2016/01/19 by Atsuro Morita · 2 citations
Social Sciences · #Geographies of human-animal interactions #Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies #Water Governance and Infrastructure
paper · doi:10.1080/00141844.2015.1119175
crossref issued 2016/01/19 · crossref published 2016/01/19 · crossref published-online 2016/01/19 · openalex publication_date 2016/01/19 · crossref created 2016/01/20 · crossref published-print 2017/08/08 · crossref deposited 2022/06/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This paper aims to elucidate the central role floating rice has played in the formation of water management infrastructure in the Chao Phraya delta in Thailand. Operating in the background of everyday activities, infrastructures often remain overlooked by the actors that rely on them. However at certain moments, such as breakdowns, infrastructures make visible usually hidden connections between humans and non-humans. In recent years, the infrastructural role of floating rice has become a matter of concern for many actors in and around the Chao Phraya delta. This paper examines the particular multispecies relations between water management infrastructure, farmers and rice in the delta. In particular, the paper traces moments of infrastructural inversion that shed light on rice's involutions as part of a multispecies infrastructure. Attention to these involutions, the paper argues, facilitates a reconsideration of infrastructure's relationship with nature.