KLI Colloquia are informal, public talks that are followed by extensive dissussions. Speakers are KLI fellows or visiting researchers who are interested in presenting their work to an interdisciplinary audience and discussing it in a wider research context. We offer three types of talks:
1. Current Research Talks. KLI fellows or visiting researchers present and discuss their most recent research with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
2. Future Research Talks. Visiting researchers present and discuss future projects and ideas togehter with the KLI fellows and the Vienna scientific community.
3. Professional Developmental Talks. Experts about research grants and applications at the Austrian and European levels present career opportunities and strategies to late-PhD and post-doctoral researchers.
- The presentation language is English.
- If you are interested in presenting your current or future work at the KLI, please contact the Scientific Director or the Executive Manager.
Event Details
Abstract:
With adaptation to climate change becoming a dominant paradigm in international development, major river deltas have been at the forefront of efforts to steer development along a climate-resilient path. The Mekong Delta of Vietnam, for example, has become an international laboratory for climate adaptation governance, guided prominently by the Dutch-supported “Mekong Delta Plan” (2013) as well as funding from a recent World Bank “Integrated Climate Resilience and Sustainable Livelihoods” project. Within Vietnam, an entire multilevel governance apparatus is engaged in furthering the climate change adaptation agenda. A politics of translation is at the heart of these operations, as differently situated actors reproduce, negotiate, and mobilize adaptation knowledge in pursuit of varied objectives, seeking to move from conceptualization to implementation. This paper examines the role of intermediary actors that work as mediators in this process, translating knowledge upwards as well as down in the governance system. Drawing on multi-scalar ethnographic research with Vietnamese scientists, provincial-level bureaucrats, and agricultural extension agents, it considers the agency these actors have in shaping the trajectory of socio-ecological change in the Delta. By exploring strategies of translation and the intersections of different identities, interests, and agendas, the paper pinpoints contestations and switch-points that occur and seeks to identify potential openings for transformative pathways to emerge.
