JOURNAL ARTICLE: “The Imaginaries of Urban Agriculture and a Livable City Shaping Bangkok’s Urban Governance and Design”

Publication date: 07 May 2025

Authors: Chanatporn Limprapoowiwattana, Carl Middleton, Orapan Pratomlek, Marvin Joseph F. Montefrio

Further details on the article, visit the journal Journal of Urban Affairs. 

Urban imaginaries illustrate how city residents engage with the past, present and future urban environment, yet they remain underexamined in the context of urban agriculture (UA) in the Global South. This paper investigates multiple imaginaries produced through five types of UA in Bangkok, Thailand. Drawing on a co-production of urban imaginaries lens, we examine how the material and immaterial dimensions of imaginaries within UA in Bangkok contribute to reimagining the future(s) of a more livable city through UA practices, knowledge production, networking and values. We identify the compatibilities and tensions between UA network’s future imaginaries for a livable city, and how these imaginaries shape urban design and planning. We argue that to build on compatibilities and address tensions to better promote equality and justice in the city, more ambitious and multilayered policies on UA are needed that can be achieved through deepening effective participatory governance and critical anticipatory governance.

Read the full article here.

Citations: Limprapoowiwattana, C., Middleton, C., Pratomlek, O., & Montefrio, M. J. F. (2025). The imaginaries of urban agriculture and a livable city shaping Bangkok’s urban governance and design. Journal of Urban Affairs, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2025.2493345

BOOK CHAPTER: "Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin"

Publication date: May 2025

Publication: Violent Atmospheres: Political Ecologies of Livelihoods and Crises in Southeast Asia

Chapter title: Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin

Authors: Carl Grundy-Warr and Carl Middleton

Editors: Wolfram Dressler and Mary Mostafanezhad

See more details on the book here.

In this chapter, we focus on “topologies of power” (Allen 2016) relating to hydrological knowledge and data about river flows, including the “flood pulse”, that is are being profoundly changed by hydropower dam operation in the Mekong Basin. There is growing evidence that flows and volumes are becoming intensified objects-of-concern in transboundary hydropolitics and water diplomacy. Through various international alignments, developmental regimes, and geopolitical relations within the Mekong Basin, there are power topologies at work, whereby metrics such as investment flows, revenue streams and profits, electricity trade and kilowatt hours, and various volumes—especially that of water both flowing and stored behind in reservoirs—take on growing significance relative to geographic issues of distance, proximity, and place. 

We argue that as hydropower expands, it produces new topologies and volumetric hydropolitics that tend to subsume the ecological and social dynamics of the flood pulse. Securing and managing the flows of the flood pulse has become a speculative scientific hydrological arena for “designing flows”, and ongoing engineered mitigation. Our analysis considers volumetric politics as they relate to notions of “securing flows” and how and why hydropower architectures should be understood as political features of power-laden landscapes relating to dominant capital-state-technological assemblages of resource control. We critically reflect on an emerging volumetric logic in the region around hydropower mitigation technologies, hydropeaking, and designed flows and geo-engineered hydrology for managing ecological traits of the river, such as commercial and wild-capture fisheries. Before concluding, we also link our analysis of volumetric geopolitics to narratives of “sustainable hydropower” and climate change.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Grundy-Warr, C. and Middleton, C. (2025) “Dams, Flows, and Data: Topologies of Power and Volumetric Hydropolitics in the Mekong Basin” (pp 141-159) in Dressler, W. and Mostafanezhad, M. (eds.) Violent Atmospheres: Political Ecologies of Livelihoods and Crises in Southeast Asia. University of Hawai’i Press: Honolulu. ISBN-13: 9780824898465

POLICY BRIEF: "Co-Designing for Actionable and Accountable Data in the Tonle Sap Basin, Cambodia"

Publication: CSDS and Oxfam Mekong Water Governance Program Policy Brief

Publication date: December 2024

Authors: Carl Middleton and Mech Sreylakh

Download the policy brief here.

