UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Mekong Downstream Blues [Bangkok, 1 February 2020]

BANGKOK EDGE 2020

Change and Resistance: Future Directions of Southeast Asia

1-2 February 2020, grounds of Museum Siam and Chakrabongse Villas, Bangkok, Thailand

Talks 2: Mekong Downstream Blues

Saturday, 1 February 2020, 13:30-14:30, Main Building Museum Siam

The 4,350 km Mekong River rises in China and is the world’s 12th longest. Current unsustainable practices are a severe environmental threat to the livelihoods of tens of millions in downstream countries. Unegulated mega-dam projects and water extraction on the upper Mekong will cause untold hardship for downstream countries in all aspects of life - agriculture, fishing, and everyday living. Already negative impacts are being observed. The panel will examine the future of this mighty river.

Speakers:

• Carl Middleton, Director of Center of Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• Pianporn Deetes, activist and campaigns director International Rivers

• Sean Chadwell, Executive Director Luang Prabang Film Festival

Moderated by Jonathan Head, Southeast Asia Correspondent for the BBC.

For more information about the event, please visit this link here.

CSDS News: 2019 Year in Review

2019 was a fruitful year for Center for Social Development Studies! We’ve organized 9 (nine) public events and publish 13 (thirteen) publications, and there’s also significant increase in visitors to our website as well as page views, and also an increase in our social media presence.

Thank you for your support this year, and please look forward to our projects in next year too!

Public Events

International Conference

• Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World

Research Forum

• Research Forum on Powering up Sustainable Development for Asia: The Future of Global and Regional Investment in Asia’s Energy Sector

Panel Discussion

• Meeting the Challenge of Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Transformation in Asia

• The Mekong Drought: Impact and Solutions 

Book Launch

• The Water-Food-Energy Nexus

• Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River

Graduate Students Seminar

• CU Graduate Student Seminar Series 'The Water-Food-Energy Nexus'

• CU Graduate Student Seminar Series 'The Globalization of Environmental Law'

Public Lecture

• Why Money and Disequilibrium Matter to Economics

Publications

Book

• The Water–Food–Energy Nexus: Power, Politics and Justice

• Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River

Book Chapter

• Knowledge coproduction for recovering wetlands, agro-ecological farming, and livelihoods in the Mekong Region

• Introduction: Resources Politics and Knowing the Salween River

• Hydropower Politics and Conflict on the Salween River

• From Hydropower Construction to National Park Creation: Changing Pathways of the Nu River

• A State of Knowledge of the Salween River: An Overview of Civil Society Research

Journal Article

• Hybrid Governance of Transboundary Commons: Insights from Southeast Asia

• Ontological politics of hydrosocial territories in the Salween River basin, Myanmar/Burma

Policy Brief

• Shaping the Future of Mekong Regional Architecture: Reinforcing Transboundary Water Governance Through Reciprocity

Opinion Piece

• Mekong Drought Reveals Need for Regional Rules-based Water Cooperation

Report

• The Environment - Contested Knowledge of the Commons in Southeast Asia (CRISEA Working Paper 1)

Teaching Manual

• KNOTS Project | First Section - What is Trandisciplinarity?

• KNOTS Project | Second Section - Methodologies and Research Designs

• KNOTS Project | Third Section - Topics, Themes and Application

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Migration and SDGs: ASEAN and Beyond: A Pathway to 2030 Agenda: Episode II [Bangkok, 17-18 December 2019]

International Conference to Commemorate International Migrants’ Day

“Migration and SDGs: ASEAN and Beyond: A Pathway to the 2030 Agenda: Episode II”

Tuesday - Wednesday, 17-18 December 2019

Room 105, Maha Chulalongkorn Building, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Session Two: “Environment: Climate Change and Migration”

Tuesday, 17 December 2019, 15:50 - 17:25

Chair: Professor Surichai Wun’gaeo

Panelists:

• “Migration in the Context of Climate Change” by Ms. Chompoonute Nakornthap, Member of Human Rights Committee, Democrat Party, and HRD Advisor to the Minister of Social Development and Security.

• “Shall we go or shall we stay? Environmental Migration in Mekong and Irrawaddy Delta” by Representative from Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

• “title tbc” by Representative from Northern Region, Thailand

• “Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response: A case study of Hat Yai Municipality, Thailand” by Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS)

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

Abstract for Flooding disaster, people’s displacement and state response: A case study of Hat Yai Municipality, Thailand

by Carl Middleton, Orapan Pratomlek*

Hat Yai City in Songkhla Province, Southern Thailand has regularly experienced flooding, with major floods most recently in 1988, 2000 and 2010. Each flood caused loss of life, as well as significant economic damage and disruption to people’s lives, including displacement. The government’s response has evolved over time, as has its capacity to respond. Recovery responses in 1988 and 2000 emphasized investment in hard infrastructure (canals and embankments) to redirect flood water around the city, and to manage flood water better within it. The 2010 flood, however, led to the realization that it was not possible to fully “flood-proof” the city, leading to investment in soft infrastructure in an approach that has become known as the ‘Hat Yai model.’ This includes: improved flood warning; and strengthening local government, community, civil society and business capacity to live with floods and manage displacement locally over the several days that flooding occurs.

In this presentation, we critically evaluate the Hat Yai model, with a focus on how it has progressively reduced the extent that displacement occurs during flooding, and how preparedness measures have addressed displacement when it does occur. Our research is based on key informant interviews and indepth community interviews conducted in 2018. Overall, we find that the Hat Yai model demonstrates the positive efforts of the government and non-state actors to improve community resilience and address flood-induced displacement through hard and soft infrastructure means. Yet, there are still unresolved issues including: how the protection of Hat Yai city comes at the expense of prolonged or exacerbated flooding in other areas nearby to the city (i.e. risk redistribution); and that there remain especially marginalized communities in the city who regularly experience flooding with displacement with little state support or prospect for durable solutions.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: Change and Resistance - Future Directions of Southeast Asia [Taipei, 5-7 December 2019]

SEASIA Biennial Conference 2019

Change and Resistance: Future Directions of Southeast Asia

5-7 December 2019, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Panel 8.4: Social Movements and Political Participation in Southeast Asia

Friday, 6 December 2019, 10:50-12:20, Room 904 (9th Floor)

Chair: Chia-Chien Chang (National Chengchi University)

