Repoliticising and scaling-up ethical consumption: Lessons from public procurement for school meals in Brazil

Ethical consumption is a vibrant field of research but suffers from both empirical and conceptual biases. Empirically, too much of the data is gathered in the global North, often framing a false binary in which consumption spaces are located in the global North while production takes place in the global South. Conceptually, there is a growing demand for researchers to move away from an emphasis on the individual consumer and instead focus on collective agency and structural change. This paper offers contributions to both of these frontiers of research. It reports on data on ethical consumption and public procurement, collected through the first ever large scale representative survey on procurement criteria and 16 focus groups in Brazil. It concretises these debates by focusing specifically on the pioneering Brazilian school meals policy which supports both “family farms” and organic modes of production at a massive scale, in providing meals to 43 million Brazilian children. Lessons learnt from the study include, firstly, the potential for successfully scaling up ethical consumption through public procurement; secondly, the way in which such scaling-up forces the public debate to engage with food production and consumption at a systemic level; and thirdly, how the systems-level debate leads to a repoliticisation of the discussion of the cultural, social, economic and environmental role of food and farming. The focus group discussions showed a high degree of support for the school meals policy, including from affluent citizens whose children would not benefit from the scheme. Surveys also showed strong support from Brazilian citizens for using environmental and social criteria in public procurement.     

Thrifty, green or frugal: Reflections on sustainable consumption in a changing economic climate

In the context of a string of economic crises that have affected major world economies between 2007 and 2009, there seems to be a certain amount of overlap between debates around these issues and debates around long term environmental problems such as climate change. One of the interesting points of overlap is a renewed interest in notions of austerity with optimistic commentators offering up hope that a (re)turn to frugality represents a unique opportunity for the pursuit of sustainable consumption. Against this backdrop the analysis sets out an approach to frugality as a social practice and drawing on a qualitative study of persons who identified themselves as attempting to reduce their environmental impacts, it considers the links between frugality and sustainable consumption. Crucially, a distinction is drawn between thrift and frugality in relation to: (1) the scale at which they exercise care and compassion; (2) their relationship to the normative expectations of consumer cultures, and; (3) their consequences in terms of environmental impacts. Taking these distinctions alongside historical analyses of changing consumption patterns, a note of caution is offered that the passage from the economic downturn to sustainable consumption may not be as clear as might be hoped.     

Mediating good food and moments of possibility with Jamie Oliver: Problematising celebrity chefs as talking labels

This paper explores the powerful and mediating role of celebrity chefs over audience relationships with food through analysis of Jamie Oliver and his recent series Save with Jamie. The paper firstly situates the role of celebrity chefs theoretically, defining them as ‘talking labels’ who may act both as knowledge intermediaries and boundary objects to connect audiences with food in multiple ways. Here chefs actively construct and mediate discourses around ‘good food’. As trusted, credible, well-liked public figures, chefs step into out private home spaces through our televisions to convey food information in a charismatic, entertaining and accessible way. Like traditional food labels, chef’s words can be ‘sticky’ and take hold in public imaginations in a way that goes far beyond the capacity of food products labels. Yet the relationship between chefs and audiences is far from straightforward and so the paper secondly aims to explore how these talking labels are understood and ‘used’ by audiences in their everyday food practices. Drawing selectively from a large scale audience survey (n = 600) as well as the series, Save with Jamie, this paper reveals the different ways that audiences ‘talk back’ to chefs both positively and negatively to create moments of simultaneous possibility and resistance for audience relations with food. This revealed complex relationships between audiences, chefs and food. It also suggests that the powerful work on celebrity chefs functions as part of a new mediated mechanism within today’s food governance.     

Making space for ethical consumption in the South

This paper argues that, given the rapid growth in the middle classes across the Global South, debates about ethical consumption need to be reconfigured to admit these middle classes, not as a problem but as a possibility. It establishes the potential to constitute Southern consumption as a surface of mobilisation for ethical consumption and, through working from the specificities of the South in Bangladesh, demonstrates how within-South framings unsettle and challenge existing North–South understandings of ethical consumption. The paper makes three specific contributions. (1) It shows how North–South conceptual understandings of ethical consumption as political consumption might be reworked to admit the South. (2) Through an examination of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh it demonstrates the absence of a politics of consumer responsibility amongst the Bangladeshi middle classes, and suggests how a politics of responsibility might be forged, through paying attention to Southern brands and supply chains. (3) Through an examination of the Aarong retail brand of the corporate NGO BRAC, the paper shows that ethical consumption exists in Bangladesh, not as ethical consumption but as ordinary consumption with ethical effects. The paper concludes by considering the wider implications of these findings for furthering academic and practitioner debate.     

