Policy responses to informality in urban Africa: the example of Maputo,Mozambique

In the global South informality constitutes one of the leading issues for urban policy makers. The planning challenges around informality are particularly relevant in urban Africa as most Africans make their livelihoods in the informal economy. This paper examines issues of state policy responses to informality through the lens of street traders. Under scrutiny are policy responses towards street trading in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, a city that has experienced the advance of informalization. It is argued that the dominant approach towards informal trading across urban Africa is of a ‘sanitising’ policy response by the local state which is rooted upon traditions of modernist urban planning in search of ‘ordered development’. The research discloses that in Maputo national and municipal authorities have adopted a more tolerant approach to the informal economy, mainly because it provides a livelihood to so many of the city’s poor and because of potential social unrest likely to be triggered by a repressive approach. In Maputo the core narrative is of an urban informal economy viewed by officials as an important livelihood for the city’s poor, albeit one which is subject both to periodic harassment and encouragement to ‘formalize’. The analysis represents a contribution to the expanding corpus of writings on Africa’s informalising cities and specifically concerning policy responses towards street trading.     

Agriculture,sustainability and the imperatives of policy reform

Agriculture stands alone among resource sectors in Western industrialized countries as having the fastest growth in production/productivity during post-war years. Yet that growth in productivity and accompanying high levels of sufficiency has been at the expense of such goals as adequate income, community stability and resource/environmental conservation. In the process, agriculture has mimicked trends in the economy as a whole through increased segmentation and differentiation, throughput of non-renewable resources and divergence of natural and economic processes. Within the context of prevailing policies and market forces in OECD countries in general and Canada in particular, this paper evaluates the problems facing the sector and the nature of the trade-offs being made in the pursuit of high-input agriculture. It is argued that, while agri-business and market forces are generally responsible for a weakening of the links between environment and economy, numerous market distortions, precipitated by agricultural policy, do much the same. To achieve a better balance among the production and consumption functions of the land and to achieve an approach to future agricultural production which is sustainable will require changes in many of the rules, standards and conventions influencing the growth of food and fibre. From a policy perspective, the main task ahead is to redesign and implement programs which will encourage new ‘opportunity sets’ for the economic and competitive viability of the farmer and agricultural system, while at the same time meeting the nutritional needs of society and ensuring the protection of important environmental services and amenity values.     

Changing climate discourse and politics in India. Climate change as challenge and opportunity for diplomacy and development

This article contributes to the study of changing climate discourse and policy in emerging powers through a case study of climate discourse in India since 2007. Based on interviews with key actors in Indian climate politics and textual analysis, three general climate discourses – the Third World, Win–Win and Radical Green discourses – are identified. The discourses are characterised by different constructions of India’s identity, interests, climate change exposure and climate policy orientation. At the most general level, the article finds that there has been a general discursive shift from the Third World discourse to the Win–Win discourse, and that the latter discourse is in broad agreement with the dominant international climate change discourse of ecological modernisation and thus supports an alignment between Indian and international climate politics. We also find, however, that India’s domestic climate politics is marked by co-existence and tensions between the three climate discourses, producing a complex and at times contentious discursive politics over climate change, identity and development. The case study presented in this article moreover demonstrates how national interests are socially constructed and how changes in policy reflect changes in the dominant discourse.     

Exploring the asylum-migration nexus in the context of health professional migration

The current global migration regime is extremely complex and characterised by a polarisation of flows. Increasing numbers of individuals fleeing conflict regimes and seeking asylum are faced with restrictive immigration regimes whilst at the same time, highly skilled migrants are welcomed and encouraged to contribute to developed economies. This paper explores the asylum-migration nexus that has emerged as a result of restrictive immigration policy by drawing upon a survey of 300 health professionals in the UK. First, the empirical lens of health professionals fleeing conflict regions is employed to map the contours of the asylum-migration nexus. Second, the implications of highly selective asylum flows to Europe, in terms of economic and social characteristics, are considered. The paper concludes by highlighting concerns that Western refugee policy regimes are worryingly failing to fully meet moral obligations to protect individuals seeking asylum whilst also inadvertently supporting brain drain flows.     

The green economy in Tanzania: From global discourses to institutionalization

The purpose of this paper is to examine the transfer of the green economy from a global discursive level to institutionalization at the national level in Tanzania. While there is a growing amount of research discussing technological aspects of the green economy, less attention has been paid to policy implications and governance aspects, especially in developing countries. There is an increasing emphasis on technological and market-based solutions to environmental challenges globally and in the developed part of the world. However, in developing countries, ‘green growth’ often implies transformed control over natural resources – under schemes that are often driven from abroad. Over the last five to ten years, investments aimed at increasing productivity in the rural agricultural sector in developing countries have become a focus area of the green economy, but various concepts of green have become confused. Such (mis-) interpretation of the green economy has consequences for implementation and outcomes of various ‘green’ projects. Drawing on governmentality as well as the concept of institutional bricolage, I examine how the green economy discourse and policy at the global level have been re-shaped and re-interpreted to fit the existing agri-business initiative of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), which has been championed as a model for green economy implementation in Africa. I discuss how the green discourse has been ‘grabbed’ as an opportunity to ‘greenwash’ SAGCOT in its establishment and institutionalization.     

