Peter Vandergeest | York University (original) (raw)

Papers by Peter Vandergeest

Research paper thumbnail of Political Ecologies of War and Forests: Counterinsurgencies and the Making of National Natures

We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the mak... more We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the making of political forests, providing a link between literatures on the political ecology of forests and the geographies of war. During the Cold War, particularly between the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, natures were remade in relation to nation-states in part through engagements with " insurgencies " and " emergencies " staged from forested territories. These insurgencies represented alternative civilizing projects to those of the nascent nation-states; they also took place in historical moments and sites where the reach of centrifically focused nations was still tentative. We argue that war, insurgency, and counterinsurgency helped normalize political forests as components of the modern nation-state during and in the aftermath of violence. The political violence also enabled state-based forestry to expand under the rubric of scientific forestry. Military counterinsurgency operations contributed to the practical and political separation of forests and agriculture, furthered and created newly racialized state forests and citizen-subjects, and facilitated the transfer of technologies to forestry departments. The crisis rhetoric of environmental security around " jungles, " as dangerous spaces peopled with suspect populations, particularly near international borders, articulated with conservation and other national security discourses that emerged concurrently. Counterinsurgency measures thus strengthened the territorial power and reach of national states by extending its political forests. Key Words: Cold War, counterinsurgency, jungles, political ecology of forests, political ecology of war, territorialization. En este estudio examinamos la significación de un tipo específico de violencia política—la contrainsurgencia—en el desarrollo de bosques políticos, creando así un vínculo entre las literaturas sobre ecología política de bosques y las geografías de guerra. Durante la Guerra Fría, particularmente entre los a ˜ nos 50 y el final de los a ˜ nos 70 del siglo pasado, las naturalezas se rehicieron a sí mismas en relación con los estados-nación, en parte por medio de confrontaciones con " insurgencias " y " surgencias " puestas en acción en territorios boscosos. Estas insurgencias se presentaron a título de proyectos civilistas alternativos para quienes tenían que ver con los nacientes estados-naciones; ocurrieron, además, en momentos y sitios históricos donde todavía era tentativo el alcance soberano de naciones enfocadas centrípetamente. Nuestro argumento es que la guerra, la insurgencia y la contrainsurgencia ayudaron a normalizar los bosques políticos como componentes del moderno estado-nación durante lasépocas violentas. La violencia política también contribuyó a que la silvicultura con soporte estatal se expandiera bajo la rúbrica de silvicultura científica. Las operaciones de contrainsurgencia militar contribuyeron a la separación práctica y política de bosques y agricultura, promovieron y desarrollaron bosques estatales de nuevo racial-izados al estilo ciudadanos-sujetos, y facilitaron la transferencia de tecnologías a los departamentos de silvicultura.

Research paper thumbnail of New Frontiers of Ecological Knowledge: Co-producing Knowledge and Governance in Asia

This essay makes a case for centering the questions of ecological knowledge in order to understan... more This essay makes a case for centering the questions of ecological knowledge in order to understand how environmental
governance and resource access are being remade in the frontier ecologies of Asia. These frontiers, consisting of the so-called uplands and coastal zones, are increasingly subject to new waves of extractive and conservation activities, prompted in part by rising values attached to these ecologies by new actors and actor coalitions. Drawing on recent writings in science and technology studies, we examine the coproduction (Jasanoff 2004) of ecological
knowledge and governance at this conjuncture of neoliberal interventions, land grabs, and climate change. We outline the complex ways through which the involvement of new actors, new technologies, and practices of boundary work, territorialisation, scale-making, and expertise transform the dynamics of the coproduction of knowledge and governance. Drawing on long term field research in Asia, the articles in this special section show
that resident peoples are often marginalised from the production and circulation of ecological knowledge, and thus from environmental governance. While attentive to the entry of new actors and to the shifts in relations of authority, control, and decision-making, the papers also present examples of how this marginalisation can be challenged, by highlighting the limits of boundary-work and expertise in such frontier ecologies.

