Search Results

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Fixing a Swamp of Cobras: The Clash between Capital and Water in Shaping Urban Vulnerabilities
(2021-01-01)
Friend, Richard
;
Hutanuwatr, Khanin
This paper addresses how capital can refashion landscapes and patterns of risk and vulnerability. Drawing on the emblematic case of the conversion of Thailand’s Cobra Swamp into Suvarnabhumi International Airport we argue that there is a fundamental clash between the internal logic of capital accumulation and the ecology of water that occurs in places in which land is under water for much of the year. Counterintuitively investment in public infrastructure such as airports targets locations that are exposed to flood risks. While the literature on capital fixes tends to treat “land” writ large, this paper adds a dimension that has been overlooked in the theoretical work, by highlighting the significance of the ecology of the land in which such fixes occur as a means of understanding patterns of investment, land use change and vulnerability. Our analysis draws on three separate but related concepts of capital “fixes”—spatial, technological and high/low road fixes. We argue the importance of recognising the specific ecological characteristics of land that capital “fixes”. This perspective has global significance in providing critical insight into the ways in which capital creates and accommodates the kinds of vulnerabilities and risks associated with climate change.
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Vulnerability and disaster in Thailand: Scale, power, and collaboration in post-tsunami recovery
(2013-07-01)
Hutanuwatr, Khanin
;
Bolin, Bob
;
Pijawka, David
This chapter examines the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami's impacts on coastal regions of Thailand with a focus recovery dynamics and the role of community-based organizations. With more than 8,000 killed and thousands homeless in Thailand, coupled with heavy impacts to fishing villages and large-scale loss of livelihoods, recovery challenges have been extensive. Patterns of uneven geographic development among a culturally and socially diverse population produced different recovery dynamics by location across the impact zone. Based on extensive fieldwork in the region by the lead author, we examine recovery dynamics in a representative coastal village. We begin by reviewing the historical geography of the area and how development patterns shaped local vulnerabilities prior to the tsunami. This provides context for analyzing impacts and response and recovery dynamics at the research site, with a focus on the diverse ways local leaders, displaced residents, government agencies, and NGOs promoted a variety of recovery strategies. We consider how relief organizations dealt with a culturally diverse population with substantial pre-disaster vulnerabilities, including the limitations of state-centered top-down approaches to recovery. Alternative approaches based on local leadership and collaborative networks across geographic scales proved more successful at coupling vulnerability reduction with local programs of recovery. We conclude with a discussion of the role of participatory approaches and local institution building in vulnerability reduction and capacity building in the region.
Some of the metrics are blocked by your
consent settings
Re-urbanization in Thailand: Reconsidering urban development following the tsunami
(2012-01-01)
Hutanuwatr, Khanin

KMITL

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results