UPCOMING EVENT: Toward’s Thailand’s Green Transformation: Research on Emerging Challenges and Opportunities

Please register here.

Public Seminar (Hybrid event)  

Toward’s Thailand’s Green Transformation:  

Research on Emerging Challenges and Opportunities 

29 July 2025: 10:00 – 15:00  

Alumni Meeting Room, 12th Floor, Kasem Udyanin Building  

(Faculty of Political Science Building 3), Chulalongkorn University 

Co-organized by: Center for Social Development Studies, Chulalongkorn University; Climate Finance Network Thailand; Local Alike; Sustainable Agriculture Foundation Thailand; Sustainable Development Foundation; Towards Organic Asia

Attaining green transformation is the challenge that will define the 21st Century. Ambitious vision and leadership are needed that can bring together diverse actors around pathways that are sustainable, peaceful, and just. While a global challenge, achieving green transformation in practice requires action in innumerable localities that is democratized, accountable and inclusive. Actionable knowledge is needed to guide green transformation that is produced inclusively involving those directly affected by sustainability challenges.  

The ‘Just Futures Mekong Fellowship Program’ (JFMFP) is a capacity strengthening and research program launched in July 2024 that supports young individuals to address pressing environmental and social challenges through research, collaboration, and regional dialogue. JFMFP has been undertaken as a partnership between the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Chulalongkorn University and five organizations in Thailand who co-host this public seminar. The themes of the fellowship program have encompassed: organic farming and agroecology; coastal community resource governance; community based tourism; and climate change, including farmer climate adaptation and climate finance. 

At the heart of the JFMFP is the co-creation of knowledge and solutions through collaborative research. At this public seminar, the key insights of these research projects and their implications for policy and practice will be shared by the JFMFP fellows, their host organization partners and other collaborators. Alongside the presentations, poster presentations and a photograph exhibition will detail the research.  

The meeting will be held in English. Simultaneous translation will be available between Thai and English. 

Please register here.

Agenda (draft)

Time	Item
9:00 – 10:00	Registration / Exhibition walk
10:00 – 10:15	Welcome remarks Carl Middleton, Director, Center for Social Development Studies
Session 1: Community-led transformations in food and climate adaptation
10:15 – 10:45	“Walking Alongside Communities: Supporting Community-led Adaptation Resilience beyond Climate Change in Northern Thailand‘s Highlands” Introduction to community role-play game • Presenter: Shao Meng (JFMFP) “From Trust to Recognition: Strengthening a Participatory and Community-grounded Seed System in Thailand” • Presenter: Zhou Yuting (JFMFP)
10:45 – 11:15	Commentary and Q&A: • Dr. Chaya Vaddhanaphuti, Chiang Mai University • Kingkorn Narintarakul Na Ayutdhaya Moderator: Narumon Paiboonsittikun (TOA)
Session 2: Electric Vehicles and Thailand’s Green Transformation
11:15 – 12:15	Opening Presentation: “Can Chinese EV Investment contribute to Thailand’s Green Transformation?” • Presenter: Yuan Ye (JFMFP) Panel discussion: • Sarinee Achavanuntakul, CFNT • Jinmei Liu, Friends of Nature • Somnuck Jongmeewasin, EEC WATCH Moderator: Yu Yin
12:15 – 13:00	Lunch
Session 3: Local development – Challenges, Opportunities and Ways Forward
13:00 – 13:30	“Connecting Thailand’s Community-based Tourism to Chinese Travelers: Local Voices, Emerging Trends, and Collaboration” • Presenter: Xueying Mai (JFMFP) “Camera, Community, and the Act of Claiming: Visual Participation and Everyday Struggles for the Right to Stay in Coastal Thailand” • Presenter: Jiao Xiaofang (JFMFP) Film showing
13:30 – 14:00	Commentary and Q&A: • Wanvipa Phanumat (Local Alike) • Dr. Peerada Phumisawat, (Thailand National Human Rights Commission) Moderator: t.b.c
Session 4: Synthesis: Towards green transformation through co-produced knowledge
14:00 – 15:00	Panelists: • Sarinee Achavanuntakul, Climate Finance Network Thailand • Tianjie Ma, Advisor to JFMFP • Supa Yaimuang, Sustainable Agriculture Foundation Thailand • Ravadee Prasertcharoensuk, Sustainable Development Foundation • Kittipon Phummisuttikul, Towards Organic Asia • Wanvipa Phanumat, Local Alike Q&A Moderator: Carl Middleton
Session 5: Concluding Remarks
15:00 – 15:15	Professor Surichai Wun'gaeo, Chulalongkorn University

UPCOMING EVENT: The Future of Sustainability: The Bio-Cultural Diversity Imperative [22 March 2024]

Indigenous-led Research Advancing Solutions to Climate Change

22-23 March 2024

We are living in a time that many academics and scientists refer to as the Anthropocene. As a controversial buzzword, the term Anthropocene implies unfolding anthropogenic impacts on the planet at an unprecedented rate and scale causing the accelerated global warming, unstable climate, changes to ecosystems and biodiversity, and extinction of species. Across the world, extreme weather event is becoming the new normal. Fuelled by human activity and carbon pollution, climate change is contributing to extreme weather events.

