Environmental Uncertainty and Local Knowledge : Southeast Asia As a Laboratory of Global Ecological Change

Southeast Asia is a laboratory showing current worldwide ecological issues. Environmental change, natural resource exploitation as well as global climate change increasingly threaten people's livelihoods. Environmentally-based uncertainties foster a high level of knowledge uncertainty. This poses a constantly growing threat to agricultural production. Vulnerable communities with a low degree of resilience are most severely affected. But local communities have abilities to innovate and develop locally embedded coping strategies. The contributors of this volume are most interested in environmental change that fosters knowledge uncertainties. Regions discussed include the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, Moluccas, Central Kalimantan, West Sumatra and South Sulawesi in Indonesia and Tangail Region in Bangladesh. Knowledge,Environment,Southeast Asia,Risk,Pacific Asia,Uncertainty,Development,Tropical Agriculture,Globalization,Nature,Ethnology,Environmental Sociology,Asia Table of Contents Introduction. The Nexus of Agency, Knowledge, and Environmental Change in Southeast Asia ‘Knowledge’ in Development Discourse. A Critical Review Urban Environmental Knowledge as Citizens’ Science. Theoretical Issues and Methods from Indonesia Conflicting Frames of Reference. Environmental Changes in Coastal Indonesia “We Observe the Weather because we are Farmers”. Weather Knowledge and Meteorology in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam “Why did the Fish Cross the Road?” Environmental Uncertainty and Local Knowledge in Bangladesh Managing Fire Risk in Indonesia’s Peatlands Cassava Diversity and Toxicity in Relation to Environmental Degradation. A Feature of Food Security in the Moluccas, Indonesia What makes a Social System Resilient? Two Fishing Communities in Indonesia Afterthoughts. Issues for an Anthropology of Knowledge and Development Contributors

Southeast Asia is a laboratory showing current worldwide ecological issues. Environmental change, natural resource exploitation as well as global climate change increasingly threaten people's livelihoods. Environmentally-based uncertainties foster a high level of knowledge uncertainty. This poses a constantly growing threat to agricultural production. Vulnerable communities with a low degree of resilience are most severely affected.But local communities have abilities to innovate and develop locally embedded coping strategies. The contributors of this volume are most interested in environmental change that fosters knowledge uncertainties. Regions discussed include the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, Moluccas, Central Kalimantan, West Sumatra and South Sulawesi in Indonesia and Tangail Region in Bangladesh.

Biographical note: Anna-Katharina Hornidge (Dr.) is a sociologist and currently Senior Researcher at the Center of Development Research, Bonn University, Germany. Christoph Antweiler (Prof. Dr.) is an anthropologist and head of the Southeast Asia Department at the Institute for Oriental and Asian Studies, Bonn University, Germany