Ecological primordialism: the human–environment nexus in Soqotra

This article depicts the initial human–environmental relations that prevailed during the pre-modern period of Soqotra’s history prior to its incorporation into a state-led modernization process and its subsequent enclosure within a United Nations-designed conservation zoning plan and ecotourism economy. The term ecological primordialism is coined to highlight the primacy of the environment as the enabling and constraining context for the constitution of the Soqotran community. It entails a symbiotic relationship between an ecosystem and a human social system, which structured the contingent relations between the raw materials for livelihood making and community formation: people, resources and space. The article elucidates how Soqotrans managed this mostly constraining human–environment nexus through a series of adaptive practices: their taxonomic appropriation and practical domestication of the island’s environmental resources; their transformation of the landscape into a domain of livelihood; their organization of dispersed settlements into a socio-political unit; their demarcation of the island into geographical zones of cultural differentiation; and their establishment of mutual aid institutions that simultaneously regulated resource use while integrating all islanders into relations of social kinship. The article concludes with a cautionary tale about the use of anachronistic human–environment relations as the basis of conservation policy.     

War and the commons: Assessing the changing politics of violence, access and entitlements in Sri Lanka

There are two antagonistic, but equally influential traditions in the study of the nexus between resource use and violent conflict. One works through a Malthusian frame linking resource scarcity with violence, the other school of thought establishes a nexus between resource abundance and the incentives to use violence for rent monopolisation in a political economy of war or markets of violence. The tacit essentialism inherent in both schools of thought has increasingly come under critical scrutiny by geographers and anthropologists. To escape such essentialism requires a more detailed study of the dynamism of the political economy of (civil) war and its spatial dynamics, the political geographies of violence. In this paper, we study endowments and entitlements of people depending on common-pool or open-access resources in war-affected areas of Sri Lanka. Rural spaces in the war-affected areas became both a strategic retreat for fighters and an important common-pool resource on which a large part of the rural populace depended for their survival. Our research illustrates how the political geographies of war affect access regimes and entitlements to common-pool resources and thereby confine the livelihood opportunities of resource users. These dynamics of the political economy of war cross different scales and go beyond simple place-based struggles, for they are rooted in broader spatial dynamics of warfare creating place-space tensions in the sense that spatial dynamics of military control impinge changing access regimes upon specific places.     

Ranching and the new global range: Amazônia in the 21st century

This paper seeks to understand how the Brazilian Amazon, which many thought unsuitable for agricultural development, has yielded to a dynamic cattle economy in only a few decades. It does so by embedding the Thunian model of location rents within the regime of capital accumulation that has driven the Brazilian economy since the mid-20th century. The paper addresses policies that have created location rents in Amazônia, the effect of these rents on land managers, and the spatial implications of their behavior on forests. Thus, the paper connects macro-processes and structures to agents on the ground, in providing a political ecological explanation relevant to land change science. The policy discussion focuses on reductions in transportation costs, improvements in animal health, and monetary and trade reforms. To illustrate the impact of policy, the paper presents data on the geography of Amazonian herd expansion, on the growth of Amazonian exports, and on the profitability of the region’s cattle economy. It follows the empirical presentation with more abstract consideration of the spatial relations between cattle ranching and soy farming, and implications for deforestation. The paper concludes on a speculative note by considering the likelihood of forest transition in the region, given the transformation of Amazônia into a global resource frontier.     

The spatial context of manpower policy: Implications of current Canadian policy on regional development and planning

Macro government policies are often considered outside the context of their spatial impact. Following recent discussions of the problem, this paper is concerned with a critical review of Canadian Manpower policy in the context of national efficiency, regional equity and their interaction. Thus Manpower policy is analysed with respect to its implications concerning regional development as well as implicit regional policy. It is contended that many of the problems of Manpower policy in the spatial context can be traced back to the implicit theoretical background of Manpower policy; Human Capital theory. A radical critique of Human Capital theory is presented and a brief discussion of the ‘functional’ relationship between regional inequality and national macro-planning is also noted. In general the paper concludes that Manpower and regional policies in Canada tend to be contradictory although more research is needed to analyse the spatial impact of macro-policy which may overwhelm spatial policy and significantly influence the future of the spatial economy.     

