BA (Oxon), PhD (London)
Development Studies Institute
London School of Economics and Political Science
Houghton Street
London WC2A 2AE, UK.
tel:
+44 (0)20 7955 6836
fax: +44 (0)20 7955 6844
e-mail: t.j.forsyth@lse.ac.uk
Research
specialization
I am a specialist in political approaches to environmental change and
international development.
I have worked on two key themes:
- The politics of environmental science and policy processes, especially in rapidly developing societies,
- The development of deliberative, multi-stakeholder forms of governance that can result in more development-friendly, as well as environmentally effective, policy solutions.
I have worked on climate change policy (especially technology transfer); poverty and environment (especially community forestry and urban/ rural livelihoods); and on policy processes within developing countries (public-private partnerships and civil society). In academic terms, my work is located in political ecology; science and technology studies; and environmental governance.
I strongly believe that many approaches to environmental management in developing countries overlook important uncertainties in the causes and potential solutions to problems, and how political processes give the appearance of certainty. My research aims to use political analysis to demonstrate how environmental debates need to question their assumptions, and devise more inclusive and effective ways of responding to problems of environment and development.
I have some six years' work experience in Southeast and South Asia.
Click here to see more environmental research at DESTIN (Development Studies Institute, LSE)
Publications
Books
2010 (in press) (edited): Moving
Mountains: Highland Livelihoods and Ethnicity in China, Vietnam, and Laos,
with co-editor Jean Michaud, Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press.
This book analyzes how ethnic identity can be an important asset for livelihood
strategies in the highlands connecting China, Vietnam and Laos under the
combined forces of globalization, post-socialism, and statemaking. The book
presents important and new studies of this little-researched region.
2008: Forest Guardians, Forest Destroyers: The Politics of Environmental Knowledge in Northern Thailand, with co-author Andrew Walker, Seattle and London: University of Washington Press, 302pp. A research monograph analyzing why usual practices of scientific progress have not occurred in a region that has become one of the most researched in Asia. This book links scientific knowledge about forests and watersheds to alliances of state and NGOs in Thailand.
2005:
(edited) Encyclopedia of International Development.
London and New York: Routledge, 826pp.
2003:
Critical Political Ecology: The Politics of Environmental Science, London
and New York: Routledge, 320pp.
1999:
International Investment and Climate Change: Energy Technologies for
Developing Countries, London: Earthscan and the Royal Institute of International
Affairs (Chatham House), 266pp.
1998:
(edited) Positive Measures for
Technology Transfer under the Climate
Change Convention, London: Royal Institute of International Affairs
(Chatham House), 195pp.
1996: Sustainable Tourism: Moving from Theory to Practice, London: World Wide Fund for Nature, 65pp. A survey of 69 companies and agencies engaged in sending tourists overseas. What can they do to enhance sustainable tourism? What does this mean for business regulation?
Commissioned reports and consultancies
2009: Chapter on multi-level, multi-actor governance for climate change and forest policies in developing countries, for Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
2005:
'Climate change,' Chapter 13 of the Millennium
Ecosystem Assessment, with co-authors: Noble, I., Parikh, J., Watson, R.,
Howarth, R., Klein, R., Abdelkader, A. An international assessment overseen by
various international organizations.
2005: 'Partnerships for technology transfer: How can investors and communities build renewable energy in Asia?' Briefing paper for the Sustainable Development Program, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London.
2002: 'Driving forces for the adoption of Environmentally Sound Technology,' United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), Vienna.
2002: 'Realising rights? Negotiating access to Thailand's forests,' with co-author Craig Johnson, Department for International Development (DFID), London.
2000-2008: Trustee for The Karen Hilltribes Trust, a UK-based charity working to enhance clean water, education and livelihoods in northern Thailand.
1998: 'Poverty and environment, an overview study,' with co-authors Melissa Leach and Ian Scoones. Conducted by the Institute of Development Studies, Sussex for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and European Commission.
Articles in refereed journals
2009: 'Progress on Community-Based Adaptation' AdaptNet Special Report (09-06-S-Ad) 8 September 2009 (with Jessica Ayers and Saleem Huq).
2009: 'Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change: Strengthening Resilience through Development' Environment 51: 4 22-31 (with Jessica Ayers).
2008: 'Political ecology and the epistemology of social justice,' Geoforum 39: 2 756-64 (Special issue dedicated to the work of Piers Blaikie).
2007: 'Are environmental social movements socially exclusive? An historical study from Thailand,' World Development 35: 12 211-30.
2007: 'Promoting the "development dividend" of climate technology transfer: can cross-sector partnerships help?' World Development 35: 10 1684-98.
2007: 'Sustainable livelihood approaches and soil erosion risks: who is to judge?' International Journal of Social Economics 34: 1/2 88-102.
2006: 'Cooperative environmental governance and waste-to-energy technologies in Asia,' International Journal of Technology Management and Sustainable Development 5: 3 209-220.
