Salt and Power : Making Sense of Loss in a Changing Climate through Scalar Politics
Dorkenoo, Kelly LU
(2025)
In Antipode
- Abstract
The question of what gets to be sustained or what disappears on the land under conditions of climate change is a process of “future-making” that is deeply social and political. As changes in monsoon patterns and more erratic rainfall threaten Cambodia's only salt production, which relies on labour-intensive sun-drying, the spectre of loss becomes ever more present. Loss as a transformation from presence to absence is neither total nor fait accompli; rather, it is co-produced, ambiguous, felt, and differentiated. In this paper, I examine the reworking of land relations in Cambodia's salt sector in the context of climate change and ask what disappears, persists, and for whom. I argue that engaging with climate-related loss as a... (More)
The question of what gets to be sustained or what disappears on the land under conditions of climate change is a process of “future-making” that is deeply social and political. As changes in monsoon patterns and more erratic rainfall threaten Cambodia's only salt production, which relies on labour-intensive sun-drying, the spectre of loss becomes ever more present. Loss as a transformation from presence to absence is neither total nor fait accompli; rather, it is co-produced, ambiguous, felt, and differentiated. In this paper, I examine the reworking of land relations in Cambodia's salt sector in the context of climate change and ask what disappears, persists, and for whom. I argue that engaging with climate-related loss as a socio-environmental process that is scalar, relational, and embedded in agrarian histories is necessary to expose and make sense of the politics of (desirable) land in a future with climate change.
(Less)
- author
- Dorkenoo, Kelly
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- epub
- subject
- keywords
- Cambodia, climate change, land, loss and damage, scalar politics
- in
- Antipode
- publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105007216933
- ISSN
- 0066-4812
- DOI
- 10.1111/anti.70036
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Antipode published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Antipode Foundation Ltd.
- id
- 84bf754e-5fab-47b3-bc69-3fcc308c08c9
- date added to LUP
- 2025-08-15 14:08:00
- date last changed
- 2025-08-15 14:09:12
@article{84bf754e-5fab-47b3-bc69-3fcc308c08c9,
abstract = {{<p>The question of what gets to be sustained or what disappears on the land under conditions of climate change is a process of “future-making” that is deeply social and political. As changes in monsoon patterns and more erratic rainfall threaten Cambodia's only salt production, which relies on labour-intensive sun-drying, the spectre of loss becomes ever more present. Loss as a transformation from presence to absence is neither total nor fait accompli; rather, it is co-produced, ambiguous, felt, and differentiated. In this paper, I examine the reworking of land relations in Cambodia's salt sector in the context of climate change and ask what disappears, persists, and for whom. I argue that engaging with climate-related loss as a socio-environmental process that is scalar, relational, and embedded in agrarian histories is necessary to expose and make sense of the politics of (desirable) land in a future with climate change.</p>}},
author = {{Dorkenoo, Kelly}},
issn = {{0066-4812}},
keywords = {{Cambodia; climate change; land; loss and damage; scalar politics}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Wiley-Blackwell}},
series = {{Antipode}},
title = {{Salt and Power : Making Sense of Loss in a Changing Climate through Scalar Politics}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/anti.70036}},
doi = {{10.1111/anti.70036}},
year = {{2025}},
}