Climate Change Adaptation as Environmental Rule in Southeast Asia

Keywords: climate adaptation, governmentality, Southeast Asia, political ecology
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 61

Abstract

While much of the current discourse about climate-resilient development pathways posits these as new, transformational approaches, for many states, climate adaptation in particular presents an opportunity to “develop” in ways they have long prioritized. In a past book, (“Forests are Gold: Trees, People and Environmental Rule in Vietnam”, 2016) I argued for the concept of “environmental rule”, which occurs when states, organizations, or individuals use environmental or ecological reasons as justification for what is really a concern with social planning, and thereby intervene in such disparate areas as land ownership, population settlement, or cultural identities. While the justification for intervention is to “improve” or “protect” the environment itself, in reality, underlying improvements to people or society are envisioned. In this talk, I extend the analysis of environmental rule to climate change adaptation and ask the question: Are some states in Southeast Asia using the concept of “climate change” to intervene in areas of life they have long wanted to change? Based on examples from a database of adaptation actions in Vietnam, Myanmar and Indonesia, this paper argues that climate change can be used as an excuse for states to do what they have long wanted to do: resettle ‘unruly’ peoples into more easily monitored zones, grant access to financially important landscapes to political allies, or ‘modernize’ culturally marginalized groups, among other goals. I will discuss what the implications of this are for so-called climate-resilient development pathways to reinforce existing social orders, rather than result in transformational change.