Making risk real: Urban trees and the ontological politics of risk

Over the past several decades, risk has become a distinct field of social inquiry as scholars in a variety of disciplines have developed theories about the ‘nature’ of risk and the role it plays in contemporary society. Collectively, these theories enrich our understanding of the politics of risk, the dynamics of risk perception, and the way risk shapes and is shaped by space, culture, social change, and modes of governing in the neoliberal era. In this paper, however, we argue these theories are helpful but not entirely suited to understanding risk when it becomes the subject of something Whatmore (2009, p. 587, 2013) calls “environmental knowledge controversies”. These controversies are generative events where more-than-human agencies and the political and knowledge making practices of heterogeneous actors reshape our sense of the real. To address this issue, we draw on the concepts of enactment, multiplicity, and ontological politics to explore how different kinds of risk and tree were made more or less real during a contentious debate over the risk posed by a group of urban trees in Newcastle, Australia. This case study suggests we can think of risk and hazardous entities like trees as effects that also affect because they elicit interventions that transform bodies and spaces in more or less enduring ways. Attending to the enactment, multiplicity, and ontological politics of risk, we argue, provides an alternative way to navigate moments of political contestation over the assessment and management of risk that has implications for how these processes are conceived and conducted in the future.     

The symbolic and political appropriation of scales: A critical analysis of the Amazonian ranchers’ narrative

There are many examples of “local” discourses aiming to delegitimize environmental issues, demands, actions and governance by arguing that they pursue international goals, defined by international actors that do not meet local needs and frequently oppose them. We focus on the narrative held by large ranchers in the Eastern Amazon, which disqualifies the so-called top-down creation of protected areas that jeopardizes the “local development” these actors have, following the narrative, encouraged and sustained for years. Through the combination of an ontological and constructivist approach of scales, our contribution challenges this scalar construction questioning the “locality” of the large ranchers and showing that their role as “local developers” is actually rooted in regional/national/international scales. We then study the most important effect of the anti-environmental grand scalar narrative: its influence on regional and national decision makers. Well-conceived and publicized scalar scenarios are efficient in this context as in many others.     

Young adult households and domestic sustainabilities

Young adults in the Global North occupy a contradictory environmental identity: they are purportedly more environmentally concerned than older generations, but are also labelled hedonistic consumers. Most studies have focused on young adults still residing in parental homes, neglecting that Generation Y (born between 1975 and 1991) has ‘grown up’. The consumption patterns and environmental implications of their newly established households demand scholarly attention. Through a large-scale household sustainability survey, conducted in Australia, we have uncovered important inter-generational differences in environmental attitudes and everyday domestic practices. We found that generational cohorts hold distinct environmental attitudes. Younger households were most concerned with climate change, and least optimistic about future mitigation. However, generational differences influenced everyday domestic practices in more complex ways. All households engaged extensively with those ‘pro-environmental’ practices that reflected established cultural norms, government regulations and residential urban form. For other pro-environmental practices there were clear differences, with Generation Y households being the least engaged. A widening ‘value-action gap’ was apparent across our sample population, from oldest to youngest. However, rather than reflecting Generation Y’s supposed hedonism, we argue that this gap reflects generational geographies: how lifecourse intersects with housing and labour markets and norms of cleanliness to shape everyday domestic practices. Our research illuminates the shortcomings of a one-size-fits-all approach to household sustainability. The young adult stage is a time of transition during which homes and independent lifestyles are established, and practices are altered or become entrenched, for better or worse.     

“We Don’t Take the Pledge”: Environmentality and environmental skepticism at the epicenter of US wind energy development

This study analyzes pro-wind, “anti-environmental” discourses prevalent among key stakeholders in Nolan County, Texas, the epicenter of US wind power. We draw upon interviews conducted within a Q-method study to examine environmental views held by key actors in wind-farm development. We frame our analysis within the theoretical field that engages the formation of environmental subjects, defined as the process through which individuals and communities align their environmental practices with state ends. We argue that this is a process that can be incomplete or in tension with other subject positions, which together may lead to unexpected environmental views. We introduce “environmental skepticism,” defined as a rejection of ecological science steeped in deep anthropocentrism and possessive individualism, as a dominant counter-narrative informing certain environmental subjectivities. The remainder of the paper describes Texas wind stakeholders’ views or subject positions on energy and the environment and reveals how environmental skepticism is not overturned even as renewable energy supports the local economy. We analyze wind stakeholders’ environmental subjectivity in terms of emergent subject positions as “reflexive environmental skepticism,” a view that accepts the economic products, processes, and policy innovations advocated by ecological modernization without accepting the core claim that innovations are required to adapt to environmental change.     

