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

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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:

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

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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.

UPCOMING EVENT: ARI E-Workshop on Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia [Online, 4 December 2020]

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15.40-17.30, Friday, 4 December 2020 via Zoom

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

The Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore, is going to organize an inter-disciplinary workshop on "Transboundary Environmental Governance in Southeast Asia" to explore how, why, when and what forms of transboundary environmental governance are emerging in Southeast Asia.

The workshop will be conducted online via Zoom. To register, please visit this link here and the organizer will reply prior to the event with the Zoom link.

Panel IV. Hybrid Governance of Transboundary Commons

Chairperson: Zu Dienle Tan, National University of Singapore

Panelists:

  • Beyond the Commons/Commodity Dichotomy in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Governance by Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University

  • Unruly Fires: Nonhumans as Transboundary Actants in Governing Indonesia’s Wildfires by Rini Astuti, National University of Singapore and Yuti Ariani Fatimah, Nanyang Technological University

  • A Multi-Scalar Political Economy Analysis of Thailand’s Widespread Urban Air Pollution by Danny Marks, Dublin City University

  • Path Dependency of Land Use in Southeast Asian Peatlands by Lahiru Wijedasa, National University of Singapore

Abstract:

Beyond the Commons/Commodity Dichotomy in the Lancang-Mekong Basin: Implications for Transboundary Water Governance

Extensive hydropower construction across the Lancang-Mekong basin is changing the river’s hydrology and ecology, with implications for the availability and governance of common pool resources, as well as for riparian livelihoods. In this paper, I assess how the transboundary commons are being reworked as the river is transformed by large dam operation. The paper applies an analytical lens that seeks to move beyond a commons-commodity dichotomy in water related resource governance (Paerregaard and Andersen, 2019) to argue that at the present time the Lancang-Mekong River is neither fully commodified nor fully a commons, but rather a hybrid of the two. The paper will examine how transboundary hybrid governance regimes are reworking the hybrid commons, drawing attention to how states, communities, and even private actors, seek to maintain particular types of commons, whilst simultaneously either furthering or resisting commodification of some properties of the river. The paper will discuss the implications of this hybrid governance perspective for recent hydropolitics in the river basin and existing and new transboundary water governance institutions, namely the Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation framework.

For more information about this event, please visit the organizer’s webpage here.