Panelists:

• Social Movement and Political Participation: Fortification of Identity in Malaysia's Bersih Movement by Lim Hui Ying (Doshisha University)

• The “People Power” People Power Monument of the Philippines by Gil D. Turingan (University of the Philippines Diliman)

• Liberal Democracy and Civil Society: The Co-Production of Education Services by John Mark Hernandez Villanueva (Mapua University Manila)

• The Hybrid Public Sphere in Myanmar and Implications for Civil Society  by Carl Middleton (Chulalongkorn University)

• Activist Lawyering in an Emerging Democracy: the Case of the Indonesian Legal Aid Foundation by Timothy Sinclair Mann (University of Melbourne)

• Articulating a Broken Polity Social Movement and Political Party's Role in Organizing Cleavages by Zahra Amalia Syarifah (The University of Chicago)

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

Abstract for The Hybrid Public Sphere in Myanmar and Implications for Civil Society

by Carl Middleton*, Tay Zar Myo Win

Myanmar was under a military junta government for almost six decades, during which time the state heavily controlled the population’s access to information through maintaining an ‘authoritarian public sphere,’ including via severe control over civil society and independent mass media. In 2010, Myanmar held elections that, although highly flawed, resulted in a semi-civilian government. Whilst the military maintained considerable influence, a degree of electoral competition and civil, political and media freedoms were introduced, all within the constraints of the 2008 constitution. This melding of liberal and illiberal elements within an electoral system is best understood as a hybrid regime (Diamond, 2002). In this paper, we analyze the emergence of a ‘hybrid public sphere’ in Myanmar since 2010 that maintains some elements of the previous authoritarian control of the production and circulation of critical discourse, combined with more liberal elements that reflect recently gained civil, political and media freedoms and a greater role for civil society, journalists, and interaction via social media. The paper develops its analysis first through an assessment of the political transition at the national level, and then in a case study in subnational politics in Dawei City with a focus on local planning of electricity supply. We argue that for Myanmar to shift from a procedural to substantive form of democracy, independent civil society require strategies that link (and deepen) recently gained formal freedoms to ensuring the accountability of state and powerful non-state actors via the creation and maintenance of a substantive public sphere.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE PAPER: How East Asian regionalism connects ecologies and societies through global commodity-commons chains

7TH INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON ENVIRONMENTAL SOCIOLOGY IN EAST ASIA (ISESEA)

Social Actions to Climate Change and Energy Transition in East Asia: Toward A Sustainable Planet

26-28 October 2019, Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Seoul, Korea

Session 4.3: Commons and Sustainability Transition (2)

Sunday, 27 October 2019, 10:50 AM ~ 12:20 PM, Room 305, moderated by Carl Middleton

Speakers:

• The Conservation of SATOYAMA and Reforming of Commons: the Actors and Activities of Producing Firewood, Takahashi Satoka (Tohoku University)

• Sustainable Development through the Lens of Historical Environmental Conservation: From the Case of Urban Regeneration in Daegu, Korea, Rie Matsui (Atomi University)

• How East Asian Regionalism Connects Ecologies and Societies through Global Commodity-commons Chains, Carl Middleton (Chulalongkorn University); Takeshi Ito (Sophia University)

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

Abstract for How East Asian regionalism connects ecologies and societies through global commodity-commons chains

by Carl Middleton* and Takeshi Ito**

East Asia has a long history of regionalism, at least since the 16th Century. The age of economic modernization since the mid-19th Century profoundly transformed the region economically, socially, and ecologically. Japan rapidly industrialized since the Meiji Restoration in 1868, which was a precursor to Japan’s imperial expansion, and latter reconstruction after World War II. Thailand, meanwhile, at first was a commodity exporter, but since the 1950s industrialized initially with a focus on domestic markets, and later for export. Over this period, Thailand and Japan deepened their political and economic relations, perhaps most profoundly since the 1980s when the Plaza Accord catalyzed large flows of investment from Japan into Thailand leading to rapid industrialization.

In this paper, with a focus on Japan and Thailand, we outline an environmental and economic history of East Asian regionalism to reveal how rapid economic modernization and social and ecological change are intimately connected and transform each other. We examine how the evolving political economy of East Asian regionalism, including flows of trade, investment, and aid, has reworked ecology-society relations in distant yet connected sites of investment and divestment, and the implications for community vulnerabilities. Our study is based on empirical fieldwork and archival research. In Thailand, our research focuses on industrial estates in Ayutthaya and Map Tha Phut, and peri-urban areas of Bangkok. In Japan, we focus on the watershed surrounding Tokyo, including former and current industrial zones and the Watarase conservation area, as well as Tokyo city itself.

We argue that the continual and connected reworking of ecologies and ecology-society relations in numerous localities in Thailand and Japan is an underappreciated foundation that has underpinned the expansion of capitalism in East Asia, including as it has responded to changing geopolitical, economic, and environmental contexts. We explore these connections through proposing the concept of ‘global commodity-commons chains’ to detail the dynamic ecology-society relations embedded in all global commodity chains. Through this concept we aim to understand the relational processes between Japan and Thailand that have led to the enclosure and recreation of commons, and changes to communities’ economic, social and ecological vulnerabilities in both positive and negative ways.

*Center of Excellence on Resource Politics for Social Development, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (Carl.Chulalongkorn@gmail.com)

**Faculty of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University (takeshi.ito@sophia.ac.jp)

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Silencing the Mekong The making of Xayaburi dam from commencement to operations [Bangkok, 22 October 2019]

18.00 - 20.00, Tuesday, 22nd October, 2019 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event.

On 29th October 2019, the Xayaburi Hydropower Project on the Mekong in Laos will formally commence operations. As the first dam on the lower Mekong mainstream, this marks a turning point for the Mekong River.

From the outset, the Xayaburi dam was a highly controversial project due to widespread concerns over its expected impacts on the river system, including transboundary impacts in neighboring countries. Major predicted impacts include the destruction of Mekong migratory fisheries and trapping of sediment, preventing it from traveling downstream. The dam’s environmental impacts in turn threaten the food, livelihoods and socio-cultural systems of populations residing within the river basin.

