Splintering urbanism in Mumbai: Contrasting trends in a multilayered society

This paper is an examination of the splintering urbanism argument of the relationship between neo-liberal reforms of infrastructure networks and urban cohesion. Based on an analysis of historical and contemporary processes of infrastructure provision (water, sewerage and power) in colonial/post-colonial Bombay/Mumbai, it questions the assumption of a “modern infrastructure ideal” in the context of developing cities. In Mumbai, the historical analysis reveals the contradictions between this ideal and a hierarchical society. From the outset, access to services (particularly water and sewerage) was highly distorted in favour of the elites, even though utilities networks contributed to urban integration through cross-subsidies within and across sectors, and through the setting up of municipal institutions. Second, ongoing sectoral reforms demonstrate contrasting trends as increased differentiation of services produces both positive – better adaptation to users’ needs – and potentially negative – fragmenting – socio-spatial implications. Third, an understudied potential fragmenting threat also lies in the sectoral approach to reforms as it undermines the existing crosssector subsidies and prevents the articulation of utility reforms with other limiting factors, such as land and transport, which are the main constraints for expanding housing and mobility in the city.     

当前欧美海洋科学研究动态评析

重点介绍了当前欧美资助海洋科学研究的基本情况、优先资助领域和重要研究计划等,对欧美当前海洋科学研究的基本特点做了简要分析;并提出了我国下世纪初的海洋科学研究优先发展领域。     

Neoliberalism and environmental justice in the United States environmental protection agency: Translating policy into managerial practice in hazardous waste remediation

In response to the failings of the aggressive neoliberalism of the Reagan era, the Clinton administration sought new ways to promote and deepen the neoliberal project. One of its strategies was to develop “neocommunitarian” programs to support political empowerment and economic self-sufficiency in marginalized communities. Its environmental justice policy became an important vehicle for delivering these programs. This paper examines ways in which one regional office of the US Environmental Protection Agency translated the Clinton administration's environmental justice policy into practical guidelines for its managers. It investigates how these guidelines affected the work of personnel in the EPA's program to clean up hazardous waste sites. It asks how the Clinton administration's approach to environmental justice--emphasizing data analysis, managed public participation, and economic opportunity--helped both to deepen the neoliberal project and to transform the geography of risk and remediation. Although the EPA was unable to “normalize” the environmental justice community--to make it a standardized target for the Clinton administration's empowerment programs--its environmental justice policy both contributed to subtle changes in the distribution of hazardous waste risk and made the delivery of neocommunitarian programs an important part of the work of remedial personnel.     

The Changing Face of US-Europe Relations: Geopolitical Causes and Possible Consequences

Relations between the United States and Europe have been quite volatile over the past five years. This volatility is not just a product of disagreements over the American invasion of Iraq. It is tied to a set of fundamental challenges to the geopolitical arrangements and understandings that emerged in the wake of World War II. Three challenges were of particular importance: the fall of the Iron Curtain, the Balkan crisis of the 1990s, and the election of a presidential administration in Washington, DC, which adopted a neoconservative geopolitical agenda. The global impacts of this agenda were heightened by the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States of America. The U.S. response exposed fundamental differences between the U.S. and Europe on the use of international military forces in the “war on terrorism,” the role of NATO, and the U.S. government’s effort to force “regime change” in Iraq. Europe’s reaction to U.S. policy has not been uniform, however. At the governmental level, fundamental differences have emerged among European countries. The United States has sought to highlight those differences, suggesting that the U.S. favors “disaggregation” in Europe, even as it trumpets the virtues of a uniform response to the threat of terrorism. The future trajectory of U.S.-European relations is likely to be shaped by intersections between Europe’s struggles with integration and the U.S.’s evolving global geopolitical posture, which could move in either a hegemonic or a globalist direction.     

