School of Geography - Research Publications

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    “I saw the impact of the [Economic Land Concession] on the men.” Notes towards a feminist political ecology of land access in Southeast Asia
    Lamb, V ; Middleton, C (BRICS Initiatives for Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS), 2015)
    While recent work on land grabbing in Cambodia examines the role of gender with regard to women’s roles in Cambodia (Brickell 2014, Amnesty International 2011, Licadho 2015), in this paper we reflect on gender and land access in rural Cambodia, considering the impacts to gender not only as related to “women” but as related to male identity and masculinity as well as related to livelihood change. To do so, we draw on a case study of forced eviction and subsequent creation of a Social Land Concession (SLC) in Kratie Province in Cambodia’s northeast. The paper is based on fieldwork and a systematic review of literature and policies of land access in Cambodia. Analysis of the case reveals that gender relationships were being significantly altered as a result of land title changes and struggles against eviction. We argue, furthermore, that it is not only women’s gender roles and responsibilities that are changing – it is also male responsibility, identity, and belonging that are being significantly altered, which is an aspect too often overlooked in gender and land literatures.
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    Perceptions and Practices of Investment: China's hydropower investments in mainland Southeast Asia
    Lamb, V (BRICS Initiative for Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS), 2015)
    China is one of the major investors in hydropower development in mainland Southeast Asia, yet Chinese involvement in hydropower varies across the region. Popular and expert viewpoints on China’s investment in hydropower also vary widely. Many government representatives and domestic investors see Chinese partners as a key source of the large amounts of foreign exchange that are critical to development and economic growth. At the same time, questions about the ‘dominance’ of Chinese projects in various sectors, as well as about the motives guiding Chinese investments have triggered substantial public concern, with anti-Chinese attitudes intensifying across the region. In this working paper, we build on the insights gained from existing work on Chinese investment in the region, such as the rising powers framework, to examine the situation of ‘practice and perception’ of Chinese investment in hydropower in Vietnam and Myanmar. In considering these investments and trends, we also caution reinforcing or mobilizing xenophobic narratives about China.
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    Meetings, meetings, meetings, and meetings: regional governance, cross-border environments, and sovereign authority
    Lamb, V (RSiS (S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies), Nanyang Technological University, 2017)
    This working paper considers what regional meetings, such as the Mekong River Commission (MRC) Summit, accomplish in terms of transboundary environmental governance and reinforcement of sovereign authority, and what the implications are for who can speak on behalf of cross-border ecologies. The working paper introduces ‘summit ethnography’ as an approach for studying regional governance. This approach is positioned as a way of studying the elusive notions of regional environmental governance and regional governance community in a more embodied manner, emphasising that those who participate or are included/excluded as experts in regional governance are at stake in these meetings and the regional plans for development.
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    Salween Stories (Dynamic Storytelling Website with film)
    Middleton, C ; Lamb, V ; Rojanachotikul, R (www.salweenstories.org/, 2019)
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    Hydropower Politics and Conflict on the Salween River
    Middleton, C ; Scott, A ; Lamb, V ; Middleton, C ; Lamb, V (SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2019)
    This chapter examines the hydropower politics of the Salween River, with a focus on the projects proposed in Myanmar and their connections with neighboring China and Thailand via electricity trade, investment, and regional geopolitics.
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    Introduction: Resources Politics and Knowing the Salween River
    Lamb, V ; Middleton, C ; Win, S ; Middleton, C ; Lamb, V (Springer Nature, 2019-01-01)
    This chapter provides an overview of key arguments and concepts of the edited volume across three themes: resource politics, politics of making knowledge, and reconciling knowledge across divides.
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    A State of Knowledge of the Salween River: An Overview of Civil Society Research
    Lamb, V ; Middleton, C ; Bright, SJ ; Phoe, ST ; Myaing, NAA ; Kham, NH ; Khay, SA ; Hom, NSP ; Tin, NA ; Nang, S ; Yu, X ; Chen, X ; Vaddhanaphuti, C ; Middleton, C ; Lamb, V (SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2019)
    This chapter presents an overview of civil society research on Salween, providing an overview of the existing knowledge of the basin and a start to identifying key knowledge gaps in support of more informed, inclusive, and accountable water governance in the basin.
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    Knowing the Salween River: Resource Politics of a Contested Transboundary River
    Middleton, C ; Middleton, C ; Lamb, V (SpringerOpen, 2019)
    This open access book focuses on the Salween River, shared by China, Myanmar, and Thailand, that 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 socio-economic, 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, this book offers a collection of empirical case studies that highlights local knowledge and perspectives. Given the paucity of grounded social science studies in this contested basin, this book provides conceptual insights at the intersection of resource governance, development, and politics of knowledge relevant to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners at a time when rapid change is underway.
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    Nature Based Solutions for urban water management in Asian cities: integrating vulnerability into sustainable design
    Kooy, M ; Furlong, K ; Lamb, V (Liverpool University Press, 2019)
    Nature Based Solutions (NBS) for urban water management seek to harness natural processes and (re)connect diverse flows in the urban water cycle for increased ecological sustainability. Developed in Australia, the US and Europe, the application of these approaches for urban water management tends to focus primarily on improving the environmental sustainability of grey water infrastructure. In many Asian cities, where the coverage of existing grey infrastructure is partial, and in some cases declining, the applicability of such approaches seems limited. That said, an engagement between NBS and the urban water challenges of Asian cities offers good reasons to expand NBS to address conditions of water vulnerability. In this Viewpoint, we take a particular interest in how NBS principles related to natural processes and alternative water supplies might be directed toward mitigating environmental harm in circumstances where urban residents are already reliant on non-networked and ‘natural’ services for water supply. We argue that improving infrastructure for sustainability in such cases requires thinking about how to limit the impacts of infrastructure inequalities on vulnerable residents and providing low-cost innovations that can work to protect and stabilise the non-networked ecological services on which millions of urban residents already depend.
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    Salween: What's in a Name?
    Lamb, V ; Middleton, C ; Lamb, V (SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, 2019)
    In this short chapter, I walk the reader through the ways the river conventionally referred to as ‘Salween’ is called upon differently in distinct places by many people.