Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Welcome to the Green Gown Award winning Meliora Podcast from the Sustainability and Resilience Institute at the University of Southampton!
This podcast explores the greatest and most wicked problem that is sustainability, whilst looking at how we are collectively addressing this critical global challenge.
Sustainability needs to be addressed by understanding how the economy, society, culture, politics and environment intersect, and this is the focus that informs each episode of the Meliora podcast.
In each episode, host Professor Simon Kemp and guest hosts are joined by a variety of guests, including academics, students, staff, researchers, alumni, community groups and business leaders.
The aim of the podcast is to shine a light on the vast range of topics surrounding sustainability and to allow listeners to learn about the critical challenges we face, as well as how they can be part of the solution. We also ensure our fantastic students have the opportunity to share their brilliant work with the world.
Podcast host: Professor Simon Kemp, Deputy Director of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute, University of Southampton
Podcast editors: Jack Dinham, Ellie Howell, Mya Harvey, Lily Killner, Sophie Green, Libby Kale, School of Geography and Environmental Science, University of Southampton
Podcast communications: Tyler Domone-Hollands, Hannah Parish, Alexander Ayerst, Maya Stevens, University of Southampton
Please do get in touch to discuss this podcast and any of the issues we raise by emailing sri@soton.ac.uk
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Meliora: a podcast from the Sustainability & Resilience Institute
Massimo Risoli: The Left Behind in Can Tho, Viet Nam: Smart Cities, Climate Change and Everyday Inequality
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Massimo Risoli (BA Geography) joins us to discuss the research project "The Left Behind in Can Tho, Viet Nam : Smart Cities, Climate Change and Everyday Inequality" which is part of the Sustainability & Resilience Institute (University of Southampton) and Mekong Institute (Can Tho University) research collaboration.
In this episode Massimo discusses his dissertation, based on qualitative fieldwork in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta in Viet Nam. Drawing on thirteen semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and an interview with a local NGO conducted in June 2025, the research explores how smart city development shapes everyday experiences of flooding, digital inclusion, and urban inequality.
Building on Ayona Datta’s (2018) concept of digital visibility, the research argues that digital legibility increasingly determines which places, people and problems receive political attention and investment. While every participant identified flooding as a defining part of daily life and almost all had experienced climate-related displacement, none associated smart city development with climate adaptation. Rather than reflecting a lack of awareness, this reveals a deeper governance logic in which digitally visible forms of development are prioritised over long-term climate resilience.
The episode highlights why placing local voices at the centre of sustainability and smart city policies is essential if urban development is to be genuinely inclusive.
Key readings
- Datta, A. (2018). The digital turn in postcolonial urbanism: Smart citizenship in the making of India’s 100 smart cities.
- Hollands, R.G. (2008). Will the real smart city please stand up?
- Heeks, R. (2022). Digital inequality beyond the digital divide.
- Tran, T.A. (2020). From free to forced adaptation: A political ecology of the ‘state–society–flood’ nexus in the Vietnamese Mekong Delta.
Guest: Massimo Risoli, BA Geography
Host: Prof Simon Kemp
Producer & Editor: Jack Dinham
The Meliora Podcast Student Research Symposium is part of the 2026 Student Takeover Season where we celebrate the fantastic sustainability research work of our Undergraduate Students.