Keywords: ecological knowledge, frontier ecologies, co-production, environmental governance, Asia

Research paper thumbnail of Land to some tillers

Research paper thumbnail of A New Extraterritoriality

Can we describe third party eco-certification by transnational organizations like the Forest Stew... more Can we describe third party eco-certification by transnational organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council as a new form of extraterritoriality in relation to the territorial sovereignty of states? In this paper we outline how transnational eco-certification can reinforce longstanding global relations of domination through the creation of eco-certification empires that have much in common with colonial-era extraterritorial empires. Specifically, we show how the territorial practices in the ASC standards for shrimp aquaculture replicate aspects of the legal extraterritoriality of the colonial period, and how these new forms of extraterritoriality create disaggregated and variegated sovereigntyscapes. Key shared features include the identification of subjects that need protection, a narrative that depicts local states as inadequate for providing these protections, and the creation of territories where these protections are provideddby imperial states during the colonial period, and certification agents for transnational eco-certification. This helps us understand why transnational eco-certification is often perceived as an encroachment on national sovereignty in Thailand and elsewhere.

Research paper thumbnail of Empires of Forestry Part 2

This paper examines the origins, spread and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia,... more This paper examines the origins, spread and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia, focusing on key sites in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Part 1, in an earlier issue of this journal, challenged popular and scholarly accounts of colonial forestry as a set of simplifying practices exported from Europe and applied in the European colonies. We showed that professional forestry empires were constituted under colonialism through local politics that were specific to particular colonies and technically uncolonised regions. Part 2 looks at the influence on forestry of knowledge and management practices exchanged through professional-scientific networks. We find that while colonial forestry established some management patterns that were extended after the end of colonialism, it was post-colonial organisations such as the FAO that facilitated the construction of forestry as a kind of empire after World War Two. In both periods, new hybrid forestry practices were produced as compromises with the ideal German and FAO forestry models through interactions with local ecologies, economies and politics. These hybrid practices were incorporated into and helped constitute the two empire forestry networks KEY WORDS Forestry, empire, Southeast Asian history, agrarian change PETER VANDERGEEST AND NANCY LEE PELUSO 360 Environment and History 12.4

Research paper thumbnail of Empires of Forestry: Professional Forestry and State Power in Southeast Asia, Part 1

Environment and History, 2006

This paper examines the origins, spread, and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia... more This paper examines the origins, spread, and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia, focusing on key sites in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Part 1 challenges popular and scholarly accounts of colonial forestry as a set of simplifying practices exported from Europe and applied in the European colonies. We show that professional forestry empires were constituted under colonialism through local politics that were specific to particular colonies and technically uncolonised regions. Local economic and ecological conditions constrained the forms and practices of colonial forestry. Professional forestry became strongly established in some colonies but not others. Part 2, in a forthcoming issue of this journal, will look at the influence on forestry of knowledge and management practices exchanged through professional-scientific networks. We find that while colonial forestry established some management patterns that were extended after the end of colonialism, it was post-colonial organisations such as the FAO that facilitated the construction of forestry as a kind of empire after World War Two. As a sector, forestry became the biggest landholder in the region only after colonialism had ended.

Research paper thumbnail of Political Ecologies of War and Forests: Counterinsurgencies and the Making of National Natures

Annals of The Association of American Geographers, 2011

We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the mak... more We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the making of political forests, providing a link between literatures on the political ecology of forests and the geographies of war. During the Cold War, particularly between the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, natures were remade in relation to nation-states in part through engagements with “insurgencies” and “emergencies” staged from forested territories. These insurgencies represented alternative civilizing projects to those of the nascent nation-states; they also took place in historical moments and sites where the reach of centrifically focused nations was still tentative. We argue that war, insurgency, and counterinsurgency helped normalize political forests as components of the modern nation-state during and in the aftermath of violence. The political violence also enabled state-based forestry to expand under the rubric of scientific forestry. Military counterinsurgency operations contributed to the practical and political separation of forests and agriculture, furthered and created newly racialized state forests and citizen-subjects, and facilitated the transfer of technologies to forestry departments. The crisis rhetoric of environmental security around “jungles,” as dangerous spaces peopled with suspect populations, particularly near international borders, articulated with conservation and other national security discourses that emerged concurrently. Counterinsurgency measures thus strengthened the territorial power and reach of national states by extending its political forests. En este estudio examinamos la significación de un tipo específico de violencia política—la contrainsurgencia—en el desarrollo de bosques políticos, creando así un vínculo entre las literaturas sobre ecología política de bosques y las geografías de guerra. Durante la Guerra Fría, particularmente entre los años 50 y el final de los años 70 del siglo pasado, las naturalezas se rehicieron a sí mismas en relación con los estados-nación, en parte por medio de confrontaciones con “insurgencias” y “surgencias” puestas en acción en territorios boscosos. Estas insurgencias se presentaron a título de proyectos civilistas alternativos para quienes tenían que ver con los nacientes estados-naciones; ocurrieron, además, en momentos y sitios históricos donde todavía era tentativo el alcance soberano de naciones enfocadas centrípetamente. Nuestro argumento es que la guerra, la insurgencia y la contrainsurgencia ayudaron a normalizar los bosques políticos como componentes del moderno estado-nación durante las épocas violentas. La violencia política también contribuyó a que la silvicultura con soporte estatal se expandiera bajo la rúbrica de silvicultura científica. Las operaciones de contrainsurgencia militar contribuyeron a la separación práctica y política de bosques y agricultura, promovieron y desarrollaron bosques estatales de nuevo racializados al estilo ciudadanos-sujetos, y facilitaron la transferencia de tecnologías a los departamentos de silvicultura. La retórica crisis sobre seguridad ambiental en torno de las “junglas,” como espacios peligrosos poblados por poblaciones sospechosas, particularmente cerca de las fronteras internacionales, se articuló con la conservación y otros discursos de seguridad nacional que emergieron concurrentemente. Las medidas de contrainsurgencia fortalecieron de esa manera el poder territorial y el alcance de los estados nacionales al extender el ámbito de sus bosques políticos.