During the Xayaburi dam consultation process, many stakeholders raised concerns over the project and questioned the adequacy of the data and studies. The Vietnamese government called for a project suspension and a ten-year moratorium on all mainstream dams pending further study to better understand the river system and the impacts of planned dams. In Thailand, community representatives along the Mekong River filed a landmark lawsuit in the Thai Administrative Court challenging Thailand’s power purchase from the project. Originally filed in 2012, following several appeals, the lawsuit remains pending over 7 years later.

Despite this, the Xayaburi dam moved forward, with the developers undertaking a redesign in an effort to mitigate concerns. Subsequent projects have followed. This month, the MRC announced the commencement of Prior Consultation for Luang Prabang, the fifth lower Mekong mainstream dam to undergo the process.

In the lead up to the commissioning of Xayaburi dam, this event will include a panel discussion with academic, community and civil society speakers. The panel will share comments on the project’s history, its flawed decision-making process, and the ongoing campaigns, and Xayaburi’s implications for the ecosystems and people of the Mekong basin.

The event will feature the launch of a new report. International Rivers commissioned two independent experts to provide comments on the MRC’s review of the Xayaburi redesign, released earlier this year. The expert commentary examines the legacy of Xayaburi in setting a benchmark for decisions on mainstream dams and highlights the urgent need for a truly regional approach to safeguard the Mekong’s future.

Confirmed speakers include:

• Dr Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• Ormbun Thipsuna, Thai People’s Network in Eight Mekong Provinces

• Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Salforest

• Professor Le Anh Tuan, Research Institute for Climate Change, Can Tho University

• Maureen Harris, International Rivers

For more information, please visit FCCT’s website here.

FULL AGENDA: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University (CSDS); Chula Global Network (CGN); French Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; Patrimoines Locaux, Environnement et Mondialisation (PALOC); POLLEN Political Ecology Network

With the support of Chula Global Network (CGN); The French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS); French Embassy in Bangkok; Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Keynote Speakers:

• “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” - Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• “The Political Ecology of Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation in Marginal Environments” - Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Conference Venue:

• Venue A (Main Plenary, Sessions A): Chumpot-Pantip Conference Room, 4th floor, Prajadhipok-Ramphai Barni Building, Chulalongkorn University

• Venue B (Sessions B): Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Authayanin Building (Building 3), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

List of Programs:

DAY 1: Thursday, 10 October 2019

08:30-09:00 Registration

09:00-09:30 Welcome Remarks

• Prof. Dr. Pironrong Ramasoota, Vice President for Social Outreach and Global Engagement, Chulalongkorn University

• H.E. Jacques Lapouge, French Ambassador to Thailand

• Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ake Tangsupvattana, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

09:30-10:30 Keynote Speech: “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” by Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• Chair: Jakkrit Sangkhamanee, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• Stephane Rennesson, CNRS-LESC

10:30-11:00 Coffee break

11:00-12:30 Session 1

Session 1A: Particulate matters: The emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia

Chair: Karine Léger, AirParif.

• “Making an 'Indian' Air Pollution Technoscience” by Rohit Negi, Urban Studies, Ambedkar University (with Prerna Srigyan, University of California-Irvine)

• “Positioning Indonesia’s Oil Palm Smallholders in the Anthropocene Debates” by Rini Yuni Astuti, Asia Research Institute, National University of Singapore (with Andrew Mc Gregor, Macquary University and David Taylor, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore )

• “How to break the political barrier to act on air pollution control with open information?” by Sarath Guttikunda, urbanemission.info

• “Haze crisis and upland/lowland relationships in Chiang Mai” by Olivier Evrard, French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (with Mary Mostafanezhad, University of Hawai’i at Manoa).

Session 1B: Feminist political ecology in Asia

Chairs: Bernadette P. Resurrección and Kanokwan Manorom

• “Gender professionals in environment and development. Theory and praxis through feminist political ecology” by Bernadette P. Resurrección, Senior Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI)

• “Feminism Political Ecology and Land broker State in the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in the Mekong: A case study of Thailand” by Kanokwan Manorom, Mekong Sub-region Social Research Center (MSSRC), Faculty of Liberal Arts, Ubon Ratchathani University

• “Beyond Recognition of Adat Forest: Feminist Political Ecology and Resource Frontier on Customary Forest in Indonesia.” by Siti Maimunah, Marie Sklodowska-Currie Fellow/ WEGO-ITN, University of Passau

• “Towards a Feminist Geopolitical Ecology of Environmental Change, Land Grabs, and Migration” by Sara Vigil, Research Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

12:30-13:30 Lunch

13:30-15:00 Session 2

Session 2A: Resource politics and the public sphere

Chair: Naruemon Thabchumpon, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Demarcating the public and private in land and environmental governance in the Mekong Region” by Philip Hirsch, School of Geosciences, University of Sydney

• “The hybrid public sphere in Myanmar and implications for civil society” by Tay Zar Myo Win, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “A Rising Indifference To Law: environmental reporting in the age of Narendra Modi” by M. Rajshekhar, Independent journalist, Delhi.

Session 2B: Asia’s urban political ecologies

Chair: Olivier Chrétien, Head of Department Environmental Impacts Prevention, Paris Municipality

• “Water Management in Bangkok and Uneven Vulnerabilities”by Niramon Serisakul, Urban Design and Development Centre (UddC) / Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Chulalongkorn University

• “Managing the (sinking) City of Jakarta” by Irvan Pulungan, Coastal Committee Member, Governor's Delivery Unit, Jakarta Capital City Government

• “Marginalizing policies: rethinking the modernization of the waste sector in Delhi” by Rémi de Bercegol, Center for Social Sciences and Humanities / French National Center for Scientific Research – CNRS; and Shankare Gowda, Associate to Centre for Policy Research (CPR) New Delhi (by Skype)

• “Governance of seaside tourist resorts areas confronted with environmental challenges in Southeast Asia” by Christine Cabasset, French Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia – IRASEC

15:00-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-17:00 Session 3

Session 3A: Political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia: Beyond the technical-regulatory gaze

Chair: Miles Kenney-Lazar

• “The maize boom in northern Laos: Impacts on land use and access” by Robert Cole, Global Production Networks Centre and Department of Geography, National University of Singapore;and Centre for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University

• “The Relational Governance of Land: Contested Plantation Concessions in Laos” by Miles Kenney-Lazar, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “Migration and women’s land tenure rights and security in the Greater Mekong sub-region” by Soimart Rungmanee, Puey Ungphakorn School of Development Studies, Thammasat University