2005:
'Building deliberative public-private partnerships for waste management in
Asia,' Geoforum 36:4 429-439.
2005: 'Enhancing climate technology transfer through greater public-private
cooperation: lessons from Thailand and the Philippines,' Natural Resource
Forum 29: 165-176.
2002:
'Environmental social movements in Thailand: a critical
assessment,' Asian
Review 15:106-127.
2002:
'In the eyes of the state: negotiating a "rights-based approach" to
forest conservation in Thailand,' World Development 30:9 1591-1605
(with Craig Johnson).
2002:
'What happened on The Beach? Social movements and governance of
tourism in Thailand,' International Journal of Sustainable Development
5:3 326-337.
2001:
'Constructing a new understanding of environment under post
socialism,' Environment and Planning A 33: 573-587 (with Tassilo
Herrschel).
2001:
'Environmental social movements in Thailand: how important is
class?'
Asian Journal of Social Sciences 29: 1
35-51.
1999:
'Environmental activism and the construction of risk: implications for
NGO alliances,' Journal of International Development 11:5 687-700.
1999:
'Flexible mechanisms of climate technology transfer,' Journal
of Environment and Development 8:3 238-257.
1999:
'Fighting back: human adaptations in marginal
environments,' Environment
41:6 6-11, 25-29 (with Simon Batterbury).
1998:
'Technology transfer and the climate change debate,' Environment
40:9 16-20, 39-43.
1998:
Commentary on the development of indigenous knowledge, Current
Anthropology 39:2 140-141 (invited commentary on submitted paper).
1998:
'Mountain myths revisited: integrating natural and social environmental
science,' Mountain Research and Development 18:2 126-139.
1997:
'Environmental responsibility and business regulation: the case of
sustainable tourism,' Geographical Journal 163:3
270-280.
1997:
'Environmental transformations in developing countries: hybrid research
and democratic policy,'
Geographical
Journal 163:2 126-132 (with Simon Batterbury and Koy Thomson).
1996:
'Science, myth and knowledge: testing Himalayan environmental
degradation in Thailand,’ Geoforum 27:3 375-392.
1995:
'Business attitudes to sustainable tourism: self-regulation in the UK
outgoing tourism industry,' Journal of
Sustainable Tourism 3:4 210-231.
1995:
'Tourism and agricultural development in
Thailand,' Annals
of Tourism Research 22:4 877-900.
1995:
'The mu'ang and the mountain: perceptions of environmental
degradation in upland Thailand,' South East Asia Research 3:2 169-192.
1994:
'The use of cesium-137 measurements of soil erosion and farmers'
perceptions to indicate land degradation amongst shifting cultivators in
northern Thailand,' Mountain Research
and Development 14:3 229-244.
1991:
'Tourism: problem or solution to the Himalayan crisis?' Global Ecology and Biogeography Letters
Chapters in edited books
(forthcoming, 2010) 'Politicizing environmental explanations: what can political ecology learn from sociology and philosophy of science?,' in Goldman, M. Nadasdy, P. and Turner, M. (eds) Nature, Transforming Ecologies: Science, Power, and Practice in Environmental Science and Management, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
2009: 'How to participate, integrate and coordinate? REDD and multi-level, multi-actor governance,' in Angelsen, A. and Brockhaus, M. (eds) National Policies for REDD (Reduced Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), Bogor: Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR).
2009: 'The persistence of resistance: Analyzing local responses to agrarian change in Asia,' pp. 267-276 in Caouette, D. and Turner, S. (eds) Agrarian Angst and Rural Resistance in Contemporary Southeast Asia, London: Routledge.
2009: 'Democratizing international environmental expertise about forests and climate,' pp. 170-185 in G. Kutting and R. Lipschutz (eds) Environmental Governance: Power and knowledge in a local-global world, London: Routledge.
2008: 'The Brown environmental agenda,' in Desai, V. and Potter, R. (eds) The Companion to
Development Studies, 2nd edition, London: Arnold.
2008: 'Investing in waste-to-energy projects: Success factors for public-private collaboration in Asia,' pp. 117-130 in Tang, K. and J. Yeoh (eds) Wastenomics: Turning Waste Liabilities into Assets, Enfield: Middlesex University Press.
2008: 'The contentious world of Jared Diamond's Collapse,' pp. 27-38 in Boykoff, M., Everard, K. and Goodman, M. (eds) Contentious Geographies, Aldershot: Ashgate.
2007:
'Rethinking watershed science: Lessons from Thailand,' pp. 208-225 in
Cornell, J. and Waddell, E. (eds)
2005:
'The political
ecology of the ecosystem approach for forests,' pp. 165-176
in Sayer, J. and Maginnis, S. (eds) Forests in Landscapes: Ecosystem
Approaches for Sustainability, London: Earthscan.