Research paper thumbnail of Opening the Green Box:  How Organic became the standard for alternative agriculture in Thaialnd

This discussion paper explores how a conceptual framework drawing on political ecology and scienc... more This discussion paper explores how a conceptual framework drawing on political ecology and science studies might contribute to understanding trends and tensions in alternative agriculture in Thailand, and by extension, other global south sites. The paper is drawn from a collaborative writing project on alternative agriculture, organic food, and agrofood standards in Southeast Asia, which is in turn part of a larger project on agrarian transitions in Southeast Asia.

Research paper thumbnail of Certification and Communities: Alternatives for Regulating the Environmental and Social Impacts of Shrimp Farming

Research paper thumbnail of Racialization and Citizenship in Thai Forest Politics

Society & Natural Resources, 2003

The first part of this article argues for the usefulness of the concept of racialization in under... more The first part of this article argues for the usefulness of the concept of racialization in understanding the intersection between identity and resource politics in Southeast Asia. The production of space through cadastral mapping, forest reservation, and community forests has all been racialized to the degree that these spaces are also associated with naturalized and essentialized ethnic identities. The second part explores the tension between racialization and citizenship in Thailand. Racialized ethnic minorities have used community forestry as a vehicle for claiming both more secure resource rights and for formal and substantive citizenship rights. The community forest movement in Thailand is not exclusionary on the basis of ethnic or indigenous identity, because of how it is based in expanding citizenship rights. Reliance on environmental stewardship criteria to justify resource rights could mean that upland peoples are subject to limits not experienced by lowlanders, whose activities have tremendous impacts on the environment.

Research paper thumbnail of Territorialization and state power in Thailand

Theory and Society, 1995

Weber and many other theorists have defined the state as a political organization that claims and... more Weber and many other theorists have defined the state as a political organization that claims and upholds a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a given territory. 1 Writers who draw on this Weberian approach have devoted considerable theoretical attention to political organization, legitimacy, and physical coercion in the making of modern states. Until recently, however, the meaning of territory as a key practical aspect of state control has been relatively neglected by many theorists of the sources of state power. Territorial sovereignty defines people's political identities as citizens and forms the basis on which states claim authority over people and the resources within those boundaries. 2 More important for our purposes here, modern states have increasingly turned to territorial strategies to control what people can do inside national boundaries. In this article, we aim to outline the emergence of territoriality in state power in Thailand, formerly called Siam. In particular, we examine the use of what we call internal territorialization in establishing control over natural resources and the people who use them.

