A grievable life? The criminalisation and securing of asylum seeker bodies in the ‘violent frames’ of Australia’s Operation Sovereign Borders

The life of those seeking asylum from persecution and other human rights abuses has become interminably precarious. As minority world governments deploy various apparatuses of security to govern the circulation of ‘unruly’ populations, the world’s most vulnerable people have been reconstituted as security threats. In this paper I trace this ‘transfer of illegitimacy’ and criminalisation of asylum seeker bodies in the context of the Australian government’s newly deployed Operation Sovereign Borders. Drawing on Foucault’s governmentality as a domain of security and Butler’s articulation of recognition, precariousness and grievability, I explore both the subjectivities formed as a function and technique of securing Australia’s borders and the way this framing produces a certain governed reality that ‘acts upon the senses’ to delimit public discourse. I argue that the range of discursive and non-discursive practises that make up Operation Sovereign Borders has dire implications for those seeking asylum in Australia. Not only do these practises constitute a social crafting where conditions for a flourishing life are diminished, but this crafting of precarity is carried out in the name of securing citizens lives. The life of the asylum seekers is a life unrecognised in the violent frames of Operation Sovereign Borders.     

Critical moments? Life transitions and energy biographies

Family and youth research has highlighted the importance of lifecourse transitions, illustrating how they can have a substantial impact on people’s everyday lives and anticipated futures. Given their apparent significance, it is surprising that relatively little attention has been paid to life transitions – particularly unexpected ones – to explore how they can impact upon everyday energy use. This is a central concern of Energy Biographies project. The project’s qualitative longitudinal design makes an original contribution, affording a detailed view of how transitions unfold and their significance for energy demand and environmental action. Central to elucidating these issues is the concept of ‘linked lives’, recognising that people live interdependently. In this paper, we explore the accounts of three participants who experienced one or more life transitions during the course of the project, in order to consider the impacts of these events (both planned and unanticipated) on their everyday energy use and environmental actions as part of their linked lives with others.     

Rethinking rewilding: A response to Jørgensen

In this article we respond to and challenge Jørgensen’s criticisms of the concept of rewilding in her paper ‘Rethinking rewilding’, published this year in Geoforum. Jørgensen argues that ‘rewilding’ has become a ‘plastic word’, one that has been stretched to the point where it lacks definitional precision, at risk of becoming ‘the go-to blanket solution to environmental problems’. She also argues that the practice of rewilding is premised upon the dissociation of humans from the rest of nature and reproduces anti-human Nature–Culture binaries, rightly lambasted by critics of wilderness narratives in conservation practice. In response to these criticisms we challenge Jørgensen on two points. Firstly we argue that the problems of ‘plasticity’ and definitional imprecision can be rectified by highlighting and foregrounding the quality that we believe is at the core of all rewilding definitions and efforts: non-human autonomy. Secondly, we challenge Jørgensen’s broad claim that sees the collapse of ‘rewilding’ into anti-human wilderness management. We do so by reflecting on two points; the dynamic human–non-human entanglements embedded within rewilding practice(s) and by arguing for rewilding as a ‘wild experiment’. We make these points through the examination of two actually existing examples of rewilding.     

Strategic globalizing centers and sub-network geometries: A social network analysis of multi-scalar energy networks

Over the past three decades, a multitude of studies have examined the relational properties of corporate networks as a proxy for analyzing interurban hierarchies and structures. While this has been important in illuminating the nature of global connectivity, a significant conceptual lacuna exists in understanding how a multi-scalar analysis of interurban networks informs a more complete understanding of the geographies of globalization, and how cities within these networks act as regional globalizing centers. Building upon the theoretical and methodological foundations of ‘world city network’ (WCN) research, this paper investigates the corporate networks of the energy industry as a historic driver of globalization using social network analysis from an Australia geographical perspective. Globally and nationally scaled energy networks derived from the Platts and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) corporate lists are used to explore the convergence of nationally and globally articulated networks, and identify cities instrumental in the globalization of the national industry sub-networks. These are strategic ‘globalizing centers’ which, in contradistinction to ‘global cities’ or ‘world cities’ as broad classifications, play nuanced roles in anointing industry-specific circuits of capital and information. The analysis of two complementary yet distinct networks provides theoretical insight into how scale plays an integral role in defining/articulating interurban relations.     

