Thank you for joining us for the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse’s inaugural annual Policy Symposium, titled ‘Extinction thwarted? The nexus between climate change, social equity and health’.  

Humanity faces three major and interconnected challenges – climate change, social inequality and premature death and disease. Governance approaches to date have failed to address these problems, and in many cases have made the situation worse by approaching these issues and their common drivers in isolation from each other. For a governance response to be commensurate with the challenges faced by society, a more holistic approach is needed that brings disciplines and sectors together, and recognises the importance of addressing the common structural drivers of planetary health inequity. 

Hosted by Prof Sharon Friel, Director of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, with opening remarks from ANU Vice-Chancellor, Professor Brian P. Schmidt AC, and the Honourable Ged Kearney MP, attendees heard government, non-government and academic experts discuss the political, economic, and social dimensions of planetary health equity. Throughout the day we explored the role of different economic models, power in policy systems, and opportunities offered by optimising climate change mitigation policies for social and health goals.

The aim of the day was not to simply describe the problem but to identify the conditions that can enable the transformation of the system towards the promotion of the equitable enjoyment of good health for all within the context of a stable, sustainable ecosystem, and shift governance practices toward a more effective modern paradigm. The symposium comprises four consecutive sessions: Setting the Scene; Follow the Money; Advancing Progressive Policy, and Thwarting Extinction: Making it Happen.

Program

The full program, including speakers and agenda, is available here. 

Registrations for this event are now closed.

The 2023 Myanmar Update aims to understand, celebrate, and explicate the Myanmar people’s resistance to the 1 February 2021 coup. The military’s violent crackdown on what was initially a peaceful popular uprising provoked a near-countrywide revolutionary movement, which has brought together an array of different political, ethnic, and religious groups fighting for the shared goal of ending military rule. While differences exist in objectives and strategies, the establishment of organisations like the National Unity Government (NUG) and the National Unity Consultative Council (NUCC), as well as the numerous other formal and informal alliances, has arguably created an unprecedented sense of unity among Myanmar’s diverse peoples and raised widespread hope that this time the struggle may succeed.    

The conference seeks to explore the complexities of the revolutionary struggle; the effects of the coup on the state and economy; and, the myriad ways in which the people in Myanmar are coping with deepening violence and poverty.

• How has the coup and the popular response to it reshaped Myanmar politics?
• How are new armed groups forming, and how are they sustained?
• What has happened to the civil disobedience movement?
• What are the social, economic, and psychological implications of continued violence?
• How is the diaspora contributing to the revolution?
• How can foreign governments and the international aid community best support resistance to dictatorship?

We aim to address these kinds of questions, among others, in this conference.

The conference will take place at The Australian National University on Friday 21 July – Saturday 22 July 2023.

The two-day conference will feature scholars and experts from Australia, Myanmar, UK, North America and around the regions.

There are also pre-conference events on Thursday 20 July that we will list on our conference program with more information:

• 8.30am-4.30pm – Early Career Research workshop (by invitation)
• 4.30-5pm – Launch of Myanmar Update photo exhibition by Mayco Naing (Artist and Curator)
• 5.30-6.30 pm – Guest lecture ‘De-‘Area Studies’-izing Burmese History, The African (and African American) ‘Burma' Experience in the Twentieth Century’ by Michael Charney from SOAS, University of London

Convening Committee

• Cecile Medail - Visiting Fellow, Department of Political and Social Change, ANU, cecile.medail@anu.edu.au
• Morten Pedersen - Board member, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU, Morten.Pedersen@adfa.edu.au
• Yuri Takahashi - Lecturer and Convenor of the Burmese Program, ANU, Yuri.Takahashi@anu.edu.au
• Samuel Hmung - Research Officer, Myanmar Research Centre, ANU, Samuel.hmung@anu.edu.au

Sponsors

The 2023 ANU Myanmar Update is supported by the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific, the International Development Research Centre, Canada, the International IDEA, and the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

We are delighted to announce the inaugural Planetary Health Equity Future Leaders program. The Planetary Health Equity Hothouse will welcome a small group of early career researchers and PhD students to join us in Canberra in September 2023.

The thematic focus of the 2023 Planetary Health Equity Future Leaders program is “structural drivers of planetary health inequity”. Through an intensive fortnight of structured workshops and masterclasses related to theory, transdisciplinary research, and knowledge mobilisation, plus time for writing and conversations with the Hothouse team members and wider ANU community, the program offers an opportunity to develop new research skills, spark new collaborative ideas, and create new opportunities for knowledge mobilisation that aims to improve planetary health equity. The Future Leaders program will also involve interaction with the Hothouse 2023 Distinguished Visitor Thinker in Residence and participation in the Hothouse’s Annual Governance for Planetary Health Equity Policy Symposium, where the Hothouse research will be presented alongside insights from policy makers, NGOs, and business groups, including members of the Hothouse Advisory Board.

The program is open to early career researchers and PhD students at institutions across Australia and globally. The selected candidates will join the Hothouse between 4th-15th September 2023. Participants are welcome to remain at the Hothouse to think, write, and discuss for up to 13th of October.

Stay tuned to hear about the program, and the 2023 participants.

