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

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 locationsthe 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.

Sustainability as a Moral Discourse: Its Shifting Meanings, Exclusions, and Anxieties

“…Sustainability and "green" labels have been applied in the construction of numerous malls, and the investors and consumers in the mall are at a stark distance from those inheriting its externalities. Marks and Zhang (2019) write about electricity as a key infrastructure that enables the air-conditioned lifestyles of the middle-class in urban Thailand, while resulting in socio-ecological devastation with the dam building on the Mekong River in Laos [63]. They identify the ways that rent-seeking electricity suppliers and regional hydropower investors are interested in expanding their political and economic capital, while Thai NGOs and environmentalists remain largely unsuccessful at national environmental reform [63].…”

Reclaiming community spaces in the Mekong River transboundary commons: Shifting territorialities in Chiang Khong, Thailand

“…Khruu Tii was one of the 37 Thai villagers who brought a lawsuit against the Thai government over its failure to properly consult Thai communities about the Xayaburi Dam in Laos. Although the dam is located in Laos, there are heavy Thai interests in the 'circuits of power' linking the dam to Thailand (Marks and Zhang, 2019): the dam's project developer is Thai construction company Ch. Karnchang, its financiers are four Thai banks, and 90% of the electricity is to be sold to Thai state utility Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.…”

An urban political ecology of Bangkok's awful traffic congestion

“…Further, in recent years, the entire city has an increased number of shopping malls and condominiums (Marks and Zhang 2019). However, Bangkok's land use plans have never regulated the number of parking space in buildings.…”