Job access, location decision, and the working poor: A qualitative study in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area

The critical perspective in job accessibility research argues that access to employment opportunities in an urban area is a complex process. This paper explores the role of individual level location decision-making as it relates to job access. In US metropolitan areas, a worker must consider where to live, where to work, and how they will commute between these locations – the residential–commuting–employment nexus. But limited work has been done to understand how this home-work link influences job access. This research interviews thirty working poor individuals in the Columbus, Ohio metropolitan area. One unexpected finding was the spatially transitory nature of these individuals’ lives – frequently changing both jobs and residences. Negotiating the nexus is a process of spatial decision-making determined by their individual urban mobility. Residential choice is made based on mobility options, not work location. They have diverse job commuting experiences as their mobility options change over time, and those mobility options often dictate their capacity to access existing job opportunities. From the experience of these individuals, Columbus has a strong local economy with many low-skilled higher paying jobs, but a weak public transit system. This article also contributes a qualitative based research perspective to a body of literature that historically under utilizes the approach.     

Pb, Sr AND Nd-ISOTOPIC COMPOSITIONS OF PALEO AND NEO-TETHYAN OCEANIC CRUSTS IN THE EASTERN TETHYAN DOMAIN: IMPLICATION FOR THE INDIAN OCEAN-TYPE ISOTOPIC SIGNATURE

Pb, Sr AND Nd-ISOTOPIC COMPOSITIONS OF PALEO AND NEO-TETHYAN OCEANIC CRUSTS IN THE EASTERN TETHYAN DOMAIN: IMPLICATION FOR THE INDIAN OCEAN-TYPE ISOTOPIC SIGNATURE     

Cenozoic tectonics in the Urumgi-Korla region of the Chinese Tien Shan

Cenozoic deformation within the Tien Shan of central Asia has accommodated part of the post-collisional indentation of the Indian plate into Asia. Within the Urumgi—Korla region of the Chinese Tien Shan this occurred dominantly on thrusts, with secondary strike-slip faulting. The gross pattern of deformation is of moderate to steeply dipping thrusts that have overthrust foreland basins to the north and south of the range, the Junggar and Tarim basins, respectively. Smaller foreland basins lie within the margins of the range itself (Turfan, Chai Wo Pu, Korla and Qumishi basins); these lie in the footwalls of local thrust systems. Both the Turfan and the Korla basins contain major thrusts within them; they are complex foreland basins. Deformation has progressively affected regions further into the interior of the Junggar Basin, and propagated into the interiors of the intermontane basins. No unidirectional deformation front has passed across the Tien Shan in the Neogene and Quaternary. An Oligocene unconformity may indicate the time of the onset of the Cenozoic deformation, but most of the Cenozoic molasse has been deposited after the Palaeogene. The rate of deposition in basins next to the uplifted ranges has increased since the onset of deformation. There has been at least about 80 km of Cenozoic shortening across this part of the Tien Shan. Cenozoic shortening is greater in sections of the range further west; these are nearer to the northern margin of the Indian indenter. Cenozoic compression has reactivated structures created by the two late Palaeozoic collisions that created the ancestral Tien Shan. These Palaeozoic structures have exerted a strong control over the style and location of the Cenozoic deformation.     

Formation and emergence of ICT clusters in India: the case of Bangalore and Hyderabad

Since the 1990s, information and communication technologies clusters (ICT clusters) have been created in developing countries, especially in Asia, where India is one of the most dynamic countries. Bangalore and Hyderabad are two important examples of Indian clusters. This article aims to analyze the characteristics of ICT clusters, Indian policies to develop IC technologies, the formation and emergence of the Bangalore and Hyderabad clusters and their impacts on the population, as well as to show that ICT development is a strategic issue for India but does not benefit all of its population.     

The fisherly imagination: The promise of geographical approaches to marine management

The management of the sea has increased exponentially in the last half-century, and different academic disciplines have been vital in shaping this management. Human geography, despite its explicit focus on the human–environment nexus, has so far had little impact on human relations with the sea. Based on empirical research conducted in England and Scotland, we argue that human geography is uniquely placed to offer effective solutions to marine resource management problems, and that geographers have the potential to offer key insights into how human populations can best interact with the living seas. Three of the most important current scholarly ‘imaginations’ of the sea, and the policies they inform (economics and market-based management, conservation biology and area based protection, and anthropology and community management), are outlined. A potential ‘geographical imagination’ of the sea, drawing on key themes in contemporary scholarship is then presented, and grounded in empirical research. It is argued that human–ocean relations should be a key feature of geographical research agendas.     