• “Alternative Land Management in Thailand: a Case study of the Southern Peasants’ Federation of Thailand (SPFT)” by Supatsak Pobsuk, Thailand Programme Officer, Focus on the Global South

Session 3B: People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation

Chair: Sarah Benabou

• "Indigenous Resurgence, Relational Ontologies, and the Salween Peace Park" by Robert A Farnan, The Regional Center for Social Science and Sustainable Development (RCSD), Chiang Mai University

• “Putting conservation in local hands? The Khasi Hills Redd+ project” by Sarah Benabou, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD- Patrimoines locaux, Environnement et Globalisation) and French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)

• “How many tigers are enough? The biopolitics of tiger conservation in India” by Nitin Rai, Ashoka Trust in Ecology and the Environment (ATREE), Bangalore

DAY 2: Friday, 11 October 2019

09:00-10:00 Keynote Speech: “The Political ecology of climate change, uncertainty and transformation in marginal environments” by Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex

• Chair: Bharat Dahiya, Research Center for Integrated Sustainable Development, College of Interdisciplinary Studies, Thammasat University and Urban Youth Academy, Seoul

• Discussant: Prof. Surichai Wungaeo, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University

10:00-10:30 Coffee break

10:30-12:00 Session 4

Session 4A: Industrialization and ecological justice

Chair: Shaun Lin, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “How Japan’s Aid and Investment ‘Offshore’ Flood Management to Reduce Flood Risks in Thailand” by Takeshi Ito, Faculty of Liberal Arts and Graduate School of Global Studies, Sophia University

• ”Political Ecology of Thailand’s Marine Plastic Pollution Crisis” by Danny Marks, Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong

• “The failed promise of industrialization and of justice, Coromandel coast” by Senthil Babu, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)

• “Flash points- Exploring conflict and justice issues in economic zone of Myanmar under BRI investment” by Myint Zaw, Paung Ku

Session 4B: Ontologies of infrastructure

Chair: Jakkrit Sangkhamanee

• “Infrastructure in the Making: The Chao Phraya Dam and the Dance of Agency” by Jakkrit Sangkhamanee, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Aggregate Ecologies: On the environmental effects of city surfaces” by Eli Elinoff, Victoria University of Wellington

• “Urban Kaleidoscopes: Chinese Construction, Scale-Making, and the Re-Design of Cambodian Cities” by Casper Bruun Jensen, Independent Researcher

• “Re-defining, Re-imagining and Re-particularising Thailand's Climate Knowledge(s): The case of climate actors and their knowledge infrastructures” by Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Chiang Mai University

12:00-13:00 Lunch

13:00-14:30 Session 5

Session 5A: Hydrosocial rivers and their politics

Chair: Kenji Otsuka, Interdisciplinary Studies Center, Institute of Developing Economies

• “Ontological politics of hydrosocial territories in the Salween River basin, Myanmar/Burma” by Carl Middleton (with Johanna Gotz), Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

• “Politics of urban riverbank development: the contested Chao Phraya River Promenade project in Bangkok” by Thanawat Bremard, G-EAU (Water Management, Actors, Territories), Montpellier/ IRD (French Research Institute for Development), France

• “Flows, fragments and futures: Rethinking biophysical geopolitics in the Lower Mekong wetlands and Tonle Sap” by Carl Grundy-Warr, Department of Geography, National University of Singapore

• “Rewilding the commons: Community Led Restoration in the Penna River Basin” by Siddharth Rao, Adavi Trust, and Timbaktu Collective, Andhra Pradesh, India.

Session 5B: Representations of nature and political engagements

Chair: Frédéric Landy, French Institute of Pondicherry, University of Paris-Nanterre/LAVUE

• “Nature reshaped: Diffracted political engagements for recovering grabbed land in Cambodia” by Frédéric Bourdier, CNRS, UMR DEVSOC, IRD/University of Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne

• “Politics of water management in the Koshi plain (Nepal and North India) : Modern economics versus extreme environmental factors” by Marie-Amélie Candau, Post-doc, University of Paris Nanterre/LAVUE

• “Nature and Human in Sino-Vietnamese conceptions and practices. Articulations between Asian vernacular ‘analogism’ and Western modern ‘naturalism’ modes of identification” by Christian Culas, CNRS, ART-DEV Institute

14:30-15:00 Coffee break

15:00-ุ16:30 Session 6

Session 6A: Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: Non-human animals and political ecology

Chair: Olivier Evrard

• “Lizards and other Ancestors: wildlife conservation and the moral ecology of Komodo” by Annette Hornbacher, Institute for Ethnology, Heidelberg University

• “Modern Nomadism among Thai Mahouts: a social consequence of human - elephant relations evolution in Thailand’s tourism industry” by Wasan Panyagaew, Sociology and Anthropology Faculty, Chiang Mai University

• “Are some managers of Indian national parks corrupted or analogist? Relationships to nature and wildlife in Hindu India” by Frédéric Landy, French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP)/LAVUE

• “The coproduction of ecologies with more than human animals: playing with beetles, birds and fish in Thailand” by Stephane Rennesson, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)/French National Centre for Scientific Research, IRASEC Department

Session 6B: Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia (round table)

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

• Kyaw Thu, Paung Ku 

• K.J. Joy, Society for Promoting Participative Ecosystem Management (SOPPECOM) 

• Suphakit Nuntavorakarn, Healthy Public Policy Foundation (HPPF)

• Wora Sukraroek, EarthRights International and Member of Thailand Extraterritorial Obligations Watch Coalition

16:30-17:00 Concluding Remarks

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com. Registering participants are requested to pay 400 THB per day for lunch and coffee breaks. Students may join for free.

FULLY BOOKED - REGISTRATION IS NOW CLOSED

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS); Chula Global Network (CGN); Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; POLLEN Political Ecology Network

Keynote Speakers:

• “Reflection on Vijñana of Religion: New Animism in the Age of the Anthropocene” - Thanes Wongyannava, Retired Professor, Faculty of Political Science, Thammasat University

• “The Political Ecology of Climate Change, Uncertainty and Transformation in Marginal Environments” - Lyla Mehta, Institute for Development Studies, University of Sussex.