Research paper thumbnail of Development's Displacements: Ecologies, Economies and Cultures at Risk edited by Peter Vandergeest, Pablo Idahosa and Pablo S. Bose

Canadian Geographer-geographe Canadien, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Gifts and Rights: Cautionary Notes on Community Self-help in Thailand

Development and Change, 1991

ABSTRACTA pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been th... more ABSTRACTA pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been that capitalism and state-building has undermined relatively autonomous village communities in which there were equalizing institutions of mutual help or gift-giving. These assumptions tend to retain the dualisms of modernization theories by reversing them. The author argues that we should instead challenge these dualisms, and look for complexity and contradictions within both the past and the present. He then draws on a study in Thailand to show how the ‘village’ was a product of state-building, and how in the past the idiom of ‘helping’ constituted relations of domination and extraction as well as more egalitarian relations of mutual help. The use of the language of the gift confers power on the giver; since the 1930s, state officials have appropriated and transformed the language of ‘helping’ to coerce villagers into working on ‘development’ projects. Until the 1970s, villagers described ‘development’ as coerced serf labour, but since then, they have struggled with mixed results to redefine development as their right to participate in the national and global product. The author finishes by arguing that, in the context of the current global crisis of accumulation, we should reclaim rural development as a democratic right, opposing neoliberal attempts to redefine it as a gift which government and development agencies can discontinue at their will.

Research paper thumbnail of Vandergeest rethinking property

Research paper thumbnail of Land to some tillers: development-induced displacement in Laos

International Social Science Journal, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping nature: Territorialization of forest rights in Thailand

Society & Natural Resources, 1996

In Thailand, as elsewhere, the administrative definition of forest has changed from one based on ... more In Thailand, as elsewhere, the administrative definition of forest has changed from one based on classification by species to one based on territory. This process was an important facet of the more general process by which the central government claimed a monopoly on the administration of property rights to natural resources. The process took place in three stages: First, the government declared that all territory not claimed by permanent cultivators or other government agencies was forest under the jurisdiction of the Royal Forestry Department. Second, it demarcated the forests into reserve and protected forests. Third, it mapped all forest land as well as nonforest land according to land use classifications, which became the basis for policies to control occupation and use. These strategies did not allow for local input into land use planning. As a result of this lack of state capacity, and interbureaucratic competition, the Thai government failed to control rural land use.

Research paper thumbnail of Property rights in protected areas: obstacles to community involvement as a solution in Thailand

Environmental Conservation, 1996

... Correspondence: Dr Peter Vandergeest Tel: +1 416 736 2100 ext. 60301; e-mail: pvander@yorku.c... more ... Correspondence: Dr Peter Vandergeest Tel: +1 416 736 2100 ext. 60301; e-mail: pvander@yorku.ca pansion of PAs with one promoting conservation outside PAs. Keywords:Thailand, protected areas, community management, forest, property, resource rights Introduction ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Political Ecology of Shrimp Aquaculture in Thailand1

Rural Sociology, 2009

ABSTRACT This paper uses themes from political ecology to develop insights into the billion dolla... more ABSTRACT This paper uses themes from political ecology to develop insights into the billion dollar shrimp aquaculture sector in Thailand. We find that corporations can exercise only limited control over shrimp production and that there is no clear trend toward larger operations. We explain the continued viability of small owner-operated farms by looking at how shrimp farming is located in physical and social space, and at the ability of owner-operators to work within the highly unstable socio-ecological processes of shrimp production. We also find that shrimp farming has induced a spatially-uneven increase in state territorial regulation. The spatial distribution of regulation is shaped by differences in how landscapes become politicized, and the degree of jurisdictional clarity. We conclude that industry self-regulation has limited prospects for containing the social and environmental problems of shrimp farming in Thailand, but that expanded state regulation that mobilizes the participation of local people might be effective.

Research paper thumbnail of Rice Paddy or Shrimp Pond: Tough Decisions in Rural Thailand

World Development, 1999

Ð Thailand is the worldÕs largest producer of cultured shrimp. Despite problems with poor environ... more Ð Thailand is the worldÕs largest producer of cultured shrimp. Despite problems with poor environmental conditions and outbreaks of disease that have led to the large-scale abandonment of culture areas along the coast, production has remained high. A primary factor has been the establishment of marine shrimp farming in ThailandÕs rice growing Central Plain. This paper describes the development of inland shrimp farming in Thailand, and discusses the environmental concerns that have arisen. We then examine the evolution of the governmentÕs response to inland shrimp farming and assess the capacity of the state to implement a proposed ban. We conclude by arguing that other countries with irrigated agriculture need to be proactive in prohibiting this activity before it is entrenched in ways that are dicult to reverse either ecologically or politically. Ó

Research paper thumbnail of SYNTHESIS REPORT

Research paper thumbnail of Political Ecologies of War and Forests: Counterinsurgencies and the Making of National Natures

