Context and contingency: the coffee crisis for conventional small-scale coffee farmers in Brazil

Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and the world's leading producer and exporter of coffee. Smallholders are the predominant producers of Brazilian coffee and have been significantly impacted by post-ISI (import substitution industrialisation) neoliberal reforms that swept the nation's agricultural sector beginning in the 1980s. These reforms stimulated increased coffee production while simultaneously diminishing state interventions, including agricultural subsidies, farmer credits, research and development programmes, extension services, and rural development initiatives. These changes were closely followed by major restructuring of the global coffee market and the elimination of international coffee export quotas. Our research joins a growing body of recent literature exploring how changes related to market liberalisation and globalisation affect localities and regions where producers supply coffee for conventional markets. Through a case study, we describe the impacts of neoliberal globalisation on the lives, livelihoods, and environment of small-scale coffee producers in Minas Gerais, Brazil. We explore how neoliberal reform, reflected in the specific historical, geographical, and environmental context of Brazilian coffee production, has resulted in the increased marginalisation of small-scale farmers, the degradation of soils, and overall rural decline.     

The rise of corporate retailing and the impacts on small-scale retailing: the survival strategies of Kirana stores and informal street vendors in Durgapur,India

In many developing world economies in recent years, the state has been seen to encourage neoliberal economic expansion policies. This has involved both large-scale foreign corporations and sometimes large-scale domestic corporations. Many studies have discussed the new landscapes of economic hardship and the impacts on small businesses. The aim of this paper is to argue that the impacts on small traders are in fact more complex and varied than usually appears in the literature. The research was conducted in the industrial city of Durgapur in the Bardhaman district of West Bengal, India. First it is argued that the impact has been greatest on the ‘kirana’ owners, operating small convenience type stores with legalized trading arrangements and fixed premises. On the other hand, the street vendors (often unlicensed and having no fixed premises) seem not to be affected in terms of customer loss and indeed could be seen to be doing well against the backcloth of neoliberal expansion. In fact we argue that the growth in the number of street vendors provides as much of a threat to future livelihoods for traditional kirana owners as the growth of large corporations itself.     

Handbook of applied spatial analysis: software tools,methods and applications,edited by M.M. Fischer and A. Getis

With the rising oil prices, climate change, and the ever increasing burden of nutrition-related disease, food security is of growing research interest in academic disciplines spanning agronomy to epidemiology to urban planning. Some governments have developed progressive policies encouraging individuals to consume locally produced foods in order to support local economies, improve agricultural sustainability and community access to food, and to plan and prepare for adverse environmental impacts on food security. However, fundamental methods are lacking for conducting research on food security across these various disciplines. In this article, we first present a method to measure agricultural self-sufficiency, which we refer to as our self-sufficiency index (SSI) for the province of British Columbia, Canada. We then present a Bayesian autoregressive framework utilizing readily available agricultural data to develop predictive smoothing models for the SSI. We find that regional capital investment in agriculture and cropland acreage is the strong predictor of SSI. To accommodate spatial variability, we compare linear regression models with spatially correlated errors to less traditional spatially varying coefficient models, and find that the former class results in better model fit. The smoothed maps suggest that relatively strong self-sufficiency exists only in subset clusters in the Okanagan, Peace River, and lower mainland regions. In spite of policy to promote local food, the existing local agricultural system is insufficient to support a large-scale shift to local diets. Our approach to estimating neighborhood-based self-sufficiency with a predictive model can be extended for use in other regions where limited data are available to directly assess local agriculture and benefit from explicit consideration of spatial structure in the local food system.     

Economic reform, open-door policy and changes in spatial development patterns in China

1 IntroductionA country's regional development pattern is inevitably shaped by the regional development policies its government adopts. In planned economies like China's, the government's role in determining spatial differences of regional development is particularly great[1]. Since the inception of the economic reform and open-door policy in the late 1970s China has been undergoing an unprecedented transition from a planned to a market-oriented economy and from an agrarian society to an urba…     

RACIALIZATION IN ACADEMIC DISCOURSE

Education is considered key to economic growth and to the reduction of social inequality and disadvantage. Contemporary education policy reflects the ideals of a neoliberal agenda (i.e., reform and economic competitiveness). Given that the United States both recognizes and abides by the rules of the free market, public schools find themselves in a neoliberal straitjacket. This "one-size-fits-all" garment has "pinched" public schools. This study draws on a broadly post-structural perspective of space and geographical context, and utilizes insights from Foucault to flesh out issues regarding "taken-for-granted" education reform in the U.S. Specifically, this work looks at No Child Left Behind through a geographic lens, emphasizing the importance of local context and the differential effects of policy.     

