Richard MacDonald | Center for Southeast Asian Studies Kyoto University

Richard MacDonald

Richard MacDonald
Research Departments・Position
Cross-regional Studies
Guest Scholar
Area
Anthropology, Media, Historiography
Research Interests / Keywords
Infrastructure, Publics and Urban Life,
The Mediation of Environmental Controversies,
Guerilla Urbanism
Contact
r.macdonald@gold.ac.uk

Richard MacDonald

My research draws on anthropology, science and technology studies and urban geography to investigate the relationship between technological infrastructures and publics. I look at the way infrastructural systems address and implicate publics, and the spaces of participation and contestation that crystallise around their planning, construction and use. As an ethnographer my research has focused on both Southeast Asia, predominantly Northeast Thailand, and the UK. My previous project looked at entrepeneurial urbanism in the city of Khon Kaen, Northeast Thailand, in the shadow of China's high-speed rail diplomacy and its potential re-spatialisation of the region. I am currently researching the mediation of public controversy within the UK environmental movement in relation to the construction of a high-speed rail network.