We are very excited to announce the second Planetary Health Equity Future Leaders program. The Planetary Health Equity Hothouse will welcome a small group of early career researchers and PhD students to join us in Canberra in September 2024.

The thematic focus of the 2024 Planetary Health Equity Future Leaders program is “Addressing the structural drivers of planetary health inequity”. Through an intensive fortnight of structured workshops and masterclasses related to theory, transdisciplinary research, and knowledge mobilisation, plus time for writing and conversations with the Hothouse team members and wider ANU community, the program offers an opportunity to develop new research skills, spark new collaborative ideas, and create new opportunities for knowledge mobilisation that aims to improve planetary health equity. 

The program is open to early career researchers and PhD students at institutions across Australia and globally. The selected candidates will join the Hothouse between 2nd-13th September 2024. Participants are welcome to remain at the Hothouse to think, write, and discuss until 27th of September.

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode features Katherine Trebeck, a political economist, writer and advocate for economic system change. She co-founded the Wellbeing Economy Alliance and also WEAll Scotland, its Scottish hub.

This webinar reflects on the idea of a wellbeing economy: one that puts people and planet first. It will explore how this concept has risen in prominence in recent years and what it means in practice. It lays out some of the next steps that are needed to build a wellbeing economy and what different sectors need to do to play their part.

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode features Carl Rhodes, Dean and Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Technology Sydney Business School.

Economic inequality is a growing scourge on today’s world. At the apex of this massively unfair system are the global billionaires – an ultra-elite social class who have sequestered the world’s wealth while others languish in poverty and hunger. The immense social and political power billionaires possess cannot be explained by their wealth alone. Coupled with the financial resources billionaires command is a set of inter-connected myths that portray them as a ‘force for good’. This webinar reviews the myths of the good billionaire and how they serve to vanquish the democratic promise of shared prosperity and human flourishing. The webinar also discusses how undermining the myth can lead to a new moral and political vision for a future where the wealth created by human activity is shared by the many rather than hoarded by the few.

Human rights in Myanmar: The NUG's programs and policies

By H.E. Aung Myo Min, Minister for Human Rights, National Unity Government, Myanmar

On April 16, 2021, the interim government, National Unity Government (NUG), was formed with two main aims: to eliminate the military dictatorship in Myanmar and to build a genuine federal democratic union. The Ministry of Human Rights is one of the seventeen ministries of the NUG to ensure nation-building in which all citizens and residents are treated equally without any discrimination as per international human rights principles and standards.

During this presentation and interactive discussion, the NUG Human Rights Minister H.E. Aung Myo Min will share how the Ministry works with various stakeholders both domestically and internationally to serve the people of Myanmar to be respectful of, to be protective of, and to promote human rights on par with the international human rights principles and standards. 

The Ministry is running three key programs: developing a mechanism where human rights abuses and violations can be put forwards as complaints and recording all human rights violations; cooperating and collaborating with international organizations working on human rights and justice, including the United Nations, to put the culture of impunity to an end; and, to ensure that human rights principles and standards are integrated into every policy and position of the NUG.

This opportunity to meet with Minister Aung Myo Min will be a chance to learn how the NUG is working with international human rights principles and to discuss the two-year old interim government's achievements to date.
 

About the speaker

H.E. Aung Myo Min has been an advocate for human rights in Myanmar for decades. He was a student activist when the pro-democracy movement happened in 1988 and escaped to the Myanmar-Thai border after the 1988 military coup. He served in the Foreign Affairs Department of the All Burma Students’ Democratic Front. In 1995, he earned a master’s degree in human rights from Columbia University.

In 2000 he founded the Human Rights Education Center (Myanmar) in Thailand. From 2005 to 2010 he served as Director of the Human Rights Documentation Department under the National Coalition Government of Union of Burma. He was serving as Executive Director of Equality Myanmar before being appointed as the NUG Human Rights Minister. He holds seven international human rights honors including the Shuman Award presented by the EU.

This is an in-person only event, reception at 4.30pm, lecture at 5pm.

Registration is essential.

Transforming our economies to serve people and the planet is the big challenge of our time. However, there is no alternative, we need to move away from the current unhealthy and unjust economic practices that are harming the Earth’s ecosystems, which include all of us. Taking the lead to drive this necessary change is something that many are doing all around the world. 

On November 8, join the 2023 Fellows of the Future Leaders Program of the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse in an open conversation with external guests to talk about why this economic transformation is so pivotal to achieve Planetary Health Equity and where they see their contribution.  

No matter their area of expertise, from food and urban development to gender and climate, they are all working with the same vision in mind: a healthy planet where all people today and tomorrow can live and thrive. Are you working on a similar path or simply curious to learn more? Would you like to share your point of view and experience or simply just listen? Then join us!

This is an event part of Earth4All Action Week 2023.

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

In the first webinar of the series in 2024, Dr Nick Frank, Dr Megan Arthur and Prof Sharon Friel from the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse will discuss the big policy and business challenges for planetary health equity. Specifically they will explore issues related to the political economy, financialisation, and governance coherence.

Please join us for episode 9 by registering at the link above.

Episode 10 features Jess Beagley, the Policy Lead at The Global Health and Climate Alliance, with Dr Megan Arthur and Prof. Sharon Friel.