Paleogene Sequence Stratigraphy and Sea Level Change Cycles in South Xizang (Tibet) - Last Stage in Eastern Neo-Tethyan Evolution

INTRODUCTIONAfteralongperiodofevollltionfromepicontinentalseaviariftbasinandintercontinentalseatoanoceanicbasinduringMesozoic,theeastalsNeO--tetherchangedagainideanepicontinentalseainthelateStCretaCeous.Atca80Ma,thenorthwarddriftingoftheindianplatefindlyleadtothecontaCtandinitialcollisionoftheplatewiththeEUrasiancontinent,resultinginalargeamplitudeofsealevelfallandtheconsequentlowersealevelperiodinnorthernHimalayas(Shietal.,1995).DUringPalcogene,theseaareaswererestrictedinspacelargel…     

Transaction links through cities: ‘decision cities’ and ‘service cities’ in outsourcing by leading Brazilian firms

Most world city studies focus on where the provision of advanced producer services takes place, but in this study the location of the service clients are also taken into account. Production-service transactions are identified as links between ‘service city’ and ‘decision city’ (client HQ) and classified as intra-city (where a firms uses local (same city) services) and inter-city which may be domestic or foreign depending on whether the client uses services in or out of the country. Sampling the leading firms in Brazil, 218 transaction links are described and analysed in terms of cities, firm sectors, ownership and market. The analyses are used to inform a rereading of gateway city functions that takes into account the concentration/dispersal nexus in economic globalization. Thus, whereas the dominance of Sao Paulo in the Brazilian economy is confirmed, this is not interpreted as a simple gateway function with this one city ‘articulating’ the national economy into the world economy. A much more complex situation is revealed with by-passing of the gateway also much in evidence. The conclusion is that this shows concentration and dispersion of economic activity happening simultaneously in Brazil.     

Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait

Kuwait experienced severe land degradation over the last 30 years due to different factors. This is reflected in soil loss, crusting, salinization, oil contamination, and vegetation cover deterioration. The recent surface deposits are considered as the local source of sand and dust storms, which have acute environmental hazards on the public health, the State’s economy, and the life quality. They are classified into two main categories: desert and coastal deposits. The distribution of the areas affected by deflation processes and those affected by depositional processes revealed that the northern desert of Kuwait is receiving intense sand supply, but on the other hand, the southern desert of Kuwait has a lower frequency of sand deposits. This study is based on visual comparison between the records of the 1980s and recent field surveys during 2001–2011, as they are the available sources of the relevant information to the scope of the study, to investigate the impact of the anthropogenic activities, the significant role of the aeolian processes, soil type, and climatic conditions on the land degradation, and subsequently the severe loss of vegetation and surfacial cover. A detailed sedimentomorphic map, scale 1:100,000, was prepared for the State of Kuwait based on the topographic map of Kuwait (scales 1:50,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000) and photomaps (scale 1:29,000), which were created as per the delineated information from the aerial photos (scale 1:29,000, years 1990, 2001) along with spectral and spatial resolution data of the Radarsat, Landsat-7, IRS-1D (Indian Remote Sensing), ERS, TM, SPOT-4, Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection, and IKANOS data in raw format for Kuwait images for the available years (1989, 1994, and 2000–2004), keeping in view of the terrain in Kuwait and the objective of the study.     

The indigenous growth towards a cash economy in Africa — A case study of a lacustrine economy in Malawi

Chilwa, an endohreic lake in East Central Africa, lies in a basin peripheral to the developed areas of the Shire Highlands in Malawi. In 1965 the catch of fish accounted for half the estimated catch of Malawi, while the seasonally inundated grasslands sustain 35,000 head of cattle. The receding lake has left a series of terraces favourable to cotton and tobacco production. This study examines the responses of the people in the southern section of the plain to circumstances which could offer an integrated rural economy with the additional advantage of an entry into the money nexus through commercial fisheries.     

Dispossessing irrigators: Water grabbing,supply-side growth and farmer resistance in India

This paper examines, first, the conditions under which irrigating farmers are being alienated from their water through a state-led process of dispossession, and then, second, details the dialectical process of farmers’ resistance to these efforts. The paper advances recent scholarship on water grabbing and ‘accumulation by dispossession’ by drawing on a case from northwestern India to explore the connections between non-agrarian economic growth, irrigated agriculture and farmer livelihoods. Specifically, it examines an urban water infrastructure development project that aims to provide water to Jaipur, the Indian state of Rajasthan’s capital city, through the appropriation of an existing rural dam/reservoir complex built for irrigation and redirecting it to domestic, commercial and industrial uses. Drawing on an examination of policy documents and interviews with farmers and state planners, this paper argues that these transfers must be understood as a supply-side solution to support economic growth, where the lack of stable water supplies is a barrier to capital accumulation. The paper contributes to critical scholarship by showing that the processes underpinning water’s reallocation are specific acts of ongoing ‘dispossession’ through extra-economic means under advanced neoliberal capitalism, which alienates water away from peasant producers towards new centers of capital accumulation, dialectically creating peasant resistance to these efforts.