‘European Generation of Migration’: Change and agency in the post-2004 Polish graduates’ migratory experience

This paper suggests that a constant exposure to and experience of socio-historical and economic changes throughout young people’s formative years assist in development of individualisation and human agency capabilities, which impact on motivations for migration.Focusing on the cohort of Polish graduates, born in the late 1970s and early 1980s, who migrated to England post-2004, the paper highlights a relationship of individuals with change. It argues that frequent and major changes shaped such generational units into highly responsive, easily adjustable and focused on capitalising upon further relationship with change, e.g. through migration.The paper distinguishes two generational units within the researched cohort: ‘Generation of Change’ and ‘European Generation of Opportunities and Migration’. It also highlights that one of the motivations for migration of both groups is practical consciousness (Giddens, 1984) inaccessible to mindful reflection in migration motivations to England.Correspondingly, the paper contends that a generational belonging encompasses both the intentional and non-discursive agency in migratory contexts. Therefore, it is significant to explore and understand individuals’ generational vantage view of the world.     

Exporting the Saemaul spirit: South Korea’s Knowledge Sharing Program and the ‘rendering technical’ of Korean development

This article provides a critical intervention into South Korea’s recent effort to promote its 1970s authoritarian-era rural modernization program, Saemaul Undong (New Village Movement), as the ‘iconic’ model of its international development assistance. To better understand how this movement has been represented, this article examines the policy narratives that have been produced by the Korean government’s Knowledge Sharing Program (KSP) and circulated through multiple development cooperation initiatives. These narratives portray Saemaul as the key to Korea’s developmental success: a mental revolution in values that inculcated the ‘can-do’ spirit in poor rural villagers and allowed them to escape poverty and stagnation. We argue that the emphasis of this narrative on the spiritual, voluntary, and value-oriented nature of the movement has been used to ‘render technical’ Korea’s development experience: i.e. to reduce it to a question of how development experts successfully cultivated the spirit of development in the Korean people and, by extension, how developing countries might do the same. We show how this narrative neglects the contested history and Cold War context of Saemaul, raising questions about the ‘brand’ of development assistance that has been built upon it.     

Hooked: Habits of the Chinese Permian gigantopterid Gigantonoclea

Based upon anatomical evidence, Permian aged gigantopterid fossils are in general reconstructed as climbing or scrambling plants. Gigantonoclea, a genus of adpressed gigantopterid foliage from the Permian of northern China, has been reported to co-occur with hook-like organs that were interpreted as indicating a scrambling/climbing habit. We reinvestigated these hook-like structures and re-evaluated the nature of the co-occurrences in context with the flora preserved in each plant-bearing fossil ‘bed’ in the North China sedimentary succession. New findings show that the species Gigantonoclea hallei probably climbed using specially adapted clusters of compound grappling hook-like shoots borne on the stems. This structural arrangement comprising shoots of hooks is new to the scrambling/climbing concept in gigantopterids. However, a key figured specimen previously reported as showing intermediate hook-tipped leaf morphology on a sole pinnule tip is discounted as such and is reinterpreted as a ‘normal’ pinnule partially hidden under sediment that results in an unusual appearance to this pinnule tip. Adaptations for climbing or scrambling based upon ‘hooked leaves’ observed in Gigantonoclea lagrelii are no longer supported and are reinterpreted as incompletely expanded leaves where the vernation process was interrupted. These data weaken prior interpretations of G. lagrelii as a climber/scrambler and raise doubts about the ubiquity of hooks amongst the gigantopterids as structures enabling them to climb or scramble their way through the Permian world.     