COP28 in Dubai saw a record number of fossil fuel lobbyists at the heart of the international climate negotiations, while communities whose health and lives are most affected by planetary crises were severely under-represented. These imbalances in power were traceable in the decisions which emerged, which fell short of the commitments needed to protect the health of people and planet.

Meanwhile, health considerations, including those relating to air quality, are also often not deeply integrated into climate plans at country level. However, we can hope to see ambitious climate policy making to protect wellbeing through: improved representation of vulnerable communities and their priorities in policy fora, collaboration and strengthened messaging by civil society, cooperation across national Ministries responsible for planetary health issues, and regulation of industry participation.

The Saving the World Webinar Series is presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, the series discusses the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

In the spotlight: the challenges for Counsel Assisting Royal Commissions involving high stakes policy and political issues.

CONFERENCE CONVENORS & SPONSORS

This conference is organised and convened by

• Professor Katerina Teaiwa,
• Talei Mangioni,
• Professor Rebecca Monson
• and Lisa Hilli.

The conference is supported by:

• the Australian Association for Pacific Studies
• the ANU Pacific Institute
• the ANU School of Culture, History & Language
• the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific (CAP)
• the ANU College of Law
• the CAP Asia Pacific Innovation Program
• and the ANU Gender Institute

Episode 11 features Matt Castle, a Senior Lecturer in the Political Science and International Relations Program at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand whose current project explores how negotiators attempt to promote new norms in the trade regime, in the face of institutional and political constraints on innovation.

New global challenges demand new ideas. This is as true in the trade regime as in other areas of international cooperation. Yet by design and happenstance, existing rules and institutions are often resistant to change. Negotiators design global trade rules to provide a stable and predictable institutional environment, and these rules become ‘sticky’ over time. But faced with global challenges like climate change, new rules must emerge. How then do trade negotiators successfully promote new norms in a context that resists such innovation? I first examine the ways in which the trade regime has evolved into a ‘dense’ system of inter-related texts and discuss how this structure constrains the emergence of new ideas. I then look to opportunities for innovation and change. I focus on under-explored areas of the trade regime: agreement renegotiations, ‘side letters’, and ‘marginal’ agreements signed by small players.

The Saving the World Webinar Series is presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, the series discusses the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

Practitioner perspective insights on how the Global Compact for Migration is being utilised in practice to progress the rights of migrants at global, regional and national levels.

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode featured Dr Annabelle Workman, Research Fellow at Melbourne Climate Futures.

The health and other impacts of climate change highlight an imperative for urgent climate action. The health community continues to increase its efforts in raising the alarm on climate-related health impacts and emphasising the health and economic benefits of ambitious and timely action. Yet, projections based on the analysis of current policies and action see us remain on a dangerous path of global warming over 2°C. Using insights from the political economy literature, this seminar will explore what strategies might exist to secure the urgent action needed to develop healthier climate policies.

DISCUSSING AI, AUTOMATED SYSTEMS AND THE FUTURE OF WAR SEMINAR SERIES

This seminar series is part of a two-year (2023-2025) research project on Anticipating the Future of War: AI, Automated Systems, and Resort-to-Force Decision Making, generously funded by the Australian Department of Defence and led by Professor Toni Erskine from the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs.

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode will feature Beck Pearse, a sociologist at the ANU School of Sociology and the Fenner School of Environment & Society.

Beck will discuss the social realities of Australia’s energy workforce and the resultant difficult questions about the political economy and geography of ‘just transition’ advocacy. Answers to questions about the where and who of transition management will be negotiated at multiple scales. The presentation will conclude with provisional thoughts on the institutions and reform strategies that will shape the future conditions, and therefore health, of energy labour.

Beck Pearse is a Lecturer jointly appointed to the ANU School of Sociology and Fenner School of Environment and Society. Beck’s current research projects investigate labour and land relations in the transition to a 'net zero' economy. She's interested in how people work and negotiate industrial change. Beck's doctoral thesis on the political economy of Australia’s emissions trading scheme was published as a monograph Pricing Carbon in Australia (Routledge/Earthscan, 2018). More recently, she co-authored Renewables and Rural Australia (2022) - the first social study of rural people's perspectives on the NSW Renewable Energy Zones.

Each year the ANU Indonesia Institute marks International Human Rights Day by bringing together experts from Indonesia and around the world to discuss a current and pressing human rights problem. This annual seminar has become an important event on the ANU calendar. Our 2023 Human Rights Day seminar will focus on the state of environmental rights in contemporary Indonesia. 

Indonesia's frontier regions have undergone drastic socio-ecological transformations. Beyond the well-known Java and Bali islands, these outer islands have seen extensive large-scale land acquisitions, propelled by surging global demand for food, fibre, and critical minerals. These developments have profoundly altered the environmental and social fabric of rural areas. Across the nation, a troubling escalation in land conflicts and the criminalization of community and Indigenous leaders has become evident. This situation extends to Indonesia's fisheries sector, where illegal fishing and the persistence of modern human slavery continue to afflict impoverished coastal communities and small-scale fishermen.

