Striving for equity: Aboriginal socioeconomic transformation and development in the 1980s

Although over the last three decades some of the gaps between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal living standards and material wealth have narrowed, change has been very gradual, has been by no means universal and, in some areas, such as unemployment levels, the Aboriginal position has actually deteriorated. It seems likely that, in socio-economic terms, Aboriginal inequality will persist for many decades to come. Inequality cannot be attributed solely to lack of Government expenditure: considerable financial resources have been devoted to the improvement of Aboriginal welfare. It is clear, however, that resources have not always been used in appropriate ways and it is argued that such misallocations will continue to occur until the underlying causes of Aboriginal disadvantage, as perceived by the Aborigines themselves, are better understood. In this understanding the land question is crucial. This paper analyses Aboriginal socioeconomic transformation in the context of control over land as a vital resource.     

Fire on the horizon: contemporary Aboriginal burning issues in the Tanami Desert,central Australia

As part of a collaborative research project created to promote the coexistence of fire, people and biodiversity in central Australia, a case study was conducted on Aboriginal perceptions of fire and its management in the southern Tanami Desert of Central Australia. The Tanami was chosen due to consecutive wildfire events and reported fire conflicts between Aboriginal and pastoral (cattle station) landholders on fire issues. This paper addresses fire issues from the perspective of Warlpiri Aboriginal people in this region. It shows that many Warlpiri hold strong views concerning the use of fire and its management. Elders, in particular, have retained tradition-based knowledge about fire and its effects on the environment. The complex cultural protocols that structure decisions about who burns, when and where are discussed. It is shown that, although there have been dramatic changes to their subsistence economy, Warlpiri still burn for cultural and economic reasons. At the same time, social change has given rise to new fire-related issues, including lack of access to remote areas in order to undertake burning and a decrease in fire knowledge among younger generations. The paper argues that Warlpiri perceptions of fire management, needs and skills must be incorporated in a regional fire management strategy if the cycle of wildfire that follows above average rainfall periods in the Tanami is to be broken. Proper resourcing of Aboriginal people to fire their land in customary ways will enhance Aboriginal livelihoods as well as benefit other stakeholders in the region.     

Re-conceptualising desert landscapes: unpacking historical narratives and contemporary realities for sustainable livelihood development in central Australia

Desert landscapes of central Australia have inspired various narratives for nation building. These narratives, based upon discourses of land as a commodity for the colonial project, include the inferior peripheral wastelands of the colonial centre; the wild and pristine haven of ‘noble aborigines’; and the frontier home of heroic explorers and pastoralists. These narratives continue to influence land management policy and practice. However they do not reflect the diverse contemporary realities of individuals living in the region. In this paper I juxtapose these narratives and realities to reveal the multitude of ways in which desert landscapes are known and understood. A case study of a fire management project that involved Aboriginal, pastoral and conservation land managers from the southern Tanami region of central Australia provides evidence as to why desert landscapes should be re-conceptualized as cultural, contested and dynamic. To conceive of these spaces and places in this way can facilitate open discussion and dialogue between land managers from the region. It is the first step in working towards the process of cultural hybridity that I argue is necessary for equitable and sustainable environmental governance and management in Australia.     

Stay or leave? Potential climate change adaptation strategies among Aboriginal people in coastal communities in northern Australia

Coastal northern Australia is largely owned and occupied by Aboriginal people who are strongly connected to their traditional country. We assess the views of Aboriginal people in Arnhem Land on the impacts of climate change and their possible precautionary responses to both sea level rise and a potential increase in the intensity of tropical cyclones in coastal communities. All respondents had heard about climate change, and 48 % had already seen environmental changes, particularly sea level rise, which they attributed to climate change. Fifty-eight percent of respondents would consider relocating in the future for safety reasons, although most respondents perceived living close to the sea as highly important for their future well-being, emphasising their strong connection to their traditional sea country. Many of those willing to relocate would consider moving inland, either temporarily or permanently, provided that community facilities could also be moved. Other respondents who said they would be unlikely to relocate in the future because of climate change impacts, and would prefer to adapt in situ with government support (e.g. building more shelters for severe cyclones, building sea walls and better roads for quick evacuation if necessary). We recommend that the diversity of adaptation preferences among Aboriginal people should be accommodated in policy to minimise social impacts of climate change and to take advantage of potential opportunities that could arise from moving.     

