About the project
Deltas' Dealings with Uncertainty (DoUbT) is an ORA project funded by the Dutch, UK,
French and Japanese national funding organizations for the period 2016-2019.
DoUbT innovatively combines science and technology studies (STS) with the anthropology of development to interrogate how uncertainties are understood and dealt with in environmental planning. The research objects are deltas in South and Southeast Asia. These deltas are dynamic and densely populated environments characterized by agricultural intensification, rapid urbanisation and vulnerability to the effects of climate change. We focus on four deltas with diverging cultural and historical trajectories and contemporary dynamics: the Ganges-Brahmaputra, the Mekong, the Chao Phraya and the Irrawaddy.
Locations of the deltas that are studied in relationship with global networks, with particular attention paid to knowledge that travels from Western countries such as The Netherlands, UK, France, Denmark and Japan
The main project hypothesis is that much delta knowledge used in the South comes from specific epistemic communities, whose knowledge travels through and because of global development-cooperation networks. We trace these networks and travels through space and time to critically examine how delta knowledges are generated and gain authority, and their hybridisation with ‘local’ knowledge and governance practices.
Engaging with contemporary debates in STS, the analyses will reconsider expertise and the role of experts in dealing with uncertainties. This will inform the formulation of guiding principles for productive and responsible ways of environmental knowing and planning at different scales.