Rupture: nature-society transformations in mainland Southeast Asia

This project aims to understand the nexus between intense, cumulative processes of socio-ecological change, or rupture, and new forms of social agency in mainland Southeast Asia. Many studies trace this dynamic region's rural and political transitions, but not their connected effects or governance implications. Three case studies of Cambodian and Vietnamese dams, and a review of Thai-Lao cases, will reveal local and civil society responses to nature-society rupture, and how these responses affect the region's authoritarian states. The project breaks new conceptual ground on rupture processes and the political ecology of state-society relations. It will inform advances in environmental change management, and Australia's security policies.