Panel topics include:

• Resource politics and the public sphere;

• Particulate matters: the emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia;

• Hydrosocial rivers and their politics;

• Ontologies of infrastructure;

• Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia;

• People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation;

• Industrialization and ecological justice;

• Asia’s urban political ecologies;

• Feminist political ecology in Asia;

• Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: non-human animals and political ecology;

• Representations of nature and political engagements;

• Political ecologies of land in Southeast Asia: Beyond the technical-regulatory gaze.

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com. Registering participants are requested to pay 400 THB per day for lunch and coffee breaks. Students may join for free.

IN THE NEWS: แม่น้ำโขงที่ผันผวน และกลไกรับวิกฤต

[BangkokBizNews, 1 September 2019]

ดร.คาร์ล มิดเดิลตัน นักวิชาการผู้ติดตามภูมิศาสตร์การเมืองของแม่น้ำโขงมาอย่างยาวนานจากศูนย์ศึกษาการพัฒนาสังคม (Center for Social Development Studies) คณะรัฐศาสตร์ จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย กล่าวว่า สถานการณ์ความแห้งแล้งและความผันผวนของแม่น้ำโขงปีนี้ และข้อกล่าวหาที่พุ่งตรงไปที่บทบาทของเขื่อนของจีน ทำให้รัฐบาลและสาธารณะที่เกี่ยวข้องให้ความสนใจกับความสำคัญของแม่น้ำโขงในมุมของความร่วมมือและสันติภาพมากเป็นพิเศษ

นอกจากนี้ กรอบความร่วมมือแม่โขง-ล้านช้าง ซึ่งริ่เริ่มโดยจีนเองในช่วงสองสามปีที่ผ่านมา ก็ยิ่งขับเน้นบทบาทของจีนในภูมิศาสตร์การเมือง (Geo-politics) ของภูมิภาคมากยิ่งขึ้น ดร.คาร์ล กล่าว

เป็นความจริงที่ว่าหลากหลายรัฐบาลไม่ว่าจะเป็นจากญี่ปุ่น เกาหลี หรืออินเดีย ต่างก็พยายามโปรโมทความร่วมมือในระดับภูมิภาค แต่ ข้อริเริ่มลุ่มน้ำโขงตอนล่างของสหรัฐฯ (Lower Mekong Initiative) ซึ่งไม่ได้รวมจีนเข้าไว้ด้วยนี่เอง ที่ดูเหมือนจะกลายมาเป็นยุทธศาสตร์ที่ถูกตั้งใจให้มาช่วยคานอำนาจให้สมดุลย์ในภูมิภาคนี้ เมื่อพิจารณาถึงอิทธิพลทางการเมืองของสหรัฐฯ และการเผชิญหน้าอย่างเปิดเผยกับจีน ดร.คาร์ล กล่าว

ดร.คาร์ล กล่าวว่า เมื่อพิจารณาถึงกลไกในภูมิภาคที่มีอยู่อย่าง MRC, การได้ข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำจากจีนที่สมบูรณ์มากกว่านี้ รวมทั้งข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับระดับน้ำของแต่ละเขื่อนตลอดทั้งปี จะช่วยลดปัญหาและการตั้งข้อความสงสัยเกี่ยวกับเขื่อนของจีนลงไปได้มาก

ในช่วงสองสามปีที่ผ่านมา ดร.คาร์ล กล่าวว่า เขาเห็นพัฒนาการการทำงานของ MRC ในการติดต่อประสานงานกับจีนเกี่ยวกับการแลกเปลี่ยนข้อมูลข่าวสารเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำได้ครบถ้วนขึ้น ซึ่งงานด้านนี้ควรเป็นสิ่งที่องค์กรดำเนินการอย่างต่อเนื่องต่อไปเป็นส่วนหนึ่งของภาระกิจหลัก

ดร. คาร์ล ยังกล่าวอีกว่า มันเป็นเรื่องที่สำคัญที่ประเทศต้นน้ำอย่างจีนและประเทศปลายน้ำของแม่น้ำโขงจะช่วยกันผลักดันกฎระเบียบที่ “ชัดเจนและเป็นธรรม” (Clear and Fair) ในการใช้ประโยชน์ร่วมกันของแม่น้ำโขง-ล้านช้าง รวมทั้งการแลกเปลี่ยนข่าวสารข้อมูลเกี่ยวกับสภาพน้ำ โดยเฉพาะในช่วงหน้าแล้ง และการดำเนินการของเขื่อนจีน

ในการดำเนินการของเขื่อน สมควรที่จะให้คล้ายสภาพธรรมชาติมากที่สุดเพื่อให้ประเทศท้ายน้ำได้รักษาสมดุลย์ของระบบนิเวศและวิถีชีวิตที่ต้องพึ่งพาวงจรธรรมชาติเหล่านั้น ดร. คาร์ล แนะนำ

ที่สำคัญ กฎเกณฑ์ต่างๆ เหล่านี้ควรต้องให้ประชาชนได้มีส่วนร่วมออกแบบ และเป็นที่ยอมรับของชุมชนในลุ่มน้ำ ถึงจะเป็นแนวทางที่จะช่วยแก้ปัญหาความขัดแย้งที่มีอยู่ของลุ่มน้ำได้ ดร. คาร์ล สรุป

Read more at this link here.

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”.

Program and List of Panelists:

08.30 - 09.00  Registration

09.00 - 09.15  Welcome remarks 

• Dr. Ake Tangsupvattana, Dean, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

09.15 - 10.30  Panel 1: Resource politics and the Salween River

Chair: Vanessa Lamb, University of Melbourne

• “From Hydropower Construction to National Park Creation: Changing Pathways of the Nu River” by Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University [with Chen Xiangxue]

• “Hydropower Politics and Conflict on the Salween River” by Alec Scott, Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) [with Carl Middleton and Vanessa Lamb]

• “Local Context, National Law: The Rights of Karen People on the Salween River in Thailand“ by Laofang Bundidterdsakul, Legal Advocacy Center for Indigenous Communities (LACIC)

10.30 - 10.45 Coffee Break

10.45 - 12.00 Panel 2: Politics of knowledge making

Chair: Professor Saw Win, Retired Rector of Maubin University

• “An Ethnobotanical Survey in Shan State, Myanmar: Where Thanlwin Biodiversity, Health, and Deforestation Meet” by Mar Mar Aye, Lashio University [with with Swe Swe Win]