Changing power relations in the WTO – Why the India–U.S. trade agreement should make us worry more,rather than less,about global trade governance

This review offers a critical reading of the November 2014 India–U.S. trade deal that unblocked an impasse in the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Doha round and considers what it means for the way we govern global trade. It argues that the agreement, rather than being a ‘victory’ for the developing world or a cause for celebration, may simply reinforce an unfair and problematic system of distributing trade opportunities among WTO members. It may also obscure further the need for a fundamental overhaul of the way global trade is governed. In so doing, the review speaks to broader debates about what happens when ‘rising’ powers replace established states in global institutions in the absence of wider processes of reform; and it adds to growing concerns about the increasing precariousness of least developed countries (LDCs) in international economic regimes.     

Organisational geographies of power: Introduction to special issue

This paper introduces the special issue ‘organisational geographies of power’ by examining the theoretical and empirical context for debates. It does this, firstly, with reference to existing theoretical work on what power is and does as well as work on the construction of power relations. Building on this, the paper then, secondly, examines the way relational and production network approaches have incorporated power into work on transnational corporations before, thirdly, considering how work on neoliberalism has studied the construction of spatial power relations. In doing this the paper highlights four important questions for future research relating to the practices and spatiality of power, the exercising of power and the situated effects of power relations.     

Expanding networks for the urban poor: Water and telecommunications services in Lima, Peru

In many cities of the developing world, poor residents occupy land and build their dwellings before infrastructure is provided. Expanding the infrastructure networks for the poor is a long, expensive and complicated affair. Before the 1990s, the public sector was generally in charge of the basic services; but these services have been liberalized and, in many cases, privatized since then. In this new context, a relevant question is: have these reforms contributed to urban integration? Or, on the contrary, have they contributed to deepen urban fragmentation? This study presents the case of water and telecommunications services in Lima, Peru, the most contested and politically sensitive urban sectors. The objective is to test Graham and Marvin’s claims about the splintering of networked infrastructures expressed in Splintering Urbanism.The findings show that the reforms have improved the situation at aggregate level, but there is still no sustainable solution for the crucial dilemma of cities with high poverty restrictions: self-financed network expansions versus service affordability. The diverging paths of the utilities reform in Lima illustrate that privatization is not the main issue in the discussion to expand the networks for the poor. The main conclusion is that sensible policies complemented with carefully targeted subsidies and continuous regulation can successfully provide water for all. Good governance practices at the urban level help to achieve this goal. Water and telecommunications in Lima also show that are no general solutions for the universalization of the services; each city is different and some sectors are much more complex and problematic than others. This demands careful and continuous technical and political consideration of the local circumstances to reform the utilities.     

Poverty and citizenship: Sociological perspectives on water services and public-private participation

This article focuses on the arguments used to support private sector participation (PSP) in the provision of water and sanitation services (WSS) since the 1980s. It addresses the following questions: what was the historical evidence informing the claim that promoting PSP would be the best instrument for reducing water poverty? What are the principles that provided the foundation for this claim? And, what has been the empirical record of the resulting WSS policies? It argues that early neoliberal WSS policies since the 1980s were not intended to expand services to the poor. A pro-poor rhetoric was added to these policies since the 1990s, probably as a result of increasing citizen unrest in developing countries and the failure of privatized WSS projects in the Americas and Europe. However, the claim that PSP can provide the solution to public sector failure in extending coverage of essential WSS to the poor has little ground both in the theoretical literature and in the historical record. As could have been expected from the accumulated knowledge about the relationship between market-driven WSS and the poor, the recent experience with PSP projects has been disappointing. In practice these policies not only have failed to extend these essential services to the poor but have also contributed to deepening existing inequalities of power resulting in the weakening of state, local government, and civil society capacities to exercise democratic control over private water monopolies in most developing countries. Reversing this imbalance is one of the crucial challenges ahead in order to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. However, the article argues that the inertial forces set in motion by the neoliberal model of water policy based on market-centred governance of water and WSS remains the crucial obstacle for the achievement of the goals.     