《基础地质学》课程教学改革及实践成效：以桂林理工大学为例

桂林理工大学《基础地质学》课程经过多年的建设和发展,形成了深厚的成果积淀。近年,“大地质”观和“大工程”观的专业导向以及新工科建设背景又对地学人才培养提出了新要求,该课程也逐渐显现出一些短板：课程知识在横向交叉、与工程实践及行业产业的结合,以及对思政内容的传递方面有待加强;当前教学模式对学生创新思维的培养不足;学生的认知负荷偏大、学习兴趣不足。针对上述问题,课程团队秉承内容更新—模式变革—兴趣引领的理念,进行了一系列课程改革实践：以教材编写、实体课堂和线上资源为载体进行教学内容更新;基于多种教学方法开展翻转课堂教学改革;进行多种教学资源的同步建设。教学实践表明,课程改革在提升学生专业兴趣、助力学生学科竞赛、创新思维培养等方面均表现出良好的效果;在教学资源共享、课程知识与产业实际结合、提高课堂氛围、知识结构拓展以及综合能力提升等方面获得学生的积极评价,满意度高。     

Transgressions of the man on the moon: climate change,Indigenous expertise,and the posthumanist ethics of place and space

Indigenous peoples have been enrolled in climate change research for decades, participating in data-gathering, as writing collaborators, and serving as the symbolic “canary in the coal mine” for public outreach and policy-making. They have indeed experienced some of the most rapid environmental changes, but rather than emphasize their vulnerabilities, we argue their expertise is narrowly understood in formulating knowledge; the research on climate change has a limited understanding of what it might mean to be inter- or trans-disciplinary because research is formulated exclusively through the assumptions of Enlightenment thought, without sufficiently engaging non-Western subjectivities. Qualitative social sciences and “Indigenous methodologies” can be used to better achieve trans-disciplinarity; in this article we re-tell a story told by Native elders from tribes across Alaska about the “man on the moon.” While literally referring to the US moon landing, elders invoke this story when addressing climate change: it teaches the ethics of the human-nature relationship, developed from a “more-than-human” (or “posthuman”) philosophy. Our data comes from participant-observation and oral history; we draw upon poststructuralist theory, and frame our analysis through the literatures of critical geography, science studies, and American Indian studies. To ensure that Indigenous peoples are not used as props in Western policy agendas, researchers must engage with non-Enlightenment intellectual traditions. More than being a source of data or a symbol of humanity’s ruin, Indigenous wisdom can productively inform sustainable policy agendas to adapt to climate change. What can be learned, for example, is a more-than-human ethics of place and space.     

Introduction to themed issue: “Green security in protected areas”

This introduction to the themed issue discusses the articulation of protected areas, conservation, and security in issue contributions. Protected areas are presented as localized sites to address global crises, such as anthropogenic climate change and the “war on terror.” When they are sites for securitization and militarization, protected areas articulate state and subject formations through violence. As threat discourses have amplified in recent years, communities once deemed putative eco-destroyers have been interpellated as potential threats in wars on drugs and/or terror. The themed issue reveals that reframing environmental crime as organized crime has significant implications for expanding claims of what counts as legitimate use of force in protected areas policing, as well as potential prosecutions. It is apparent that security for one group may hinge on the insecurity of another group at different historical and political moments. In this special issue we challenge conservation actors as well as those critical of conservation to ask: for whom does conservation provide security, under what circumstances, and at what cost?     

Human impacts on soils: Tipping points and knowledge gaps

Soil ecosystem functions are derived from plant, animal and microorganism communities and the non-living environment interacting as a unit. Human activities have affected soil ecosystem functions and in many cases caused soil ecosystem collapse. This review provides a synthesis of current knowledge of human impacts on soil ecosystems, with a special focus on knowledge gaps regarding soil ecosystem shifts and tipping points, using the island of Crete, Greece as an example. Soil ecosystem shifts are abrupt changes that occur at “tipping points” and have long-lasting effects on the landscape and both the biotic and abiotic structure of the soil. These shifts can occur due to climate change, land use change, fertilization, or above-ground biodiversity decline. The environmental pressures in the agricultural land of Crete, place the island very close to tipping points, and make it an “ideal” area for soil ecosystem shifts. Reversing the trend of the shift while using the soil ecosystem services, means that significantly more organic matter needs to be added to the soil compared to the amount added under set-aside conditions. Potential nutrient supply and demand calculations indicate that fertilizer demand in Crete can be satisfied by recycling of bio-residue and livestock excreta produced on the island. Soil fertility improves faster if, in addition to bio-fertilization, farmers use traditional agricultural practices such as crop rotations and legume row plantings within olive trees and orchards. A renewed soil fertility paradigm shift requires a “holistic” management of biotic-soil–water resources in order to provide sufficient and an appropriate type of organic matter to the plant–microorganism system to maximize food production.     