Between October 2023 and August 2024, Oxfam’s Mekong Water Governance Program and the Center for Social Development Studies undertook an action research project applying a design thinking process in Kampong Phluk village and Bak Prea village located in the Tonle Sap flood plains in Cambodia. The project aimed to identify access to water data solutions that respond to community needs and context, including ensuring inclusion across sub-groups. This policy brief shows the benefits of design thinking as a bottom-up process for development practitioners to work with communities to co-define challenges and co-create solutions that are actionable, inclusive, and trusted. 

Citation: Middleton, C. and Mech, S. (2024). Co-Designing for Actionable and Accountable Data in the Tonle Sap Basin, Cambodia. Center for Social Development Studies and Oxfam Mekong Water Governance Program: Bangkok and Phnom Penh

JOURNAL ARTICLE: “(Re)enclosure, structural violence and commoning in marine fisheries in the Gulf of Mottama, Myanmar”

Publication date: February 2025

Authors: Eaindra Theint Theint Thu and Carl Middleton

For further details of the article, visit the journal Journal of Rural Studies.

In this paper, we analyze the dynamics of enclosure and commoning of marine fisheries in the Gulf of Mottama (GOM) of Myanmar, forms of structural violence, and the implications for small-scale fishers' livelihoods. We draw on qualitative and quantitative findings on fisheries livelihoods and resource governance in the GOM collected in 2022, and primary and secondary document analysis. Since Myanmar's independence from Britain, until 2011 there was a progressive commodification and enclosure of marine fisheries. During the semi-civilian government period (2011–2021), the previous national fisheries laws that centralized authority and privileged elites with large commercial fishing boats were replaced with laws that decentralized fisheries governance and established fisheries co-management practices. These laws, together with technical and financial resources from the ‘GOM project’, redistributed – to a degree – power towards local fishing communities. Livelihoods were beginning to improve through commoning of the fisheries and recovery of fish stocks, even as legislative and governance shortcomings remained. The military coup in 2021, however, reversed these gains effectively ending co-management on-the-ground, leading to a re-enclosure of the commons and the reassertion of structural violence.

Read the full article here.

Citation: Thu, E. T. T., & Middleton, C. (2025). (Re) enclosure, structural violence and commoning in marine fisheries in the Gulf of Mottama, Myanmar. Journal of Rural Studies, 114, 103550.

BOOK CHAPTER: "Water, Rivers and Human Rights"

Publication date: January 2024

Publication: Human Rights, the Environment and Climate Change (Vol 5)

Chapter title: Water, Rivers and Human Rights

Author(s): Carl Middleton

Editor(s): Azmi Sharom, Sriprapha Petcharamesree and Kalpalata Dutta

This chapter presents the human right to water and relates it to transboundary water governance. The chapter first introduces challenges and crises in access to water globally. It then details the human rights to water and sanitation (HRWS), which has been recognized by the UN since 2010. Given the importance of water and river-related resources to livelihoods, it then extends the HRWS to transboundary water governance and addresses the implications of large water infrastructure such as hydropower dams. The implications of the HRWS for legal pluralism, international water law, and the commons are also explored. Finally, extending the human rights approach, the ‘rights of rivers’ is introduced as a recent innovation. 

Please contact Dr. Carl Middelton for more information.

Citation: Middleton, C. (2024) “Chapter 7: Water, Rivers and Human Rights” in Sharom, A., Petcharamesree, S. and Dutta, K. (eds.) Human Rights, the Environment and Climate Change (Vol 5). ASEAN University Network - Human Rights Education (AUN-HRE) and Institute of Human Rights and Peace Studies (IHRP), Mahidol University: Bangkok

JOURNAL ARTICLE: “The Robustness of Common-Pool Resource Governance in the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar Wetland, Myanmar under Pre- and Post-Political Crisis Conditions”

Publication date: February 2025

Authors: Eaindra Theint Theint Thu and Carl Middleton

For further details of the article, visit the journal International Journal of Society and Natural Resources.

