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Circuits of power: Environmental injustice from Bangkok's shopping malls to Laos’ hydropower dams

Circuits of power: Environmental injustice from Bangkok's shopping malls to Laos’ hydropower dams In what ways are lifestyles in urbanising Thailand, increasingly oriented towards shopping malls related to the threat to the wildlife and struggles for subsistence in distant Lao hinterlands? Our article answers this question by looking at the workings of electricity as the key infrastructure that connects these seemingly unrelated events and practices. We argue that the circulation of electricity flows along uneven channels, shifting injury and environmental harm across international borders. This circuit is perpetuating inequality and environmental injustice in the Lower Mekong. To demonstrate this claim, we analyse the electricity sector at numerous scales and locations – the urban scale in Bangkok, the country scale of Thailand and then Laos and the local community scale in Laos. We then discuss by what means various material and social processes and actors at these different scales form this circuit. Looking at circuits of power allows us to link the story of electricity consumption with that of production, with an emphasis on their extraterritoriality, multiplicity and boundaries. Our findings illustrate the effects of this circuit on spaces far from a thought‐of urban area. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ways in which these effects have produced inequality and injustice across borders. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Asia Pacific Viewpoint Wiley

Circuits of power: Environmental injustice from Bangkok's shopping malls to Laos’ hydropower dams

Marks, Danny; Zhang, Jun
Asia Pacific Viewpoint , Volume 60 (3) – Dec 1, 2019
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References (58)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
© 2019 Victoria University of Wellington and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd
ISSN
1360-7456
eISSN
1467-8373
DOI
10.1111/apv.12242
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

In what ways are lifestyles in urbanising Thailand, increasingly oriented towards shopping malls related to the threat to the wildlife and struggles for subsistence in distant Lao hinterlands? Our article answers this question by looking at the workings of electricity as the key infrastructure that connects these seemingly unrelated events and practices. We argue that the circulation of electricity flows along uneven channels, shifting injury and environmental harm across international borders. This circuit is perpetuating inequality and environmental injustice in the Lower Mekong. To demonstrate this claim, we analyse the electricity sector at numerous scales and locations – the urban scale in Bangkok, the country scale of Thailand and then Laos and the local community scale in Laos. We then discuss by what means various material and social processes and actors at these different scales form this circuit. Looking at circuits of power allows us to link the story of electricity consumption with that of production, with an emphasis on their extraterritoriality, multiplicity and boundaries. Our findings illustrate the effects of this circuit on spaces far from a thought‐of urban area. Furthermore, we demonstrate the ways in which these effects have produced inequality and injustice across borders.

Journal

Asia Pacific Viewpoint – Wiley

Published: Dec 1, 2019

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