Why are there cattle in the conservation area? Social barriers to biofuel governance in Brazil

Amid a rapid expansion of global investments in biofuels there has been an equally rapid proliferation of concerns about the inadequacies of current governance schemes to mitigate the environmental impacts of growing agroenergy production. Managing the land use practices of small producers in a way that ensures their activities are financially and environmentally sustainable is a particularly pressing issue that has been overlooked in research on biofuel governance. I illuminate these challenges through an ethnographic study on the multiple breakdowns of environmental governance in the Southern Goiás region of Brazil, a major expansion region for sugarcane ethanol production. I focus on one of the most pressing compliance issues among small and medium size sugarcane farmers; their persistent use of federally mandated conservation areas for cattle production. I find that while these transgressions are often perceived by administrators and officials as being the result of a lack of “environmental awareness” among rural farmers, they are better understood as a safety net to protect landowners against perceived risks of sugarcane production. These violations are further enabled by continuing ambiguity in the enforcement structure for conservation legislation in the region. Recalibrating regulatory systems to better address these issues of accountability and risk is a critical step toward improving environmental governance of global biofuel commodity chains.     

Aerosol transmission of human pathogens: From miasmata to modern viral pandemics and their preservation potential in the Anthropocene record

Ongoing uncertainty over the relative importance of aerosol transmission of COVID-19 is in part rooted in the history of medical science and our understanding of how epidemic diseases can spread through human populations. Ancient Greek medical theory held that such illnesses are transmitted by airborne pathogenic emanations containing particulate matter (“miasmata”). Notable Roman and medieval scholars such as Varro, Ibn al-Khatib and Fracastoro developed these ideas, combining them with early germ theory and the concept of contagion. A widely held but vaguely defined belief in toxic miasmatic mists as a dominant causative agent in disease propagation was overtaken by the science of 19th century microbiology and epidemiology, especially in the study of cholera, which was proven to be mainly transmitted by contaminated water. Airborne disease transmission came to be viewed as burdened by a dubious historical reputation and difficult to demonstrate convincingly. A breakthrough came with the classic mid-20th century work of Wells, Riley and Mills who proved how expiratory aerosols (their “droplet nuclei”) could transport still-infectious tuberculosis bacteria through ventilation systems. The topic of aerosol transmission of pathogenic respiratory diseases assumed a new dimension with the mid-late 20th century “Great Acceleration” of an increasingly hypermobile human population repeatedly infected by different strains of zoonotic viruses, and has taken centre stage this century in response to outbreaks of new respiratory infections that include coronaviruses. From a geoscience perspective, the consequences of pandemic-status diseases such as COVID-19, produced by viral pathogens utilising aerosols to infect a human population currently approaching 8 billion, are far-reaching and unprecedented. The obvious and sudden impacts on for example waste plastic production, water and air quality and atmospheric chemistry are accelerating human awareness of current environmental challenges. As such, the “anthropause” lockdown enforced by COVID-19 may come to be seen as a harbinger of change great enough to be preserved in the Anthropocene stratal record.     

数字滑坡技术及其典型应用

为了改变传统滑坡遥感技术方法效率低、调查精度难以提高的状况,经多年实践与探索,笔者于 1999 年提出了“数字滑坡”概念。该概念使传统的“地学滑坡”拓展为能以数字形式表达的,具有三维空间、“多维”时间信息的,由“多元”要素组成的“数字滑坡”。数字滑坡技术系统由滑坡解译基础技术、遥感识辨滑坡技术、滑坡数据库及滑坡模型4部分构成。多年来,数字滑坡技术已成功应用于我国大型水电站建设、山区交通线建设、区域开发环境治理以及抗震减灾等领域,也用于大规模个体滑坡调查研究,并取得了显著的经济和社会效益,有效服务于国家防灾减灾战略。该文主要以西藏帕里河及川东天台乡2个典型滑坡调查为例,阐述数字滑坡技术的创新应用。     

Self-explanatory or just easy-to-use? A theoretical approach to the emancipatory potential of volunteered geographic information (VGI)