To mark International Human Rights Day, this seminar will delve into three crucial sectors in Indonesia: palm oil plantations, nickel mining, and fisheries. Our discussion will explore the intricate connections between these sectors and the transformations in community livelihoods, labor practices, as well as the complex web of socio-environmental rights and conflicts that ensue.

PANEL PRESENTERS: 

• Professor Ward Berenschot, The Koninklijk Instituut voor Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde / Royal Netherlands Institute of Southeast Asian and Caribbean Studies (KITLV) at Leiden - Conflict and violence in palm oil plantations
• Ms Fadilla Octaviani, Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative - Human and environmental rights at sea
• Anto Sangadji, PhD, Mineral, Energy, and Labor Transformation Research Group - Mining nickel for the climate

The presenters will discuss the following prompting questions:

• Please identify socio-environmental rights or justice issues currently facing the plantations/mining/fisheries sector. Who are the winners and losers? / Whose rights are under threat?
• What policies or initiatives have been implemented to protect human and environmental rights? What has been effective or ineffective, and why?
• What are the implications of these complex issues for environmental rights research or policy advocacy in Indonesia? 

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode will feature Hothouse Associate Fellow Christian Downie in discussion with Nick Frank and Sharon Friel:

The political activities of industries associated with the production and consumption of fossil fuels have thwarted state efforts to advance climate policy around the world. Yet we know very little about the role of trade associations that firms use to coordinate their activities. In this talk, Christian Downie from the Australian National University, follows the money to explore the political activities of trade associations in the United States between 2008 and 2018. Drawing on an original dataset built from tax filings, Christian will examine the revenue of these industry groups and their political spending. He will also draw on interviews with industry executives and lobbyists to discuss the political strategies trade associations use to shape climate policy.

Full recording available here on YouTube.

Dragonfly Thinking: how might we be able to use new AI tools and techniques to improve understandings of complex problems?

Climate justice in the context of conflict in Southeastern Myanmar 

During the ‘political reforms era’ of the 2010s, Myanmar/Burma attracted an influx of financial and technical support for developing and implementing climate change adaptation policies and projects. How did these adaptation efforts come to unfold in conflict-affected areas of the country and interact with existing drivers and dynamics of conflict there?

In this presentation, Marianne will share some insights from  her PhD research on the politics of adaptation in the context of the ‘Karen revolution’ in southeastern Myanmar during the fragile NCA ceasefire period of the late 2010s. The project combines insights from semi-structured and life story narrative interviews conducted during multi-sited fieldwork in Myanmar in 2018 and 2019 (incl. Karen state, Tanintharyi region, Nay Pyi Taw and Yangon), with a critical policy analysis. By building on critical adaptation, climate justice and political ecology literature, the project contributes to advance our understanding of the adaptation-conflict nexus and highlights the centrality of climate justice in adaptation processes.

SPEAKER:

Marianne Mosberg is a PhD candidate at the Department of International Environment and Development Studies at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) in Ås, Norway, and she is currently a Visiting Fellow at the Myanmar Research Center/Department of Political and Social Change at ANU. 

DISCUSSANT:

Terese Gagnon is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Copenhagen focusing on 'The Politics of Climate and Sustainability in Asia'. She holds a PhD in anthropology from Syracuse University. Her current book project, a multi-sited ethnography, is about Karen food, seed, and political sovereignty across landscapes of home and exile.

CHAIR: Hunter Marston

The ANU Myanmar Research Centre Dialogue Series is a conversation concerning current research on Myanmar aimed at providing scholars with an opportunity to present their work, try out an idea, advance an argument and critically engage with other researchers.

Episode 12 features Naomi Hogan, the Company Strategy Lead at ACCR, discussing how to influence fossil fuel companies. Naomi has experience in research, campaigns and advocacy, particularly on the impacts of coal and gas projects. Over the past 15 years, Naomi has worked with investors, companies, regional communities, Traditional Owners, scientists and policy makers towards enhanced climate disclosures and environmental protections.

The Saving the World Webinar Series is presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, the series discusses the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

Australia has been described as a beacon and haven where Money Laundering (ML) thrives: so, how can Australia improve ML prevention?

A series of webinars created by the Hothouse at ANU, discussing the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This episode featured Susan Park, Professor of Global Governance in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.

Do international grievance mechanisms work? These non-legal, non-binding mechanisms are increasingly used to provide recourse for people suffering environmental and social harm from internationally funded development projects. But, to date, there have been no studies to show how these mechanisms make a difference to people using them.

Susan's research examines whether international grievance mechanisms provide redress for the environmental and social impacts of international development projects, with implications for planetary health. The World Bank lends approximately $20 billion annually to developing states to fund energy, telecommunications, and infrastructure projects to address poverty and improve peoples’ lives. Yet development projects may have dramatic and irreversible environmental and social impacts: loss of lives, livelihoods, and land, a breakdown in community cohesion, species extinction, habitat loss, and irreparable damage to local ecosystems. Despite the World Bank’s Inspection Panel operating for 30 years, we still do not know how it – or any other international grievance mechanism – contributes to improving development conditions. Many people harmed by international development projects choose these non-legal international procedures to have their voices heard often because legal and political options may not be available to them. Indeed, around the world people put themselves in grave harm from state and corporate reprisal for speaking out to protect their environment.