Urban growth and quality of life: inter-district and intra-district analysis of housing in NCT-Delhi, 2001–2011–2020

One out of three people in India is urban. In 2011, there were about 53 urban agglomerations larger than 1 million population as against only 35 in 2001. Much of this urban expansion has been occurring in the country’s largest metropolises including the National Capital Territory of Delhi which has expanded horizontally and vertically both. This has also added to overall decline in its already dilapidated housing stock and quality of life. Delhi, a historical hub for regional, national, and international commerce, and a place for the socio-political elites, has failed to provide basic life amenities to its average citizens. This research critiques the (un)sustainable elements of Delhi’s urbanization and concomitant decline in basic amenities pertaining to quality-of-life by examining the growth and expansion of its urban-built-up areas during 2001–2011–2020 and provides nuanced insights into its ‘livability’ by examining select quality-of-life attributes. The LANDSAT imageries for 2010 and 2020 are used to measure NDB-Index that assesses its built-up area and change, which are later corroborated with Census household data to examine change in its ‘livable’ and ‘dilapidated’ housing structures. Significant sub-regional disparity exists in the availability of good and livable homes, with almost 20–30% of several districts still without drinking water source inside premises. However, significant progress is also noted for basic amenities like lighting, latrine and bathing facilities, and majority of Delhi’s built-up area has expanded along newer developments and transportation corridors. This calls for goal-oriented strategic interventions by policymakers to help achieve the SDG-11 on Sustainable Cities.

     

Pedotransfer functions to estimate soil water content at field capacity and permanent wilting point in hot Arid Western India

Characterization of soil water retention, e.g., water content at field capacity (FC) and permanent wilting point (PWP) over a landscape plays a key role in efficient utilization of available scarce water resources in dry land agriculture; however, direct measurement thereof for multiple locations in the field is not always feasible. Therefore, pedotransfer functions (PTFs) were developed to estimate soil water retention at FC and PWP for dryland soils of India. A soil database available for Arid Western India (N=370) was used to develop PTFs. The developed PTFs were tested in two independent datasets from arid regions of India (N=36) and an arid region of USA (N=1789). While testing these PTFs using independent data from India, root mean square error (RMSE) was found to be 2.65 and 1.08 for FC and PWP, respectively, whereas for most of the tested ‘established’ PTFs, the RMSE was >3.41 and >1.15, respectively. Performance of the developed PTFs from the independent dataset from USA was comparable with estimates derived from ‘established’ PTFs. For wide applicability of the developed PTFs, a user-friendly soil moisture calculator was developed. The PTFs developed in this study may be quite useful to farmers for scheduling irrigation water as per soil type.     

Fractured space: a geographical reflection on the digital divide

What does it mean to reflect upon space in connection to telecommunications? If we start with a conception of urban space as being fully integrated, including on an equal footing both information and communication technologies (ICT) and mobility techniques, as well as the founding notion of copresence that we find at the heart of all urban organization, we might then be able to examine the notion of the ‘digital divide’ in a new light. This clearly experimental approach is conducted by a research group called ‘Urbatic’, which is composed of geographers who, for the last three years, have been conducting theoretical research whose objective is to take into account two fields of social science: the theory of urbanity and the theory of telecommunication. Surveys conducted in this perspective focus on the analysis of the choices people make between the different means they can use to cope with distances (copresence, mobility and telecommunication) with a view to constructing their own space. The analysis of these choices leads us to propose a new theorized interpretation of the ‘digital divide’.     

Graptolites: fossil and living

Every student of palaeontology will stumble upon the term ‘graptolite’ at some point and will wonder what these strange little fossils mean. Thought to be long extinct, the few living graptolites and their extinct relatives have been united quite recently by palaeontologists through cladistic analysis. Not that the extant graptolites were overlooked, but the connection has never been made between the fossil graptolites and their modern descendants. We now have a much better scientific basis for our interpretation and understanding of these fossils and graptolites are recognized as part of a living clade of small and inconspicuous marine organisms, the Pterobranchia. They have been around since the Cambrian Period (c. 520–510 Ma) and, thus, they may represent one of the longest‐existing groups of organisms. Not that they should be termed ‘living fossils’, but their perseverance is remarkable in its own way and may lead to the question as to how they were able to achieve this success and survive for all these eons. May they be able to show us a key to survival in the future?     

