‘Borehole Race’ and the Dilemma of Governing the ‘Ungoverned’: Understanding the Urban Political Ecology of Groundwater Exploitation in Nigeria

Groundwater exploitation is an essential aspect of the numerous processes of transforming the urban natural environment for human gains. We use the political ecology of borehole exploitation in Nigeria’s urban environment to understand the micro-and macro-level processes mediating the transformation and changes in urban “groundwater scape”. The fieldwork processes depend on field counting of borehole distribution, in-depth and semi-structured interviews, and a review of secondary literatures. We argue that the social and environmental changes arising from the exploitation of groundwater bespeak the active and continual manifestation of the interplay of combustible interests and power friction among institutional agents within the permissible range of the natural environment. Such dynamic power relations engender a pattern of socio-natural transformation consistent with Swyngedouw’s notion of urban metabolism- “a series of interconnected heterogeneous and dynamic but contested and contestable processes of continuous quantitative and qualitative transformations that re-arranges humans and non-humans in new and often unexpected ways”.     

Creative destruction in urban planning procedures: the language of ‘renewal’ and ‘exploitation’21

This paper examines the language and phraseology of ‘creative destruction‘ (‘renewal‘ and ‘exploitation’) expressed in urban planning procedures concerning one particular house in West Jerusalem: 28 Radak Street. Through a forensic examination of the planning-related communications about this address, the work analyzes the various stages of the ’destruction’ and ’renewal’ of the property. It demonstrates how each of the various actors involved (Municipality, planning committees, legal courts, private entrepreneur and local residents) uses different language and phraseology to present their argument, while the voice of the original Palestinian owners of the house is entirely absent from the planning battle.     

‘Like touching with your roots’: migrants’ children visiting the ancestral homeland

Many migrants and their descendants make journeys to their homelands, and these visits form an important part of their ethnic identities, kinship relations and transnational connections. While such journeys have attracted increased attention recently, there has been relatively little exploration of the experiences that migrants’ children have when visiting their parents’ homeland, especially in an exile context when there has been little contact with the homeland for an extended period. This paper examines why the children and grandchildren of Estonian migrants to Australia journey to Estonia, and the experiences they have there. Motivations for visiting are complex and varied, and typically interweaved with parents’ stories, ethnic identities, kinship and curiosity. While visiting was a positive but emotional experience for some, it involved awkward encounters for others. This paper explores how these journeys led to respondents reconceptualising their senses of identity, belonging and home, and how many came to align their identities to both Estonia and Australia simultaneously.     

Doing NGO Work: the politics of being ‘civil society’ and promoting ‘good governance’ in Cambodia

Two fundamental pillars of what it is to be a contemporary NGO and ‘do’ development work are being a part of and promoting civil society, and extending ‘good governance’. This article will provide insights into how supposedly universally applicable concepts and models for NGOs to ‘improve’ post-conflict ‘developing countries’ are incorporated into different social and cultural landscapes. Ethnographic fieldwork highlights some of the particularities of governance, as well as everyday challenges of doing NGO work in a remote province of north-eastern Cambodia. In the context of an authoritarian government, where kinship relations cross-cut all aspects of society, NGOs can be understood as embedded in neo-patrimonial networks rather than as a separate and autonomous realm of society as classic liberal theory understands ‘civil society’. Fear also plays a significant role in configuring peoples’ attitude towards authority and is rarely acknowledged in the project of ‘good governance’ which simplistically tends to see post-colonial governments situated on a linear trajectory which will eventually, with significant NGO interventions, reach advanced liberal democracy status.     

Remembering kauri on the ‘Kauri Coast’

This paper explores how the recent history of kauri is remembered and commemorated on the Kauri Coast, western Northland, focusing on three specific heritage sites: The Kauri Museum at Matakohe, Trounson Kauri Park, and Waipoua Forest Sanctuary. Each site was established to preserve elements of the past before they were lost or irrevocably altered. The museum commemorates the pioneers and the kauri timber and gum industries, while Trounson Kauri Park and Waipoua Forest were intended to represent primeval forest and stand as monuments to people who advocated their protection.     

Language contact and ‘the Catch’: Norfolk Island fishing ground names

The author uses Norf'k fishing ground names on Norfolk Island (South Pacific) to illustrate how toponyms can be exposed to geographic, anthropological, and linguistic scrutiny. The grammar of the names demonstrates how Norf'k, the language of the Pitcairn descendants, typifies an esoteric insider language because of its ecologically connected toponyms and pragmatic determinants. Norf'k fishing ground names vary in their linguistic form and hence in their geography and spatiality. The toponymic and linguistic landscape of Norfolk Island reveals several processes that are significant for understanding sea-based geographies and the intertwining of creole languages, other contact languages, and the environment.     

‘About Time the Regions Were Recognised’: interpreting region-building in Western Australia

The region-building process in Western Australia is examined using Paasi's theoretical framework of ‘regional institutionalisation’. The paper examines the formalisation of the regions in Western Australia from the 1940s with the first attempts to regionalise the State, through to the recent political and policy shifts. A particular focus is given to the pivotal legislation passed in 1993 which created nine Regional Development Commissions, and the implications of the post-2008 Royalties for Regions program. The discussion examines the trajectory of the Western Australia regions through the lens of Paasi's model. The paper shows that the Regional Development Commissions have had a critical role in fulfilling the different stages of the model.     