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) has fundamentally changed the way in which geoinformation is generated, distributed and handled. It entails manifold practices and discourses which are currently investigated from both affirmative and critical perspectives. Expanding on the range of theoretical approaches to VGI, this article explores the condition and the limits of VGI from a social theory perspective to explore the following questions: what is the basic structure of VGI both as a form of practice and a form of knowledge? What are aspects of integration and aspects of divergence with regard to VGI practices? Are there inherent limitations to VGI practices especially with regard to its emancipatory and educational potential? To approach these issues several established analytical frameworks are discussed, and a specific categorization of VGI’s symbolic geographies as interaction content will be introduced. Based on this categorization two opposed types of interaction practice can be distinguished: While information on VGI gathering and processing as a part of interaction content is vital to a competent use and deeper understanding of the system (“self-explanatory”) many interface designs have a very limited output in order to promote user-friendliness (“easy-to-use”). While the latter may increase the popularity of VGI it also limits interaction language to everyday language, to familiar spatial vocabularies of place, city, region, landscape or nation—instead of mediating technology’s spatialities or exploring more innovative ways of spatial representation.     

Post-disaster cross-nation mutual aid in natural hazards: case analysis from sociology of disaster and disaster politics perspectives

Owing to natural climate change, disaster has become a frequent challenge for every nation. To restore social order quickly after disasters strike, cross-nation mutual aid, as an international reciprocal gesture of goodwill, should be able to cross borders and achieve its mission. Unfortunately, practice does not follow theory. Dilemmas that make it difficult for cross-nation mutual aid to accomplish its goals may transform into severe challenges. This study aims to identify possible solutions to difficulties mainly through thematic analysis of eight major disaster events, informed by perspectives from emergency management, sociology of disaster, and disaster politics. Moreover, this study explores these issues via the “one core, three operations” framework constructed by assistance provider, assistance receiver, and victims to provide possible strategies regarding mechanisms, politics, forms, and times, respectively.     

Rising to the challenge of environmental behaviour change: Developing a reflexive diary approach

The relationship between expressed attitudes and actual behaviour in the context of sustainable development is complex and difficult to apply in a policy-relevant manner. The household, however, represents a key ‘lens’ for understanding the environmental impact of consumption patterns and for instigating policy designed to change consumer behaviour. This paper assesses the use of a household diary approach as a means of framing and collecting household environmental data, and, critically, as an educational vehicle for bringing about behavioural change by encouraging reflexivity. Evaluating the success of the diary approach at instigating behavioural change, the paper concludes that the diary approach: (1) created awareness about pro-environmental behaviour where there was none; (2) extended existing awareness to a wider range of pro-environmental behaviours and range of household members, and; (3) induced change in pro-environmental behaviour. In particular, the paper argues that current research neglects the potential that participating in the research process may contribute to changing the outlook or behaviour of participants.     

A partial instructional module on global and regional land use/cover change: assessing the data and searching for general relationships

Land use/cover change has occurred at all times in all parts of the world. Most affected and involved in these processes are the environmental spheres of water, soil, and vegetative cover, which are closely linked to geomorphology, climate, fauna, and especially human societies. These linkages between spheres are highly complex and, as of yet, incompletely understood. The most profound questions with respect to land use/cover and global change are: “What forces drive land use/land cover change?”, “What impacts — direct and indirect, now and in the future — do these changes have on the environment and on human society?” and “Can and should we, and if so, how, respond to these changes?” This partial teaching module, developed under the auspices of the Second Commission on College Geography of the Association of American Geographers, introduces students to the complexities inherent in these questions, but mainly focusses on the first of these. It illustrates the central role of the study of land land use/cover change within the large field of global environmental and climatic change, and is thus a good unit to introduce this area of interest.     

Rubber tapper identities: Political-economic dynamics,livelihood shifts,and environmental implications in a changing Amazon

Rubber tappers promoted extractive reserves as a sustainable alternative to forest destruction in the Brazilian Amazon. However, the significance of rubber tapping itself has declined since the creation of extractive reserves, which raises questions about the contemporary cultural content of the rubber tapper identity. This paper therefore evaluates rubber tapper identity, using the case of the Chico Mendes Extractive Reserve (CMER) in Acre, Brazil. We first draw on household survey data from the CMER to construct a statistical model of who self-identifies as a rubber tapper. The model shows that socio-economic background, household assets, institutional context, and knowledge of the CMER’s management plan are relevant to understanding rubber tapper self-identification, but not resource management practices, including rubber tapping itself. We therefore pursue qualitative analysis of key informant interviews to better apprehend contemporary understandings of the “rubber tapper” identity, particularly in light of recent shifts in livelihoods from rubber tapping toward cattle ranching. The qualitative analysis shows that there are now several different foundations for self-identifying as a “rubber tapper,” and that there are disagreements concerning the acceptability of cattle ranching among “rubber tappers.” These findings bear implications for research on the relationship of livelihood-based identities with resource management practices and environmental change, as well as public policies that seek to reconcile regional development with forest conservation.     

