The Environmental Offshoring project examines thickening linkages and blurring boundaries between economy and environment within East Asian regionalism and its implications for policy and governance on development and disaster risks. It is set against the backdrop of the rise of global commodity chains (GCCs) since the second half of 1980s. Defined as “the nexus of interconnected functions, operations and transactions through which a specific product or service is produced, distributed and consumed” (Coe et al. 2008), they are the dominant mode of production on which virtually every aspect of social, economic, and political life is now dependent, and are a linchpin of the regional/global connectivity. Meanwhile, there is a growing recognition that  in a rapidly changing and interlinked world, achieving sustainable development has been increasingly understood as an outcome not only of economic and social policies but also the ability to manage disaster-related risks. The impacts of disasters ranging from floods and droughts to earthquakes and tsunamis, incur significant economic, social and environmental harms, and put at risk systems of human provisioning, such as for food, energy supply, and transport. Environmental offshoring is constituted of two interrelated and consecutive strategies for environmental and disaster governance. This research employs World Ecology theory and a relational analysis of East Asian regionalism to advance a conceptual understanding of the mutual constitution between economy and environment at the conjuncture of development and disaster governance. 

This project is a collaboration with Dr. Carl Middleton from the Center for Social Development Studies, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok, Thailand.

More info: https://www.kasasustainability.org/research