Challenges of the Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia (ChATSEA)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/1807/72649

When the countries of Southeast Asia became independent shortly after the end of the Pacific War, their populations were predominantly rural and agricultural, but today the region is rapidly urbanizing, and developing industrial and market-based economies. The ChATSEA project was conceived to study this transformation. Directed by Professor Rodolphe de Koninck, holder of the Canada Chair in Asian Research at the University of Montreal, the research team comprised 28 scholars, drawn primarily from economic, cultural and environmental geography but also included participants working in various other disciplines. The team members represent 21 different universities and research institutions: 10 in Canada, 7 in Southeast Asia, 2 in Europe and 1 in Australia.

Browse

Browsing Challenges of the Agrarian Transition in Southeast Asia (ChATSEA) by Subject "aquaculture"

Filter results by typing the first few letters
Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Aquaculture for Rural Development: An Asymmetrical Initiative
    (Canada Research Chair in Asian Studies, 2010) Katigbak, Evangeline O.
    The aquaculture sector in the Philippines has seen tremendous growth over the last three decades. Its growth is largely supported by both national and various local government units as aquaculture is seen to support food security programs in the country’s drive towards economic development. This is in response to food security challenges at the present and in the future, and also because growth in the sector is seen to increase export gains in the country. This study provides an analysis on how aquaculture development, which has largely been driven by the international demands for seafood, has impacted the livelihoods of coastal dwellers in the Philippines. The study captures local communities’ responses to this initiative as seen in the experiences of the people of Infanta, Quezon. It details the assertion of local peoples of their rights over mangrove areas, which are common property resource, against more economically and politically powerful fishpond developers who are not from the municipality. The study hopes to add further to the understanding of how conversion of mangrove areas to fishponds is transforming livelihoods and identities of peoples in the local communities. This research employs political ecology in locating the ecological transformations and the consequent changes in livelihoods and identities of the local population in Infanta.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Seaweed: The Nature of a Global Cash Crop in the Caluya Islands, Philippines
    (Canada Research Chair in Asian Studies, 2011) Arnold, Shannon
    The rapid uptake of seaweed cultivation by smallholder entrepreneurs in the Caluya Islands, Philippines has both transformed rural lives and helped rejuvenate traditional agrarian and fishing livelihoods of people there. While eucheuma seaweed is farmed as an aquaculture cash crop, it has not resulted in the same marginalization that has been documented in other communities reliant on export crops such as shrimp. This paper presents ethnographic research conducted between May and September of 2007. Using political ecology theories, I argue that it is the combination of local socio-economic factors with the unique material nature of seaweed that has created a positive impact for the community and allowed it to be integrated beneficially into existing social structures. My research in this area aims to contribute to an understanding of how certain market integration relations are produced and why particular outcomes lead to marginalization of communities while others, as in this case, have more sustainable and just outcomes.