Indigenous communities across the world are disproportionally affected by the direct consequences of climate change. They inhabit ecologically sensitive areas that are becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate impacts. Their vulnerability is compounded by their dependence upon, and close relationship with the environment and its resources. Climate change exacerbates the difficulties and challenges already faced by indigenous communities, including political and economic marginalisation, loss of land and resources, human rights violations, discrimination and unemployment.

In the past, indigenous communities were often viewed as victims of the effects of climate change. However, indigenous communities are inextricably linked with their lands and possess a unique collective knowledge of their environments. With their traditional knowledge, indigenous communities have a key role to play in combating climate change, cutting across both climate mitigation and adaptation efforts. Therefore, indigenous peoples must be viewed as powerful change agents in contributing to effective climate action and sustainable development.

Indigenous communities represent a wealth of traditional practices, adaptive strategies, and a profound understanding of their ecosystems. Thus, placing indigenous knowledge at the centre of climate policy making is a strategic imperative. On one hand, it is a matter of urgency to increase the understanding and addressing the unique climate challenges faced by indigenous communities. On the other hand, enhancing the role played by indigenous groups in driving climate policy and action is equally critical. Indigenous led research and knowledge co-production provide opportunities for social learning and intersectional approaches to improve policies and plans.

To tackle complex development and climate challenges, there is a pressing need to improve understanding and share knowledge on science policies and best practices to address social inequality, poverty, and vulnerabilities, assess and identify technology needs and facilitating technology transfer for adaptation and mitigation, and integrate climate change into national and sectoral policies and development plans.

New forms of knowledge production are necessary to respond to the complexity of social, environmental, and economic concerns for sustainable development. Knowledges that are context-driven and problem-focused require the engagement of diverse social groups and multiple disciplines. Ecological, social and economic challenges have led to a growing recognition that transformative approaches are required that will require new ways of knowing, valuing and acting in the world.  In this context, the knowledge, values and actions of indigenous peoples and others who aspire through local practices for sustainability and social and ecological justice have a key role to play in this transformation.

Crucial to transformation is a clear vision for the future to be attained, yet grassroots-up deliberations on the future is less common. While the future is yet to exist, visions and expectations towards the future are conditioned by the past and impact on the possibilities of the present. The ‘Summit of the Future’ will take place at the United Nations in New York City on September 22-23, 2024.  It aspires to deliver a ‘Pact for the Future’ outcome document, intended to guide “a world – and an international system – that is better prepared to manage the challenges we face now and in the future, for the sake of all humanity and for future generations.”

International workshop on Indigenous led research advancing solutions to climate change

The 22-23 March 2024 event, co-hosted by the University of Michigan and Chulalongkorn University, will bring together multi-disciplinary scholars and special guests from Bangladesh, China, Nepal, the Philippines, USA and Thailand to share and discuss bio-cultural diversity, ecological crisis, environmental justice, and sustainability futures. With an aim to strengthen the science-policy interface in driving the role of indigenous communities in climate change, the event will enhance academic networks and serve as a co-learning platform for indigenous led research.

On the 22nd of March 2024, discussion panels on ‘No Sustainable Development without Environmental Justice: The Indigenous People and Local Communities Platform’ and ‘Indigenous-led Research and Policy Engagement for Human and Planetary Futures’ will be held at the Social Innovation Hub from 8.30am to 12pm.

On the 23rd of March 2024, a workshop will undertake a ‘Futures Lab’ process to collectively explore alternative futures, and to connect the local to the global and the international systems that structure it. Participants include experienced and academics and civic society leaders working at the global, regional and local level, as well as graduate students. The workshop will suggest actions that may inform an agenda towards the ‘Summit of the Future.’

Here is the agenda;

UPCOMING EVENT: Environmental Offshoring Symposium [Online, 15 March 2022]

Implications for East Asia’s Regionalization and Sustainable Development

9:30 - 17:00, Tuesday 15th March 2022 [Japan time]

The interdependent relationship between society and nature is a defining debate of the 21st century, including in relation to climate change, sustainable development, and the Anthropocene. Globalization and regionalization have brought about not only convenience and prosperity for some, but also cross-border challenges such as natural disasters, pollution, resource depletion, and environmental degradation that impact others.