2005:
'Anil
Agarwal,' pp. 9-14 in Simon, D. (ed) Fifty Key
Thinkers on Development, London
and New York: Routledge.
2005:
'Land-use impacts on water resources: science, social and
political factors,' in
Anderson, M. et al (eds) Encyclopedia of Hydrological Sciences,
Chichester: Wiley. (10,000 words).
2004:
'Social movements and environmental democratization in
Thailand,' pp.
195-216 in Jasanoff, S. and Long, M. (eds) Earthly
Politics: local and global in environmental governance, Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
2004:
'Industrial pollution and social movements in
Thailand,' pp. 422-438 in Peet,
R. and Watts, M. (eds) Liberation Ecologies: environment, development and
social movements (Second Edition), London and New York: Routledge.
2003:
'Climate change investment and technology transfer in Southeast
Asia,' pp. 237-257 in Harris, P. (ed) Climate
Change and East Asia: The politics of global warming in China and East Asia,
London and new York: Routledge.
2002: 'The brown environmental agenda,' pp. 294-297 in Desai, V. and
Potter, R. (eds) The Arnold Companion to
Development Studies, London: Arnold.
2001:
'Poverty and environment: priorities for research and policy,' pp.
11-56 in Agersnap, H. and Funder, M. (eds), Conservation and development: new
insights and lessons learnt. Copenhagen:
Environment and Development Network (with M. Leach and I. Scoones).
2001:
'Poverty and environment: what are the issues?' in Consumers
International (CI): Poverty and Environment: priorities for the future, Penang,
Malaysia: Consumers
International, Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.
2001:
'Political ecology and critical realism,' pp. 146-154 in Stainer, A.
and Lopez, G. (eds) After postmodernism: critical realism?, London: Athlone Press.
2001:
'Deforestation in Thailand: the battle in politics and science,' pp.
139-154 in Vajpeyi, D. (ed) Deforestation
environment, and sustainable development: a comparative analysis, Westport,
CT, and London: Praeger.
1999:
'Joint Implementation, technology transfer, and the Clean Development
Mechanism,' various contributions in Grubb, M. and Brack, D. (eds) (with
Forsyth, T. and Missfeldt, F.) The Kyoto Protocol: a guide and assessment, London: Earthscan.
1998:
'Foreign investment and technology for climate-change mitigation: a
background,' pp. 1-12 in Forsyth,
T. (ed) Positive measures for technology transfer under the Climate Change
Convention, London: RIIA.
1998:
'Rapporteur's account of workshop proceedings and debates,' (with
Dean Anderson) pp. 13-34 in Forsyth, T. (ed) Positive
measures for technology transfer under the Climate Change Convention,
London: RIIA.
1998:
'The politics of environmental health: suspected industrial poisoning
in Thailand,' pp. 210-226 in Hirsch, P. and Warren, C. (eds) The
politics of environment in Southeast Asia: resources and resistance,
London: Routledge.
1997:
'Industrial pollution and government policy in Thailand: rhetoric
versus reality,' pp. 182-201 in Hirsch, P. (ed) Environment
and environmentalism in Thailand, Bangkok: Silkworm Publications.
1997:
'Sustainable tourism and market interest' pp. 251-270 in Hein, W.
(ed) Tourism and sustainable development,
Hamburg: Deutsches Ubersee-Institut.
1997:
'Industrialization in Vietnam: social change and environment in
transitional developing countries,' pp. 247-269 in Auty, R.M. and Brown, K. (eds) Approaches
to sustainable development, London: Cassell.
1995:
'Non-regulated tourism as a form of environmental management in
northern Thailand: the case of Pha Dua, Chiang Rai,' pp. 155-177 in Rigg, J.
(ed) Counting the costs: economic growth
and environmental change in Thailand, Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
(ISEAS).
Editing of journals
2009-present: Associated editor of Conservation and Society
2008-present: Advisory panel of Social Movement Studies
2000-present: Co-editor and book reviews editor of Progress in Development Studies.
1998: Guest editor of Mountain Research and Development 18:2, 'Mountain myths and environmental narratives.'
1997: Guest editor of the Geographical Journal 163:2, 'Environmental transformations in developing countries,' (with Simon Batterbury).
Press here to see Books for Review for Progress in Development Studies.
Previous workplaces
2000-present: London School of Economics and Political Science.
1999-2000: Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University (Global Environmental Assessment Program).
1998-1999: Fellow, Institute of Development Studies, Sussex, UK.
1997-1998: Fellow, Energy and Environmental Programme, Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House), London.
1995-1997: London School of Economics and Political Science; King's College London.
1993-1994: Journalist, Asia, Inc magazine (Hong Kong and Thailand); Associated Press (Thailand).
Languages
Thai: good fluency (written and spoken)
French: reasonable fluency (written and spoken)
Indonesian: basic conversational skills