Should some political ecology be useful? The Inaugural Lecture for the Cultural and Political Ecology Specialty Group,Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers,April 2010

This CAPE Inaugural Lecture poses the question “should some political ecology (PE) be useful?” and reviews the challenges and opportunities facing academic researchers wishing to engage with policy makers, politicians, activists, the media and social movements in both the global North or South. Environmental justice provides an ethical justification for political engagement, but an essentially critical and challenging PE can put off research funders and international and national actors in policy making spheres. PE, especially post-structuralist PE, is often ill-understood and distrusted by many both inside and outside the academy, and a critical realist approach is better recognised by many intended audiences. There are many reasons given to resist an engaged PE, especially as PE has been and continues to be associated with “development”. A practical and dynamic approach to engaged PE research is suggested.     

No boundaries: exurbia and the study of contemporary urban dispersion

The dream of a house in the country, at the seashore, or near a ski hill, is one shared by many in North American society. But the environmental and social impacts of the realization of this dream by an increasing number of people has created crises and conflict for many communities. The concept of exurbia has traditionally been used to describe settlement patterns simultaneously dispersed from the city yet also connected to urban networks. This paper reviews scholarship across disciplines including geography, ecology, sociology, and political ecology. Exurbia is here proposed to be strengthened as a powerful conceptual approach to capture and discuss the complex processes producing this phenomenon. Previous scholarship has produced excellent but largely disconnected work on the periurban zone around cities, exurban settlement processes, tensions between exurbanites and other rural residents, environmental impacts and habitat fragmentation. Future work on exurbia holds a great deal of promise to think about cultural values supporting the processes that produce these landscapes, working across scales from local to global using interdisciplinary and multi-method study.     

Political ecology in the key of policy: From chains of explanation to webs of relation

Political ecology (PE) is rooted in a combination of critical perspectives and the hard won insights distilled from field work. The theoretical base of political ecology was joined, by Piers Blaikie and others, to an unflinching commitment to empirical observation of biophysical and socio-economic phenomena in place. To this already ambitious mix was added a practical intent to contribute to material as well as social change: a practical political ecology of alternative development ran beneath the surface of much of this work. For many this led to serious encounters with policy and the machinery of policy research institutions. While seemingly contradictory with the critical tenets of political ecology, Blaikie’s pursuit of this pathway led beyond the ivory tower to Political Ecology in the Key of Policy, initially to inform national and international policy and eventually expanding - through the work of second-generation PE - to address internal policy in social movements and alternative development networks. Among recent variations on political ecology that have built partly on the work of Blaikie, Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) expands PE to address women as a group, and gender as a category. FPE and post-structural PE are based on multiple actors with complex and overlapping identities, affinities and interests. An emergent wave of political ecology joins FPE, post-structural theory, and complexity science, to address theory, policy and practice in alternatives to sustainable development. It combines a radical empiricism and situated science, with feminist post-structural theories of multiple identity and “location”, and alternative development paradigms. This approach honors the legacy of Piers Blaikie and other PE founders yet incorporates the insights and political projects of feminism, post-structural critique and autonomous or alternative development movements.     

The cityscapes of European capital cities

Capital cities are politico-administrative centers. They are command centers, they symbolize authority and also the unit that is governed. Primarily they are capitals of states, but other governance systems may also have capitals. In the European context there are now regional capital cities and at least the concept of a European capital. Particularly on account of their symbolic function but also for the uses made of its appearance in political life, the cityscape of capital cities is an interesting topic for research. There are different types of capital cities in Europe that give rise to different cityscapes. Existing urban networks and types of political regime are important in this respect. Although cityscapes are pretty stable, they are differently perceived over time and uses made of them also change. A research agenda for this intersection of historical, cultural and political geography should concentrate on the evolution of these cityscapes, their perception and the uses made of them in the acting out of politics.     