We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the mak... more We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the making of political forests, providing a link between literatures on the political ecology of forests and the geographies of war. During the Cold War, particularly between the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, natures were remade in relation to nation-states in part through engagements with " insurgencies " and " emergencies " staged from forested territories. These insurgencies represented alternative civilizing projects to those of the nascent nation-states; they also took place in historical moments and sites where the reach of centrifically focused nations was still tentative. We argue that war, insurgency, and counterinsurgency helped normalize political forests as components of the modern nation-state during and in the aftermath of violence. The political violence also enabled state-based forestry to expand under the rubric of scientific forestry. Military counterinsurgency operations contributed to the practical and political separation of forests and agriculture, furthered and created newly racialized state forests and citizen-subjects, and facilitated the transfer of technologies to forestry departments. The crisis rhetoric of environmental security around " jungles, " as dangerous spaces peopled with suspect populations, particularly near international borders, articulated with conservation and other national security discourses that emerged concurrently. Counterinsurgency measures thus strengthened the territorial power and reach of national states by extending its political forests. Key Words: Cold War, counterinsurgency, jungles, political ecology of forests, political ecology of war, territorialization. En este estudio examinamos la significación de un tipo específico de violencia política—la contrainsurgencia—en el desarrollo de bosques políticos, creando así un vínculo entre las literaturas sobre ecología política de bosques y las geografías de guerra. Durante la Guerra Fría, particularmente entre los a ˜ nos 50 y el final de los a ˜ nos 70 del siglo pasado, las naturalezas se rehicieron a sí mismas en relación con los estados-nación, en parte por medio de confrontaciones con " insurgencias " y " surgencias " puestas en acción en territorios boscosos. Estas insurgencias se presentaron a título de proyectos civilistas alternativos para quienes tenían que ver con los nacientes estados-naciones; ocurrieron, además, en momentos y sitios históricos donde todavía era tentativo el alcance soberano de naciones enfocadas centrípetamente. Nuestro argumento es que la guerra, la insurgencia y la contrainsurgencia ayudaron a normalizar los bosques políticos como componentes del moderno estado-nación durante lasépocas violentas. La violencia política también contribuyó a que la silvicultura con soporte estatal se expandiera bajo la rúbrica de silvicultura científica. Las operaciones de contrainsurgencia militar contribuyeron a la separación práctica y política de bosques y agricultura, promovieron y desarrollaron bosques estatales de nuevo racial-izados al estilo ciudadanos-sujetos, y facilitaron la transferencia de tecnologías a los departamentos de silvicultura.

Research paper thumbnail of New Frontiers of Ecological Knowledge: Co-producing Knowledge and Governance in Asia

This essay makes a case for centering the questions of ecological knowledge in order to understan... more This essay makes a case for centering the questions of ecological knowledge in order to understand how environmental
governance and resource access are being remade in the frontier ecologies of Asia. These frontiers, consisting of the so-called uplands and coastal zones, are increasingly subject to new waves of extractive and conservation activities, prompted in part by rising values attached to these ecologies by new actors and actor coalitions. Drawing on recent writings in science and technology studies, we examine the coproduction (Jasanoff 2004) of ecological
knowledge and governance at this conjuncture of neoliberal interventions, land grabs, and climate change. We outline the complex ways through which the involvement of new actors, new technologies, and practices of boundary work, territorialisation, scale-making, and expertise transform the dynamics of the coproduction of knowledge and governance. Drawing on long term field research in Asia, the articles in this special section show
that resident peoples are often marginalised from the production and circulation of ecological knowledge, and thus from environmental governance. While attentive to the entry of new actors and to the shifts in relations of authority, control, and decision-making, the papers also present examples of how this marginalisation can be challenged, by highlighting the limits of boundary-work and expertise in such frontier ecologies.

Keywords: ecological knowledge, frontier ecologies, co-production, environmental governance, Asia

Research paper thumbnail of Land to some tillers

Research paper thumbnail of A New Extraterritoriality

Can we describe third party eco-certification by transnational organizations like the Forest Stew... more Can we describe third party eco-certification by transnational organizations like the Forest Stewardship Council, Marine Stewardship Council, and the Aquaculture Stewardship Council as a new form of extraterritoriality in relation to the territorial sovereignty of states? In this paper we outline how transnational eco-certification can reinforce longstanding global relations of domination through the creation of eco-certification empires that have much in common with colonial-era extraterritorial empires. Specifically, we show how the territorial practices in the ASC standards for shrimp aquaculture replicate aspects of the legal extraterritoriality of the colonial period, and how these new forms of extraterritoriality create disaggregated and variegated sovereigntyscapes. Key shared features include the identification of subjects that need protection, a narrative that depicts local states as inadequate for providing these protections, and the creation of territories where these protections are provideddby imperial states during the colonial period, and certification agents for transnational eco-certification. This helps us understand why transnational eco-certification is often perceived as an encroachment on national sovereignty in Thailand and elsewhere.