Policy narratives, landholder engagement, and oil palm expansion on the Malaysian and Indonesian frontiers

Over recent decades a structural transformation has affected agriculture in the frontier areas of Malaysian Borneo and Outer Island Indonesia with the rapid conversion of agricultural lands, fallows, and formerly forested areas into oil palm. These frontiers have similar positions in the international political economy of oil palm and have complementary resource endowments. In both cases, state planners face the common challenges of finding a disciplined labour force, delivering land for estate development, maintaining local legitimacy, and dealing with local contestation. Yet there are significant differences in systems of governance and policy frameworks regarding land, shifting capacity of state actors to facilitate the transformation of these agrarian frontiers, and changing degrees of local, national and international contestation. Considering the generic and the specific elements at play in each case, this paper argues that analogous policy narratives have shaped the ways in which landholders have been engaged in the process of oil palm expansion in Malaysia and Indonesia. In both cases, with the shift from state-led to neoliberal governance approaches to agricultural development, the 'frontier' has been created and transformed through policy narratives that facilitate the conversion of whole landscapes into oil palm. This has been achieved by obscuring indigenous forms of agriculture and land tenure, while creating reserves of available 'state' or 'idle' customary land, and counterpoising smallholder 'marginality' and 'backwardness' to the modernity of contemporary estate agriculture.     

Neoliberalism,Mineral Development and Indigenous People: a framework for analysis

There have been suggestions in recent literature that neoliberalism and globalisation present positive opportunities for Indigenous communities engaging in resource development projects on their traditional lands. This paper will present evidence from preliminary research on the neoliberal restructuring that has endured for those Indigenous communities of Queensland who have engaged with mineral development opportunities. Initial findings indicate that the State has devolved some of its responsibilities to the mining company in relation to Indigenous development and service provision. This paper develops a theoretical and analytical framework to enable an examination of the implications of this voluntary devolution of responsibility for Indigenous development and service provision and questions whether this represents a positive opportunity for Indigenous people in the region.     

CONSTRUCTING CONSENSUS: ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY MAKING IN MASSACHUSETTS

In this paper we consider whether consensual approaches to environmental policy making—that is, policies that seek to foster cooperation and the search for consensus among industry, environmental groups, and regulatory authorities—are likely to succeed when pursued by states and local areas. Recent work in industrial and urban ecology suggests considerable benefits derive from a regulatory approach centered around cooperation, trust, and the search for consensus among interested parties. The conditions under which such consensual approaches to policy making are likely to succeed, however, are not well established. Drawing upon an emerging literature on trust and cooperation in advanced industrial economies, we examine whether local levels in the state are well positioned to pursue a consensual approach to environmental policy making. The research design involves case-study analysis of two environmental initiatives in Massachusetts—namely, the Toxics Use Reduction Act (1989) and revisions to state hazardous-site clean-up laws. The research clarifies the significance of overlapping material interests and of the process of consensus building in achieving successful environmental policy reform.     

论我国区域发展与区域政策的地学基础

改革开放以来我国区域经济发展十分活跃，形成了地区差距不断扩大的局面，但这是众多因素共同作用的结果，并非是单纯的“政策说”可以完全解释的，其中，地学因素是基础性的影响因素，所谓地学因素指人地关系中的“地“要素以及人地相互作用所形成的空间结构基础；它对区域发展的影响是相对比较稳定和长久的，本文从强调地学因素在区域发展中的重要性和在国家制定区域政策中应起到的作用从这样一个角度出发，分析论述影响我国区域发展的地学因素，包括自然条件、区位因素、资源禀赋、生态环境和基础设施等。并基于对地学因素的分析提出我国区域发展总体战略的构想。     

Classifying mineral potential in support of land-use policy decisions in British Columbia,Canada

British Columbia covers a vast segment of the Cordillera Mountain system that is richly endowed with a diversity of resources. British Columbia's historic patterns of resource development increasingly have been in conflict with demands for greater environmental protection. To avoid such conflicts, a recently legislated process that provides for detailed mineral resource assessments in candidate park areas has stimulated the creation of a mineral potential classification system for use in land-use planning and policy decisions.A mineral potential study of the Chilko Lake Planning Area provided three unique categories of field data on which to build the classification system. These categories are geological setting, geochemistry, and mineral occurrences. Data in each category were compiled independently to provide indicators of mineral potential. The field data were used to develop a widely understood classification of mineral potential. The classification is based on two factors: favorability and degree of confidence.     

