Debates and the Politics of Evidence [Online, 29 April 2021]

07.00-08.30 am BKK Time, Thursday, 29 April 2021 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the panelists

In recent decades, people living in the Lower Mekong Region have witnessed major shifts from predominantly subsistence agriculture to industrializing economies, with attendant changes in migration, crop production systems, and major infrastructure (roads, dams, industrial estates). This series of four webinars will explore how communities in the region are experiencing the economic, social, and cultural dislocations of these transformations.

Full webinar series schedule:

• Panel 1 : Jan 27 - Markets for Mekong Commodities

• Panel 2 : Feb 24 - Migration, Mobility, and the Mekong

• Panel 3 : Apr 7 - The Spirits and Spiritual Life of the Mekong

• Panel 4: Apr 28 - Mekong Dams: Debates and the Politics of Evidence

Carl will be one of the panelists on Panel 4.

To register for this event, please visit the Zoom link here. For more information about this event, please visit the organizer’s website here.

This event is organized by Asian Studies Center at Michigan State University.

UPCOMING EVENT: Water Governance in Southeast Asia: A Roundtable Discussion on the Mekong River Basin [Online, 19 March 2021]

06.30 - 08.00 am BKK Time, Friday, 19 March 2021 via Zoom.

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be one of the speakers for the panel.

This Roundtable focuses on the water governance and water management challenges in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Mekong River basin. It will examine questions of environmental justice with a panel of experts on the region, whose interests include—specifically in relation to the Mekong—issues of political ecology, energy and water security, the protection and restoration of river ecosystems, and the rights of local communities and migrant workers.

Speakers:

• Pianporn Deetes, Regional Campaigns and Communications Director, Southeast Asia Program, International Rivers

• Brian Eyler, Senior Fellow and Director, Southeast Asia program, Stimson Centre, Washington DC

• Melissa Marschke, Associate Professor, International Development and Global Studies, University of Ottawa, Canada

• Carl Middleton, Director of the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Thailand

Chairs:

• Phil Calvert, Former Canadian Ambassador to Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos; CAPI Senior Research Fellow

• Victor V. Ramraj, CAPI Director and Chair in Asia-Pacific Legal Relations; Professor, UVic Faculty of Law

Opening Remarks:

• Kevin Hall, President, University of Victoria

Please click here for the link to register for the Zoom Webinar, and for more information about the event, please visit the organizer’s website here.

IN THE NEWS: Mekong's falling water level riles China's downstream neighbors

China's water relations with Southeast Asian neighbors are under strain after Beijing held up the Mekong River's flow at one of its large dams upstream, precipitating a sudden drop in volume for downstream countries that share the region's longest body of water.

——

"There is still a need to deepen cooperation on transboundary water governance," said Carl Middleton, director of the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok. "The appropriate goal is [for the] accountable operation of hydropower projects that avoid social and environmental impacts to the extent possible, while acknowledging and compensating for harms created."

China, which refers to the Mekong as the Lancang River, has been in the crosshairs of local and international environmentalists for the power it wields to reduce the water flow. Critics say Beijing uses the river as a tap to be turned on or off to meet domestic water requirements.

For the full article, please click the link here.

UPCOMING EVENT: CRISEA Final Conference – Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia: The Project and its Findings [Online, 22 February 2021]

17.00 - 19.10, Monday, 22 February 2021 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) is an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme that studies multiple forces affecting regional integration in Southeast Asia and the challenges they present to the peoples of Southeast Asia and its regional institutional framework, ASEAN.

CRISEA innovates by encouraging ‘macro-micro’ dialogue between disciplines: global level analyses in international relations and political economy alongside socio-cultural insights from the grassroots methodologies of social sciences and the humanities.

CRISEA Final Conference – Programme (05) Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia: The Project and its Findings

Part Two – Research Findings: Case Studies (17.26 - 18.16))

• Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University (Environment – WP1) – Southeast Asia and China: Transnational Water Issues on the Mekong

• Dennis Arnold, University of Amsterdam (The Economy – WP2) – The Impact of Covid-19 on Special Economic Zones in Southeast Asia

• Pham Quynh Phuong, Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences (The State – WP3) – State-Society Relations and the Rise of the LGBT Movement in Vietnam

• Jayeel Cornelio, Ateneo de Manila University (Identity – WP4) – Christianity and the War on Drugs in the Philippines

• Kyawt Kyawt Khine, University of Mandalay (The Region – WP5) – Southeast Asia Regionalism and Myanmar’s Relations with ASEAN

For the complete program, please visit here.

The conference will be conducted online via Zoom. To attend, please visit this link here. It will also be broadcasted via YouTube Live on the channel here.