Energizing historical materialism: Fossil fuels, space and the capitalist mode of production

In this paper, I present a theoretical argument that fossil fuel represents a historically specific and internally necessary aspect of the capitalist mode of production. Despite sustained attention to distributional conflicts between international capital and energy rich nation-states, few historical-materialists have paid attention to the relations between fossil fuel and capital accumulation in industrial capitalist societies. In opposition to ecological economic notions of fixed thermodynamic “laws”, I first propose a dialectical conception of energy as embedded in dynamic social processes and power relations. Second, I review the historical importance of the energy shift from solar or biological sources of energy (muscles, wind, and water) to fossilized sources of energy (coal, oil, and gas). I then demonstrate how attention to fossil fuel energy forces a reexamination of the core insights of ecological Marxism and the political economy of nature. In the core argument of the paper, I reconsider the shift from biological to fossil energy as internal to the generalization and extension of capitalist social relations from two basic vantage points - (1) capitalist production based on wage labor; (2) the spatial conditions of capitalist circulation. I conclude by asking whether it is accurate to conceptualize capitalism as a “fossil fuel mode of production” and highlight the political urgency of a historical materialist perspective that takes seriously the importance of energy to the reproduction of capitalist social relations.     

贵州省近40年耕地功能转型评价及演变差异分析

梳理1978年之后贵州省农业政策及农业农户概况,构建耕地功能评价指标体系,并运用熵权法计算指标权重与其功能值,对耕地多功能进行分类和评价,对比全省及各个州市耕地在不同社会经济条件下所承载的功能,分析差异及原因,研究表明:（1）贵州省耕地功能呈下降趋势,功能转型从2006年前后开始,各州市存在一定差异,经济发展较快的地区在2004年前后已提前转型,经济发展较慢的地区在2012年前后转型;（2）耕地功能存在空间分布差异,主要与地区耕地压力和经济发达程度组合状况有关,低耕低压力高GDP（如遵义、六盘水）耕地功能值最高,高耕低压力高GDP（如贵阳市）则次之,高压力低GDP（如安顺等地区）再次之,低压力低GDP（如黔南等地）最低;（3）耕地数量减少,耕地化学品负荷加剧,建议注重耕地生态保护,减少以过度化学品的投入换取粮食产出等不合理做法;从当地实际出发选择适合的农业发展方式,协调粮经作物、种养业发展的关系,推动农业结构优化升级。      

Tourist behaviour,local values,and interpretation at Ulu<Emphasis Type="Underline">r</Emphasis>u: ‘The sacred deed at Australia’s mighty heart’

This paper explores issues relating to multiple and changing values and uses of desert landscapes in the context of tourism at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park (UKTNP), co-managed by Aboriginal people and the Australian Government agency Parks Australia. More than 400,000 people visit the park each year, drawn mostly by the massive red monolith. To the local Aboriginal people, Anangu, this rock is Uluru, a complex of places with great spiritual importance. Since co-management, UKTNP has become a symbol of the reconciliation process between Aboriginal and settler Australians. Climbing the rock is a popular activity. Aboriginal co-managers ask visitors not to climb Uluru but rather to learn about their culture and home through their eyes. Park management aims to discourage climbing. This research investigated how visitors respond to the Anangu request not to climb, and why some climb while others do not. We argue that spatial and experiential aspects of the park support climbing at the expense of participation in other activities more attuned to Aboriginal understandings of landscape at Uluru.     

Mobile pastoralism on the brink of land privatization in Northern Côte d’Ivoire

Côte d’Ivoire’s adoption of land privatization policies promoted by the World Bank and European Union is producing new land use patterns in the countryside. A centerpiece of these policies is the 1998 Rural Land Law that aims to restructure rural economic life along agrarian capitalist lines. The purported “development” objective of land privatization is to stimulate agricultural productivity based on the assumption that land titling will lead farmers and herders to make greater investments in their production systems. This paper argues that the mobile livestock raising system of immigrant FulBe pastoralists in Côte d’Ivoire is threatened by the new land law. Since mobility is crucial to animal health and fertility rates, I argue that reduced mobility will lead to lower livestock productivity. Although the land law has yet to be implemented, its very existence is leading prospective claimants to test their land rights by planting orchards and lending land to immigrant farmers. The monetization of land lending and grazing rights is increasingly common. Land disputes over who has the power to allocate land are also on the rise. I argue that this heightened interest in “tenure building” is constraining herd mobility, especially for herders with limited resources to negotiate access to rangelands. On the other hand, land privatization is strengthening the hand of local cattle-owning farmers who increasingly practice mobile livestock raising and compete with FulBe herders for grazing lands. Under these new conditions of land access, control, and competition, FulBe herd mobility and productivity are at risk of declining.     