Comparative policy analysis: Neoliberalising New Zealand

Comparative policy analysis involves systematically examining the long‐term formation of public policies across a number of societies. It focuses particularly on the sequence of policy regimes: liberalism – Keynesianism/social democracy – neoliberalism. Since 1980, neoliberalism has been widely adopted as the guiding ideological structure for economic policy making. But neoliberalism encounters resistances that vary with national contexts. New Zealand is a particularly interesting case because of its reputation as a social democratic, welfare state that went neoliberal with a vengeance (Rogernomics).     

Hybrid Neoliberalism: Implications for Sustainable Development

Neoliberalism is frequently blamed for challenges in achieving sustainable development; consequently some also question if sustainability is still a useful concept. Neoliberal influence on natural resource management has evolved over the last 30?years to a hybrid form that seeks to compensate for its negative social and environmental externalities. Through review of literature and critical analysis of three case studies of resource development in Australia and New Zealand, we argue that, in spite of modifications under hybrid approaches, neoliberalism still tests achievement of sustainability goals, due to privileging industry and shifting risk and costs to future generations, through inadequate regulation, neglect of public consultation, lack of transparency, and weak impact assessment. We suggest that while neoliberal approaches bring both benefits and disadvantages, sustainability principles must continue to be kept at the forefront of legislation, regulation and management.     

发展地理学视角下中国区域均衡发展

Large regional differences and uneven regional development are fundamental challenges for China. Balanced regional development is an important issue in research on development geography. This study reviews the course of balanced regional development in China and summarizes its characteristics in each period. The results show that inter-regional development in China has undergone successive periods of balanced and unbalanced development. Each period has enhanced social development and contributed to a more balanced regional development. This paper discusses the scientific connotation of balanced regional development, and invokes sustainable development theory to argue that we should pay attention to the differences in resource endowments among regions, and solves the imbalance among the economy, humans, and nature to promote the spatial balance of regional development and green development for better coordination between economy and ecology. The balanced promotion of the well-being of people in each region is the ultimate goal of balanced regional development. We then use concepts from development geography to examine China’s path of balanced regional development from the three perspectives of society, the economy, and ecology. Suggestions are also provided for the balanced development of China’s regions and the improvement of public well-being.     

Making Markets: Think Tank Legislation and Private Property in Detroit

The growing literature on shrinking and declining cities portrays the problems of vacancy and abandonment as symptoms of the absence of capital, while the policy transfer literature views declining cities as unlikely sites for the incubation of neoliberal urban policy. This study examines how declining cities have become key sites for tailored market intervention, focusing on the collapse of Detroit's land market. Long-term decline has been exacerbated by legislative changes orchestrated by think tanks seeking to reinvigorate the market for private property while using homeownership for neighborhood stabilization. Analysis of legislative proceedings, tax foreclosure auction data, and interviews with developers, officials, and activists document the trajectory of these policies of market fundamentalism and indicate that the primary “stabilization” has involved a revitalization of the conditions for predatory capital accumulation in a declining city.     

Migration‐as‐development repackaged? The globalizing imperative of the Singaporean state's diaspora strategies

Diaspora strategizing is becoming an important field of public policy in countries that seek to advance development through migration. Diaspora strategies present a way of complicating interpretations of development, as countries that represent different levels of development seek to mobilize diaspora networks nonetheless. While Singapore's diaspora strategies prioritize diaspora knowledge networks, it bears the stamp of the country's colonial history, postcolonial priorities and developmental state apparatus. We suggest that these factors result in a distinctive diaspora strategy characterized by a centralized and technocratic approach more similar to diaspora strategies found in emerging economies. Earlier research on diaspora strategies has been concerned with assessing successes or failures, but a more critical scholarship that questions the logics and outcomes of diaspora strategizing is emerging. We bring the Singaporean case into dialogue with four such critiques: first, the intellectual foundations of diaspora‐centred development; second, the hyperextension of state infrastructure for emigration and stakeholder alignment; third, the selective mobilization of the idea of diaspora; and fourth, the evidence base upon which diaspora‐centred development is predicated. Our goal is to further critical interrogation into the logics, efficacy and sustainability of diaspora strategizing. We situate our analyses in the international literature on diaspora knowledge mobilization.     