• ‘'Not only Anti-dam: Simplistic Rendering of Complex Salween Communities in Their Negotiation for Development in Thailand” by Paiboon Hengsuwan, Chiang Mai University

• “Opportunities and Challenges for Salween Water Governance: Lessons learned from Daw La Lake and Kaw Ku Island, Karen State” by Saw Tha Phoe

12.00 - 13.00 Lunch

13.00 - 13.15 Short film showing: “Salween Stories” with introduction by Carl Middleton

13.15 - 14.30 Panel 3: Reconciling knowledge across divides

Chair: John Dore, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia

• “A State of Knowledge of the Salween River: An Overview of Civil Society Research” by Vanessa Lamb, University of Melbourne [with Carl Middleton, Saw John Bright, Saw Tha Phoe, Naw Aye Aye Myaing, Nang Hom Kham, Sai Aum Khay, Nang Sam Paung Hom, Nang Aye Tin, Nang Shining, Yu Xiaogang, Chen Xiangxue and Chayan Vaddhanaphuti]

• “Fisheries and Socio-economic Change in the Thanlwin River Estuary in Mon and Kayin State, Myanmar” by Cherry Aung, Pathein University

• “The Impact of Land Cover Changes on Socio-economic Conditions in Bawlakhe District, Kayah State” by Khin Sandar Aye, Loikaw University [with Khin Khin Htay]

14.30 - 14.45 Coffee Break

14.45 - 16.00 Panel 4: The future of the Salween River: Policy, politics, and practice

Chair: Carl Middleton, Chulalongkorn University

• “Positioning the Salween in Myanmar’s River Politics” by Khin Maung Lwin, Advisor to the National Water Resources Committee, Myanmar

• “What’s Next for the River? Is the Thanlwin ‘Under Threat’ or ‘on the Thread’” by Nang Shining, Weaving Bonds Across Borders and Mong Pan Youth Association

• “Salween as a Site for Transboundary Justice and Activism” by Pianporn Deetes, International Rivers

16.00 - 16.30 Book Launch and Concluding Remarks

This event will be broadcasted on Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/CSDSChula/

To register for this forum, please e-mail us your name, organisation, and position to  Anisa Widyasari (CSDS) at communications.csds@gmail.com. The seat is limited and registration will be accepted on first come first served basis. 

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

IN THE NEWS: Panel Discussion on "The Mekong Drought: Impact and Solutions"

On August 2, 2019, Center for Social Development Studies co-organized a panel discussion on “The Mekong Drought: Impact and Solutions". The discussion is organized as part of the 8th Chula ASEAN Week and 5th Parliementaty ASEAN Community Forum.

Below are some articles referencing the event:

แนะอาเซียนหยิบยกประเด็นวิกฤตแม่น้ำโขงหารือจีน “ครูตี๋”ชี้วิธีคิดรัฐบาลแดนมังกรสวนทางวิถีชุมชน เผยปริมาณไฟฟ้าสำรองไทยเหลือเฟือแต่ถูกล็อคให้รับซื้อ-โยนภาระให้ผู้บริโภคแบกรับ

แนะอาเซียนหยิบยกประเด็นวิกฤตแม่น้ำโขงหารือจีน “ครูตี๋”ชี้วิธีคิดรัฐบาลแดนมังกรสวนทางวิถีชุมชน เผยปริมาณไฟฟ้าสำรองไทยเหลือเฟือแต่ถูกล็อคให้รับซื้อ-โยนภาระให้ผู้บริโภคแบกรับ 0 BY ADMIN ON 2 สิงหาคม 2019 ในประเทศ เมื่อวันที่ 2 สิงหาคม 2562 ที่อาคารเฉลิมราชกุมารี 60 พรรษา จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย ได้มีเวทีอภิปราย “สถานการณ์ภัยแล้งน้ำโขง: ผลกระทบและทางออก” โดยผู้ร่วมอภิปรายประกอบด้วย ศ.สุริชัย หวันแก้ว ผู้อำนวยการ ศูนย์สันติภาพและความขัดแย้งแห่งจุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย นายนิวัฒน์ ร้อย-แก้ว หรือ “ครูตี๋” ประธานกลุ่มรักษ์เชียงของ ดร.คาร์ล มิดเดิลตัน นักวิชาการศูนย์ศึกษาการพัฒนาสังคม คณะรัฐศาสตร์ จุฬาฯ นายชัยวัฒน์ พาระคุณ ผู้แทนเครือข่ายประชาชนลุ่มน้ำโขง และนายศุภกิจ นันทะวรการ ผู้แทนมูลนิธินโยบายสุขภาวะ ทั้งนี้ทางผู้จัดได้เชิญผู้แทนกระทรวงต่างประเทศไทยและผู้แทนสถานเอกอัครราชทูตจีนประจำประเทศไทย เข้าร่วมด้วย แต่ทั้ง 2 หน่วยงานไม่ได้ส่งตัวแทนเข้าร่วม

Read more at http://transbordernews.in.th/home/?p=23362 .

'แล้ง-ท่วม'วิกฤติ'แม่น้ำโขง'เขื่อนสร้างพลังงาน..ชาวบ้านระทม

เมื่อช่วงกลางเดือน ก.ค. 2562 ที่ผ่านมา เกิดปรากฏการณ์ "น้ำโขงแห้ง" ซึ่งหลายคนที่อยู่ในพื้นที่ถึงกับออกปาก "เกิดมาเป็นสิบๆ ปีไม่เคยเห็นแบบนี้มาก่อน" แน่นอนว่าข้อสันนิษฐานหลักคงหนีไม่พ้น "สารพัดโครงการเขื่อน" ที่หลายชาติทำขึ้นทั้งในเขตประเทศตนเองและไปลงทุนในประเทศเพื่อนบ้านโดยยกเหตุความจำเป็นด้านพลังงาน ล่าสุดเมื่อต้นเดือน ส.ค. 2562 มีการจัดเวทีอภิปราย "สถานการณ์ภัยแล้งลุ่มน้ำโขง : ผลกระทบและทางออก" ที่จุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย วิกฤติแม่น้ำโขง ก็ถูกหยิบยกขึ้นมาพูดถึงอีกครั้ง