Collaborative, cross-disciplinary learning and co-emergent innovation in eScience teams

Collaborative eScience research teams are impeded by difficulties defining problems that provide research opportunities for all participants. Problem formulation occurs early in the collaboration process when the demand for ideas is high. However, cross-disciplinary linkages and integrated conceptual frameworks from which strong interdisciplinary ideas emerge do not evolve until later. The process of co-creating interdisciplinary research ideas is fundamentally a learning problem; participants from different disciplines must learn enough about each other’s research interests to construct an integrated conceptual framework from which joint problems of interest can be created. However, participants rarely have the conceptual background needed to easily understand research topics in other disciplines; hence methods for enabling rapid learning in these situations are needed. Team interactions that more effectively generate interdisciplinary ideas can be enabled based on a better understanding the process of cross-disciplinary, collaborative learning. This article postulates several models of collaborative learning in these settings and discusses the implications for orchestrating team activities to achieve better outcomes.     

Political ecology and development: Intersections, explorations and challenges arising from the work of Piers Blaikie

While most contributions to this collection focus centrally on political ecology (PE), this paper approaches the work of Piers Blaikie through a somewhat different lens, situating his political ecological contributions within the broader context of his engagement with related themes in development studies. I trace and discuss his work in approximately chronological terms, from the spatial organization of North Indian villages through the political economy of agrarian change and of peripheral capitalist (under-)development in Nepal to political ecology, pathbreaking work on the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Uganda, more general disaster vulnerability and recoverabililty, and a survey of post-structural challenges in development theory. Not only does this approach provide a distinctive view of Blaikie’s evolving concerns over the course of his career and thematic connections between them, but it also reflects my personal experience of his work and its influence. This foundation then enables an exploration of several issues about current directions in, and possible future extensions of, PE which should help to ensure that PE does not, as some critics claim, have only limited remaining shelf-life.     

Double transformation at the eastern border of the EU: the case of the Euroregion pro Europa Viadrina

One of the major means to foster European integration is the establishment of border spanning regions (‘Euroregions’). This is particularly important on the Eastern borders of the EU, e.g. in Eastern Germany. There, however, a double transformation to post-socialist society is taking place, both inside and outside the EU. Tensions arise between objectives on local and higher political levels, intensified by totally different economic structures and access to EU funds on both sides of the border. This is particularly true for the case of the emerging Euroregion Viadrina. Problems in preserving old industrialised localities in East Germany (e.g. steel) and attempts to resurrect the urban fair place Frankfurt/Oder, clash with transition in agriculture and consumer industries and with new concepts in tourism development and environmental protection in the Polish border zone. In region building, political, economic and ideological goals compete with each other. Local initiatives and higher political governance may both support and hamper each other. The same holds true for the interdependence of cultural integration and economic development. The paper concludes that regional economic development can only be expected if, via the building of the Euroregion, the interplay of these factors leads to compromise and harmonization between the different parties involved. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Rethinking space: an outsider’s view of the spatial turn

Geographical concerns with space and place have escaped the confines of the discipline of geography. Many humanities scholars now invoke such conceptions as a means to integrate diverse sources of information and to understand how broad social processes play out unevenly in different locations. The social production of spatiality thus offers a rich opportunity to facilitate interdisciplinary dialogues between different schools of critical theory. Following a brief assessment of the spatial turn in history, history of science, and political philosophy, this paper explores its implications for literary and cultural studies. It invokes a detailed case study of late 18th century Lima, Peru to explicate the dynamics of colonialism, the construction of racial identities, and different power/knowledge configurations within a particular locale. Space in this example appears as both matter and meaning, i.e., as simultaneously tangible and intangible, as a set of social circumstances and physical landscapes and as a constellation of discourses that simultaneously reflected, constituted, and at times undermined, the hegemonic social order. The intent is to demonstrate how multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary scholarship can be facilitated by paying attention to the unique of circumstances that define places within given historical moments. As seen in this example from literary colonial studies, other disciplines, therefore, can both draw from and contribute to poststructuralist interpretations of space as a negotiated set of situated practices.     