Research paper thumbnail of Empires of Forestry Part 2

This paper examines the origins, spread and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia,... more This paper examines the origins, spread and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia, focusing on key sites in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Part 1, in an earlier issue of this journal, challenged popular and scholarly accounts of colonial forestry as a set of simplifying practices exported from Europe and applied in the European colonies. We showed that professional forestry empires were constituted under colonialism through local politics that were specific to particular colonies and technically uncolonised regions. Part 2 looks at the influence on forestry of knowledge and management practices exchanged through professional-scientific networks. We find that while colonial forestry established some management patterns that were extended after the end of colonialism, it was post-colonial organisations such as the FAO that facilitated the construction of forestry as a kind of empire after World War Two. In both periods, new hybrid forestry practices were produced as compromises with the ideal German and FAO forestry models through interactions with local ecologies, economies and politics. These hybrid practices were incorporated into and helped constitute the two empire forestry networks KEY WORDS Forestry, empire, Southeast Asian history, agrarian change PETER VANDERGEEST AND NANCY LEE PELUSO 360 Environment and History 12.4

Research paper thumbnail of Empires of Forestry: Professional Forestry and State Power in Southeast Asia, Part 1

Environment and History, 2006

This paper examines the origins, spread, and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia... more This paper examines the origins, spread, and practices of professional forestry in Southeast Asia, focusing on key sites in colonial and post-colonial Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand. Part 1 challenges popular and scholarly accounts of colonial forestry as a set of simplifying practices exported from Europe and applied in the European colonies. We show that professional forestry empires were constituted under colonialism through local politics that were specific to particular colonies and technically uncolonised regions. Local economic and ecological conditions constrained the forms and practices of colonial forestry. Professional forestry became strongly established in some colonies but not others. Part 2, in a forthcoming issue of this journal, will look at the influence on forestry of knowledge and management practices exchanged through professional-scientific networks. We find that while colonial forestry established some management patterns that were extended after the end of colonialism, it was post-colonial organisations such as the FAO that facilitated the construction of forestry as a kind of empire after World War Two. As a sector, forestry became the biggest landholder in the region only after colonialism had ended.

Research paper thumbnail of Political Ecologies of War and Forests: Counterinsurgencies and the Making of National Natures

Annals of The Association of American Geographers, 2011

We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the mak... more We examine the significance of a specific type of political violence—counterinsurgency—in the making of political forests, providing a link between literatures on the political ecology of forests and the geographies of war. During the Cold War, particularly between the 1950s and the end of the 1970s, natures were remade in relation to nation-states in part through engagements with “insurgencies” and “emergencies” staged from forested territories. These insurgencies represented alternative civilizing projects to those of the nascent nation-states; they also took place in historical moments and sites where the reach of centrifically focused nations was still tentative. We argue that war, insurgency, and counterinsurgency helped normalize political forests as components of the modern nation-state during and in the aftermath of violence. The political violence also enabled state-based forestry to expand under the rubric of scientific forestry. Military counterinsurgency operations contributed to the practical and political separation of forests and agriculture, furthered and created newly racialized state forests and citizen-subjects, and facilitated the transfer of technologies to forestry departments. The crisis rhetoric of environmental security around “jungles,” as dangerous spaces peopled with suspect populations, particularly near international borders, articulated with conservation and other national security discourses that emerged concurrently. Counterinsurgency measures thus strengthened the territorial power and reach of national states by extending its political forests. En este estudio examinamos la significación de un tipo específico de violencia política—la contrainsurgencia—en el desarrollo de bosques políticos, creando así un vínculo entre las literaturas sobre ecología política de bosques y las geografías de guerra. Durante la Guerra Fría, particularmente entre los años 50 y el final de los años 70 del siglo pasado, las naturalezas se rehicieron a sí mismas en relación con los estados-nación, en parte por medio de confrontaciones con “insurgencias” y “surgencias” puestas en acción en territorios boscosos. Estas insurgencias se presentaron a título de proyectos civilistas alternativos para quienes tenían que ver con los nacientes estados-naciones; ocurrieron, además, en momentos y sitios históricos donde todavía era tentativo el alcance soberano de naciones enfocadas centrípetamente. Nuestro argumento es que la guerra, la insurgencia y la contrainsurgencia ayudaron a normalizar los bosques políticos como componentes del moderno estado-nación durante las épocas violentas. La violencia política también contribuyó a que la silvicultura con soporte estatal se expandiera bajo la rúbrica de silvicultura científica. Las operaciones de contrainsurgencia militar contribuyeron a la separación práctica y política de bosques y agricultura, promovieron y desarrollaron bosques estatales de nuevo racializados al estilo ciudadanos-sujetos, y facilitaron la transferencia de tecnologías a los departamentos de silvicultura. La retórica crisis sobre seguridad ambiental en torno de las “junglas,” como espacios peligrosos poblados por poblaciones sospechosas, particularmente cerca de las fronteras internacionales, se articuló con la conservación y otros discursos de seguridad nacional que emergieron concurrentemente. Las medidas de contrainsurgencia fortalecieron de esa manera el poder territorial y el alcance de los estados nacionales al extender el ámbito de sus bosques políticos.

