Voluntary resettlement in land grab contexts: examining consent on the Ecuadorian oil frontier

Forced resettlement, central to state-led development throughout the twentieth century, still paves the way for agroindustrial, hydroelectric, urban, and other forms of development in much of the global South today. In response to pressures from social movements challenging human displacement, states, firms, and multinational institutions increasingly seek the consent of impacted communities, often offering monetary compensation and resettlement, along with development assistance. Some states obtain consent by offering resettlements with urban infrastructures and public services. In Ecuador, the state has planned 200 urban-like resettlements called “Millennium Cities” for communities on the Amazonian oil and mining frontiers. Although resettlement in this context transforms human–environment relations and generates new social ills by isolating residents from food supplies and market networks, many communities do consent to resettlement. In this paper, I call attention to voluntary rural–urban resettlement in land grab governance and I explore why communities might consent to their own displacement. This paper suggests the need to account for the material and social conditions that structure consent.     

Where rights begin and end in Puerto Rico's gated communities

In 1992, Puerto Rico's governor and police superintendent incorporated the National Guard with local police in a militarized battle against crime. Mano dura contra el crimen (strong arm/iron fist against crime) policies led to the gating of 82 public housing communities in the island. Simultaneously, privileged private communities organized and petitioned municipalities to retrofit their neighbourhoods with gates in the name of safety. These enclosures followed the privatized management of all public housing communities in the island only a few years before. Based on ethnographic research, I examine the sociospatial outcomes of these policies, how they reframe community participation and deploy a discourse of self‐responsibility that distributes power unequally across private and public housing communities. While in the privileged communities these policies have cultivated community leaders and invigorated social life as residents take control over public space, the gates in the communities of the poor reflect a skeletal structure of democracy. Private management companies impose increasingly restrictive regulations in attempts to organize the community and the only recourse to participation is to engage in small acts of everyday resistance, from apathy to subversion. As part of larger neoliberal tendencies to retrench the ‘public’ in favour of the ‘private’, the mano dura policies curtail democracy as the voices of the poor are silenced and the scope of efficacy of the rich expands.     

基于公共空间价值建构的社区规划——以广州北京街3个传统社区为例

在公共空间价值研究中,社会行动理论提出基于“场域”空间结构化的社会行动研究框架,并为公共空间价值建构提供了实践论方法。在西方国家出现的公共空间价值危机背景下,社区逐渐成为构建公共空间价值的重要载体,社区规划因其社会行动本质,逐步成为重构社区公共空间价值的重要手段。目前我国社区规划的实践作为城市规划制度体系框架之下的局部探索创新,很难适应公民社会背景下不断成长的社区行动需要。本文借鉴新制度主义理论,以广州市北京街盐运西、流水井、龙藏3个传统文化社区为实证研究对象,从“组织”和“场域”两个分析视角,探讨社区运行空间构建和社区振兴行动方法,试图搭建我国面向公共空间价值需求的社区规划体系。研究显示,上述社区在商业文化的冲击下,面临着社区异质性加深、社区资本降低、社区行动障碍等问题,建设更包容开放、更有活力的可持续社区则成为社区居民的普遍愿望和需求。     

Interdisciplinary,Cross-Cultural Research: Double Trouble∗

U.S. housing policy strengthens the local specificity of capital through support for homeownership and the mortgage lending industry. As access to capital and homeownership rates have grown, predatory lending has emerged as a significant danger to homeowners and their surrounding communities. The geographic distribution is not well understood, likely due to the unavailability of mortgage data to identify instances of predatory lending. This article examines the spatial distribution of predatory lending in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, using public mortgage and property data. Predatory lending is spatially clustered within the city, suggesting a spatial component of abusive lending patterns not previously addressed. U.S. housing policy and intervention strategies designed to prevent and reduce the incidence of predatory lending should address the spatial aspects of predatory lending to target efforts and prevent weakening local connections between capital and communities.     

