Kangkong (Ipomoea, Convolvulaceae) and the geographies of interstitial urban spaces in Southeast Asia

Abstract

This is a study of the life and heritage of a plant and the people involved in the prod~ction of kangkong, Ipomoea aquatica Forskal within dynamic peri-urban spaces m mamland Southeast Asia. Kangkong has a distinction of being both a food in much ofAsia and a weed in other parts of the world. It has become an important vegetable in Cambodia, Thailand, and Viet Nam. The production of this vegetable largely occurs around cities. In Hanoi and Phnom Penh, the use of wastewater is an important aspect of its production while in Bangkok, though wastewater is not used, kangkong has become a commercial vegetable replacing rice production in 'some areas. Such disparate trajectories offer insights into the households involved in its production and the spaces upon which it thrives so that opportunities for understanding the desakota characteristics ofspatial change in mainland Southeast Asia can be made.In understanding desakota geographies, this study looks at the key factors that explain livelihood dependence through the use ofsurvey data and sequential regression. Then their geographical underpinnings are fleshed out The results showed that, in Bangkok, the occupational multiplicity of the wife explains dependence while it is the performance of kangkong production by both the husband and the wife in Hanoi. In Phnom Penh, it was shown that it is the occupational multiplicity of the husband that explains a household's dependence on kangkong production.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo