REPORT: Development of Waterfront Community Sustainable Tourism Program in Bangkok Suburban Area: Participation Process, Peace Identity and Environmental Design

Publication date: June 2023

Publication: Development of Waterfront Community Sustainable Tourism Program in Bangkok Suburban Area: Participation Process, Peace Identity and Environmrntal Design

Researchers: Dr. Thanapan Laiprakobsup - Researcher and Project Leader, Dr. Narongpon Laiprakobsup - Researcher, Ms. Kornkanok Wimolnimit - Research Assistant, Mr. Paratkorn IntraraKamhang - Research Assistant

Download the report here.

Abstract: Economic and social changes have happened in Bangkok’s suburban areas. Expansion of urbancommunities have affected environment and people’s life in local communities in that the people in the local communities and those in urban communities have become estranged. Once people have become estranged, the relationship is distant. In other words, people in Bangkok suburb live separately with less empathy. Empathy in preserving local environment has vaporized. Therefore, it is not strange that environment in Bangkok suburb has been extremely polluted, and such pollution has negatively affected local people in local communities.

Bang Phai waterfront community on Khlong Om Non at Nonthaburi province is the example of local communities in Bangkok suburb which represents changes in community settlement and fuzzy memories on local culture due to economic and social development. Previously, waterfront communities were significant as rice paddy field and fertile fruit gardens having produced food for Bangkok markets. Waterfront communities were significant as the transportation route transiting local people and commodities to outside world. Currently, waterfront communities have been structurally and socially shrunk while local people have tried to adjust themselves to changing economic and social development with limited agricultural capitals which are agricultural product processing and local sightseeing tour delivery.

This research project wants to connect local and urban with local communities by exploring community identity for waterfront communities in suburban areas in order to support public space for meaningful local recreation based on local participation. It proposes that building relationship and bond between local and urban people needs to understand the identity of waterfront communities in terms of physicality and culture and understanding dynamic of waterfront communities under changing contexts. Therefore, local community development needs to depend upon understanding community identity, changes in people, and local participation.

Researchers analyze Khlong Bang Phai waterfront community at Khlong Om Non. The scope of area study ranges from Wat (temple) Mo Lee to Khlong Bang Phai and from Wat Bang Praek to Bang Rak Yai Municipality Administration. For collecting data, the researchers use surveying the community by car and boat, talking to local people, investigating previous research on local community history, architecture, waterfront community development in Bangkok suburb, and photo analyses, participant observation as tourists, and non-participant observation. For analyzing data, Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, and Threat (SWOT) is employed. It is found that the community is strong at multi-cultural heritages, closeness to waterfront, and fruit gardens that several fruits are registered as geographical indicator (GI). However, the community’s weakness includes elderly community, difficulty to access to community due to devious road, unclean and polluted environment and canal at tourist spots, and unattractive sight-seeing program. For opportunity, the community could be benefited from local tourism trend among Thai and foreign tourists and trend of consuming organic fruit. However, expansion of urban communities such as residence divisions and condominium and migration of local people according to selling land property can affect the local community to shrink in the long run.

The researchers propose that local tourist program for Khlong Bang Phai community extend tourist spots beyond the community’s tourist spots in order to make tourists more understanding about the community’s identity connecting to economic and social contexts. The proposed local tourist program starts from Khlong Om Non’s entrance to old Bang Yai market. The program proposes the activities for local tourists along the way to the market such as visiting temples and organic fruit gardens. Furthermore, the research proposes to develop public space at Wat Mo Lee which helps supporting the local tourist program, building recreation area for local people, tourists, and urban residents, and facilitating social bonds among local people, tourists, and urban residents.

Please contact Dr. Thanapan Laiprakobsup for more information.

REPORT: Pathways to a Sustainable and Just Transformation of the Mekong Region’s Electricity Sector

Publication date: May 2022

Publication: Pathways to a Sustainable and Just Transformation of the Mekong Region’s Electricity Sector

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. 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. 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.

Download the report here.

Please see the Facebook Live broadcasting here and the agenda here.

Please contact Carl Middleton (CSDS) or Tarek Ketelsen (AMPERES) for more information.

Editors: Carl Middleton and Tarek Ketelsen

Table of Contents

Pathways to a sustainable and just transformation of the Mekong Region’s electricity sector Carl Middleton and Tarek Ketelsen

Renewable energy in the Mekong: Positive movement but significant unmet potential Courtney Weatherby

China’s role in Mekong Region’s energy transition: The elephant in and outside the room Wei Shen

The potential and challenges of regional energy transmission through the China- Mekong multilateral grid interconnections Laurence L Delina

Power Connectivity in the Greater Mekong Subregion: The need for a wider discourse Muyi Yang, Deepak Sharma, Xunpeng Shi, and Kristy Mamaril

Rethinking electricity trade in the Greater Mekong Subregion Thang Nam Do, Paul J. Burke and Bin Lu

Access to agricultural land for people resettled from the Nam Ngiep 1 dam in Lao PDR Sypha Chanthavong

Emerging energy storage technologies and electricity system transformation impacts on Thai-Lao power trade Noah Kittner

