A multiplicity ofprek(s)

Enacting a socionatural mosaic in the Cambodian upper Mekong delta

Bibliographic Data

ID4464809
AuthorsJean-Philippe Venot (0000-0003-3300-6911, Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, corresponding author), C B Jensen (0000-0002-3216-9762, Cambodia Development Resource Institute)
Year2022
Volume5
Issue3
Pages1446-1465
Publication date2022-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueEnvironment and Planning E Nature and Space (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2514-8486 • E-ISSN: 2514-8494
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/25148486211026835
OpenAlexW3176211120
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited43

In Khmer, the word prek designates a connection between things. In Kandal province in Cambodia, preks crisscross the landscape, connecting rivers with floodplains, supporting rich ecologies and a variety of livelihoods. Drawing on science and technology studies (STS) and critical water research, this paper explores prek(s) as a multiplicity. Rather than taking the prek as a passive object around which various practices occur, we examine how prek(s) are enacted as ontologically different: as irrigation infrastructure, as pathway to rice intensification, as device for Cambodian state-making, and as climate-friendly agricultural development. After analyzing interference patterns between enactments and their scale-making effects in- and outside the Mekong floodplains, we make explicit our own ontological politics. Focused on sustaining multiple uses and ecosystems, "our" prek is a socionatural mosaic landscape where many human and more-than-human actors and practices can coexist. This ontological politics, we suggest, has implications for planetary environmental knowledges and delta management far beyond Kandal's landscape

Agriculture · Archaeology · Environmental resource management · Geography · Livelihood · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Cambodian History and Society · Environmental Science · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Water Governance and Infrastructure

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