Climate justice in the context of conflict in Southeastern Myanmar

Climate justice in the context of conflict in Southeastern Myanmar 

During the ‘political reforms era’ of the 2010s, Myanmar/Burma attracted an influx of financial and technical support for developing and implementing climate change adaptation policies and projects. How did these adaptation efforts come to unfold in conflict-affected areas of the country and interact with existing drivers and dynamics of conflict there?

In this presentation, Marianne will share some insights from  her PhD research on the politics of adaptation in the context of the ‘Karen revolution’ in southeastern Myanmar during the fragile NCA ceasefire period of the late 2010s. The project combines insights from semi-structured and life story narrative interviews conducted during multi-sited fieldwork in Myanmar in 2018 and 2019 (incl. Karen state, Tanintharyi region, Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon), with a critical policy analysis. By building on critical adaptation, climate justice and political ecology literature, the project contributes to advance our understanding of the adaptation-conflict nexus and highlights the centrality of climate justice in adaptation processes.

SPEAKER:

Marianne Mosberg is a PhD candidate at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås, Norway, and she is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Myanmar Research Center/Department of Political and Social Change at ANU. 

DISCUSSANT:

Terese Gagnon is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Copenhagen focusing on 'The Politics of Climate and Sustainability in Asia'. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Syracuse University. Her current book project, a multi-sited ethnography, is about Karen food, seed, and political sovereignty across landscapes of home and exile.

CHAIR: Hunter Marston

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre Dialogue Series is a conversation concerning current research on Myanmar aimed at providing scholars with an opportunity to present their work, try out an idea, advance an argument and critically engage with other researchers.