Institutional bricolage (re)shaping the different manifestations of state-citizens relations in Mekong hydropower planning

Diana Suhardiman*, Kanokwan Manorom, Jonathan Rigg

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

2 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Concerns over hydropower development in the Mekong River Basin and elsewhere include not only the overall impacts of dams on basin ecology and economy but also more site-specific impacts on affected communities. While hydropower development is impacting the livelihoods of local communities living along the river, the latter's views and concerns are often sidelined by top-down hydropower planning. Nonetheless, local communities create and shape their political spaces of engagements in relation to hydropower decision making across scales, albeit through various means and with different results. Taking the planned Pak Beng hydropower dam as a case study and building on the concept of institutional bricolage, we look at: 1) local communities’ responses in Thailand and Laos, including how these are influenced by social movements; 2) how these responses are translated into collective action (or the lack thereof), including in relation to local communities’ (in)ability to negotiate better compensation for their to be impacted livelihoods; and 3) how local communities strategies are embedded in the wider political context and different manifestations of state-citizens relations. We argue that while affected farm households can pursue their interests to secure proper compensation through individual means, this leads to sub-optimal outcomes for affected communities collectively.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)118-130
Number of pages13
JournalGeoforum
Volume134
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 22 Jul 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This work was undertaken as part of, and funded by the Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI) SUMERNET research project on “Strengthening pathways for rights-based approaches in Mekong hydropower” led by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI). The opinion expressed here belong to the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SEI or IWMI. The authors would like to thank Teerapong Pomun for his support in field data collection in three villages in Thailand.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Elsevier Ltd

Keywords

  • Civil society organizations
  • Hydropower decision making
  • Laos
  • Local communities
  • Thailand

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Institutional bricolage (re)shaping the different manifestations of state-citizens relations in Mekong hydropower planning'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this