Coping with Inequality thru Co-Production of Knowledge: Community Health Impact Assessment

Abstract

This article is the part of research “Coping with Inequality through Co-Production of Knowledge: Community Health Impact Assessment”. It is under the umbrella of strategies to reduce inequality and to create fairness research project phase 2 supported by the Thailand Science Research and Innovation. The objective is to analyze the inequality in Thailand's Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) system and synthesize the community's patterns to coping inequality through the case study of the Community Health Impact Assessment (CHIA). The conceptual framework is the co-production of knowledge. Using mix-method for collecting data and narrative workshop for communities to share their stories and engage in analyze and synthesize data with researchers.

The study found that EIA/EHIA is an important academic report to support decision-making in the development project's license approval. But currently, it is a conflict of interest system that created the inequality among project owner and local people which are 1) a system that allows for project owners rather than local people. Whether it is an opportunity to access information, the rights and authority to determine the production of knowledge method, content and ownership of the report include access to the mechanism of EIA/EHIA review and decision-making, and 2 ) the mindset of methodology focusing on the disciplinary knowledge which produces only by the expert. Meanwhile, the global shift mode to co-production of knowledge. Therefore, the expert is a high social ranking more than the local/lay people, some of them use social power through technical language oppressed the lay knowledge. The Community, they transform via using the health impact assessment (CHIA) as a tool for addressing community core values and self - identity. They combined knowledge with trusted scholars to increase the jurisdiction of the process of EIA/EHIA review and license approval. Besides, it shows you how co-production of knowledge can close the gap of inequality in EIA/EHIA. It also led to the transition from the monopolize system to produce knowledge by scholars, experts in the university, research unit, consultants, even in government agencies, open up space to have a new knowledge producer and provide a combination of knowledge among the creators of this knowledge.