Read more at https://www.ryt9.com/s/nnd/3024148

ภาคปชช.แนะรัฐบาล จัดทำนโยบายพัฒนาแม่น้ำโขง ถ่วงดุลย์โครงการกระทบคนลุ่มน้ำ

โดยตัวแทนภาคประชาชน ผู้เชี่ยวชาญด้านพลังงานและด้านการพัฒนาลุ่มน้ำโขงได้ร่วมเวทีอภิปราย “สถานการณ์ภัยแล้งน้ำโขง:ผลกระทบและทางออก” โดยศูนย์สันติภาพและความขัดแย้งแห่งจุฬาลงกรณ์มหาวิทยาลัย นายนิวัฒน์ ร้อยแก้ว หรือ “ครูตี๋” ประธานกลุ่มรักษ์เชียงของ กล่าวว่า “วิกฤติที่เกิดขึ้นตลอดระยะเวลาที่ผ่านมากำลังสะท้อนว่าภาครัฐไม่ไ้ด้ให้ความสนใจแก้ไขผลกระทบที่เกิดขึ้นจากการพัฒนาแม่น้ำโขงเพราะปัญหาได้เกิดขึ้นมานานแล้วและยังไม่ได้รับการแก้ไขให้ดีขึ้น” นายนิวัฒน์กล่าวว่า “ไม่เคยเห็นรัฐบาลชุดไหนออกมาพูดชัดเจนว่าจะพัฒนาแม่น้ำโขงอย่างไร ซึ่งสะท้อนว่ารัฐไทยไม่เคยมีนโยบายเกี่ยวกับแม่น้ำโขงและไม่ได้ให้ความสำคัญ”

Read more at https://www.bangkokbiznews.com/news/detail/842653

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.

IN THE NEWS: Finding the nexus between water, food and energy

By Kunda Dixit [Nepali Times, 26 July 2019]

‘Nexus’ has become a word with a negative connotation in Nepal, used in conjunction with collusion or complicity: ‘government-business nexus’, or ‘nexus of politicians with the medical mafia’.

Nexus has a nefarious nuance because of the corrupt conspiracies that are hatched in the corridors of power between the political leadership and the captains of industry, giving democracy itself a bad name. An increasing number of Nepalis are disillusioned not just with politicians, but the system of government itself.

Multi-disciplinary social scientists Jeremy Allouche, Carl Middleton and Dipak Gyawali in their new book, The Water-Food-Energy Nexus: Power, Politics and Justice, try to reinstate the respect that the word ‘nexus’ has lost. They lay out the necessity of a multi-purpose nexus in designing and implementing development. For too long, we have maintained a tunnel vision in which hydropower was seen as only energy, drinking water only as a utility, or water only for urban supply.

Read more at this link here.

UPCOMING EVENT: Panel Discussion "The Mekong Drought: Impact and Solutions" [Bangkok, 2 August 2019]

Friday 2 August 2019, 13.30 - 15.00 at 8th Floor, Chaloem Rajakumari 60 Building, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

This panel is organized as part of the 8th Chula ASEAN Week and 5th Parliementaty ASEAN Community Forum

The Lancang-Mekong basin is currently facing a severe drought, with serious consequences for communities living within the basin. The drought takes place in the context of increasingly extensive hydropower dam construction in the basin on the mainstream and tributaries. These projects have expanded water storage capacity that could potentially alleviate drought, but have also impacted the natural hydrology and ecology of the river with a range of negative consequences for existing riparian livelihoods. Meanwhile, intergovernmental cooperation towards the Lancang-Mekong River is evolving with the launch of the Lancang Mekong Cooperation in 2016 alongside the existing Mekong River Commission. This panel will discuss the impact of the drought currently affecting the Mekong River basin, including on rural farming and fishing communities, its causes, and the immediate and long-term solutions.

Invited speakers:

• Representative, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Thailand (t.b.c.)

• Representative, Embassy of The People's Republic of China in The Kingdom of Thailand (t.b.c.)

• Niwat Roykaew, Rak Chiang Khong

• Chaiwat Parakhun, Representative of the Thai Mekong Network;

• Suphakit Nuntavorakarn, Healthy Public Policy Foundation.

• Dr. Carl Middleton, Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Chair: Emeritus Professor Surichai Wun’gaeo, Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, Chulalongkorn University

The panel will be held in Thai and English language with simultaneous translation available.

This event will be broadcasted on Facebook Live: www.facebook.com/CSDSChula/

To register online and for more details about the 8th Chula ASEAN Week and the 5th Parliamentary ASEAN Community Forum, please visit the link here.

IN THE NEWS: #WeStandByOurPlanet

Taylor & Francis recently launched their 2019 Asia Sustainability Campaign, #WeStandByOurPlanet. For every book sold from the campaign list, they will donate SGD$1 to a local wildlife community.

Two books from CSDS, Living with Floods in a Mobile Southeast Asia and The Water-Food-Energy-Nexus are also included in the campaign listing. Please visit this link here for the catalog of books included in the list.

UPCOMING EVENT: CU Graduate Student Seminar Series 'The Globalization of Environmental Law' [Bangkok, 30 July 2019]

The Globalization of Environmental Law: A Seminar and Discussion with Professor Tseming Yang

Tuesday 30 July 2019, 10.00 - 11.30 at Mekong Room, Stockholm Environment Institute, 10th Floor, Kasem Utthayanin Building (อาคารเกษม อุทยานิน), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand (guide to the venue here)

Tseming Yang is a Professor of Law at Santa Clara University School of Law in California. He is the former Deputy General Counsel of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA), appointed by President Barack Obama, and from 2007-10, he led the establishment of the US-China Partnership for Environmental Law, a USAID and State Department-funded initiative to build China’s institutional capacity in environmental law and governance. Professor Yang's research and practice focus on advancing understanding of the structure and role of the law with respect to the environment, as well as how to ensure that effective implementation will contribute to the achievement of justice and sustainability. He has an expertise in environmental law in international treaties, and in the law and governance systems of other countries.

Discussants:

• Dr. Naporn Popattanachai, Assistant Dean for Administration and Director of the Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Law, Faculty of Law, Thammasat University

• May Thazin Aung, Research Associate, Stockholm Environment Institute

Moderator: Sara K. Phillips, PhD Candidate, GRID Program, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University and Doctoral Fellow, Stockholm Environment Institute

To register for this event, please send and e-mail to CU Graduate Student Seminar Series at cugradseminar@gmail.com.