Producing ‘prehistoric’ life: Conservation breeding and the remaking of wildlife genealogies

The giant tortoises of the Galápagos Islands, a species Charles Darwin called ‘antediluvian,’ are the focus of one of the world’s most successful conservation breeding programs. This paper explores the paradox of the breeding program, examining how ‘prehistoric’ life has been actively produced through nearly a century of work by scientists and conservationists dedicated to saving this endangered species. It traces the story of one giant tortoise, Diego, who was collected from the archipelago in the 1930s, lived in an colony at the San Diego Zoo for forty years, and returned to the Galápagos in 1977, where he became the star stud of the breeding program. I argue that the giant tortoises are not icons of a ‘pristine’ evolutionary history, but are the product of genealogies that enfold management practices in the bodies and bloodlines of wildlife. The paper focuses on the assemblages of reproduction at the center of these genealogies, drawing attention to the multiple agencies and spatialities that emerge in practices of experimentation – first at the zoo, where keepers struggled to keep the giant tortoise colony alive and healthy, and then in the Galápagos, where conservationists were eventually able to gain enough control over tortoise reproduction to standardize and replicate breeding practices. The case extends readings of conservation as a field of nonhuman biopolitics by attending to the production of wildlife itself as a strategy that facilitates the reproduction of conservation and tourism in the archipelago.     

Dance and wellbeing in Vancouver’s ‘A Healthy City for All’

Through the lens of the dancing body, this paper examines practices of health and wellbeing produced in response to City of Vancouver urban governance policies. In particular, it calls attention to the legislative onslaught by city government in the years abutting the 2010 Winter Olympics to cultivate and manage healthy people, communities, and environments. In an effort to sell Vancouver’s ‘liveability’, I argue City of Vancouver endorsed a new legislative alliance that merged a conspicuously Anglo-American wellbeing lexicon, favouring individual responsibility and self-governance, with the performing arts industries. Drawing upon interviews and performance-based research, the paper illustrates how Karen Jamieson’s community dance project Connect, created for the In the Heart of the City festival, embodies Vancouver’s tri-level legislative ambitions to nurture A Healthy City For All. This materialised through the crafting of a dance-health body practice (healthy people), by choreographing a sense of belonging among ‘at risk’ communities (healthy communities), and in the uniting of the arts and health professions in the process of ‘cleaning up’ disenfranchised neighbourhoods (healthy environments). In bringing together scholarship on cultures of wellbeing and creative dance practice, the article contributes to understandings of how the health-seeking subject is embodied and performed. It also offers a productive critique of the exclusionary nature of urban health legislation, and of the contested role artists and arts festivals can play in nurturing urban wellbeing and normalising inequalities.     

On the use of 3-dimensional plots in KAr dating

3-Dimensional correlation diagrams have advantages over 2-dimensional ones (‘isochrons’) for interpreting the results of KAr measurements on suites of coeval samples, since they display all the data without making a priori assumptions. This is a particular advantage for distinguishing between ‘initial’ argon of constant isotopic composition and ‘excess’ argon of constant concentration, because at present their detection has relied upon separate diagrams constructed upon mutually exclusive assumptions.The method also permits the relationships between the various models in use to be more easily grasped but—like all such plots—can only show that a given physical model is consistent with the data, not that it is the only consistent one.     

Exclusion (and seclusion): geographies of disowned widows of India

Geographies of disowned Indian widows are highly under-researched. This case study seeks to understand the lives of 21 of the many diverse widows across India. These 21 widows were driven out by their families, who sought refuge in the two Briddhha Ashrams (old-age hermitages) namely Rajkya and Birla, both located in the heritage city, Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. Drawing upon ethnographic research and building on 21 semi-structured interviews, the research aims to understand the lives of these widows in the two ashrams and their everyday coping strategies. The findings suggest that each woman has negotiated with ‘widowhood’ in order to build individual identities as ‘self’. Using the threads of analysis, we urge for the passing of the draft Bill on widows’ protection, welfare and maintenance prepared by Dr. Bindeshwar Pathak, the architect of sanitation charity, Sulabh International, who has adopted widows of Varanasi and Vrindavan by providing a dole of INR2000/month.     