Risky bodies: Public health, social marketing and the governance of obesity

The inclusion of obesity within public health rests on a proven and accepted biomedical link between body weight and health status. Drawing on the 2005 controversy over annual death rates attributable to obesity in the US, this paper contends that uncertainty as to the causal mechanisms linking body weight and health are undermining the development of effective obesity prevention policies. Consequently, this also weakens the justification of the inclusion of such policies within public health. This work draws on recent interest in ‘critical geographies of public health’ and the continued attention to the recursive relations between people and places in the context of health which may offer a useful theoretical viewpoint from which unpack such aetiological uncertainty. Without an agreed or universal risk from obesity, the paper argues that public health obesity prevention through social marketing should be geographical in outlook. The three examples of 5 a day, Jamie’s School Dinners and Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster are discussed to illustrate the effectiveness of communicating risk in a manner that allows intention to be effectively translated into risk-minimising behaviour within the dictates of locale.     

Corporate knowledge transfer via interlocking directorates: a network analysis approach

This paper explores spatial changes to knowledge transfer by Canadian and American corporate networks from 1976 to 1996. Results support facets of a World Cities approach for Canada. Toronto lies at the top of the hierarchy, while Montreal, Calgary, and Vancouver fall into a third tier of specialized regional cities. The American knowledge network also possesses facets of the world cities approach. The world city, New York, lies at the top of the hierarchy. Further down, Chicago is a specialized national city, while a number of regional centers have emerged to play a larger role over the twenty-year study period. A third tier of cities has emerged to play the critical role of specialized regional cities. This geographical phenomenon can be explained in terms of industry, headquarters locations, and network maturity. Finance, insurance and real estate, as well as “other manufacturing” are three sectors of the economy that are prominent in the network. In Canada, these sectors have increasingly centralized in Toronto while decentralizing in the United States. Similarly, the headquarters location of American firms is decentralizing from New York and Chicago, while Canadian headquarters continue to be centralized in Toronto. Finally, results indicate that the potential for knowledge transfer depends upon maturity of the system under investigation. The mature US network with a large pool of qualified business individuals is better suited for knowledge transfer at the regional level. The Canadian network is less developed and not appropriate for regional systems of knowledge transfer. The result is a Canadian corporate knowledge threshold that encompasses the entire country while a number of much smaller corporate knowledge thresholds appear across the United States.     

The distribution of meteoric <Superscript>36</Superscript>Cl/Cl in the United States: a comparison of models

The natural distribution of ³⁶Cl/Cl in groundwater across the continental United States has recently been reported by Davis et al. (2003). In this paper, the large-scale processes and atmospheric sources of ³⁶Cl and chloride responsible for controlling the observed ³⁶Cl/Cl distribution are discussed.The dominant process that affects ³⁶Cl/Cl in meteoric groundwater at the continental scale is the fallout of stable chloride from the atmosphere, which is mainly derived from oceanic sources. Atmospheric circulation transports marine chloride to the continental interior, where distance from the coast, topography, and wind patterns define the chloride distribution. The only major deviation from this pattern is observed in northern Utah and southern Idaho where it is inferred that a continental source of chloride exists in the Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah.In contrast to previous studies, the atmospheric flux of ³⁶Cl to the land surface was found to be approximately constant over the United States, without a strong correlation between local ³⁶Cl fallout and annual precipitation. However, the correlation between these variables was significantly improved (R ²=0.15 to R ²=0.55) when data from the southeastern USA, which presumably have lower than average atmospheric ³⁶Cl concentrations, were excluded. The total mean flux of ³⁶Cl over the continental United States and total global mean flux of ³⁶Cl are calculated to be 30.5±7.0 and 19.6±4.5 atoms m^–2 s^–1, respectively.The ³⁶Cl/Cl distribution calculated by Bentley et al. (1986) underestimates the magnitude and variability observed for the measured ³⁶Cl/Cl distribution across the continental United States. The model proposed by Hainsworth (1994) provides the best overall fit to the observed ³⁶Cl/Cl distribution in this study. A process-oriented model by Phillips (2000) generally overestimates ³⁶Cl/Cl in most parts of the country and has several significant local departures from the empirical data.