Research paper thumbnail of Opening the Green Box:  How Organic became the standard for alternative agriculture in Thaialnd

This discussion paper explores how a conceptual framework drawing on political ecology and scienc... more This discussion paper explores how a conceptual framework drawing on political ecology and science studies might contribute to understanding trends and tensions in alternative agriculture in Thailand, and by extension, other global south sites. The paper is drawn from a collaborative writing project on alternative agriculture, organic food, and agrofood standards in Southeast Asia, which is in turn part of a larger project on agrarian transitions in Southeast Asia.

Research paper thumbnail of Certification and Communities: Alternatives for Regulating the Environmental and Social Impacts of Shrimp Farming

Research paper thumbnail of Racialization and Citizenship in Thai Forest Politics

Society & Natural Resources, 2003

The first part of this article argues for the usefulness of the concept of racialization in under... more The first part of this article argues for the usefulness of the concept of racialization in understanding the intersection between identity and resource politics in Southeast Asia. The production of space through cadastral mapping, forest reservation, and community forests has all been racialized to the degree that these spaces are also associated with naturalized and essentialized ethnic identities. The second part explores the tension between racialization and citizenship in Thailand. Racialized ethnic minorities have used community forestry as a vehicle for claiming both more secure resource rights and for formal and substantive citizenship rights. The community forest movement in Thailand is not exclusionary on the basis of ethnic or indigenous identity, because of how it is based in expanding citizenship rights. Reliance on environmental stewardship criteria to justify resource rights could mean that upland peoples are subject to limits not experienced by lowlanders, whose activities have tremendous impacts on the environment.

Research paper thumbnail of Territorialization and state power in Thailand

Theory and Society, 1995

Weber and many other theorists have defined the state as a political organization that claims and... more Weber and many other theorists have defined the state as a political organization that claims and upholds a monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force in a given territory. 1 Writers who draw on this Weberian approach have devoted considerable theoretical attention to political organization, legitimacy, and physical coercion in the making of modern states. Until recently, however, the meaning of territory as a key practical aspect of state control has been relatively neglected by many theorists of the sources of state power. Territorial sovereignty defines people's political identities as citizens and forms the basis on which states claim authority over people and the resources within those boundaries. 2 More important for our purposes here, modern states have increasingly turned to territorial strategies to control what people can do inside national boundaries. In this article, we aim to outline the emergence of territoriality in state power in Thailand, formerly called Siam. In particular, we examine the use of what we call internal territorialization in establishing control over natural resources and the people who use them.

