Simon Benedikter

Since 2014, Simon Benedikter works as a researcher and adviser in the field of environmental change and natural resources governance in Hanoi, Vietnam. Prior to that (2007–2013), he served as a senior researcher at the Center for Development Research (ZEF), University of Bonn, Germany. Being based in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta during that time, he was engaged in a wide range of social science research activities on water governance, rural development and environmental issues. He holds a Diploma in Southeast Asian Studies and a PhD in Development Studies, both from Bonn University. He is the author of the book The Vietnamese Hydrocracy and the Mekong Delta: Water Resources Development from State Socialism to Bureaucratic Capitalism (2014). His current research interests are concerned with the political and social dimension of ecological change and critical development studies focusing on Vietnam.