基于活力特征分析的城市安置社区公共空间研究——以苏州城区6个安置社区为例

由“散居”到“集居”,安置社区面临社会关系重建的巨大压力。基于公共空间活力内涵,采用AHP-模糊综合评价法,构建了城市安置社区公共空间活力评价模型,以苏州市6个安置社区为例,对3种安置模式的社区公共空间活力特征进行定量评价和比较。发现：① 不同安置模式的社区公共空间活力存在明显差异。尽管异地安置社区的公共空间的设施完备、类型多样,但是其公共空间的社会活力度最低。对于公共空间活力提升,社区公共空间背后的社会属性比其物质属性更为重要。②公共空间因子活力度与关注度存在不匹配现象。基于“社会-空间”辩证互动逻辑,提出安置社区公共空间活力营造策略： 对于今后安置社区,适宜“村内小集居+跨村大聚居”的安置模式,通过最大程度维系原有“熟人社区”群体的社会边界,提升公共空间活力,减轻社区社会关系重建的压力;对于现有安置社区,可根据公共空间因子活力度和关注度的匹配关系,划分公共空间改造的优先级,采用差别化的改造策略,提升公共空间活力及其改造资金的使用效率。     

快速城市化下 "转型社区"空间改造的障碍——广州、深圳案例

城中村在土地利用、建设景观、规划管理、社区文化等方面均表现出强烈的城乡差异及矛盾。近年来,我国部分地区采取了"转制"的措施来消除"城中村"的城乡二元结构,形成了兼具城市与乡村社区特征的"转型社区",——人口由农民转为市民、土地由集体所有转为国有、经济由集体经济转为股份公司、管理由村委会转居委会——其空间改造也提上日程。从"转型社区"的土地利用问题出发,介绍目前常用的"转型社区"改造模式,并分别从"转型社区"内土地产权和使用主体分析转制后依然存在甚至加剧的改造障碍。研究认为,土地的伪国有化定义下的不完全产权、土地非法与合法混杂导致的用地破碎化和现有利益格局下各土地利用主体的成本与收益失衡导致"转型社区"内公共设施缺乏、土地价值过低且被过度利用的状态难以改变。以此为基础,提出了对"转型社区"改造的建议。     

基于报业话语的广州非裔社区的空间想象分析

使用文本分析和访谈的方法,本文检视了2007-2017年广州报业对广州非裔群体及非裔社区的话语表征。研究发现,受媒体自身对新闻素材的要求以及地方政治实践对媒体的影响,早期的广州报纸构建了指向性明确、有符号意味且被污名化的非裔空间地图。早先的话语产生了消极的社会影响,且一定程度上激化了非裔群体和地方社会的矛盾。其后,随着宏观政治格局的变化,尤其是置于构建社会主义和谐社会与中非合作论坛等语境时,广州报业媒体对于非裔报道致力于塑造中非发展共同体的地理想象,构建积极的广州非裔和非裔社区的形象,以期重构非裔社区的意义。广州报业的非裔话语是族裔社区空间形象构建过程,进而成为地方政治、国家政治和国际政治持续投影、纠葛和变化的地理再现。研究从社会文化地理学和政治地理学的角度丰富了对族裔社区划界、空间生产和地理想象的理解,试图建立报业舆论与地缘政治的地理视角联结。从实践和应用的角度来讲,本文探讨了全球化背景下媒体话语对跨境文化交融带来的挑战和影响,对于实现全球化背景下的中外多元文化交融与协商、实现良性的国际关系互动具有一定的参考价值。     

Community Forest Owners Evaluate a Decade of Payments for Ecosystem Services in the Mexican Cloud Forest: The Importance of Attention to Indigenous Sovereignty in Conservation

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) programs have taken a variety of forms that depend on many mediating factors, such as national and local politics, land tenure, regional collective action, the capacity of intermediaries, and socio-ecological context. This diversity has produced unsurprisingly mixed experiences, with many falling short of achieving the twin goals of environmental and social benefits and some causing adverse consequences. This study examines one rare PES case that has contributed both to forest conservation and to community livelihoods. In this study, community forest owners from four indigenous communities in the Mexican cloud forest evaluate their participation in ten years of a public PES program to support watershed stewardship. We argue that attention to indigenous sovereignty and self-determination in program implementation contributed to widely appreciated socio-environmental benefits. Though many PES programs are implemented in indigenous communities, scholarly debates have rarely dealt directly with these issues.     

Between coercion and consent: the politics of “Cooperative Governance” at a time of “Austerity Localism” in London

At a time of “austerity localism”, this paper explores how local authorities in London, England, are simultaneously addressing the dual pressures of delivering fiscal retrenchment and of enrolling citizens in new participatory public service arrangements, asking whether “these trends pull against one another, in opposite directions, or whether they are the tough and tender dimensions of a singular process: austerian management” Drawing on empirical research into the London Borough of Lambeth’s Cooperative Council agenda, as well as Foucauldian and Gramscian critiques of participatory network governance theories and practice, this paper shows how participatory forms of governance can be folded into the logic of hierarchy and coercion through various governmental technologies of performance and agency (consent), and through tactics of administrative domination (coercion). As budget cuts continue to affect local government in England, this paper concludes that although small experiments in participatory governance may persist, the dominant mode of governance is likely to shift towards more hierarchical and coercive forms.     