‘WHY FAMILIES MOVE’: A RE-EXAMINATION

Abstract

This study examines the role of surface geomorphic features in tree establishment at the alpine treeline in Glacier National Park, Montana, through the presentation of a multiscale, conceptual model of biogeomorphic relationships at alpine treeline. Empirical observations gathered through a multiscale field methodology over three summers serve as a base for the model. The model highlights the importance of surface geomorphic features, specifically boulders and terrace risers, in creating favorable local site conditions, largely by protecting seedlings from wind. The sheltering effect of surface features enables initial seedling establishment, and in some cases survival, above current treeline locations, thereby initiating a positive feedback effect that encourages subsequent tree establishment. Geomorphic features are therefore important in linking scales of pattern and process at the alpine treeline ecotone.     

Kiribati: an environmental ‘perfect storm’

Recent environmental discourses and headlines on small island developing states (SIDS) have heralded the grave and impending threats of global warming and associated sea-level rise. These are undoubtedly significant challenges for SIDS, including atoll nations such as Kiribati. Nevertheless, securing small island state futures also requires a renewed commitment to addressing the obvious and immediate threats of urbanisation, pollution and sanitation. Looking at pressures of development on freshwater, this article argues that the future survival of small island states and their societies also greatly depends on managing the impacts of development. Approaches which can concurrently strengthen the resilience of communities and their ecosystems will result in mutual benefits for both sustainable development and climate change adaptation.     

A ‘demonstrator’ for the National Geosciences Data Index

Abstract

A survey of users of geosciences data in Great Britain, carried out as part of the Databank Pilot Study jointly supported by the Department of the Environment and the British Geological Survey, indicated a priority requirement for a central geosciences data index. The consultations suggested that the system should contain information about the sources, accessibility and nature of data held in both centralized and widely-distributed collections. To illustrate to users how such a system would appear in its final implementation, and in order to refine the system's specification, the British Geological Survey developed, on an Intergraph Interpro 32 Workstation, a working demonstration of a ‘user-friendly’, interactive graphical index, capable of satisfying the requirements of a wide range of users of geosciences data. This paper describes the development of the ‘demonstrator’, its structure, content and implementation, and the benefits of adopting such an approach.     

Religious Belief across ‘Post-secular’ Sydney: the multiple trends in (de)secularisation

Cities were once thought to be crucibles of secularisation, where the retreat from religion and its expression would be most pronounced. This decline in faith was linked to the heightened levels of heterogeneity and cosmopolitanism within cities. However, there is recent evidence of both the continuation and of the recession of the secularisation process in contemporary Western societies, with the mix and pace of these trends being quite unique to different countries. Significantly, this combination of processes has been argued to be part of a ‘post-secularist’ paradigm. Drawing on census data, this paper examines the spatial patterns of religious affiliation and non-belief in the Australian city of Sydney. Sydney has divergent geographies of faith and non-faith indicating the spatial multiplicities of religious belief. The decrease in Christianity in some areas of the city has been matched by an increase in non-Christian faiths, while in other areas there has been little change. Some parts of the city—especially those areas with a strong mix of affluence, diversity and cosmopolitanism—betray the strongest levels of secularisation and the retreat of faith. At least five geographies of faith and non-belief are recognisable within Sydney. While post-secularisation has been recognised as internationally uneven, this research demonstrates that it is also uneven across a world city like Sydney. The Sydney variations in (de)secularisation reflect city-based effects, including the historic and contemporary patterns of immigrant settlement, established and emerging religious communities, the segmented geographies of class and affluence, and the development of zones of cosmopolitanism. The findings point to the need for further research on the micro-geographies of religious belief and non-belief and community relations, and the on links between religious communities and civil society.     

Critical GIS pedagogies beyond ‘Week 10: Ethics’

Over two decades after the scholarly interventions that coalesced into ‘critical GIS’ as a field within GIScience, critical GIS remains underdeveloped in conversations on teaching and learning. The literature on GIScience education has emphasized content more than pedagogies – what to teach versus how to teach to move students toward particular learning objectives. This emphasis is reflected in dominant curricular approaches to critical GIS, in which questions around the complicated origins and complicit social, political, and economic relationships of GIS are taken up as discrete topics, tacked onto instruction that otherwise prioritizes technical dimensions of GIScience. We argue that GIScience coursework must resist such modularization by approaching critical GIS not as a set of topics, but an orientation to GIS praxis that ‘does’ GIS from within a questioning stance, to ask how we know. We outline specific curricular shifts and teaching practices we have used to foster this orientation in GIS students, offering ways of continually engaging students in practicing this orientation as they learn strong technical GIScience content. Finally, we trace the successes, challenges, and tensions sparked by these critical GIS pedagogies, drawing on student evaluation comments from our courses and reflecting on broader implications for GIScience instructors and geography faculty.     

Creating public space,creating ‘the public’: immigration politics and representation in two Copenhagen parks

ABSTRACT

Contestations over immigration, citizenship, and belonging play out every day in urban public space. In this article we study the design processes and use of two Copenhagen parks, Superkilen and Mimersparken, to explore the creation of public space and the “public” in Denmark. Who is part of the Danish “public”? What right do immigrant residents have to shape public space and their neighborhoods? How are the boundaries of Danish national identity policed and contested in public space in Copenhagen? The Danish government has increasingly moved toward far-right anti-immigrant stances, even while Copenhagen promotes a multicultural vision of a diverse and cosmopolitan city. Superkilen and Mimersparken illustrate the shortcomings of Copenhagen’s multiculturalism: though Copenhagen celebrates immigration, it left little space for residents to make meaningful decisions as political actors. In the case of Superkilen and Mimersparken, designers’ stylized idea of immigration is more celebrated than the actual presence of immigrant residents.