TY - JOUR
T1 - From causality to blame
T2 - exploring flooding, factories and land conversion in Eastern Thailand
AU - Lattanan, Petchpilai
AU - Areeprachakun, Puttaporn
AU - Patnukao, Areerut
AU - Cheewinsiriwat, Pannee
AU - Barlow, John
AU - Shin, Hyun Bang
AU - Rigg, Jonathan
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 Geographical Society of New South Wales Inc.
PY - 2024/2/12
Y1 - 2024/2/12
N2 - It has become common to attribute the growing frequency and severity of floods to climate change. But the factors behind flooding are many, and climate change often disappears from the equation at the local level. This study draws on interviews with key informants and community members and focus group discussions to explore the increasing incidence of flooding in two sub-districts in Eastern Thailand. To our surprise, there was little sense of community anger: flood risk had increased; the causes rooted in maladaptation linked to land conversion were recognised and uncontested; and injustice was palpable. But anger and resistance were muted. The paper seeks to make sense of this situation. Villagers accepted their complicity in creating the conditions for heightened flood risk through their willingness to sell their land for conversion. The disconnection between the identification of causality and the allocation of blame raises questions about how notions of environmental justice play out in places like Ban Thapma and Ban Nhonglalok, where justice and injustice do not fall equally across space and society.
AB - It has become common to attribute the growing frequency and severity of floods to climate change. But the factors behind flooding are many, and climate change often disappears from the equation at the local level. This study draws on interviews with key informants and community members and focus group discussions to explore the increasing incidence of flooding in two sub-districts in Eastern Thailand. To our surprise, there was little sense of community anger: flood risk had increased; the causes rooted in maladaptation linked to land conversion were recognised and uncontested; and injustice was palpable. But anger and resistance were muted. The paper seeks to make sense of this situation. Villagers accepted their complicity in creating the conditions for heightened flood risk through their willingness to sell their land for conversion. The disconnection between the identification of causality and the allocation of blame raises questions about how notions of environmental justice play out in places like Ban Thapma and Ban Nhonglalok, where justice and injustice do not fall equally across space and society.
KW - Eastern Thailand
KW - Flooding
KW - justice
KW - land conversion
KW - maladaptation
KW - politics
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85185514806&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/00049182.2024.2311457
DO - 10.1080/00049182.2024.2311457
M3 - Article (Academic Journal)
AN - SCOPUS:85185514806
SN - 0004-9182
VL - 55
SP - 203
EP - 227
JO - Australian Geographer
JF - Australian Geographer
IS - 2
ER -