Identifying the use of international grievance mechanisms for addressing injustice is imperative given the rise of conflicts from development projects globally and the increasing number of environmental ‘defenders’ being killed to protect themselves and their environment. International development practices are also contributing to the crossing of known ecological system boundaries globally, such as climate change, habitat loss, and species extinction, the outcome of which is likely to “surpass known experience and which alter …almost all human and natural systems” (UNDRR 2019: 32).

Susan presented uses of an eco-justice frame to analyse grievances against international development projects financed by Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs) to investigate whether they lead to improvements for people and ecosystems. An eco-justice approach combines the right of nature (to exist, repair, and regenerate) with environmental procedural rights for humans (to have access to information, to participate, and to have access to justice in environmental matters). Using an eco-justice frame for addressing grievances against development arguably can bring us closer to recognising both human and planetary health.

Understanding power, politics, policies, people and processes to improve governance for planetary health equity outcomes.

Timezone: 

5–6pm AEDT (UTC+11), 12.30–1.30pm MMT, 11.30am–12.30pm IST 

VENUE:

The dialogues in the series will be held in hybrid mode, ie in-person on the ANU Campus, and virtually on zoom.

• IN-PERSON: Seminar Room B 3.104, Level 1, HC Coombs Building, 9 Fellows Road, ANU, Acton, ACT, 2601
• ONLINE: Zoom. Once you register here, you will receive access to the online event page in Eventbrite where you will find the join link for the zoom meeting. Please select the relevant ticket, in-person or online, according to your preferred attendance mode.

For more information on the MRC 2023 Dialogue Series please see the MRC website 

You can subscribe to the ANU Myanmar Research Centre mailing list here.

We look forward to seeing you there.

VENUE

This event will be held in hybrid mode, i.e. in-person on the ANU Campus, and virtually on zoom.

IN-PERSON: Institutes Boardroom, HC Coombs Extension Building 8, 9 Fellows Road ANU, ACTON, ACT 2601. 

ONLINE: Zoom. Please select the relevant ticket, in-person or online, according to your preferred attendance mode.

The ANU Southeast Asia Institute Research Seminar Series is a recurring seminar series that showcases the work of scholars within the ANU working on political, social and cultural issues in Southeast Asia, with the goal of encouraging greater exchange, collaboration and networking amongst the research community.

The role of 'resources' in regime durability in Laos: The political economy of statist market socialism

The relationship between social media and populism is a much-debated topic. The usual concern is that social media exacerbates prevailing fault lines. What is less explored is the chain of online/offline events and network of interested parties that led to moments of populist mobilisation with highly consequential majoritarian aftereffects. In Southeast Asia, these populist events are not organic per se, but rely on longstanding virtual communities that sustained in-group preaching; Overton Window-shifting conspiracy theories and propaganda; and networks of virality activated during moments of need. 

This seminar stems from an ongoing effort to capture and analyse pivotal moments of right-wing online mobilisation in Malaysia through a five-factor framework: moments, mobilisation, mediatisation, mainstreaming, and mirroring. Using several instances of majoritarian mobilisation in Malaysia (anti-ICERD rally, Buy Muslims First campaign, and the recent ‘Green Wave’), the speakers explore the ‘manufactured’ nature of these moments and how an online/offline combination resulted in the mobilisation and mainstreaming of right-wing agendas.

The speakers examine how right-wing politicians, activists, preachers, opinion leaders and cyber troopers propagate perceptions of ‘Islam under threat’ to justify their intolerant attitudes toward ethnic, religious, gender and sexual minorities, and the conditions that facilitate such digitised mobilising. They argue that these forms of mobilisations hypercharged majoritarian trends, such as the purported ‘Green Wave’ during the recent Malaysian elections.

Lastly, they also go beyond the Malaysian case study to see how these forms of right-wing mobilisation are mirrored in the region (such as in Indonesia) and beyond.

Speakers

Dr Nicholas Chan is a postdoctoral fellow at the Strategic and Defence Studies Centre (SDSC), The Australian National University. His research interest lies in the intersection of religion and politics, with a specific focus on areas such as ontological security, religion and social media, counter-terrorism, and millenarian violence. He has published in journals such as Foreign Policy Analysis, TRaNS: Trans-Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia, and Critical Security Studies.

Dr Hew Wai Weng is a research fellow at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (IKMAS, UKM). He writes about Chinese Muslim identities, Hui migrations, political Islam, urban middle-class Muslim aspirations and their social media practices in Malaysia and Indonesia. He is the author of Chinese Ways of Being Muslim: Negotiating Ethnicity and Religiosity in Indonesia (NIAS Press, 2018). He will be a Fulbright visiting fellow at the Cornell University Southeast Asia Program from 2023-2024.

Photo by Hew Wai Weng

Click here to join our mailing list

Contact the ANU Southeast Asia Institute Research Seminar Series Conveners: 
 

• Björn Dressel at bjoern.dressel@anu.edu.au
• Nicholas Chan at waiyeap.chan@anu.edu.au

Kseniya Oksamytna will discuss her recent book, Advocacy and Change in International Organizations: Communication, Protection, and Reconstruction in UN Peacekeeping.