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Resumen Davis et al. (2003) han informado de la distribución natural de la proporción ³⁶Cl/Cl en las aguas subterráneas de la parte continental de los Estados Unidos de América [EUA]. En este artículo, se discute cuáles son los procesos a gran escala y las fuentes atmosféricas del ³⁶Cl y del cloruro que dan lugar a la distribución observada de ³⁶Cl/Cl.El proceso dominante que afecta a la relación ³⁶Cl/Cl en las aguas subterráneas de origen meteórico a escala continental es el aporte de cloruro estable desde la atmósfera, que procede principalmente de los océanos. La circulación atmosférica transporta el cloruro marino hacia el interior, donde la distancia a la costa, topografía y corrientes del viento definen la distribución del cloruro. La única desviación principal de este esquema tiene lugar al norte de Utah y en el sur de Idaho, donde se deduce que existe una fuente continental de cloruro en los Rellanos Salados de Bonneville (Salt Flats).En contraste con estudios previos (Knies et al. 1994; Phillips 2000), se ha descubierto que el flujo atmosférico de ³⁶Cl hacia la superficie terrestre es aproximadamente constante en todos los estados, sin deducirse una correlación fuerte entre el aporte de ³⁶Cl y la precipitación anual. Sin embargo, la correlación entre estas variables se ve mejorada de forma significativa, con coeficientes de regresión comprendidos entre 0,15 y 0,55, cuando se excluyen los datos recogidos en el sudeste de los EUA, que tienen concentraciones de ³⁶Cl atmosférico presuntamente inferiores a la media. El flujo medio total de ³⁶Cl calculado en la zona continental de los Estados Unidos vale 30,5±7,0 átomos por metro cuadrado y segundo, mientras que el flujo total global de ³⁶Cl es de 19,6±4,5 átomos por metro cuadrado y segundo.La distribución de ³⁶Cl/Cl calculada por Bentley et al. (1986) infravalora la magnitud y variabilidad observada en los valores medidos a lo largo de los Estados Unidos. El modelo propuesto por Hainsworth (1994) proporciona el mejor ajuste conjunto a la distribución observada de ³⁶Cl/Cl en este estudio. El modelo orientado a procesos de Phillips (2000) sobreestima por lo general la distribución de ³⁶Cl/Cl en la mayoría del país y difiere significativamente de algunos valores locales empíricos.

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Résumé La distribution naturelle du rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl dans les eaux souterraines des États-Unis a été récemment présentée par Davis et al. (2003). Dans ce travail, les processus à grande échelle et les sources atmosphériques de ³⁶Cl et de chlorure responsables du contrôle de la distribution observée du rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl sont discutés. Le processus dominant qui affecte le rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl dans les eaux souterraines dorigine météorique à léchelle continentale est lapport atmosphérique de chlorure stable, qui provient pour lessentiel de sources océaniques. La circulation atmosphérique transporte des chlorures marins vers lintérieur des continents, où la distribution de chlorure est définie par la distance à la côte, la topographie et les régimes des vents. La seule exception majeure à ce schéma est observée dans le nord de lUtah et le sud de lIdaho où lon suppose quil existe une source continentale de chlorure dans les bas-fonds salés de Bonneville. Au contraire de précédentes études (Knies et al. 1994; Phillips 2000), on trouve que le flux atmosphérique de ³⁶Cl vers le sol est approximativement constant sur lensemble des États-Unis, sans forte corrélation entre la retombée locale de ³⁶Cl et les précipitations annuelles. Cependant, la corrélation entre ces variables devient significative (R ²=0.15 à 0.55) lorsquon supprime les données du sud-est des États-Unis, dont on pense quelles présentent des concentrations en ³⁶Cl atmosphérique inférieures à la moyenne. Le flux total moyen de ³⁶Cl sur les États-Unis continentaux et le flux moyen global de ³⁶Cl sont respectivement évalués à 30.5 ± 7.0 et 19.6 ± 4.5 atomes.m^–2.s^–1. La distribution du rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl calculée par Bentley et al. (1986) sous-estime lordre de grandeur et la variabilité observés pour la distribution mesurée du rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl sur les États-Unis continentaux. Le modèle proposé par Hainsworth (1994) fournit le meilleur ajustement densemble à la distribution du rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl observée dans cette étude. Un modèle orienté vers les processus proposé par Phillips (2000) surestime dans lensemble le rapport ³⁶Cl/Cl dans la plupart des régions du pays et présente plusieurs désaccords locaux avec les données empiriques.