An unsustainable state: Contrasting food practices and state policies in the Czech Republic

This paper brings together consideration of food policies and practices and of post-socialist transition to raise neglected questions about means of nurturing more sustainable food systems in the developed world. The last three decades have been marked by the growing salience of food as a political and scholarly concern. While market-based alternative food systems have been heralded for their potential to promote environmental sustainability, the benefits of non-market practices such as household food self-provisioning and barter have been assumed rather than being the focus of research. In the western context, both types of food consumption have positive connotations. Although food self-provisioning in European post-socialist societies is a more wide-spread practice than in western societies, it has been on the periphery of research. The existing literature has conceptualised them as ‘coping strategies’ or as a legacy of irregular supply of goods in the state socialist era. Drawing on empirical research in the Czech Republic, we are proposing a novel approach to the phenomenon of household food production in post-socialist societies as a practice compliant with principles of sustainability. First, we highlight the large extent and social inclusivity of food self-provisioning in Czech society to demonstrate how post-socialist societies are a repository of a rich set of sustainability-promoting consumption practices in relation to food systems. Second, we show that international and domestic policy actors in these societies have ignored these alternative, socially inclusive and environmentally effective practices in favour of far less effective market-based sustainability oriented food policy initiatives. The paper promotes a more integrated view of non-market and market approaches in the pursuit of more sustainable food systems.     

Exploring the ‘ethical everyday’: An ethnography of the ethics of family consumption

Using ethnographic research with six families in the North West of England (2007–2009), this paper opens up the ‘black box’ of everyday ethical consumption by adding colour and form to these everyday experiences. While recent geographical literature has recognised the ethical considerations that are implicit in everyday consumption practices, there is a noticeable void of research that explores and fleshes out the everyday ethical actions of individuals and families as consumers. By exploring the everyday ethics of money, waste and health choices in family consumption practices, this paper makes the case for recognising the ethical nature of everyday practices and choices of consumption. It is argued that rather than consumers subscribing to a given set of ethics in consumption, there are multiple ways of recognising consumption as an ethically-embedded process.     

基于IHPACT等式的可持续消费分析——以水足迹视角下张掖市低水消费模式为例

"低碳"已成为全球瞩目的焦点话题,成为人类社会的共识,而对于21世纪人类面临的最为严峻的现实问题之——水资源危机,迫使人们不得不及早关注"低水"问题。人口的增长、技术的变化和消费的增加被认为是产生环境危机的最主要的三个原因。当前消费引起的环境问题却没有得到足够的重视和深入的研究。经典的IPAT建立了人文因素与环境影响间的影响关系的账户恒等式,通过对IPAT等式的扩展,得到分析影响可持续消费影响因素、指导可持续消费政策制定的IHPACT框架,并从水足迹视角,基于黑河流域张掖市水足迹调查与核算数据,探讨了该分析框架的可行性与必要性。研究结果表明：减少食物消费中水足迹奢侈品肉类的消费（多吃蔬菜少吃肉）可以有效地调节居民消费水足迹;消费能力的进一步提高将增加居民消费水足迹,但以水足迹表征的环境影响与消费能力两者间环境Kuznets曲线假说成立,即消费能力的提高最终将会降低消费的环境影响。     

Chosen aspects of sustainable development on the Polish, Czech and German borderland

The shift to market forces in Poland, East Germany and Czech Republic has fundamentally reconfigured its economic geography. In particular, spatial inequalities between neighboring Polish, Czech and German border regions have re-emerged forcefully in response to new values, expectations and preferences. In this paper the example of coal mines illustrates the potency of spatial planning. The abundance of coal mines in the Polish, Czech and German borderland at or near abandonment and their proximity to ecological corridors make them candidates for renewed uses in industry or conservation. Attention will also be given to the main environmental problems caused by wrongly conducted spatial policy on this borderland. Transforming a landscape requires continuation of guidance and financial assistance of the European Union.     