How do we mainstream the use of restorative justice in the context of environmental offending, which in Australia is virtually untested? What can we learn from New Zealand?

The purpose of this workshop is to take international migration studies in new directions through migration developments that have come to transform the political landscapes of both the Global North and South. We are a collaboration of three ECRs (from The Australian National University and University of Sydney) with cross-disciplinary specialisations (Sociology, Linguistics, History) in diverse aspects of migration concerning South Asia. Our workshop will lead to a special collection for the International Migration Review to advance interdisciplinary understandings about the ways in which irregular and forced migration are governed and contested in Asia.  

Aims  

The workshop will explore scholarship that: 

1. Examines changing migration pathways that forced migrants take within Asia and identify factors that push them into high-risk routes; 
2. Examines lived experiences of groups who have traversed borders into irregular and forced migration realms;  
3. Assesses the effectiveness of migration governance strategies adopted by Asian states, both formal and informal;  
4. Prioritises interdisciplinary dimensions of irregular and forced migration, accounting for political, social, cultural, legal, and historical factors, and how these emerge in the Asian context.  

To register for this free event, visit https://forms.gle/Uhwcyhe63FqDQ9DZ7 

This workshop has been funded by a South Asia Research Institute (ANU) event grant.

Enquiries: niru.perera@anu.edu.au

Strategies of managerial governance - outsourcing, cost recovery, performance indicators - produce overkill in the fields of regulation, crime control, and national security.

Twin health and education crises in Myanmar and the role of the international community

The current health and education situation in Myanmar presents significant challenges that require urgent attention from the international community. This has been further exacerbated by the consequences of the Myanmar military’s attempted coup on 1 Feb 2021, which disrupted the healthcare and education sectors. Almost 90 healthcare workers have lost their lives in military and police raids and other junta-associated violence since the attempted coup. There are currently 1.6 million internally displaced people across Myanmar, 17.6 million people in need, and 70,000 civilian properties including schools and hospitals have been burnt or destroyed by the junta since February 2021.

Amidst these challenges, the international community has a crucial role in making positive strides toward bettering Myanmar’s health and education situation by providing essential medical supplies, setting up medical clinics and mobile hospitals, and offering training to healthcare workers. In the education sector, international organizations can work with the NUG to reopen closed schools in liberated areas, establish temporary learning centres for displaced populations, and promote inclusive education for children with diverse needs.

In this lecture, Dr Zaw Wai Soe will outline the complexities of Myanmar’s health and education situation, and offer reasons that it requires sustained commitment, collaboration, and support from the global community. He will discuss how, by working together, domestic and international actors can help alleviate the challenges faced by the people of Myanmar and open the way for a brighter and more promising future.

About the speaker

H.E. Dr Zaw Wai Soe is an orthopedic surgeon and professor who since April 2021 has served as the Union Minister for the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education appointed by the National Unity Government of Myanmar.

He is the founder of the Spine Surgery and Emergency Medicine in Myanmar. He is the former Rector of the University of Medicine 1 and served as the chairman of the Myanmar Rector’s Committee till February 2021. He played a leading role in Myanmar’s COVID-19 fight as the vice chair of COVID-19 Contain, Control and Treating Coordination Committee.

This is an in-person only event, light refreshments at 5pm, lecture at 5.30pm.

Registration is essential.

This event is presented by the ANU Myanmar Research Centre and the ANU College of Health & Medicine

Climate change is not just an environmental threat but poses major and growing risks to the health of today’s population and future generations. It is already adversely affecting human health and health systems, and projected climate change will also increasingly undermine the functioning of health care systems and broader public health efforts. While adaptation is essential, there will be limits to our ability to adapt, and cutting emissions rapidly to protect health is vital. Progress towards zero emissions will bring not only long term benefits for health by reducing the risks from climate change but will also improve health in the near term, for instance through reduced exposure to air pollution by replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy; healthy and more sustainable food and transport systems. This presentation will summarise the evidence for the health (co-) benefits of climate action and suggest how progress towards net zero emissions could be accelerated.

Episode 13 will feature Prof Sir Andy Haines: Professor of Environmental Change and Public Health, Centre on Climate Change and Planetary Health, co-director of the WHO Collaborating Centre on Climate Change, Health and Sustainable Development, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine. 

Andy was formerly Professor of Primary Health Care at UCL and Director of the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine from 2001- October 2010. He was a member of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for the 2nd , 3rd  and 5th assessment exercises. He chaired the Rockefeller /Lancet Commission on Planetary Health and the InterAcademy Partnership working group on climate change and health. He currently co-chairs the Lancet Pathfinder Commission on Pathways to a Healthy Net Zero Future. He was knighted for services to medicine in 2005. He was awarded the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement in 2022 and a DSc honoris causa by ANU in 2024.

The Saving the World Webinar Series is presented by the Planetary Health Equity Hothouse, the series discusses the intersections between climate change, inequity, and human health. The focus is on actions that enable transformative change away from the harmful consumptogenic system to systems that promote good health, social equity and environmental wellbeing.

This seminar is the third in the Migration, Mobility & Movement Network Seminar Series presented by the School of Archaeology & Anthropology and the Migration Hub at the School of Regulation and Global Governance.