Applying global energy technology to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from Thailand’s electricity sector Apisom Intralawan and David Wood

Role of market, competition and regulation in energy transition in Thailand Puree Sirasoontorn

Thailand’s power development planning and a just energy transformation Suphakit Nuntavorakarn

A community-owned model as a key toward just transformation in Cambodia’s renewable energy practice Oudom Ham

Enabling universal electricity and water access to remote villages: A decentralized renewable energy-water approach Ha Thi Hong Hai and Nguyen Quoc Khanh

Rewilding the Mekong: Can the Mekong be restored? Tarek Ketelsen, Rafael J. P. Schmitt, Apisom Intralawan, Le Ha Tien, John Sawdon, Mathias Kondolf

Citation: Middleton, C. and Ketelsen, T. (Eds.) (2022). Pathways to a Sustainable and Just Transformation of the Mekong Region’s Electricity Sector. February 2022. Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and the Australia – Mekong Partnership for Environmental Resources and Energy Systems: Bangkok, Ho Chi Minh City and Perth

This report is part of our project Shaping the Future of Mekong Regional Architecture. You can visit the project page here.

REPORT: Human Capital and the Employment Situations of Urban Refugees in Thailand (Volume 1: Baseline Findings)

Publication date: August 2021

Publication: Human Capital and the Employment Situations of Urban Refugees in Thailand (Volume 1: Baseline Findings)

Author: Bhanubhatra Kaan Jittiang

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The present study emerges from an urgent need to investigate human capital and employment situations of urban refugees in Thailand to provide a basis for advo- cating their right to work. This right was intentionally omitted during the drafting of the National Screening Mechanism (NSM). Nevertheless, since urban refugees will go through the NSM process and remain temporarily in Thailand soon, Section 63 of the Emergency Decree on Managing the Work of Aliens B.E. 2560 could provide them with a channel for employment. If that scenario were possible, what would these refugees contribute to Thailand’s labor market? To answer this question, it is essential to inves- tigate human capital and the potential of urban refugees. This volume fills such gaps by providing the results of a baseline survey. In addition, as the COVID-19 pandemic remains consequential, this report explores the employment situations of urban refu- gees during the pandemic and compares it to the preceding period; this could provide additional insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected refugees’ employment and vulnerabilities.

The results presented in this report provide supply-side data for recognizing the available human capital of urban refugees in Thailand. It focuses specifically on their skills, education, and prior work experience, which could be beneficial to Thai society. This report helps to identify the way urban refugees have made use of their human capital in Thailand through an exploration of their employment situations. Based on the findings of the present study, the Thai government and other stakeholders in Thai- land can plan how urban refugees could be integrated into Thailand’s labor market or how they could assist refugee employment in the long run.

REPORT: Strengthening Water Diplomacy Through Water Data Sharing and Inclusive Evidence-Based Transboundary Governance

Publication date:
August 2021

Publication:
Strengthening Water Diplomacy Through Water Data Sharing and Inclusive Evidence-Based Transboundary Governance

Authors:
Carl Middleton, Anisa Widyasari, Kanokwan Manorom, David J. Devlaeminck, Apisom Intralawan

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In transboundary river basins, water data and information sharing are the foundation of trust building, evidence-based cooperation and water diplomacy between riparian states, and also with non-state actors including riparian communities and civil society.  This research report examines what options exist for improved evidence-based transboundary water governance in the Mekong-Lancang basin building from recent improvements in basin-wide water data sharing. It presents a review of international best practice on water data sharing in international law, outlines existing institutionalized water data sharing arrangements in the Mekong-Lancang basin, analyzes how the availability of water data and its analysis influenced hydropolitics and geopolitics during the 2019-2020 drought, and presents recent empirical evidence from North and Northeast Thailand on riparian communities’ access to water data. The report concludes by identifying policy options on three themes: comprehensive and accessible scientific water data; diversity of water knowledge; and deepening water diplomacy and institutionalizing transboundary accountability.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Middleton, C., Widyasari, A., Manorom, K., Devlaeminck, D.J. and Intralawan, A. (2021) Strengthening water diplomacy through water data sharing and inclusive evidence-based transboundary governance. August, 2021. Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, and Cambodia Development Research Institute: Bangkok and Phnom Penh.

This report is part of our project Water Diplomacy in the Mekong Basin. You can visit the project page here.

REPORT: Contested Knowledges of the Commons in Southeast Asia Research Progress report - Vignettes from the Field (CRISEA Working Paper 2)

Publication date:
March 2020

Publication:
Contested Knowledges of the Commons in Southeast Asia Research Progress report - Vignettes from the Field

Edited and compiled:
Carl Middleton

Authors:
Monika Arnez, Sally Beckenham, David Chu, Robert A. Farnan, Tomasz Kamiński, Carl Middleton, Edyta Roszko, Thianchai Surimas, Amnuayvit Thitibordin, Andrea Valente, Michał Zaręba

Download the report here.