从人地关系的视角看“五帝时代”的历史真实性及其年代

“五帝时代”是中国史前社会演进的一个重要阶段,然而其历史真实性却一直被质疑,其具体年代也存在较大争议。作者从人地关系视角出发,对这一重大历史问题进行了初步的探讨。首先介绍了历史文献记录“五帝时代”和龙山中晚期考古证据所揭示出类似的“万邦”林立、相互竞争的政治景观及其社会含义,分析了“五帝时代”的可能年代,认为二者在地望、政治景观以及年代等方面都可能存在一致性。基于竞争和冲突与气候变化之间可能存在的成因联系,重建了“五帝时代”的气候背景,发现4.5～4.0 ka BP阶段,即龙山中晚时期为一明显的降温期,且此降温阶段可以与世界其他地区古气候记录对比,进一步证明了该降温期的存在及其广域性分布特征。最后从人地关系的视角,论证了该降温阶段气候变化与“万邦”(酋邦社会)形成之间的成因联系,从一个侧面证明了“五帝时代”存在的历史真实性,同时进一步表明“五帝时代”的年代极有可能相当于龙山时代的中晚期,具体年代为4.5～4.0 ka BP。     

Collaborative geomatics and the Mushkegowuk Cree First Nations: Fostering adaptive capacity for community-based sub-arctic natural resource management

The remote First Nation (FN) communities of the Mushkegowuk Territory on the west coast of James Bay, Ontario, Canada are currently facing increased development pressures and the imposition of a government land use planning process. The land use planning process is mandated in the Far North Act (received Royal Assent on September 23, 2010). There is a need for capacity enhancement for community-based natural resource planning and management in the Territory. A number of frameworks are emerging for addressing change brought on by resource development and building resilience to such change at the community level. Among these include the concept of adaptive capacity. In collaboration with FN community leaders, we explored the use of “collaborative geomatics” tools to foster adaptive capacity. Our action research suggests that collaborative geomatics technologies should enhance the Mushkegowuk First Nations’ adaptive capacity to address environmental and policy change by allowing them to collect and manage data collaboratively (e.g., traditional environmental knowledge, western science) to create opportunities for innovative community development, including natural resource development and management.     

Doing community supported agriculture: Tactile space,affect and effects of membership

Community supported agriculture (CSA) is a direct-marketing food network that has the potential to decommmodify food and support farmers while providing consumers with sustainably raised, seasonal, local food. Through an ethnographic exploration of one CSA, we describe the processes, practices, affect and effects of consumer membership within the context of non-representational theory. Carolan (2007) suggests that when non-representational ways of knowing are fostered through long-term embodied involvement in “tactile space,” “deep commitments” to the environment and others are encouraged. This study augments understandings of tactile space. Findings show that members engage in the tactile spaces of CSA (e.g. attending distribution, cooking more), but with varied effects: leading one member to voice compassion for the farmer which “is something you don’t feel in a supermarket” while another admits feeling “like I’ve been conned.” In spite of mixed experiences and affects, on balance we conclude that CSA membership does affect environmental ethics.     

State,capital and spaceships: A terrestrial geography of space tourism

Over the past decade, there has been a significant structural and geographical change in space travel. Following policy, budgetary and regulatory changes in the United States, space travel may now be conducted by private companies. This privatization has also led to some geographical competition and shifts between states within the US. In this paper, I respond to MacDonald’s (2007) call for more critical geographies of outer space activity. Building from his suggestion that we look more closely at the ways in which outer space activity is constituted by “numerous familiar operations” with respect to the practices of international relations and war and to the “basic infrastructural maintenance of the state and the lives of its citizenry”, this paper explores why the US Government has allowed for private space travel and why this privatization drove some states in the US to invest heavily in such a nascent industry sector. It argues that federal and state governments both saw private space travel as a means to fulfill their “basic infrastructural maintenance” with regard to economic expansion, development and competitiveness. The paper analyses these processes through the development of space tourism. In doing so, it provides more detail and geographical context to Dickens and Ormrod’s (2007) overview of the connections between outer space and the circuits of capital. It also demonstrates the many familiar political-economic processes involved in the privatization of space travel and, as such, the possibilities for further critical geographies of space activity.