基于地学规律的科尔沁沙地土地整治与生态修复规划方法

内蒙古科尔沁沙地历史上曾是科尔沁大草原,现在是农牧交错区,该区的土地利用关系到生态安全、国家粮食安全和农民生计。该区域“坨甸相间”地貌特点造成不同地形部位土壤含水量存在差异,降水量年际变化大。通过卫星影像数据解译出土地利用/覆被类型图与土壤图进行叠加,获得了显性沙地和隐性沙地数量与分布信息。首先保留耕地以外的其他地类,再利用卫星影像数据反映不同降水年型耕地的归一化植被指数(NDVI),将偏欠水年NDVI低于平均值的耕地退耕还草,消除这些耕地的冬春沙化风险,以进行土地利用布局调整。这种直接利用遥感数据获取土地利用/覆被类型和耕地的NDVI进行土地利用空间布局调整的方法,十分简单实用。本文还根据地貌和沙地降水入渗快的特点,提出了与高标准农田建设模式不同但与区域地理环境相吻合的农田整治模式,即利用自然沙丘作为区域风沙防护工程,土地开发不做大平整,不修建灌溉系统,发展雨养农业。以上根据区域地理环境条件进行土地利用布局和确定农田开发建设模式,可将农业生产与荒漠化防治和谐结合在一起,实现土地可持续利用。     

Stone artifact scatters in western NSW,Australia: Geomorphic controls on artifact size and distribution

Surface scatters of Aboriginal stone artifacts have been exposed in many parts of inland Australia by accelerated erosion that followed the introduction of pastoralism by European settlers in the 19th century. This paper reports on a set of techniques developed to investigate and quantify the effects of these post‐discard disturbance processes in Sturt National Park in northwest NSW, Australia. Backwards, stepwise, linear regression showed the influence of geomorphic parameters such as slope gradient, elevation, landform, and contemporary surface processes on artifact distribution, with artifact maximum dimension as the dependent variable. The results indicate that, even at low gradients, artifact size and slope angle are significantly related, but that the variance in maximum dimension explained by gradient is very low. Similar results were found for the other geomorphic variables. We conclude that artifact movement by surface wash across these surfaces is unlikely to significantly affect artifact distribution. While vertically conflated surface scatters do not preserve “living floors” in a short‐term, functional sense, their apparent horizontal integrity allows investigation of the long‐term use of place by hunter‐gatherer people in the past. Insofar as assemblage integrity is important for assessing site significance in the heritage management industry, our methods provide a means for assessing the degree to which a site has been damaged by water flow. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

济南市土地利用动态变化分析

结合济南市土地利用现状,对济南市农用地内部结构、建设用地内部结构及未利用地内部结构变化进行了分析,得出这几类土地内部结构变化的驱动力主要为经济结构、人口增长和自然因素等,指出今后应注重经济、资源与环境的协调发展,合理利用好每一寸土地。     

Community capacity amongst people living with HIV/AIDS

Mobilisation of people living with HIV/AIDS in the 1980s was tied to social identity and the public rendering of AIDS as a gay disease. This activism has continued in large cities alongside new streams of mobilization addressing the needs of groups such as women and Aboriginal peoples living with HIV. We draw on interviews conducted with six people living with HIV/AIDS in a small Ontario city where the population does not allow for services tailored to specific groups. We investigate experiences of social engagement amongst people living with, and affected by, HIV/AIDS and examine why efforts to establish a community-based participatory research project was unsuccessful. Drawing from indicators of community capacity developed by Jackson et al. (Health Promot Int 18(4): 339–350, 2003) we identify the role of stigma both amongst different groups living with HIV/AIDS and the wider public as undermining a common sense of community and, potentially, our efforts to establish a community-based participatory research process.     

Desert knowledge: integrating knowledge and development in arid and semi-arid drylands

Globalisation presents particular challenges for deserts given that their sparse populations, which are amongst the world’s poorest in an absolute economic sense, tend to be remote from major markets and have only a distant, marginal voice in political and policy decision making. Here we are defining deserts as the arid and semi-arid drylands that encompass 70% of Australia and 25% of the world’s land surfaces. The value of the knowledge that local traditions and science have generated about living sustainably in deserts is being promoted and extended through the ‘desert knowledge’ movement in Australia. The Australian research reported here, together with a contribution from Niger that offers a contrast and some lessons for Australia, is largely underpinned by a neopopulist paradigm of development stressing respect for local knowledge, participatory practice and empowerment. Research in partnership with desert Aboriginal groups is contributing to their engagement with new livelihood opportunities. The local knowledge of livestock graziers is also being engaged to support sustainable management of desert water sources and landscapes for multiple values. The research reported here also addresses opportunities and challenges for local norms, identities, knowledge systems, governance and livelihoods from broader scale processes and institutions. In doing so it contributes to a ‘neo-ideographic approach’ wherein desert people might better harness their locality, knowledge and diversity in adaptations that shape their encounters with globalisation. It also points to considerable scope to mature such an approach.     