Privatised Communities: the use of owners corporations in master planned estates in Melbourne

This paper contributes to the growing body of work on master planned estates in Australia by addressing the issue of the privatisation of assets and facilities, which in more conventional residential developments are in the public realm, owned and managed by local councils or other public bodies. The paper addresses the trend to place assets presented as lifestyle features, such as community and recreational facilities, open space or landscaping features, in a form of collective private ownership, known in Victoria as owners corporations. The provision of these facilities and assets for residents, however, has a number of implications relating to exclusivity, separation from the wider community, and potential conflicts within the master planned community itself. These issues are examined with reference to data gathered through an investigation of recently established master planned communities in the growth areas of Melbourne.     

IDENTIFICATION OF AND RESPONSE TO DROUGHT BY LOCAL COMMUNITIES IN FULLADU WEST DISTRICT, THE GAMBIA

Although the way in which local communities in The Gambia identify drought has remained predominantly traditional, their response to the hazard has undergone significant change over the past three decades. Some of the changes, even if short-lived, have been beneficial, and have reduced the severity and duration of the hardships and penury which can accompany droughts in this part of the world. Nevertheless, other changes in the local response system, coupled with wider social, economic and political developments over the decades, are threatening to weaken the tolerance of local communities to hazards and increase their exposure to droughts. This article examines some of the strategies which local communities employ to identify and respond to drought, the extent to which responses have changed over the past decades, and the implications of some of these changes for the vulnerability of local communities in The Gambia.     

构建大珠江三角洲“阳光海岸”——基于整合滨海文化休闲资源的视角

为适应大珠三角地区由粗放低效增长向集约精明发展的转型需求,打造高品质人居环境、吸引高端人才和要素集聚成为本地区提升区域竞争力的关键。基于本地海岸带的复合型优势,提出建设大珠三角"阳光海岸",使之成为生态环境优美、多元文化交融、休闲景观多样、公共交通可达、设施配套完善、新兴产业集聚的地区,具体措施包括:环珠江口阳光休闲湾区建设、"公共通廊+滨海社区"的休闲海岸开发、文化海岸建设、统筹海岸带开发的合作机制建设等。     

The Dramas of the Marine Extractive Reserve Managers in Brazil: Navigating through Multiple Institutions

Abstract

In this paper, we describe and analyze the co-management institutional framework at 21 Brazilian Marine Extractive Reserves (MERs) and present the dramas of its implementation from the local manager’s perspective. We categorized the governance instruments of MERs into (i) instruments for land/sea tenure and beneficiaries’ recognition, (ii) territorial use planning, (iii) institutional arenas for discussion and deliberation, as well as (iv) public policies. Although the legal arrangements of these protected areas address fundamental dimensions of governance, we present the challenges of its implementation based on the voice of local managers. The managers are the bridge between the central government and communities, dealing with the implementation of the institutional framework in a reality of multi-level and multi-scale drama: from local to national dilemmas, from organizational to structural ones. We explore these dramas and highlight the institutional dilemmas based on the paradoxes between legalism and social emancipation.     

Locality Attributes and Networks Serving to Reveal Amazonian Urbanization beyond the Cities

Beyond the Amazonian cities, distinct spatial units arranged in networks compose an extended urban space, usually invisible to government agencies and public polities. This article empirically reveals this space by studying the localities’ characteristics and connections. In southwestern Pará, Brazil, 236 communities were sampled using field expeditions. Variables related to the locality organization, history, health and education services, urban infrastructure, and land use were explored in a fuzzy cluster analysis. Local production and consumption flows were considered in the locality network analysis. The fuzzy analysis allowed identifying a hierarchy of localities for which the geographical location influences the spatial distribution patterns of five groups. On the other hand, consumption and production networks identified different locality's articulations, with persistent dependence on cities. These results characterize extensive urbanization at the local level and highlights the participation of the local populations configuring the Amazonian territory.     