The time and place for political ecology: An introduction to the articles honoring the life-work of Piers Blaikie

Political ecology (PE) is experiencing a renaissance and embrace similar to that of Geography itself. Just as there is a rediscovery of the importance of place and thus Geography, Geographers and others are discovering that this critical approach to the human-environment dialectic provides unique theoretical, methodological, and practical insights for unravelling the complexities of this contentious nexus. The host of new volumes that introduce students and the larger academic community to PE each emphasize different theoretical and thematic confluences. This volume is organized around the life-long work and intellectual history of a leading political ecologist, Piers Blaikie, and as such it is both a tribute to that work, and an alternative means to discover what PE is today. Piers Blaikie’s life-work also encompasses research and writing on natural disasters and risk, development policy and practice, international environmental policy, conservation and biodiversity, AIDS in Africa, livelihoods, and books on India and Nepal. By assessing Blaikie’s long and productive career, from pioneering foundational texts, through transdisciplinary exchanges in the fields of Geography, Development Studies, and policy, to constructive and critical engagement with the post-modern turn, and questions of epistemology and methodology, the contributions to this themed issue provide a diverse yet coherent set of insights. The three sessions of the Association of American Geographers (AAG) Conference in Denver in 2005 and group of articles that emerged from them to form this collection serve to clarify the major convergences and dissonances in the field and its ongoing vitality. In Piers Blaikie’s case, as a central actor in both the theory and practice of PE, a collection based upon a critical overview of his contributions to PE provides a new window into seeing and understanding the past, present, and future of the field.     

南水北调中线工程沿线文物分布特征及其受渠道工程影响的模糊评价

水资源开发利用必须与文物保护紧密结合。南水北调中线工程的设计和建设中必须考虑其对沿线数量多、分布广的文物的影响评价 ,以便通过调查和评价来保护这些文物。工作中我们从对水系分布、地层岩性、地貌类型划分 ,文物级别、保护状况及同引水渠道空间关系等调查入手 ,一方面在输水渠道两侧各 3km宽的影响范围内 ,对不同时代的文物地貌分布特征进行了统计 ,另一方面 ,用影响指数E对沿线文物受影响的程度及保护等级进行了模糊定量评价。     

From catfish to organic fish: making distinctions about nature as cultural economic practice

This paper addresses the cultural economy of nature and the material culture of economic practice. Attending to ways that cultural notions about the biophysical world play key roles in political economic conflicts, discussion centers on two recent debates involving the cultural economy of seafood production and trade. The first debate is over whether the label “catfish” should include catfish imported from Vietnam into the United States; the second deals with whether fish and shellfish should be eligible to be certified “organic” under new US regulations. Analysis reveals that the key dynamic in these debates is not necessarily how people think about “nature”, but instead is how people make distinctions about the world. Rather than focusing on what is natural or not, key actors make distinctions among both organisms and environments. The ways that different groups define and enclose the biophysical world works to distinguish places as either appropriate or not for certain kinds of production activities. The overall argument is that significance and meaning of the biophysical become implicated in economic geographies by making distinctions about the world that then become important for how economic activity can work. As such, cultural economic approaches should attend to the ways that the biophysical is involved in relations such as competition and international trade, while nature-society approaches should shift focus from Nature to specific aspects of the biophysical world.     

蛇绿岩研究的进展

近几年蛇绿岩的研究已取得显著的进展，主要反映在下述几个方面：１．对于蛇绿岩的概念已有了新的认识，蛇绿岩代表古代的大洋岩石圈碎片，但并非正常的大洋岩石圈；２．关于蛇绿岩的多样性已经提出了许多不同的见解，最近有关特提斯与环太平洋蛇绿岩的对比研究使许多作者得出结论，它们具有不同的特征；３．蛇绿岩源区的研究表明，蛇绿岩并非唯一地来自亏损的软流圈地幔，不同地幔端元之间的混合以及来自陆壳物质的混染作用也是常见的现象；４．早元古代蛇绿岩的发现。预期９０年代，在蛇绿岩的多样性、地幔岩部分熔融、岩浆来源、蛇绿岩的侵位机制以及蛇绿岩与高压变质作用等方面将取得长足的进展．     