REGIONAL VARIATIONS IN FLOW-DURATION CURVES FOR RIVERS IN BRITISH COLUMBIA,CANADA

The estimation of flow quantiles and the regionalization of hydrologic characteristics are two major foci of current hydrologic research. A flow-duration curve represents the annual flow-frequency characteristics of rivers by depicting the cumulative frequencies for average ranked flows in a river. Generally the process requires the empirical estimation of the mean flow at each of 365 ranks. A model requiring only five parameters is developed by combining the principles of order statistics and traditional flow-frequency analyses and is applied to flow-duration curves for rivers in the province of British Columbia, Canada. Results from the model may be interpreted both statistically and physically and allow the identification of hydrologically similar regions. Streamflows in British Columbia are generated from a number of distinct physical processes operating in highly diverse environments. The mixture of the streamflow-generating processes requires that the statistical model be capable of encompassing the different flow-frequency regimes. Identification of hydrologic regions also depends on the inclusion of these generating processes. The model presented incorporates the physical generating processes of streamflow in both the statistical representation of flow-duration curves and their interpretation. Similarly, the spatial model presents hydrologic regions that correspond to the known physical environment. [Key words: regionalization, hydrologic models, daily discharge, flow frequency, rivers, British Columbia.]     

Bringing globalization to the countryside: Special Economic Zones in India

Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are important vectors of neoliberal globalization in India. Despite facing widespread resistance against the proposed land acquisition for these zones, they are still being promoted across the country. We argue that the wealth redistribution to the country's elites and the fractured resistance movements enable neoliberalism and its practices to grow in the countryside. Using a private sector SEZ in Gurgaon as a case study, this article explores how special economic zoning, as a neoliberal policy, has been implicated in the spatialized production of poverty. We also show that the main actors who promote neoliberalism in India (the state and the large‐scale urban private sector) have found a seemingly unlikely ally in rural India in the form of farmers with large landholdings, rural elites who are willing to let go of their land under certain conditions. The data for the article was collected in India in 2009–10.     

城市政治生态学视角下的空间转型与中国环境治理创新——基于深圳城—水关系动态演变的分析

城市空间是探讨城镇化特征、动力机制和效应的重要载体,但生态空间作为传统城市—自然二分对立认识论下被人类控制和支配的对象,却较少成为城镇化研究的主体。论文以深圳为例,从城市政治生态学视角展现了过去40余年深圳城—水关系的阶段性演化及其背后的权力结构关系变迁。研究认为,水是权力不可分割的一部分,具有多元复杂的本体特征,它与城市发展并非二元对立,而是相互建构。在深圳城镇化的不同阶段,国家、资本、自然展现出差异化的动态关系,塑造了水的商品化、去商品化、再商品化过程,使之成为经济发展所需开发利用的自然资源、支撑城市可持续运作的生态保障、提升城市长期竞争力的新动力。深圳城—水关系的演变揭示了中国环境治理从路径依赖到路径创新的过程。尽管改革开放初期为了确保经济发展,以水为代表的城市生态空间出现了同质化和退化,但在后续发展过程中,国家权力未必在资本和市场的扩张中出现“空心化”;相反,国家权力的主动介入修复甚至扭转了单一市场逻辑下的生态退化和社会不平等。这些新型的国家—资本—自然关系和社会经济实践,不仅呈现了人类寻找公平、正义、可持续城市建设的中国方案,而且为城市—自然辩证关系的理论深化提供了中国经验。     

国家节点战略的实施路径及其经济效应评价

以试点改革为特色、依托关键节点逐步推进是改革开放以来中国区域开发的重要经验。在对改革开放以来中国区域政策演进的过程与特征梳理的基础上,本文将围绕重要节点的区域开发战略界定为国家节点战略,系统阐述了其理论基础与基本内涵,并以改革开放不同时期的深圳特区、上海浦东新区和天津滨海新区为例,定量考察了国家节点战略对中国区域经济格局演变的影响。研究发现,中国区域政策大体上经历了以经济特区为龙头的探索阶段、以开发区为主导的推广阶段和以国家级新区与国家综合配套改革试验区为载体的优化阶段等三个阶段,其中国家节点战略发挥了重要的示范与引领作用,推动了中国区域政策由点及面的螺旋式演进,在此过程中政府的角色也发生了相应的转变。作为增长极理论在中国转型时期的创新性应用与发展,国家节点战略不仅是区域发展“引擎”和重要增长极,也是转型期中国制度创新的重要载体;国家节点战略地区与区域发展实现了良性耦合,形成了梯次区域开发模式。实证研究表明,国家节点战略是政府引导与调控区域发展的重要手段,其经济效应呈明显的复杂多元特征及阶段性和尺度差异特征。