Amy Fallon

Background

About Amy Fallon

Postdoctoral Researcher | Water Security Governance | Complexity & Transformation | Southeast Asia & Southern Africa I’m a postdoctoral researcher in the Water and Development Research Group at Aalto University, working on the SYKE-led GloWater project, where I explore water security and transformative governance through the lenses of complexity, equity, power, and sustainability. My research focuses on how governance systems (especially in water and fisheries sectors) navigate complexity and conflicting demands, values, and worldviews in rapidly changing social-ecological-technological systems, particularly across Southeast Asia. Drawing on development studies, political ecology, social-ecological systems (SES) theory, complexity science, resilience thinking, and critical institutionalism, I explore how policy narratives, power dynamics, and informal institutions shape (or constrain) pathways toward just and sustainable futures. In my research, I examine the potential of conflict transformation, social learning, and relational governance approaches in tackling ‘wicked problems’ – i.e, those where uncertainty, contestation, and complexity are the norm. I also interrogate what it means to ‘transform’ a system, considering the ‘dark side’ of transformation and the role of value conflicts in its design. My research is grounded in qualitative, transdisciplinary approaches, and I am always looking for ways to link local voices to global systems. In addition to my postdoctoral work, I’m developing a collaborative platform on qualitative complexity in governance research, and serve as an Adjunct Research Fellow at Charles Sturt University, continuing research on fisheries governance and sustainability transformations in Southeast Asia. Key themes: • Transformative water and fisheries governance • Environmental conflict and cooperation • Complexity science & social emergence in system change • International development (with focus in SE Asia) • Interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability Research locations: • Indonesia • Mekong River Basin (Cambodia, Lao PDR, Vietnam) • Limpopo River Basin, South Africa ORCID: