Projects per year
Personal profile
Current student projects
Primary supervisor:
Ratchada Arpornsilp, Grassroots environmental movements in an authoritarian state: resource conflicts in Thailand’s Special Economic Zones
Sarou Long, Indigenous Land Negotiations in Cambodia
Supervisory panel member:
Kanya Souksakoun, Towards sustainable hydropower: Policy implementation and livelihood transformation in the Sekong Basin, Laos
Anthea Snowsill, Ethnicity and land transformation in Myanmar
Michael Dunford, Political-economic implications of the tea industry in northern Shan State, Myanmar
Justin Lau, Waste in Cambodia
Biography
I am a human geographer studying the politics of social and environmental change. My recent ARC Future Fellowship explored these related themes in a region of rapid social and environmental change along the Cambodia-Vietnam border (see Unsettled Frontiers: market formation in the Cambodia-Vietnam Borderlands). My current work in this region examines how communities and civil society are responding to dramatic processes of nature-society transformation or “rupture”. I have collaborated with civil society and government in Australia and the Asia-Pacific. I also teach postgraduate courses on social impact assessment and pollution/waste.
Career highlights
Director, Environment and Development Program (2018-2020); ARC Future Fellow June 2014 - December 2018; Coordinator, Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development (2007-2014); Vice-Chancellor's Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning 2013; College Teaching Innovation Award 2012; Convenor, Deakin University's Bachelor of Park Management and research partnership with Parks Victoria 2001-2003; Analyst at the Center for People and Forests from 2005-2007.
Research interests
- Political ecology
- Agrarian change
- Development studies
- Mainland Southeast Asia (Vietnam, Cambodia)
Researcher's projects
Current and past research collaborations include:
1.Rupture: nature-society transformation in mainland Southeast Asia (2018-2021) This research examines how transformative landscape and infrastructure developments in mainland Southeast Asia are catalysing new civil society and state responses. Its findings will inform development planning and more inclusive social and environmental policy. The voices of communities affected by environmental change will be amplified, creating opportunities for dialogue. Ground-breaking insights on state-society dynamics will also enhance Australia’s security and regional leadership role.
2. ARC Future Fellowship (2014-2018) Frontiers of change: resources, access and agency on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland. This interdisciplinary study examines how local actors negotiate transnational networks and markets on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland. It will provide critical evidence and theoretical insights on how local environmental, social and political processes intersect wider transitions in this strategically significant region.
3. The Political Ecology of Forest Carbon - mainland Southeast Asia's new commodity frontier? (2012-2015) Supported by an ARC Discovery Grant, this study aims to understand how forest users in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos respond to the complex local, national and regional dimensions of the emerging market for forest carbon.
4. Safeguarding local equity as global values of ecosystem services rise (2010-2012) Supported by a UK National Environmental Research Council Grant, the project aims to develop a framework to examine equity in the context of ecosystem services. It applies this framework in a series of case studies to explore how local-level equity is affected by changes in the global value of ecosystem services. The project involves several institutions and is coordinated by the University of Southampton.
5. Crafting Sustainability: addressing water pollution from Vietnam's craft villages (2009-2012). Supported by an AusAID Australian Development Research Award, the project aims to understand the drivers of pollution from craft villages in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam.
Qualifications
Expertise Areas
- Natural Resource Management
- HUMAN GEOGRAPHY
- Environment Policy
- Studies of Asian Society
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Network (past 5 years)
Projects
- 3 Finished
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Rupture: nature-society transformations in mainland Southeast Asia
Mahanty, S., Barney, K., Hirsch, P. & Milne, S.
Australian Research Council (ARC)
4/06/18 → 31/12/22
Project: Research
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Landscapes of change: resources, access and political agency on the Cambodia-Vietnam borderland
Australian Research Council (ARC)
16/06/14 → 31/12/18
Project: Research
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Beyond the boom-bust cycle: An interdisciplinary framework for analysing crop booms
Castella, J-C., Lu, J., Friis, C., Bruun, T. B., Cole, R., Junquera, V., Kenney-Lazar, M., Mahanty, S., Ornetsmüller, C., Pravalprukskul, P. & Vagneron, I., 2023, In: Global Enviromental Change. 80, 1, p. 1-18Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Lessons from the 'Unruly Edges' of Markets in the Cambodia-Vietnam Borderlands
Mahanty, S., 2022, In: The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. 20, 16Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
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Reflections on fragrant frontier entanglements
Mahanty, S., 2022, Fragrant Frontier Global Spice Entanglements from the Sino-Vietnamese Uplands. Sarah Turner, Annuska Derks, Jean-François Rousseau (ed.). 1 ed. Denmark: NIAS Press, p. 208-218Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Sustainable Food Systems
Mahanty, S., 2022, The Routledge Handbook of Global Development. Kearrin Sims, Nicola Banks, Susan Engel, Paul Hodge, Jonathan Makuwira, Naohiro (ed.). 1 ed. London: Routledge, p. 258-268Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter
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Unsettled Frontiers
Mahanty, S., 2022, 1 ed. New York: Cornell University. 198 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book