The spatial shopping behaviour of the urban elderly: A review of the literature

The spatial shopping behaviour of the urban elderly has received increasing attention from researchers in a variety of disciplines including geography, marketing, city planning, and social gerontology. Relevant literature from these diverse sources is reviewed within an organizational framework based on two ‘behavioural’ approaches to retail geography: ‘empirical-behavioural’ and ‘cognitive-behavioural’. Overall, the research findings suggest that the elderly represent a distinctive consumer segment with special problems and needs. In particular, many older shoppers are subject to a wide variety of mobility constraints which ultimately restrict their access to shopping opportunities. However, some work has discovered important differences in the spatial behaviours of subgroups of elderly consumers defined on the basis of such characteristics as health, age, household composition, marital status, income level, and residential location. It is suggested that further research needs to explore more fully how these characteristics may impose variable personal and environmental constraints upon the shopping activities of the urban elderly.     

Trends in Urban Sociology in French-speaking countries from 1945 to 1980

The French Urban Sociology is divided between people interested on appropriation of space and other interested in the production. In this orientation till year 1970 — Marxist theory had a strong influence. After that, the research was more orientated to collective negociation between social actor, with a preoccupation to define the real power of different level of political decision. The state is financing most of the research. This institutional situation explains also the research orientation.     

Agricultural diversification and dietary diversity: A feminist political ecology of the everyday experiences of landless and smallholder households in northern Ghana

There is an emerging literature suggesting that when smallholder households diversify their agriculture, a wide range of food groups will be available, and consequently, dietary diversity will be improved. The present article brings this literature into critical conversation with research in feminist political ecology. Grounded in five years of repeated fieldwork, the article weaves together 70 in-depth interviews, and dietary as well as farm production diversity data from 30 households in northern Ghana. This dataset is analyzed by considering not only the diversity of farming systems, but also household headship, including male-headed, de facto female-headed, and de jure female-headed. Among other findings, the paper suggests that dietary diversity scores are lowest for households who have lost their farmlands to on-going land grabbing in Ghana. Furthermore, the paper suggests that while agricultural diversification is essential, it is not sufficient in itself to address nutritional challenges confronting smallholder households. In the contested and political arena of the household, the gendered politics of access to food can deeply shape how agricultural diversification contributes to dietary diversity. Overall, I do not wish to conclude that there are no benefits of increasing the diversity of farm production. Rather, I wish to stress that farm production diversity might not be the best or only strategy to improving dietary diversity among rural households. Through this case study, I also contribute to emerging research in new feminist political ecologies by demonstrating how the intersection of gender, seniority, marital status, and sexual politics shapes resource access and control.     

Bounding difference: Intersectionality and the material production of gender, caste, class and environment in Nepal

Current theorising in human geography draws attention to the relational emergence of space and society, challenging ideas of difference that rely on fixed identities and emphasising the importance of the everyday in the production of social inequalities. Similarly, feminist political ecology has emphasised the role of ‘nature’ or ‘environment’ in the production of subjectivities such that ideas of gender and nature arise in relation to each other. In this paper I build from these insights to explore the ways in which the embodied performance of gender, caste and other aspects of social difference collapse the distinction between the material and the symbolic. Symbolic ideas of difference are produced and expressed through embodied interactions that are firmly material. Through this kind of conceptualisation, I hope to push forward debates in geography on nature and feminist political ecology on how to understand the intersectional emergence of subjectivities, difference and socio-natures. Importantly, it is the symbolic meanings of particular spaces, practices and bodies that are (re)produced through everyday activities including forest harvesting, agricultural work, food preparation and consumption, all of which have consequences for both ecological processes and social difference. Through the performance of everyday tasks, not only are ideas of gender, caste and social difference brought into view, but the embodied nature of difference that extends beyond the body and into the spaces of everyday life is evident. I use ethnographic evidence from rural Nepal to explore the ways in which boundaries between bodies, spaces, ecologies and symbolic meanings of difference are produced and maintained relationally through practices of work and ritual.     