Historically until the present day, wide-ranging forms, scopes, intensities and durations of resource politics have shaped the concept and practice of development across Southeast Asia. In this report, we present eight vignettes that offer a sample of some of the varying characteristics of these resource politics and their implications for competition over resources and the commons, and social justice. The vignettes are the interim products of multidisciplinary research – and in one case transdisciplinary research - that is ongoing by team members of ‘Work Package 1 on the Environment’ of the EU-funded project Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA).[1] 

In our first Working Paper, published in March 2019, we detailed our Work Package’s theoretical framework.[2] The core of the shared conceptual approach of our research is an examination of the co-production of ecological knowledge and ecological governance, viewed across the global, national and local scales. Here we draw upon the foundational work of Sheila Jasanoff (2004)[3], and as applied in Southeast Asia more recently by Gururani and Vandergeest (2014)[4] amongst others, to understand the remaking of nature-society relations in Southeast Asia. In short, as stated by Jasanoff (2004:2) “… co-production is shorthand for the proposition that the ways in which we know and represent the world (both nature and society) are inseparable from the ways in which we choose to live in it”. The co-production of natural and social orders are thus mediated by the production, circulation, integration and dissemination of knowledge, which itself must be contextualized to historical context, power relations, and culture.

The purpose of this Working Paper is to offer empirically grounded case studies of resource politics in practice in the region, as a work-in-progress. Overall, the research projects address three overarching themes: Transition into a low-carbon economy (Kamiński); Sea (Arnez; Roszko); and Rivers (Beckenham and Farnan; Chu; Middleton and Surimas; Thitibordin; Zaręba). We seek to analyze these cases through our project’s conceptual lens to generate both academic insight and policy-relevant recommendations, which will be the subject of forthcoming publications.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Arnez, M., Beckenham, S., Chu, D., Farnan, R.A., Kamiński, T., Middleton, C., Roszko, E., Surimas, T., Valente, A., and Zaręba, M. (2020) The Environment - Contested Knowledge of the Commons in Southeast Asia (CRISEA Working Paper 2). Research Progress report - Vignettes from the Field (CRISEA) Working Paper No. 2 (March 2020).

This report is part of our project The Contested Meanings of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand. You can visit the project page here.

——

[1] See http://crisea.eu/ for further details

[2] Kamiński, T., Arnez, M., Middleton, C., Beckenham, S., Farnan, R.A., Chu, D., Roszko, E., Thitibordin, A., Valente, A., and Zaręba, M. (2019) The Environment - Contested Knowledge of the Commons in Southeast Asia (CRISEA Working Paper 1). Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) Working Paper No. 1 (March 2019).

[3] Jasanoff, S. (2004). States of Knowledge: The Co-Production of Science and Social Order. London: Routledge

[4] Gururani, S. & P. Vandergeest (2014). ‘Introduction: New Frontiers of Ecological Knowledge: Co-producing Knowledge and Governance in Asia.’ Conservation and Society 12(4): 343-351.

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

Publication date:
March 2019

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

Authors:
Tomasz Kamiński, Monika Arnez, Carl Middleton, Sally Beckenham, Robert A. Farnan, David Chu, Edyta Roszko, Amnuayvit Thitibordin, Andrea Valente, Michał Zaręba

Download the report here.

Environmental questions are at the heart of many development dilemmas in Southeast Asia. New actors and technologies, changing domestic politics, policies, and economies - as well as shifting geopolitical contexts, are remaking nature-society relations in the region. A failure to address transnational environmental challenges could not only undermine ASEAN’s legitimacy but also have drastic consequences for the region’s security and its political and economic stability.

In addressing these questions in this Working Paper, we are particularly concerned with contested knowledges of “the commons” and competition over resources. We consider the environment as a driver of processes of regional integration, but also of conflicts between various actors in the region. Our research focuses on three environmental contexts namely: sea; rivers; and air. In addressing all three our emphasis is on the transition to a low-carbon economy. Grounded in a multidisciplinary approach, our research shares a common conceptual framework, centred on the co-production of ecological knowledge and ecological governance.

Drawing on the work of Sheila Jasanoff (2004), Shubhra Gururani and Peter Vandergeest (2014), amongst others, we consider the production, circulation, acquisition and assimilation of ecological knowledge at, and across the local, national and global levels and its relationship to ecological governance. Based on macro and micro case studies, we relate this dynamic process of co-production to other concepts, including reterritorialization; feminist political ecology, hydropolitics, and paradiplomacy (international relations conducted by subnational governments on their own). The aim of this paper is to present the theoretical framework of our work as well as the three main strands of our research. In the first section, we explain our understanding of the concept of ecological knowledge. This is followed by a presentation of our methodological approaches, while the last section presents the individual research projects in the WP, arranged in three modules.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Kamiński, T., Arnez, M., Middleton, C., Beckenham, S., Farnan, R.A., Chu, D., Roszko, E., Thitibordin, A., Valente, A., and Zaręba, M. (2019) The Environment - Contested Knowledge of the Commons in Southeast Asia (CRISEA Working Paper 1). Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA) Working Paper No. 1 (March 2019).

This report is part of our project The Contested Meanings of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand. You can visit the project page here.