Tran, Thong
Description
This thesis is an empirical study into the complex flood
governance system in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, focusing on how
social learning occurs across the interface of flood management
and adaptation. It involves the multi‐disciplinary theories of
environmental governance, rural development, knowledge
management, and political ecology. Drawing on Pahl‐Wostl’s
conceptual framework of social learning in resources management,
this thesis attempts to investigate...[Show more] how social learning
influences household and institutional adaptation to the
delta’s forced adaptation complexities characterised by
incremental impacts of climate change, local flood management
policies, and hydropower dam development upstream. Based on this
empirical understanding, it investigates how the adaptive
co‐management approach could inform the long‐term adaptation
strategies to address the social‐ecological challenges of
forced adaptation. A mixed methods approach was employed as the
main strategy of inquiry.
This thesis makes an important contribution to the knowledge of
social learning and the role it plays in facilitating household
and institutional adaptation, and improving the implementation of
flood management policies in the delta. The research findings
suggest two main social learning patterns: external learning
(communication and social interactions) and internal learning
(reflective learning), which take place across household groups.
According to the multiple linear regression results, these social
learning patterns have significant positive effects on adaptive
capacity.
This thesis reveals the emergence of strategic alliances and
their interaction patterns across the formal and informal
interaction boundaries. In the formal flood management boundary,
there is little evidence of social learning. The top‐down
governance approach inhibits opportunities for innovative
thinking and democratic processes in support of policy change. In
contrast, the flexibility of the informal interaction boundary
promotes collaborative learning in adaptive livelihood practices.
This thesis highlights the significance of ‘shadow systems’
that are forged in the learning interactions between farming
households and extension officials. While farming households are
knowledge brokers, the extension officials play a role as policy
brokers who facilitate the incorporation of local knowledge
(farming initiatives) and specialised knowledge (scientific
knowledge) into organisational knowledge (government policy). In
the rural governance context of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam,
policy change often arises from such bottom‐up endeavours.
This thesis argues that the adaptive co‐management approach is
continuously linked to the flood management and adaptation
processes in the delta. The research findings reveal that the
flood management and adaptation practices, through the delta’s
‘opening‐up and closing‐off’ processes, have evolved
towards the adaptive and collaborative approach. Drawing on the
empirical understanding of these evolutionary processes, this
thesis suggests that the adaptive co‐management approach should
play an essential role in guiding the long‐term adaptation
strategies to address the ongoing complexities of forced
adaptation in the region.
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