Explaining Challenges That Beset Transdisciplinary Projects in the Global South: The Shift from Methodological Perspectives to a Political-Economic Dynamic Analysis

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that rigorous attempts to grasp the challenges unique to transdisciplinary projects in the Global South (TPGSs) require an understanding of the target state’s political-economic dynamics, which can undermine TPGSs. In this regard, I harness social-conflict theory to examine how and why Cambodia’s political-economic dynamics affected my own transdisciplinary project, which addressed dam-induced problems in the northeast of the country from 2018 to 2021. The present paper’s findings clarify the relationships among various nonacademic TPGS stakeholders—a topic that has attracted little attention from transdisciplinarians but that can significantly shape TPGS outcomes.

Keywords:

• Transdisciplinarity
• knowledge co-production
• human security
• nonacademic stakeholders
• livelihood
• hydropower dam

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to Dr. Chayan Vaddhanaphuti for assistance and KNOTS colleagues for supports.

Ethical Approval

This project is under approval of Chiang Mai University Research Ethics Committee [COA No. 019/62; CMUREC No. 62/018].

Notes

1 Electricité du Cambodge is Cambodia’s state power company.

2 Author’s preliminary-fieldwork observations and interviews, conducted in resettled Kbal Romeas and Sre Srenok villages, June and December, 2017.

3 Author’s post-workshop fieldwork observations and interviews, conducted in new Sre Kor Village, June 22, 2019.

4 Author’s preliminary fieldwork, conducted in Stung Treng Town, December 20, 2017.

5 Author’s preliminary-fieldwork interview, conducted in Banlung, June 20, 2017.

6 Author’s and research assistant’s notes and flipchart papers created by the village, government, and NGO stakeholders, Stung Treng Town, January 25, 2019.

7 Research assistant’s notes, Stung Treng Town, January 25, 2019.

8 Author’s notes, Stung Treng Town, January 25, 2019.

9 The flipchart papers created by the government stakeholders, Stung Treng Town, January 25, 2019.

10 Research assistant’s notes, Banlung, June 21, 2019.

11 Author’s notes, Banlung, June 21, 2019.

12 The flipchart papers created by the village and NGO stakeholders, Stung Treng Town, November 21, 2019.

13 The final workshop’s minutes created by NGOF, Phnom Penh, September 30, 2020.

14 The final workshop’s minutes created by NGOF, Phnom Penh, September 30, 2020.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Social Science and Development, Chiang Mai University and (2) Competing Regional Integrations in Southeast Asia (CRISEA), an interdisciplinary research project funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. NGO Forum on Cambodia (NGOF) sponsored the workshops: the first, third and final ones and NGO stakeholder-led fieldwork.