This study examines the role of communities, local institutions, conservation organizations and government agencies in the governance of large-scale common-pool resources (CPR) at the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar wetland, Myanmar before and one year after the 2021 coup d’état. The research employed a mixed method approach in two villages in the GOM on common alluvial land, waterbirds, and fisheries CPRs. The robustness of CPR governance is evaluated with Ostrom’s eight design principles. We found that pre-coup the formation of local user associations, livelihood incentive strategies, and co-management approaches were increasingly effective to conserve fisheries and waterbirds CPRs, while land conflicts over new common alluvial land persisted. One year following the coup, offshore fisheries especially faced challenges from illegal practices by outsiders, due to significantly weakened co-management practices and accountability of local authorities and large-scale commercial fishers to the fishing communities.

Read the full article here.

Citation: Thu, E. T. T., & Middleton, C. (2024). The robustness of common-pool resource governance in the Gulf of Mottama Ramsar Wetland, Myanmar under pre-and post-political crisis conditions. Society & Natural Resources, 37(9), 1253-1272.

JOURNAL ARTICLE: “Shifting Practices and Experiences of Development Cooperation in Southeast Asia: Understanding Local Voice and Agency”

Publication date: March 30, 2024

Publication: Journal of International Development Studies

Authors: Carl Middleton and Soyeun Kim

Download the article here.

Over the past two decades, the landscape of development cooperation has profoundly shifted in Southeast Asia. Actors providing, receiving, influencing and affected by development cooperation have diversified. The role of Western donors that were particularly influential in the 1990s has diluted as new forms of development cooperation have emerged and associated finance grown in size, including South-South cooperation for example by China, climate funds, and philanthropic foundations. Seemingly, a ‘new age of choice’ exists for the governments of Southeast Asia. Yet donors are also pursuing their (national) interests through development cooperation often under conditions of intensified ‘donor competition’, which are navigated with varying degrees of success by recipient countries.

While these trends are relatively well documented in Southeast Asia, less attention has been paid to the perspectives and agency of local actors including civil society, impacted communities, and the diverse voices within governments. This includes the opportunities and challenges within the shifting development cooperation landscape. To explore these topics, on 27 March 2023 the Japan Society for International Development (JASID) organized a WriteShop in collaboration with the Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS) and M.A. and Ph.D. Program in International Development Studies (MAIDS-GRID), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. Nine working papers were presented that detailed cases from across Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, and of these two papers are published in this current issue of the Journal of International Development Studies.

Citation: Middleton, C., & Kim, S. (2024). Shifting practices and experiences of development cooperation in Southeast Asia: Understanding local voice and agency. Journal of International Development Studies, 32(3), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.32204/jids.32.3_1

POLICY BRIEF: “From Local Floating Market to Urban Recreational Area: Redefining Space in a Changing Context – A Case Study of Bang Muang Community and Wat Bot Bon Community”

Publication date: May 2024

Publication: From Local Floating Market to Urban Recreational Area: Redefining Space in a Changing Context – A Case Study of Bang Muang Community and Wat Bot Bon Community  

Researchers: Narongpon Laiprakobsup, Thanapan Laiprakobsup

Download the report here.

Summary: This case study examines the transformation of the Bang Muang and Wat Bot Bon communities along Khlong Om Non in Nonthaburi Province, Thailand. The presence of ancient wats and traditional riverside lifestyles reflects the long-standing importance of these neighborhoods. The construction of roads has transformed the areas into tourist destinations, increasing their commercial value. However, narrow side streets pose an obstacle to accessing leisure places, leading to traffic congestion. Developing these areas into nodes that bridge relaxation areas of Khlong Om Non with other Bangkok communities could foster tourism activities and the exchange of resources and knowledge.

Please contact Dr. Thanapan Laiprakobsup for more information.

Citation: Laiprakobsup, N., & Laiprakobsup, T. (2024). From local floating market to urban recreational area: Redefining space in a changing context – A case study of Bang Muang community and Wat Bot Bon community.