Quaternary palaeoecology and the historic environment: Challenges and opportunities for preserving England's wetlands

Palaeoecological records can provide important information on past cultural and economic activities and landscape change. Wetland sites in particular provide remarkable depository opportunities for such remains. Yet these deposit and site types are often not fully appreciated and are undervalued in terms of their place in our culture and history. This article explores reasons for this and suggests ways in which better collaboration between disciplines and sectors can be achieved. We also highlight the work that Historic England has been carrying out and funding, signposting the organisation's publications and guidance. In doing so, we demonstrate that Historic England is an advocate of wetlands and their heritage values, and is concerned with their protection, rather than only historic buildings, scheduled monuments and other designated sites, as it is commonly perceived. Through this we hope to establish partnerships and develop networks across sectors with those who are interested in wetlands, leading to better integrated working practices.     

Unnoticed but important: revealing the hidden contribution of community-based religious institution of the mosque in disasters

The role of community-based religious institutions has been largely undocumented, underestimated and overshadowed in the disaster studies literature. This paper explores the role of the mosque, a community-based religious institution, in disaster management by documenting and analysing its role in rural settings in the aftermath of the 2005 earthquake in Pakistan. The study examines the role of the mosque in relation to key actors from the state, civil society and private sector during response, relief, recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation phases of the Pakistan earthquake. Using qualitative research methods and a case study design, this article analyses primary data collected through 5 months of fieldwork (in 2009 and 2010). The findings demonstrate the multifaceted and distinct contribution of the mosque in cultural, economic, social and political aspects of the lives of the earthquake-affected communities. Possible challenges to engagement with the mosque, both gender inclusiveness and political controversy around its role, are also raised. This research suggests that state, civil society and private sector actors involved in disaster management need to understand complex relationships involving people and their religious institutions, and their impact on the social dimension of recovery. The findings of the study contribute to the scarce knowledge about the role of community-based religious institutions including churches, mosques, synagogues and temples and call for engagement: that is, acknowledging and valuing their role for building a synergy between secular and religious efforts for disaster risk reduction and post-disaster recovery.     

Thinking creative clusters beyond the city: People,places and networks

This paper develops an ethnographic study of a small rural based ‘creative cluster’, called Krowji, situated in the town of Redruth in West Cornwall, UK. The dominant geographies of creative industries research and policy in recent years have an acknowledged urban bias together with a focus on narratives of agglomeration. This paper sits alongside research that brings to the fore ‘other’ geographies of cultural production, and reflects an increasing interest in work on creativity in rural areas. Following work by Storper and Pratt, we explore Krowji’s complex interdependencies, investigating ‘the relations within, without and across the cluster’. We focus on the relationships between Krowji and its surrounding area together with the spatialities and temporalities of the relations that occur across and beyond the cluster. We address the dynamics and durability of relations formed within the cluster also paying attention to their disconnections. In offering this analysis we develop a valuable counterpoint to the urban bias of much work on creative clusters and we contribute to work that is looking more closely at the temporalities and spatialities of cultural production. Further, we point towards the value of ethnographical research on the creative industries.     

Problems resulting from misinterpretations of natural resources and natural hazards in tropical countries. The example of Peru

Natural resources in a tropical country like Peru are often overestimated. Peru is characterized by a wide range of regional differences, varied physical settings, and numerous natural hazards. Some climatical and hydrological conditions are examined and the factors causing instability in agricultural and nonagricultural production are discussed. Natural resources must be evaluated in the framework of internal political, social, and economic circumstances. Several points are recommended to foster economic development when considering the constraints of the physical environment.