从能耗比论低熟富有机质页岩原位改质转化的经济可行性及增效途径

在原位改质技术开发中,对低熟页岩的巨大的油气资源潜力的技术可行性质疑不多,但由于致热页岩耗能巨大,经济可行性还面临重重质疑,也缺乏有力的定量论证。本文从能量守恒原理出发,对致热页岩过程中生成油气的获能和裂解有机质的耗能、页岩吸热耗能、围岩散热耗能分别进行了定量评价,得到了不同条件下的能耗比及其影响因素,结果表明：能耗比随TOC含量的升高快速增大,对倾油性的页岩,能耗比为3时对应的TOC含量≈4.2%,表明,当TOC含量较高时,有望通过大规模作业摊薄工程成本,使考虑工程成本之后的能耗比>1,即原位加热改质技术可以具有经济效益。从有关因素对能耗比的影响幅度来看,提高经济可行性的增效途径之一是探寻高效致热页岩、减少围岩传导耗热的技术;途径之二是探寻高效转化有机质为油气的技术,即探索具有催化效应/能力的技术,减少页岩吸热和致热时间;途径之三是探寻综合考虑能耗比、时间成本、工程成本的水平井综合布井技术。     

Improving fisheries management in New Zealand: Developing dialogue between fisheries science and management (FSM) and ecosystem science and management (ESM)

This paper attempts to overcome the dichotomy between the broadly different and largely separate fisheries science and management (FSM) and ecosystem science and management (ESM) knowledge systems that characterise the international literature and are found in fisheries management practice in different countries. The paper argues that the construction of a heuristic we term the fisheries problematic, around issues and contexts, reveals the breadth of international fisheries management concerns and the variety of contexts in which these concerns are being faced. Adopting a political economy informed nature-society approach the paper considers ecological and socio-economic processes in their institutional settings in an attempt to shift from the either/or arguments around fish or ecosystems found in the FSM or ESM literatures to investigation that is grounded in understandings of the historically and geographically specific trajectories of fisheries related interactions and understandings of how knowledge about the trajectories and their interactions is fashioned. Drawing on recent conceptual innovations in the field, the paper develops a matrix-centred approach to explore ecological, industry, community and policy domains in New Zealand’s Quota Management System (QMS) and Individual Transferable Quota (ITQ) fisheries management regime. The extended framework prioritises scrutiny of the interaction amongst the four domains, as a strategy to help develop institutional frameworks that facilitate behaviours that are societally inclusive. The paper offers three conclusions. First, the landscape of New Zealand fisheries issues is very much a product of the contingent interaction of the QMS, a management regime designed around the principles of a FSM approach and laid down in a neo-liberal political environment and Maori aspirations encompassing the fisheries sector. Second, the conceptual mapping of FSM and ESM perspectives over New Zealand’s fisheries management experience highlights that a number of management issues have been down played by the commitment to FSM, a situation that has led to on-going tensions between commercial, recreational and customary stakeholders regarding fisheries management. Put another way, there is more to running a sustainable fishery (as defined in the Fisheries Act 1996) than QMS and other tools and dialogue about the development of these should be a priority. Third and more generally, improved dialogue on fisheries questions is likely to be most expeditiously advanced by studies that explicitly conceptualise and contextualise ecological and socio-economic processes and their institutional arrangements.     

Food commodities, geographical knowledges and the reconnection of production and consumption: The case of naturally embedded food products

This paper focuses on a particular group of food commodities, associated with the wider turn to ‘alternative food networks’, that are described as ‘naturally embedded food products’ (NEFPs). These are commodities (specifically meats and cheeses) that utilise grassland biodiversity as an input into production to positively influence, in various ways, the final qualities of the commodity. Building on the geographical literature on commodity circuits and analysing data derived from NEFP promotional materials and focus groups with urban and rural residents in the UK, the paper interrogates the geographical knowledges that are deployed by producers in the promotion of NEFPs and how these knowledges are accommodated and contested by consumers as they bring their own geographical knowledges to the interpretation of these commodities. The paper undertakes this task in order to problematise the extent to which alternative food networks in general and NEFPs in particular are bringing about a reconnection of producers and consumers and, concomitantly, a defetishisation of food, as is claimed for them by many of their policy and academic proponents. In the process the paper reveals how the food commodities associated with alternative food networks entail the creation of new and rival fetishes paradoxically as a result of efforts to ‘thicken connections’ between the production and consumption of food.     

