Legal plurality: an analysis of power interplay in Mekong hydropower

cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Instituteen
cg.contributor.crpWater, Land and Ecosystems
cg.coverage.countryLaos
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2LA
cg.coverage.regionSouth-eastern Asia
cg.creator.identifierDiana Suhardiman: 0000-0001-7892-4148
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.925306en
cg.identifier.wlethemeManaging Resource Variability and Competing Use
cg.issn1467-8306en
cg.issue5en
cg.journalAnnals of the Association of American Geographersen
cg.volume104en
dc.contributor.authorSuhardiman, Dianaen
dc.contributor.authorGiordano, Marken
dc.date.accessioned2015-03-17T14:39:55Zen
dc.date.available2015-03-17T14:39:55Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/58401
dc.titleLegal plurality: an analysis of power interplay in Mekong hydropoweren
dcterms.abstractThe changing notion of state territoriality highlights overlapping power structures at international, national, and local scales and reveals how states can be “differently” powerful. This article analyzes how the interplay of these power structures shapes the dynamics of natural resource management in one of the world’s fastest changing transboundary basins, the Mekong. Taking the Lao People’s Democratic Republic as a case study, we highlight the existing inconsistency and institutional discrepancies in land, water, and environmental policy related to hydropower and illustrate how they are manifested in multiple decision-making frameworks and overlapping legal orders. The resulting legal plurality reveals the inherently contested terrain of hydropower but, more important, it illustrates how the central state has been able to use contradictory mandates and interests to further its goals. The specific Mekong hydropower case demonstrates that an understanding of power geometries and scale dynamics is crucial to meaningful application of social and environmental safeguards for sustainable dam development.More broadly, the case sheds light on the important role of states’ various agents and their multiple connections, partially explaining how the achievement of the central state’s goals can be derived from legal plurality rather than hindered by it.en
dcterms.accessRightsLimited Access
dcterms.available2014-07-21
dcterms.bibliographicCitationSuhardiman, Diana; Giordano, M. 2014. Legal plurality: an analysis of power interplay in Mekong hydropower. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 16p. (Online first). doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/00045608.2014.925306en
dcterms.extentpp. 973-988en
dcterms.issued2014-09-03
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCopyrighted; all rights reserved
dcterms.publisherInforma UK Limiteden
dcterms.subjectwater poweren
dcterms.subjectnatural resources managementen
dcterms.subjectterritorial watersen
dcterms.subjectlegal frameworksen
dcterms.subjectdecision makingen
dcterms.subjectfunden
dcterms.subjectprivate sectoren
dcterms.subjectstate interventionen
dcterms.subjectcapacity buildingen
dcterms.subjectriver basinsen
dcterms.subjectcase studiesen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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