JOURNAL ARTICLE: “Urbanization and farmer adaptation in the Bangkok Suburban area”

Publication date: June 2023

Publication: Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences

Authors: Thanapan Laiprakobsup

Abstract: This article examines how urbanization contributes to the variation of farmers’ adaptation in Southeast Asia. The variation of farmers’ adaptation to urbanization results from urban expansion transforming local communities’ environment and social structure. The patterns of farmers’ adaptation can be categorized into the following: (1) reducing their production capacity; (2) establishing local groups to mobilize resources and manpower; and (3) changing their mode of production to other products and services. In addition, if urban expansion weakens local networks or participation from local communities, farmers hardly ever adapt themselves to new production modes or services. On the other hand, if urban expansion contributes to opportunities for farmers to collaborate with outside markets or external actors, the farmers can, to some extent, adapt their mode of production. The implication from this paper contributes to how policymakers can facilitate collaborative food governance system serving for specific needs of farmers, in particular peri-urban areas, and encourage positive environment between urban communities and farmers in peri-urban areas.

See the full article here.

Key words: Bangkok, collaboration, community, farmers’ adaptation, Suburban area

Citation: Laiprakobsup, T. (2023). Urbanization and farmer adaptation in the Bangkok suburban area. Kasetsart Journal of Social Sciences, 44(2), 387–396. https://doi.org/10.34044/j.kjss.2023.44.2.08

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.

Citation: Laiprakobsup, T., Laiprakobsup, N., Wimolnimit, K., & IntraraKamhang, P. (2023). Development of waterfront community sustainable tourism program in Bangkok suburban area: Participation process, place identity, and environmental design.

POLICY BRIEF: “Deepening Inclusive Water Diplomacy Through Water Data Sharing on the Mekong-Lancang River”

Download the policy brief here.

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

• In the Mekong-Lancang basin, intergovernmental scientific water data sharing has progressively expanded between governments since the early 1990s as an outcome of water diplomacy efforts. Much of this scientific water data has been made public via online platforms.

• Water data underpins water diplomacy, including through trust building and providing evidence. It is crucial in the Mekong-Lancang basin given changing river conditions due to large dam operations, climate change and other development trends that have intensified hydropolitics in recent years.

• As water data is increasingly shared between states, more emphasis also needs to be placed on effective and timely communication of water data to riparian communities including advanced warnings on changing river conditions due to upstream dam operations.

• For a more comprehensive evidence base informing water diplomacy, the scope of water data shared should be expanded to include more monitoring stations and more details on the operation schedules of existing mainstream and tributary dams.

• To make water diplomacy more inclusive and accountable, a diversity of water knowledge beyond scientific water data is required, including situated community knowledge, and civil society and academic research. Existing intergovernmental platforms could improve mechanisms to receive information from communities, civil society, and others to inform water diplomacy processes.

• To date, intergovernmental water diplomacy has focused on establishing agreements for water data sharing that increases transparency. A forward-looking policy priority within and beyond scientific water data sharing should be on establishing a rules-based basin-wide regime on the operation of hydropower dams with accountability mechanisms and community participation.

Citation: Middleton, C., Widyasari, A., Manorom, K., Devlaeminck, D.J., and Intralawan, A. (2023) CSDS Policy Brief: Deepening Inclusive Water Diplomacy Through Water Data Sharing on the Mekong-Lancang River. Cambodia Development Resource Institute (CDRI) and Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. January 2023.

POLICY BRIEF: Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights: ‘Slow onset’ environmental change and displacement in the Mekong Region

Download the policy brief here.

Visit the event resources for “Climate Change, Mobility and Human Rights” held on 24 November 2022 here.

Authors: Carl Middleton, Clare Steiner and Aran Van Rysselberge

This policy brief examines the connections between climate change, peoples’ mobility and human rights in the Mekong Region. A particular focus is on the slow-environmental change dimensions of climate change, such as sea level rise and changing seasonal weather patterns, that are shaping peoples’ mobility in less recognized ways. Slow-onset processes introduce significant complexity, given that any decision to migrate intersects with preexisting conditions and other ongoing economic and social development trends. The seeming lack of consensus on how to define and understand this form of ‘environmental migration’ has implications for law and policy, as well as responses on-the-ground.  However, a human rights-based approach is emerging that connects together climate change, mobility and human rights.