Understanding how East Asian regionalism connects societies and ecologies with implications for equity and sustainability requires collaboration across the conventional boundaries, disciplines, and sectors to coproduce new and relevant knowledge.

This symposium will examine the practices and implications of “environmental offshoring” under East Asia regionalism, including the consequences of bilateral and multilateral agreements and development policies. Attention will be paid to the issues of ecological sustainability, distributional equity, and business continuity.

The Sophia Symposium on Environmental Offshoring is a collaboration between Sophia University and the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS).

Learn more about the forum here.

Register here.

UPCOMING EVENT: Re-thinking International Development: Towards Co-Creation of Knowledge and Future for Global Commons [Online, 4 March 2022]

A panel for the International Conference of Chulalongkorn University’s Futures Literacy Week

14:00 – 15:30, Friday 4th March 2022 [Thailand time]

This session explores the future of international development. The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly shaped and changed the global political, socio-economic and cultural landscape in the way we have not witnessed in the past century. We have seen the rise of violent conflicts, political polarization, social divisions, and economic stagnation in every corner of the world. The shortage of vaccination and healthcare access in many places, especially in the global south, reflects a development gap and the deepening global inequality. Through knowledge exchange between scholars from the global north and south, this panel hopes to rethink the international development in years to come in terms of landscape, emerging issues, approaches, and eventually meaning. The session will aim to address the following key questions: 1) How will the international development landscape be in post-COVID 19 pandemic era?; 2) What would be the emerging issues in international development?; 3) What are new approaches to international development? ; and eventually 4) What does it mean to talk about “international development” in the post-COVID 19 contexts?

Panelists;

Prof. Dr. Jin Sato, Institute for Advanced Studies on Asia, University of Tokyo; President, Japan Society for International Development Assoc. Prof. Dr. Mandy Sadan, Director of the Graduate Taught Programmes in Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick Mr. Hermes Huang, Design Thinking Practitioner, Co-Founder, InsightPact

Moderator;

Dr. Bhanubhatra Jittang, Director, MAIDS-GRID, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University

Learn more about Chulalongkorn University’s Futures Literacy Week here.

UPCOMING EVENT: A Bridge Over Troubled Water: Anticipating and Reimagining the Future of Rivers in Southeast Asia [Online, 4 March 2022]

A panel for the International Conference of Chulalongkorn University’s Futures Literacy Week

10:45 – 12:15, Friday 4th March 2022 [Thailand time]

Rivers hold diverse meanings, values and relationships to people in Southeast Asia. They are defining features of the region’s geography, the lifeblood of diverse ecosystems, and a dynamic constant that pattern livelihoods with their seasonal cycles. The region’s rivers have historically been interwoven with a diversity of cultures, lives, and river-dependent livelihoods across the region. They have also been valued locally and globally for their remarkable biodiversity. In recent decades, rivers have been transformed by accelerating processes of economic modernization with the construction and operation of large-scale water infrastructure including irrigation schemes and large hydropower dams as human demand for water for agriculture, industry, hydroelectricity and domestic consumption has grown. This water infrastructure has changed seasonal and daily river hydrology, fragmented and degraded ecosystems, and had impacts on pre-existing livelihoods. Large-scale water infrastructure has progressively transformed river basins at the local to basin-wide scale, bringing benefits to some and harm to others. Simultaniously, there are also diverse practices on sustaining river-dependent livelihoods and protecting and recovering (or rewilding) ecosystems. In this context, there continues to be intense debate from diverse perspectives on the value and use of rivers in Southeast Asia for the present and future, with implications for social and ecological justice.

This panel will address the following questions: What are the possible futures for the region’s rivers? Who benefits and who loses out in each of these futures? Which ones are most desirable? How could desirable futures be attained?

Register here.

Panelists;

Chol Bunnag, Assistant Professor and Director, Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Pianporn Deetes, Thailand and Myanmar Campaigns Director, International Rivers Saw John Bright, Water Program Manager, Karen Environmental and Social Action Network (KESAN) Raymond Yu Wang, Associate Professor, Center for Social Sciences, Southern University of Science and Technology Tarek Ketelsen, Director General, Australia – Mekong Partnership for Environmental Resources and Energy Systems (AMPERES) Yong Ming Li, Fellow, East West Center

Moderator;

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

Learn more about Chulalongkorn University’s Futures Literacy Week here.