Fluvial deposits as an archive of early human activity

River terraces are well established as an important source of Lower and Middle Palaeolithic artefacts in Europe, large collections having been assembled there during the years of manual gravel extraction. Now that many terrace sequences can be reliably dated and correlated with the oceanic record, potentially useful patterns can be recognized in the distribution of artefacts. The earliest appearance of artefacts in terrace staircases, marking the arrival of the first tool-making hominins in the region in question, is the first of several archaeological markers within fluvial sequences. The Lower to Middle Palaeolithic transition, with the appearance of Levallois, is another. Others may be more regional in significance: the occurrences of Clactonian (Mode 1) industry, twisted ovate handaxes and bout coupé handaxes, for example. IGCP Project no. 449 instigated the compilation of fluvial records from all over the ‘old world’. Comparison between British and Central European sequences confirms the established view that there is a demarcation between handaxe making in the west and flake/core industries in the east. Other centres of activity reported here have been in the Middle East (Syria), South Africa and India. Data from such areas will be key in deciphering the story of the earlier ‘out-of-Africa’ migration, that by pre-Homo sapiens people. There is clear evidence for diachroneity between the first appearances of different industries, in keeping with the well-established idea of northward migration.     

Telecommunications and the development of Europe's less-favoured regions

The regional dimension to the problems and potentialities posed by the introduction of new technologies is increasingly an issue which is being addressed within the EECs regional policy. This paper is concerned with one such new technology, advanced telecommunications, which is seen as playing a key role within emerging ‘information economies’. However, the evidence reviewed suggests that peripheral or otherwise less favoured regions may be relatively disadvantaged both by the geographically differentiated supply of new and advanced services and, most significantly, by the relatively low propensity of such regions to use and apply these services within economic enterprises. Some reasons for these patterns of adoption are considered, and the policy implications discussed within the context of the EEC's emerging policy response.     

Between outside and inside? Prison visiting rooms as liminal carceral spaces

This paper suggests that although carceral space seems to be sharply demarcated from the outside world, the prison wall is in fact more porous than might be assumed. The paper critiques Goffman’s theory of the ‘total institution’ by deploying a geographical engagement with liminality to theorise prison visiting rooms as spaces in which prisoners come face-to-face with persons and objects which come from and represent their lives on the ‘outside’. Drawing on a specific empirical example from recent research into imprisonment in the contemporary Russian prison system, it uses the example of visiting suites designed for long term ‘residential’ visits to explore the ways in which visiting spaces act as a space of betweenness where a metaphorical threshold-crossing takes place between outside and inside. The paper specifically explores the expression of that betweenness in the materiality of visiting, and in the destabilisation of rules and identities in visiting space. It contests the sense of linear transformation with which liminal spaces have previously been associated, suggesting that rather than spaces of linear transition from one state to another, liminal spaces can constitute a frustratingly repetitive, static or equilibriating form of transformation which is cumulative rather than immediate, and relates this suggestion to the wider study of prison visitation.     

Wilfred Thesiger and the Umm as Samim, Oman

Often our knowledge and understanding of the geology and geomorphology of some of the remotest areas of the world has had its roots in the observations of pioneering European explorers. This is particularly so in the Arabian Peninsula, where the Ar Rub' al Khali (‘the Empty Quarter’) desert is the largest contiguous sand desert in the world, 1200 km long and 650 km wide, covering some 650 000 km². Extremely dry (hyper‐arid) and almost completely barren, it presented a formidable obstacle to explorers. Indeed, one of the earliest travellers across western Arabia, Charles Doughty, wrote in 1888 ‘I passed one good day in Arabia, and all the rest were evil’.