The 2022 Australian Federal election observed record-level ethnic minority candidates elected. However, the shares of candidates and elected Members of Parliaments with ethnic minority backgrounds are still much lower than their relative shares in the population. In this regard, Australia has lagged behind other major settler countries.

The underrepresentation of ethnic minorities in the political institutions can exacerbate inequality between majority and minority populations and increase feelings of alienation among minority groups, as political representation is a crucial step towards having the interests of the represented groups heard in the democratic system.

In this seminar, we look at the political representation of ethnic candidates in the federal election and examine whether ethnic minorities are selected by political parties in areas with high ethnic minority concentrations.

Our findings suggest a positive association between higher ethnic minority concentration and ethnic representation, albeit an overall under-representation of ethnic minorities in the Parliament. However, for the two major parties, ethnic minority candidates are less likely to be in safe seats, even when there is high ethnic minority concentration. Findings from our research suggest that ethnic voting is evident but it is perhaps too early to celebrate higher levels of ethnic representation in Australian politics.

About the speakers

Qing Guan is a research fellow at the ANU School of Demography and a member of the Australian Centre on China in the World. Her research focuses on understanding the trends and consequences of international migration in Australia and the Asia Pacific region using demographic and statistical tools.

Juliet Pietsch is a Professor of Political Science and the Head of School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. She is a leading scholar in the specialist fields of migration politics and political behaviour in Australia and Southeast Asia, and an expert on irregular migration in Europe, Southeast Asia and Australia.

How to attend

This seminar is being held at the School of Regulation and Global Governance on Level 2 of the Coombs Extension Building in the Teaching Room (Room 2.10).

You can also join the seminar online by registering via this Zoom link.

Image credit: Red Check Mark on Box by Tara Winstead from Pexels (free to use under Pexels licence)

This work focuses on making discourse on the metaverse legible in the context of story and history, considering a safer, more responsible, and more sustainable future metaverse.

Join Jon Altman as he explores how workable the proposed regulatory framework to ‘repair nature’ might be on First Nations titled lands that are fast expanding as the main portion of the Australia’s National Reserve System.

Much of our policy process focuses on the role of physical infrastructure, that is, structures that hope to mitigate the impact of shocks and disasters such as floods, terrorism, and crime. But a growing body of evidence suggests that social infrastructure - the places and spaces that build and maintain connections, such as libraries, parks, and pubs - hold greater potential to blunt the impact of such events. Using qualitative and quantitative evidence from cases around the world, Daniel pushes us to appreciate how the modest and often underappreciated field of social infrastructure should be front and center as we confront wicked problems.

About the speaker

An award winning author, Daniel Aldrich has published five books including Building Resilience and Black Wave, more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, and written op-eds for the New York Times, CNN, HuffPost, and many other media outlets. He has spent more than 5 years in India, Japan, and Africa carrying out fieldwork and his work has been funded by the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, the Abe Foundation, the Rasmussen Foundation, and the Japan Foundation, among other institutions. In 2021 he was Klein Lecturer at Northeastern University.

COVID protocols

The ANU strongly encourages you to keep a mask with you at all times (for use when COVID-19 safe behaviours are not practicable) and to be respectful of colleagues, students and visitors who may wish to continue to wear one. Please continue to practice good hygiene. If you are unwell, please stay home. The ANU’s COVID Safety advice can be accessed here.

This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: Four hands in interlocking grip by truthseeker08 from pixabay (free to use under pixabay licence)

China’s green credit balance and green bond stocks have surged to become the world’s largest within five years. China’s regulatory pathway to this and other achievements in green finance remains an underexplored question.

In this presentation, Wenting and Peter will explain the distinct green finance regulatory model that China has developed, including its use of a richer set of regulatory styles than might be expected from a system ostensibly based only on central planning. The Chinese green finance regulatory model encompasses two parts, the pressure driving mechanism and experimental governance.

The pressure driving mechanism swiftly injects green finance targets into all levels of bureaucracy. Experimental governance through green finance pilot zones aggregates real-world information about probabilities attaching to the failure or success of a given regulatory approach, and so overcomes Hayekian suspicion that centralized planning may not calculate accurately. The pressure driving mechanism further adjusts targets and tasks based on information from multi-level reporting loops.

The Chinese regulatory practices that Wenting and Peter identify shed light on how to address some of the common challenges facing transforming financial systems into green or sustainable finance. Their article is published at Tsinghua China Law Review, which can be accessed here.

About the speakers

Wenting Cheng is a Grand Challenge Fellow in the ANU College of Law, working at ANU Grand Challenge Program “Zero-Carbon Energy for the Asia Pacific”. She obtained her PhD degree in Regulation and Governance from RegNet. Her green finance-related research also considers setting green standards in Chinese green finance and China’s climate policy along the Belt and Road.

Peter Drahos is Professor of Law and Governance in the Department of Law, European University Institute, Florence, Italy. He is Emeritus Professor at RegNet and holds a Chair in Intellectual Property at Queen Mary University of London. Drahos is the author of Survival Governance: Energy and Climate in the Chinese Century, published by Oxford University Press in 2021.