IN THE NEWS: China winning new Cold War on the Mekong

By Bertil Lintner [Asia Times, 24 June 2019]

When the state tabloid China Daily ran a paid advertisement in the New York Times extolling the virtues of Beijing’s proliferating dams in Laos, the piece sparked a new cold war controversy.

Entitled “Employment on hydroelectric project in Laos delivers better lives”, the piece stated that a proposed cascade of dams on the Nam Ou River will enable well-paid local workers to buy pickup trucks and provide the poor country with badly needed electricity.

The paid placement also noted the Nam Ou cascade “is a key part of the China-led Belt and Road Initiative and is the first project undertaken by a Chinese-invested company to cover an entire river.”

With its rising regional clout and massive state resources, China has recently gained a clear upper hand vis-à-vis the United States and Japan in determining the crucial waterway’s future development and direction.

It’s an economics-over-environment vision that downstream nations have often opposed but without recourse or resources to fight back there is little they can do as US and Japan-backed counter-initiatives for the river wash away into irrelevance.

A cargo boat on the Mekong River near the Pak Ou tributary, Luang Prabang, Laos, February 1, 2017. Photo: Wikimedia/Christian Terrissen

The new cold war on the Mekong is being fought in part on environmental grounds. International Rivers, a nongovernmental organization (NGO), views China’s dam-building differently than as portrayed in the New York Times’ paid advertisement.

The group states on its website that the propaganda piece “paints a rosy picture of a highly destructive set of dams currently under construction in Southeast Asia.”

Rather than benefiting economically from the construction of new dams, International Rivers claims that farmers affected by the project have lost their land and that many never received the compensation they were promised.

The cascade has resulted in the forced relocation of over 4,000 people and undermined livelihoods for tens of thousands more villages in the river’s basin, the NGO says.

It also claims the company, China Power, is developing 350 kilometers of the 450-kilometer-long river and has “rejected offers from the International Finance Corporation and the Mekong River Commission (MRC) to participate in a broader watershed management planning.”

That is hardly surprising. In recent years, China has managed to outmaneuver the MRC, a decades-old initiative which brings together Mekong River countries for development projects, with the creation of its own Lancang-Mekong Cooperation (LMC).

Lancang is the Chinese name for the Mekong River and the forum, which includes all the riparian countries from the river’s headwaters to its exit in the South China Sea, explicitly excludes traditional regional donors like Japan and the UnitStates.

According to Carl Middleton and Jeremy Allouche, two Western scholars writing for the Italian journal the International Spectator, the LMC “proposes programs on both economic and water resource development, and anticipates hydro-diplomacy via China’s dam-engineered control of the headwaters” of the Mekong.

Read more at this link here.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "XVIIth Global Conference of the International Association for the Study of the Commons" [Lima, 1-4 July 2019]

The XVII Biennial IASC Conference, entitled ‘In Defense of the Commons: Challenges, Innovation, and Action’ will be held at the Catholic University of Lima, Peru on July 1-4, 2019. For more details about the conference, please visit this link.

Panel 3B - Hybrid governance of transboundary environmental commons in Southeast Asia

10:30 - 12.00, July 2, Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru

Chair: David Taylor

• Marcel Bandur (National University of Singapore): Hybrid Governance of Transboundary Forest Commons in the Rohingya Crisis

• David Taylor (National University of Singapore): SR15, NET and the possible implications for biomass governance at low latitudes

• Rini Astuti (National University of Singapore): Assembling Commercial ForestPeatland Commons in Indonesia

• Carl Middleton (Chulalongkorn University): The Lancang-Mekong River as a transboundary hybrid commons: Competing collective actions and ethical principles

For more details on Carl's presentation, please take a look at the abstract here.

UPCOMING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE: "Political Ecology in Asia: Plural Knowledge and Contested Development in a More-Than-Human World" [Bangkok, 10-11 October 2019]

Thursday-Friday, 10-11 October 2019, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand

Co-organized by Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS); Research Institute on Contemporary Southeast Asia (IRASEC); French Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD); French Institute of Pondicherry (IFP); IRN-SustainAsia; POLLEN Political Ecology Network

Panel topics include:

• Resource politics and the public sphere;

• Hydrosocial rivers and their politics;

• Post-development and systemic alternatives from Asia;

• Ontologies of infrastructure;

• Industrialization and ecological justice;

• Particulate matters: the emergence of a political ecology of haze in Asia;

• Asia’s urban political ecologies;

• Human Rights and the Environment in Asia;

• People and the biodiversity crisis: reshaping governance and justice in conservation?;

• Representations of nature and political engagements;

• Interspecies cohabitations in Asia: non-human animals and political ecology.

There are a limited number of spaces remaining for self-funded participants to join the conference either as a paper presenter or participant. For further information, please contact PoliticalEcologyinAsia@gmail.com.

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

UPCOMING PANEL DISCUSSION: Mega dams, sand mining and renewable energy: Navigating a new course for the mighty rivers of Southeast Asia

19.00 - 22.00, Wednesday, 12th June 2019 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Thailand (FCCT), Penthouse, Maneeya Center, 518/5 Ploenchit Road, Patumwan, Bangkok, Thailand

Carl Middleton from CSDS will be presenting on this event. Carl will be talking about the future relationship between the Mekong River Commission (MRC) and the Lancang Mekong Cooperation (LMC)

Panelists include:

• Dr. Leonie Pearson, senior research fellow, Water for Stockholm Environment Institute: A renowned ecological economist and expert in sustainable development, landscape water management, livelihood policy and urban-rural integrated assessments.

• Marc Goichot, WWF-Greater Mekong Water Lead, who has spent two decades in Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos working on water stewardship, hydropower, disaster risk reduction and climate change.

• Dr. Carl Middleton, lecturer in International Development Studies and deputy director for international research in the Center for Social Development Studies at Chulalongkorn University, where he focuses on the politics and policy of the environment in Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on environmental justice and the political ecology of water and energy.

• Rina Chandran, land and property rights correspondent, Thomson Reuters Foundation and a former business journalist in India, Singapore and New York with Reuters News, Bloomberg and the Financial Times.

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