Long-term spatio-temporal social vulnerability variation considering health-related climate change parameters particularly affecting elderly

For assessing the social dimension of vulnerability, population exposure mapping is usually considered the essential starting point. Integration of social structure then further differentiates situation-specific vulnerability patterns on a local scale. Census data available in heterogeneous spatial reference units are still considered the standard information input for assessing potentially affected people, for example, in case of an emergency. There is a strong demand for population data in homogeneous spatial units that are independent from administrative areas. Raster representations meet this demand but are not yet available for all European countries. In this paper, we present an approach of spatial disaggregation of population data for a European transect referring to current population statistics and anticipated future prospects. Recently published data providing the degree of soil sealing are applied as basic proxy for population density in the spatial disaggregation model. In order to assess future patterns of climate change-related vulnerability, results of a European regional climate model are considered for projecting the situation in the 2030s. “Heat wave frequency” is accounted for as climate variable featuring conditions regarded as especially strenuous for elderly or physically weak persons. Integrated analysis of the population and climate prospects enables identification of hot spots in the European transect examined, that is, regions of particularly demanding projected climatic patterns as well as high population density and case-specific vulnerable structure (elderly people). Integrated and consistent spatial analyses on European scale are essential for decision support in the context of climate change impact mitigation as well as for risk communication and future safety and security considerations.     

“We will go side-by-side with you.” Labour union engagement with Aboriginal peoples in Canada

The inclusion of new groups of workers has been an important component of union renewal efforts. Several unions in Canada have begun to dedicate significant resources to better organize and represent Aboriginal workers. Drawing on interviews with union activists, organizers and representatives from two national public sector unions in Canada, we present an overview of union strategies to engage with Aboriginal peoples. Results suggest that understanding the distinct territorial context of Aboriginal peoples’ relationships to work and unions has been necessary to the success of these union strategies. This approach begins by drawing connections between Aboriginal peoples’ present-day relationships to work and their prior occupancy of, and dispossession from, lands and resources. Because of the geographical specificity of how the colonial experience affected Aboriginal peoples’ relationships to work and unions, unions have had to adopt non-normative approaches to their engagements with Aboriginal peoples. In workplaces where settlers were dominant, addressing racism in the workplace and gaining support for initiatives to hire and train Aboriginal workers were important. Alternatively, in Aboriginal workplaces, organizing was a priority. Here questions of union legitimacy have taken precedence and the focus of unions has been on partnership building. Most importantly, however, engagement with Aboriginal peoples has brought attention to the colonial practices within unions and helped to foster growing Aboriginal voice within the labour movement.     

广汉市区域可持续发展决策支持系统研究初探

四川是个人口、土地、经济大省,如何以有限和不断减少的土地资源来承载日益增长的人口是社会可持续发展问题的焦点之一。本文以四川省广汉市的人口、土地资源和经济发展三要素作为研究切入点,以地理信息系统（ＧＩＳ）为支撑环境,开展了广汉市区域可持续发展决策支持系统的研究     

Agrarian economy in Slovenia

Agrarian economy on the territory of a new European state, ie Slovenia (the NW part of former Yugoslavia) has undergone substantial transformations over the past 150 years. The changes were particularly intense after World War II when the Yugoslav Communist Party came to power in former Yugoslavia. Under its influence an extensive redistribution of property (ie expropriations) was carried out, as well as reorientation of production and a thorough social transformation. After the independent state of Slovenia was established in 1991 (Slovenia, 1992) and the capitalist system was reintroduced, the agrarian economy of this area has had to face certain far-reaching problems which are crucial for the future development of the new state.     

Poor housing and stroke mortality in population over 64 years old at the parish level,in mainland Portugal

Housing conditions can impact physical and mental health. In 2013, Portugal was still the fourth European Union country with the highest percentage of population without an adequately heated home in winter. Other adverse conditions are, for instance, overcrowding and living in older buildings. Some studies stress the relationship between stroke and poor living conditions in the elderly population, especially cold homes. Univariate and multivariate spatial cluster analysis were used to explore the relationship between excess stroke death risk, from 1998 to 2004, measured by the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) for several cohorts (including persons over 64 years old), and poor housing variables from the 2001 census, at the parish level in continental Portugal. A multivariate cluster of parishes, with population without any form of heating their homes as dominant condition, was detected in northwest Portugal. Mean and median SMR values across all cohorts were consistently higher within this cluster. This strengthens the hypothesis that cold homes deserve more attention in stroke prevention and mitigation amongst elderly persons, especially in northwestern continental Portugal.     

Cars and capitalism: The political economy of urban transportation

The car (automobile) appears to many to be an essential ingredient of capitalist society. This paper seeks to assess the role of the car in capitalist dominated social formations by relating the production, consumption and utilization of the car to the underlying structural relationships of the capitalist mode of production as a whole.