季节性放牧对黄河源区高寒草甸植被耗水量及水分利用效率的影响

研究季节性放牧对植被耗水量、水分利用效率的影响,是探索如何提高高寒草甸水源涵养能力的重要内容之一。以青藏高原三江源高寒草甸季节性放牧样地与自然放牧样地为研究对象,分析了季节性放牧和自然放牧条件下高寒草甸植被耗水量、水分盈亏量、水分利用效率（WUE）的动态变化及其与环境因素的关系。结果表明：在植被生长季（5-9月）,季节性放牧样地和自然放牧样地植被耗水量在5月开始增加, 7月达最高,分别为160.94 mm和145.96 mm,季节性放牧样地植被总耗水量（395.52 mm）比自然放牧样地（348.14 mm）高13.61%。生长季平均来看,季节性放牧样地和自然放牧样地5-9月水分正盈余,分别为13.58 mm和70.96 mm,但在植物生长旺季（8月）略有亏缺。季节性放牧样地和自然放牧样地植被耗水量均与降水量呈弱的正相关关系。季节性放牧样地植被地上净初级生产量（ANPP）、地下净初级生产量（BNPP）和总的净初级生产量（NPP）比自然放牧样地分别高32.54 g·m^-2、5.96 g·m^-2、38.50 g·m^-2,季节性放牧样地ANPP的水分利用效率（WUE）比自然放牧样地高53.85%,而BNPP、NPP的WUE比自然放牧样地分别低13.06%和9.97%。这表明,季节性放牧可提高植被生产量和耗水量,但对高寒草甸WUE的影响因放牧方式不同导致地上、地下生物量分配格局不同而有所差异。     

Holland as other place and other time: alterity in projected tourist images of the Netherlands

Geographers show keen interest in projected images employed in tourism as these images both reflect the ideas of the image producers and influence tourists’ perceptions and (spatial) behaviour. This article focuses on intentional and unintentional projected images of the Netherlands. The former is especially selective: it relies on stereotypes and presents Holland. The unintentional projected image created in four travel guides is less stereotyped. While the focus is still on Holland, other areas of the country are presented as well. Both intentional and unintentional projected images rely on ’othering’ and ’alterity’ to make the Netherlands a unique destination and to offer the tourists a trip that is far from everyday life. However travel guides use ’alterity’ in different ways and at different levels of scale to create a regional geography of the Netherlands as well.

Jewish settlement of Hebron: The place and the other1

Kiryat-Arba and Jewish Hebron are communities planted in the most heated front of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This paper examines how the Hebron Jewish settlers' collective memory interprets the `truth' of Hebron as a typical Israeli Place that reveals Zionism in its purest form. Today the populations of Kiryat-Arba and of the Hebron Jewish enclaves number about 5,000 and 500, respectively. Kiryat-Arba functions as an economic and educational centre for the nearby Jewish settlements in the region. Rejecting the segregative concept of a separate Jewish settlement overlooking Hebron, the settlers treat Kiryat-Arba as part of Hebron. Some 70,000 Palestinians live in Hebron, many more residing in neighbouring towns and villages, cutting Hebron – Kiryat–Arba off from the nearest Jewish urban centres of Jerusalem and Beer-Sheva. The settlers initiated the narrative of `Return' to the city after the massacre of Jews in 1929 in the city, as the key symbol Symbolically, the first place Hebron Jews reidentified with was its ancient Jewish graveyard. Today, IDF soldiers protect settlers and their visitors who want to tour Hebron. The huge gulf between `metaphorical Hebron' as a symbolic centre and `actual Hebron' as a poor development town creates tensions fuelling violent events. The Jews in Hebron take the Israeli logic of `Place' making to its extreme, thus testing concepts of Israeli territoriality. If Israeli society rejects Hebron as a `Place' constructed from intense memories and violent national encounters, it would leave the Hebron Jews out of the so-called Israeli normalcy.     

Climatic and lithologic controls on the temporal and spatial variability of CO2 consumption via chemical weathering: An example from the Australian Victorian Alps