基于SNA的新型集中社区公共空间网络结构优化

公共空间并非“存在即合理”。公共空间网络结构效率折射出社会网络的重构能力、社会资本的建构强度、社会秩序的重塑能力。新型集中社区作为近年大量涌现的新型居住形态,正面临社会关系重构的巨大压力。本文运用社会学的网络分析法研究公共空间网络,并对苏州新型集中社区D的公共空间网络结构进行实证分析,其结论为：公共空间网络的关联度为0.216、中心势0.358、小世界值1.978,表明空间网络整体关联度不足,呈现出破碎化的特征;商业空间整合效应的发挥受到业态配置的影响;居民社会属性对空间网络结构特征造成一定影响。最后,基于“社会—空间”互动逻辑,以社会网络重构为导向,从集中安置模式、公共空间网络优化2个层面,提出新型集中社区有待进一步研究的方向,以期为当前及未来的集中社区规划建设和公共空间整体优化提供科学合理的依据。     

Consultas and Socially Responsible Investing in Guatemala: A Case Study Examining Maya Perspectives on the Indigenous Right to Free,Prior, and Informed Consent

Since 2005, more than 78 Maya communities representing approximately one million Guatemalans have held referendums called consultas comunitarias, which ask the community whether they are in agreement with mineral, hydroelectric, and/or other megaprojects in their traditional territory. Participation in the consultas is a form of resistance to the granting of mineral rights to corporate interests. In Canada, where much of the Guatemalan mining investment is based, “socially responsible investment firms” (SRIs) promote corporate respect for Indigenous rights. Based on interviews and participant observation, we highlight the perspectives of Maya consulta organizers in three communities that have undertaken consultas to resist the mining licenses of the Canadian mining company Goldcorp, Inc. We argue that a strict policy of corporate respect for the right to free, prior, and informed consent of affected communities is a minimum requirement for Maya acceptance of SRI legitimacy.     

Economic Efficiency of Residential Water Conservation Programs in a Pennsylvania Public Water Utility

This study examines the economic efficiency of implementing a residential water conservation program in a small Pennsylvania public water utility. Local demographic data and results from similar programs elsewhere were used to estimate potential water conservation for three programs: rebates for low-flow toilets, rebates for high-efficiency washing machines, and in-home water audits. Future water supply and wastewater treatment demand were estimated. The net present value of constructing, operating, and maintaining new capacity infrastructure (water supply, water storage tanks, and wastewater treatment plant capacity), as well as the costs of the conservation programs, was calculated for a range of scenarios that included future demand growth, construction costs, interest rates, and levels of participation in the conservation programs. Results indicate that investing in residential water conservation would be cost-effective for a small number of scenarios that generally combine higher growth rates, higher interest rates, higher construction costs, and relatively modest public participation in conservation. The results are affected by the timing of necessary supply-side investments relative to the most significant water conservation gains, the relatively inexpensive local water supply costs, and the relatively high local wastewater treatment costs. Water conservation might be cost-effective for a wider range of conditions in communities facing scarce and expensive water supply options.     

空间的力量:广场舞的社会文化意义与地方认同效应

广场不仅是健身与娱乐空间,更是具有丰富的社会文化涵义的社会空间。从空间生产与地方认同的视角入手,基于3个广州广场舞社区的案例研究,揭示广场舞对不同群体（本地人和外地人）的不同社会意义以及广场舞对地方与身份认同的影响,研究发现：① 对本地人而言,广场舞具有再造社会主义集体生活与关系的功能,广场发挥了类似单位社区的作用;对外地移民而言,广场舞有助于重建因迁移而断裂的社会关系网络,广场具有类似乡村社区的功能;② 类单位社区和类乡村社区的构建,一定程度上增进了居民的身份认同和地方认同;③ 广场舞群体的身份认同和地方认同的强化,进一步为自治性社区能力建设提供了可能性。     

Growth Management and Resident Satisfaction with Local Public Services

The lack of timely survey data on resident satisfaction with local public services makes it difficult to verify the legitimacy of resident concerns with the effects of rapid population growth. This study attempts to verify the legitimacy of such concerns by analyzing survey data on resident service satisfaction in a rapidly growing county in Northern Virginia. Using an empirical model that simultaneously incorporates individual- and community-level predictors of resident service satisfaction seems to support resident's concerns; resident service satisfaction is significantly lower in the area of the county (the eastern part) where most new development has occurred. This finding suggests that residents living in comparatively low density communities in the fastest-growing area of the county are not very satisfied with services. One explanation is that these services are not yet in place so they compare unfavorably with the services residents experienced in the communities from which they came.