Citation: Middleton, C., Steiner, C., & Van Rysselberge, A. (2023). Climate change, mobility and human rights: ‘Slow onset’ environmental change and displacement in the Mekong Region. The Center for Social Development Studies (CSDS), Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University & The Raoul Wallenberg Institute (RWI).

JOURNAL ARTICLE: Guest Editorial: "Ecological knowledge co-production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia"

Publication date: January 2023

Publication: Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography

Authors: Robert A. Farnan, Sally Beckenham, Carl Middleton

In Human Geography, there is growing interest in how accounts of development can be wedded to an understanding of society in which the material or technical is connected to the social. Science and Technology Studies (STS) approaches this division by emphasizing the inextricable relationship between technology and society. This process of co-production—between science and technology on the one hand and social and political order on the other—drives the focus of the special section and its investigation of ecological knowledge and contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia that this guest editorial introduces.

See the full guest editorial here.

Citation: Farnan, R.A., Beckenham, S. and Middleton, C. (2023), Guest Editorial: Ecological knowledge co-production and the contested imaginaries of development in Southeast Asia. Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, 44: 37-43. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjtg.12469

BOOK CHAPTER: "Ontological Politics of the Resource Frontier: A Hydrosocial Analysis of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand"

Publication date: November 2022

Publication: Extracting Development: Contested Resource Frontiers in Mainland Southeast Asia

Chapter title: Ontological Politics of the Resource Frontier: A Hydrosocial Analysis of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand

Authors: Thianchai Surimas and Carl Middleton

Editors: Oliver Tappe and Simon Rowedder

See more details on the book here.

In this chapter, in the context of the severe drought of 2019 and 2020, we examine the resource politics of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand as revealed through the practices, narratives, and knowledge productions of several competing networks that shape the Mekong River as a resource frontier. These include the community and civil society movement led Ing Peoples Council, and the intergovernmental Mekong River Commission and the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation. Our conceptual approach reflects the growing recognition of the heterogeneity of water cultures and histories (or ‘water worlds’) in recent academic literature, and the multiple ontologies of water that underpin them. This leads to our interest in how resource politics at the resource frontier reveal an enactment of multiple ontologies and their ontological politics, whereby human actors compete to further their own interests by naturalizing their ontology while marginalizing others. Overall, we argue that politics at the resource frontier are ontological politics contesting the very meaning of the Mekong River and its future form, be it as embedded in and patterning the socio-cultural relations of riverside communities in Northern Thailand, or as part of an ecological modernization and economic integration and growth agenda as envisioned by the region’s governments.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Surimas, T. and Middleton, C. (2022) “Ontological Politics of the Resource Frontier: A Hydrosocial Analysis of the Mekong River in Northern Thailand” (pp 28-48) in Tappe, O. and Rowedder, Sand (eds.) Extracting Development: Contested Resource Frontiers in Mainland Southeast Asia. ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute: Singapore

BOOK CHAPTER: Land Commodification, State Formation, and Agrarian Capitalism: "The Political Economy of Land Governance in Cambodia"

Publication date: September 2022

Publication: Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region

Chapter title: Grounding Land Justice: Contested Principles, Processes, and Outcomes

Authors: Jean-Christophe Diepart and Carl Middleton

Editors: Philip Hirsch, Kevin Woods, Natalia Scurrah and Michael B. Dwyer

See more details on the book here.