A detailed geochemical study on river waters of the Australian Victorian Alps was carried out to determine: (i) the relative significance of silicate, carbonate, evaporite and sulfide weathering in controlling the major ion composition and; (ii) the factors regulating seasonal and spatial variations of CO₂ consumption via silicate weathering in the catchments. Major ion chemistry implies that solutes are largely derived from evaporation of precipitation and chemical weathering of carbonate and silicate lithologies. The input of solutes from rock weathering was determined by calculating the contribution of halite dissolution and atmospheric inputs using local rain and snow samples. Despite the lack of carbonate outcrops in the study area and waters being undersaturated with respect to calcite, the dissolution of vein calcite accounts for up to 67% of the total dissolved cations, generating up to 90% of dissolved Ca and 97% of Mg. Dissolved sulfate has δ³⁴S values of 16 to 20‰_CDT, indicating that it is derived predominantly from atmospheric deposition and minor gypsum weathering and not from bacterial reduction of FeS₂. This militates against sulphuric acid weathering in Victorian rivers. Ratios of Si vs. the atmospheric corrected Na and K concentrations range from ~ 1.1 to ~ 4.3, suggesting incongruent weathering from plagioclase to smectite, kaolinite and gibbsite.Estimated long-term average CO₂ fluxes from silicate weathering range from ~ 0.012 × 10⁶ to 0.039 × 10⁶ mol/km²/yr with the highest values in rivers draining the basement outcrops rather than sedimentary rocks. This is about one order of magnitude below the global average which is due to low relief, and the arid climate in that region. Time series measurements show that exposure to lithology, high physical erosion and long water–rock contact times dominate CO₂ consumption fluxes via silicate weathering, while variations in water temperature are not overriding parameters controlling chemical weathering. Because the atmospheric corrected concentrations of Na, K and Mg act non-conservative in Victorian rivers the parameterizations of weathering processes, and net CO₂ consumption rates in particular, based on major ion abundances, should be treated with skepticism.     

广东沿海区域可持续发展中的地质灾害防治

广东沿海陆地表层地质灾害时空分布不均匀,近年来引起地质灾害加剧的主要因素之一是人类活动.人类对边坡和植被的改造是在沿海地区现有的地质环境背景下地质灾害多发的主要动力源.文中提出了广东省防灾减灾的8项建议,这将对本省率先实现现代化和实施区域可持续发展具有促进作用.     

Resonance in rocks: Building a sustainable learning and engagement programme for the Jurassic Coast

World Heritage Sites have a duty, through educational and information programmes, to strengthen appreciation and respect by their peoples of the cultural and natural heritage of that site. The Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site (JCWHS) showcases nearly 185 million years of Earth’s history across 95 miles of coast and exemplifies some of the most spectacular rocks, fossils and landforms in the world. However, imparting these values to non-specialist audiences of all ages, abilities and needs provides unique challenges and opportunities. A critical factor for success in addressing such a wide audience is ensuring that content is relevant, meaningful and focused on the expectations of the end user. In this paper we present our learning framework that is based around two approaches. Firstly, we map out the needs and expectations of each of our four core audience groups and set out guidelines for who we should aim our content at and how that should be delivered. Secondly, we set out three pathways (Inspire, Curious and Motivated) through which a person may choose to engage with the Jurassic Coast. We argue that if our tailored content and experiences can resonate with a person at an emotional and intellectual level, they will ultimately become devoted to the Jurassic Coast. Through empowering a community of people who understand and appreciate the geoheritage of the Jurassic Coast, they can become advocates and champions for its protection and conservation in the future.     

新疆金和铜等金属矿床找矿方法及找矿模式

为了实现新疆新一轮地质找矿的发现和突破，通过对新疆诸多金、铜等金属矿床发现程序和方法的综合研究，认为地质、地球化学、地球物理3种基本方法的综合使用，相互补充，可获得最佳的找矿效果。其找矿模式可概括为在区域地质构造、地球化学、地球物理背景分析的基础上，确定有利的成矿区域，开展1：50重磁测量、l：20万和1：5万地质填图及地球化学扫面；在发现的重磁异常(含Cr的超基性岩，含Cu、Ni的基性-超基性岩)和目标矿种元素及组合异常(贵金属和有色金属)基础上，确定异常源和矿床靶区；针对不同矿种和成因类型的矿床靶区，采用不同的大比例尺地质、地球化学、地球物理填图，对确定的矿体或矿化体进行槽探和钻探施工，以期发现有工业价值的矿体。在全部找矿过程中，特别是对内生矿产，每一阶段都必须进行构造分析和找矿标志分析，这是找矿的关键所在。     

Making space for unruly water: Sustainable drainage systems and the disciplining of surface runoff

This paper explores the disciplining of non-human actors through the example of sustainable drainage systems (SuDS) managing surface water runoff. The lens of performativity is used to examine the move from pre-modern repressive forms of discipline, to mechanisms which attempt a more productive disciplinary engagement by finding space to reform water’s more unruly behaviours. After examining the problems with traditional disciplinary approaches to water of rapid transit and exile, the paper explores the implications of a move towards SuDS technology. This change is examined using a case study of Glasgow, Scotland, where there is an attempt to utilise less repressive disciplinary mechanisms and to find spaces in the city for surface water outside the hard drainage infrastructure. New approaches to the disciplining of urban water are conceptualised as being a performance of tension between water and those who would modify its behaviour.