COVID protocols

The ANU strongly encourages you to keep a mask with you at all times (for use when COVID-19 safe behaviours are not practicable) and to be respectful of colleagues, students and visitors who may wish to continue to wear one. Please continue to practice good hygiene. If you are unwell, please stay home. The ANU’s COVID Safety advice can be accessed here.

This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: Image of plants sprouting from stacks of coins by nattanan23 from pixabay (free to use under pixabay licence)

Singapore’s long history of political imprisonment is a controversial issue, which continues to be silenced and censored by the state. Through discussion of first-hand accounts, this presentation seeks to shed light on the nature of this practice.

About the speaker

Dr Ariel Athwal-Yap is an interdisciplinary lecturer in the School of Law and Criminology at Maynooth University.

Ariel is currently investigating relevant administrative policy and the assemblage of punitive practices that comprise sites of confinement, to provide a better understanding of domestic and international models for dealing with crime.

Ariel’s recent publications include Capital punishment in Singapore; A Review of the Clear Space Online Family online family violence behavioural change program for GBTQ+ men and non-binary people; Trauma – Prolonged and Accumulative: The impact of Singapore detention without trial from the 1948 Malayan Emergency.

She continues to work with the Monash and Oxford Criminology institutes on joint projects.

COVID protocols

The ANU strongly encourages you to keep a mask with you at all times (for use when COVID-19 safe behaviours are not practicable) and to be respectful of colleagues, students and visitors who may wish to continue to wear one. Please continue to practice good hygiene. If you are unwell, please stay home. The ANU’s COVID Safety advice can be accessed here.

This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: stylized image of a prisoner behind bars and barbed wire by Jared Rodriguez of Truthout from flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

In her new book Corporate nature: an insider’s ethnography of global conservation, Sarah Milne raises questions about the kind of world that emerges from mainstream green intervention – as seen in the work of big international NGOs, which have significant influence over nature conservation in the global south.

However, the declining trade union presence and the absence of autonomous forms of voice place workers and their rights at risk. A majority of women workers in labour intensive apparel industry is considered a source of industrial peace.

Focusing on Sri Lanka’s apparel industry, in post-covid times, this presentation explores how women workers action their collective voice and negotiate their workplace and related rights.

This seminar is Achalie’s final presentation of her doctoral candidature.

About the Speaker

Achalie Kumarage is a lawyer and a PhD Candidate at the School of Regulation and Global Governance (RegNet) at ANU.

Achalie holds a LL.B. and LL.M. from the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. She completed her second LL.M. at the American University in Washington DC, as a Fulbright scholar. She was a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo before commencing the PhD.

Achalie’s research has been awarded prizes from the American Society of Comparative Law (2019) and the Asian Journal of Law and Society and the Asian Law and Society Association (2022).

COVID protocols

The ANU strongly encourages you to keep a mask with you at all times (for use when COVID-19 safe behaviours are not practicable) and to be respectful of colleagues, students and visitors who may wish to continue to wear one. Please continue to practice good hygiene. If you are unwell, please stay home. The ANU’s COVID Safety advice can be accessed here.

This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: Image of women garment workers in Sri Lanka; supplied by the presenter.

An important part of effectively navigating complexity requires skill in bringing together a variety of perspectives and knowledges related to a system of interest.

However, conflict linked to perceived ‘incommensurability’ of perspectives is also common in such situations, leading to calls for greater research on ‘meta’ methodologies to bring together disparate knowledges.

This presentation outlines recent collaborative ANU research work under a Defence Science and Technology Group, Australian Department of Defence, Philosophy of Operational Research grant to derive principles for participatory process design based on cybernetic and transdisciplinary case studies, as well as reflections on their application in the development of a workshop for supporting Australian Government engagement in Oceania.

About the speaker

Professor Katherine Daniell is a transdisciplinary academic at the ANU’s School of Cybernetics, Fenner School of Environment and Society, and Institute for Water Futures.

Trained in engineering, arts and public policy, her work bridges multiple domains including multi-level governance, cybernetics, participatory processes, river basin management, politics and cultures of innovation, education, and international science and technology cooperation.

Katherine is a John Monash Scholar and convened the innovative ANU Master of Applied Cybernetics from 2019-22. She currently serves in multiple national and international roles, including as President of the French-Australian Association for Research and Innovation. In 2022, she received the insignia of French Chevalier (Knight) in the Ordre National du Mérite.

COVID protocols

The ANU strongly encourages you to keep a mask with you at all times (for use when COVID-19 safe behaviours are not practicable) and to be respectful of colleagues, students and visitors who may wish to continue to wear one. Please continue to practice good hygiene. If you are unwell, please stay home. The ANU’s COVID Safety advice can be accessed here.

This seminar presentation will be in-person only.

Image credit: abstract image of human tweaking cogs in brain cavity from Max Pixel (free to use under CC0 Public Domain license.

The governance of food systems in Australia is largely fragmented, and tends to focus on singular issues such as exports, food safety, or nutrition at a national level. Less attention is paid to food systems from a holistic perspective, and how local governments are involved. In this presentation, Amy Carrad will discuss what the findings of an ARC Discovery Grant project tell us about the role Australian local governments are playing in food system governance.