In Cambodia, the enclosure, commodification and concentration of ownership of agricultural and forest land has accelerated since the 1990s. In the process, smallholder farmers have been pushed into the margins of Cambodia’s national development. Commodification of land in Cambodia is proceeding through three distinct processes. The first process couples the titling of land with the creation of land and credit markets and is most closely associated with the formalization of smallholder land in the country’s lowland agricultural plains. A second process of land commodification relates to Cambodia’s deepening integration into regional agricultural commodity trade, particularly with China, Thailand and Vietnam. The third process is state-sanctioned large-scale economic land concessions (ELCs) that enclose and license large parcels of land and then channel national and transnational investments into such concessions. In this chapter we argue that these three processes of land commodification and capitalization are central characteristics of Cambodia’s particular form of agrarian capitalism and state formation. We show that these processes are neither coherent institutionally nor well-articulated spatially, but none the less are central to Cambodia’s state formation. They sometimes come into conflict with one another and are heavily contested, as seen for example in recent efforts by the State to address tensions between agribusiness companies and smallholder farmers.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Diepart, J-C. and Middleton, C. (2022) “Land Commodification, State Formation, and Agrarian Capitalism: The Political Economy of Land Governance in Cambodia” in Dwyer, M., Hirsch, P., Scurrah, N., and Woods, K. (eds.) Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region. University of Washington Press: Seattle.

BOOK CHAPTER: "Grounding Land Justice: Contested Principles, Processes, and Outcomes"

Publication: Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region

Chapter title: Grounding Land Justice: Contested Principles, Processes, and Outcomes

Authors: Carl Middleton and Vanessa Lamb

Editors: Philip Hirsch, Kevin Woods, Natalia Scurrah and Michael B. Dwyer

See more details on the book here.

The relationship between land and society brings much to light about the broader nature of a country’s economy, institutions, and politics, as well as its principles and practices of justice. In the Mekong region, processes of commodification, capitalization, and financialization have fundamentally shaped land tenure and governance from the colonial era to the present day. Presenting historical and contemporary case studies from the region, this chapter examines how processes of distributional, procedural, and recognitional land justice, and the plural and contested principles embedded within them, are key issues at stake in land governance. Intensified land use and deepening power inequalities have led to land exclusions at a range of scales. Most visible has been the extensive dispossession of smallholders as states have designated concessions or state forests on areas that were previously under customary management and use. While not overstating the level of success of land justice movements across the region, the chapter also highlights cases where social movements and civil-society groups have challenged, redressed, or at least mitigated unjust dispossession, and in doing so sought to redress injustices.

Please contact Dr. Carl Middleton for more information.

Citation: Middleton, C. and  Lamb, V. (2022) “Turning Land Justice into Reality: Challenge and Opportunities” in Dwyer, M., Hirsch, P., Scurrah, N., and Woods, K. (eds.) Turning Land into Capital: Development and Dispossession in the Mekong Region. University of Washington Press: Seattle.

JOURNAL ARTICLE: "The political ecology of large hydropower dams in the Mekong Basin: A comprehensive review"

Publication date: June 2022

Publication: Water Alternatives

Authors: Carl Middleton

Abstract: Since the early 1990s, the Mekong basin has been transformed from a largely free-flowing basin to one that is increasingly impounded by large hydropower dams, impacting river hydrology, ecology, riparian livelihoods, and water governance. This comprehensive review organises and assesses political ecology literature on large dams in the basin. Following a conceptual scoping of the political ecology of large dams, the review covers: the biophysical impacts of hydropower in the Mekong basin and how the scientific studies that research them relate to political ecology literature; relational hydrosocial approaches, including hydrosocial ordering and networked political ecologies; the ontological multiplicity of the Mekong(s) and associated ontological politics; the political economy of large dams in the Mekong basin and its relationship to transboundary water governance and hydropolitics; the discourses and knowledge production about large dams, including those regarding water data politics, 'international best practices', impact assessments, and public participation; and livelihoods, the commons, and water justice. The review details how some large hydropower dams in the Mekong basin have taken on global salience, including the Pak Mun dam, the Nam Theun 2 dam, and the Xayaburi dam. The review argues that political ecology research has significantly widened the scope of how large hydropower dams are understood and acted upon, especially by those challenging their realisation. This includes how large hydropower dams’ political processes and outcomes are shaped by asymmetrical power relations with consequences for social and ecological justice. Recognising that a substantial portion of political ecology research to date has been conducted as extensive plans for large dams were being materialised and contested, the review concludes by outlining future priority research areas that cover existing gaps and posing new questions that are arising as the river basin becomes progressively more impounded.

