John Kleinen, born in Kerkrade, the Netherlands, in 1948. Ph.D. from the University of Amsterdam. Assistant Professor at the Sociological and Anthropological Department at the University of Amsterdam, and Fellow at the Amsterdam School for Social Science Research (ASSR).
Fellow (31 January 2004 – 30 June 2004)
ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA, 1500-2000
The Nucleus “Environmental History of Southeast Asia, 1500-2000” was an excellent source of inspiration. Without the hospitality of the NIAS during my term in 2004, I doubt that I would have been able to (re)write the major chapters of my book on the history of natural resources utilisation in Vietnam with a special focus upon the coastal zone of northern Vietnam and the history of naval development and fisheries. These topics are under-represented in the growing body of anthropological and historical literature about Vietnam. Using two case-studies from two different villages in a coastal district, I extended the topic with chapters on coastal issues, influenced by sea rise and climatic change, fisheries, tourism and more traditional sources of livelihood like aquaculture and salt making. A lecture for NIAS treated the question of fisheries in the difficult environmental context of Vietnamese territorial waters. I also participated in the workshop that the nucleus organised on the theme and the paper will be part of a book with the same title, to be edited by Greg Bankoff and Peter Boomgaard.
Besides reading and writing, I was able to publish one article about the theme, this time more focused upon aqua- and mariculture. It appeared in Maritime Studies, a scholarly journal issued by the Maritime Research Centre (Mare) in Amsterdam. I also returned to the correcting and final proof reading of a number of articles and an area study on Cambodia (KIT publishers, 2004). My earlier interest in the works and the life of the French geographer Pierre Gourou resulted in a chapter for a book about the genealogy of French tropical geography and the issue of tropicality.