Research paper thumbnail of Development's Displacements: Ecologies, Economies and Cultures at Risk edited by Peter Vandergeest, Pablo Idahosa and Pablo S. Bose

Canadian Geographer-geographe Canadien, 2010

Research paper thumbnail of Gifts and Rights: Cautionary Notes on Community Self-help in Thailand

Development and Change, 1991

ABSTRACTA pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been th... more ABSTRACTA pervasive assumption in the critical literature and practice of development has been that capitalism and state-building has undermined relatively autonomous village communities in which there were equalizing institutions of mutual help or gift-giving. These assumptions tend to retain the dualisms of modernization theories by reversing them. The author argues that we should instead challenge these dualisms, and look for complexity and contradictions within both the past and the present. He then draws on a study in Thailand to show how the ‘village’ was a product of state-building, and how in the past the idiom of ‘helping’ constituted relations of domination and extraction as well as more egalitarian relations of mutual help. The use of the language of the gift confers power on the giver; since the 1930s, state officials have appropriated and transformed the language of ‘helping’ to coerce villagers into working on ‘development’ projects. Until the 1970s, villagers described ‘development’ as coerced serf labour, but since then, they have struggled with mixed results to redefine development as their right to participate in the national and global product. The author finishes by arguing that, in the context of the current global crisis of accumulation, we should reclaim rural development as a democratic right, opposing neoliberal attempts to redefine it as a gift which government and development agencies can discontinue at their will.

Research paper thumbnail of Vandergeest rethinking property

Research paper thumbnail of Land to some tillers: development-induced displacement in Laos

International Social Science Journal, 2003

Research paper thumbnail of Mapping nature: Territorialization of forest rights in Thailand

Society & Natural Resources, 1996

In Thailand, as elsewhere, the administrative definition of forest has changed from one based on ... more In Thailand, as elsewhere, the administrative definition of forest has changed from one based on classification by species to one based on territory. This process was an important facet of the more general process by which the central government claimed a monopoly on the administration of property rights to natural resources. The process took place in three stages: First, the government declared that all territory not claimed by permanent cultivators or other government agencies was forest under the jurisdiction of the Royal Forestry Department. Second, it demarcated the forests into reserve and protected forests. Third, it mapped all forest land as well as nonforest land according to land use classifications, which became the basis for policies to control occupation and use. These strategies did not allow for local input into land use planning. As a result of this lack of state capacity, and interbureaucratic competition, the Thai government failed to control rural land use.

Research paper thumbnail of Property rights in protected areas: obstacles to community involvement as a solution in Thailand

Environmental Conservation, 1996

... Correspondence: Dr Peter Vandergeest Tel: +1 416 736 2100 ext. 60301; e-mail: pvander@yorku.c... more ... Correspondence: Dr Peter Vandergeest Tel: +1 416 736 2100 ext. 60301; e-mail: pvander@yorku.ca pansion of PAs with one promoting conservation outside PAs. Keywords:Thailand, protected areas, community management, forest, property, resource rights Introduction ...

Research paper thumbnail of A Political Ecology of Shrimp Aquaculture in Thailand1

Rural Sociology, 2009

ABSTRACT This paper uses themes from political ecology to develop insights into the billion dolla... more ABSTRACT This paper uses themes from political ecology to develop insights into the billion dollar shrimp aquaculture sector in Thailand. We find that corporations can exercise only limited control over shrimp production and that there is no clear trend toward larger operations. We explain the continued viability of small owner-operated farms by looking at how shrimp farming is located in physical and social space, and at the ability of owner-operators to work within the highly unstable socio-ecological processes of shrimp production. We also find that shrimp farming has induced a spatially-uneven increase in state territorial regulation. The spatial distribution of regulation is shaped by differences in how landscapes become politicized, and the degree of jurisdictional clarity. We conclude that industry self-regulation has limited prospects for containing the social and environmental problems of shrimp farming in Thailand, but that expanded state regulation that mobilizes the participation of local people might be effective.

Research paper thumbnail of Rice Paddy or Shrimp Pond: Tough Decisions in Rural Thailand

World Development, 1999

Ð Thailand is the worldÕs largest producer of cultured shrimp. Despite problems with poor environ... more Ð Thailand is the worldÕs largest producer of cultured shrimp. Despite problems with poor environmental conditions and outbreaks of disease that have led to the large-scale abandonment of culture areas along the coast, production has remained high. A primary factor has been the establishment of marine shrimp farming in ThailandÕs rice growing Central Plain. This paper describes the development of inland shrimp farming in Thailand, and discusses the environmental concerns that have arisen. We then examine the evolution of the governmentÕs response to inland shrimp farming and assess the capacity of the state to implement a proposed ban. We conclude by arguing that other countries with irrigated agriculture need to be proactive in prohibiting this activity before it is entrenched in ways that are dicult to reverse either ecologically or politically. Ó

Research paper thumbnail of SYNTHESIS REPORT