Keywords: Political ecology of large hydropower dams, hydrosocial ordering, critical hydropolitics, commons, water justice, Mekong-Lancang River

See the article here.

Citation: Middleton, C. (2022). “The political ecology of large hydropower dams in the Mekong Basin: A comprehensive review.” Water Alternatives 15(2): 251-289

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.

JOURNAL ARTICLE: "Higher Education Institution, SDG2 and Agri- Food Sustainability: Lessons from Chulalongkorn University and Thailand"

Publication date: October 2021

Publication: Environment, Development and Sustainability

Authors: Wayne Nelles, Supawan Visetnoi, Carl Middleton, Thita Orn- in

This paper examines higher education efforts linking United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) and agri- food system sustainability given reports of stagnant movement for SDG2 in Southeast Asia and lack of data for effective monitoring or evaluation to realize the 2030 Agenda. It discusses Thai contexts amid a growing global movement in academic theory, policy and practice to mainstream SDG knowledge and implementation across campuses presenting one case to illustrate broader concerns. Chulalongkorn University policies, faculty awareness, curricula, research, sustainability reporting and partnerships about SDGs have contributed to SDG2 objectives from different disciplines and academic units. However, some faculty still lack understanding of SDGs generally while SDG2 has not been an institutional priority. The university has made welcome progress since 2017 policy promoting SDGs but still needs to strengthen SDG2 data collection, teaching, research and community outreach capacities including links to governement and international reporting to address complex agri- food system sustainability challenges. Comparative studies could also help while critically debating SDG deficiencies and promoting socioeconomic, ecological, agri- food system, community and campus sustainability.

Read the article here.

Citation: Nelles, W., Visetnoi, S., Middleton, C., & Orn-in, T. (2021). Higher education institutions, SDG2 and agri-food sustainability: Lessons from Chulalongkorn University and Thailand. Environment, Development and Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01892-1

JOURNAL ARTICLE: Hydrosocial rupture: causes and consequences for transboundary governance

Publication date: September 2021

Publication: Ecology and Society

Authors: Michelle A. Miller, Alfajri, Rini Astuti, Carl Grundy-Warr, Carl Middleton, Zu Dienle Tan and David M. Taylor

Abstract:

Unsustainable models of growth-based development are pushing aquatic ecologies outside known historical ranges and destabilizing human activities that have long depended on them. We develop the concept of hydrosocial rupture to explore how human-water resource connections change when they are exposed to cumulative development pressures. The research analyzes stakeholder perceptions of hydrosocial ruptures in two sites in Southeast Asia: (1) peatlands in Riau Province, Indonesia, and (2) Tonle Sap Lake, Cambodia. In both contexts, capital-driven processes have reconfigured human-water resource connections to generate transgressive social and environmental consequence that cannot be contained within administrative units or property boundaries. Our findings show how these ruptured hydrosocial relations are perceived and acted upon by the most proximate users of water resources. In Cambodia, a policy of resettlement has sought to thin hydrosocial relations in response to biodiversity loss, chronic pollution, and changing hydrology in Tonle Sap Lake. By contrast, in Indonesia’s Riau Province, efforts are underway to thicken human-water relations by hydrologically rehabilitating peatlands drained for agricultural development. We argue that in both of these contexts hydrosocial ruptures should be understood as phenomena of transboundary governance that cannot be addressed by individual groups of users, sectors, or jurisdictions.

Keywords: hydrosocial relations; rupture; Southeast Asia; transboundary water governance

See the article here.

Citation: Miller, M. A., Alfajri, R. Astuti, C. Grundy-Warr, C. Middleton, Z. D. Tan, and D. M. Taylor. 2021. Hydrosocial rupture: causes and consequences for transboundary governance. Ecology and Society 26(3):21. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-12545-260321