     

Western migrants in central Europe: Isolated individuals or members of transnational communities?

Migration flows from western Europe, the United States and Canada to east central Europe have received little attention so far. But numbers are now considerable and in the context of globalisation it seems appropriate to conceptualise communities of Westerners in terms of transnational social spaces as defined by Glick Schiller et al. Study of Americans in Prague reveals three main groups: enterprise managers, lifestyle migrants and entrepreneurs in small and medium-sized enterprises. All are engaged in a variety of different processes of community-building, often with clear trends towards a new transnationalism. Yet, the individual attempt to live in two societies is limited by the marked boundaries of the communities and by the degree of social exclusion which they experience from the majority population. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Wild wheat to productive drylands: Global scientific practice and the agroecological remaking of Palestine

This paper traces how scientific research on wheat (Triticum) worked to establish Palestine as a region sought for colonization. Recent work in geography has refined our understanding of agricultural expansion as an outcome of colonization, however, this work leaves the place-making capacity of agricultural research largely unexplored. My claim is that rather than a byproduct of colonization, wheat research served to remake Palestine as a biophysical region in need of improvement and colonization. I show how a shift in the plant sciences from research in taxonomy to plant breeding corresponded to an agro-climatic shift on Palestine from an undesirable, arid region to a promising dryland agricultural region. In this way, wheat research drew Palestine and the United States into a wider effort to transform arid areas into agricultural drylands. Drawing on a previously unexplored episode of technical cooperation between researchers in the United States and Palestine, I argue that we must examine how wildness, native-ness, and agro-climatic suitability are scientifically constituted within and not apart from colonial conquest. In doing so, the paper calls for reconsideration within geography and political ecology of the place-making relationship between colonization and scientific practice.     

Non-linear diffusion: Bison on the hoof and on the rail in the United States

This paper puts forth a non-linear, post-structural conception of geographical diffusion by utilizing the example of American bison. In doing so, this approach stands in contrast to canonical theories of diffusion (notably neoclassical economics and political economy), which portray diffusion as a steady progression of development. In reviewing the history of bison diffusion during the 20th century, the impact of several factors is evident. These include environmental, cultural, economic, governmental, health and material factors. Each of these variables has taken several distinct forms, thereby enlarging the number of actors involved in the species’ redistribution. The impact of each variable has waxed and waned over the years. Consequently, a series of heterogeneous networks has formed, which have simultaneously undercut the importance of certain variables and formed the basis for new channels of bison diffusion. The non-linear nature of diffusion emerges from the different temporalities of these networks. In an alternating fashion, this process of network-building has guided bison onto public, private, and tribal lands.     

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1674987112000886

Six national-scale, or near national-scale, geochemical data sets for soils or stream sediments exist for the United States. The earliest of these, here termed the ‘Shacklette’ data set, was generated by a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) project conducted from 1961 to 1975. This project used soil collected from a depth of about 20 cm as the sampling medium at 1323 sites throughout the conterminous U.S. The National Uranium Resource Evaluation Hydrogeochemical and Stream Sediment Reconnaissance (NURE-HSSR) Program of the U.S. Department of Energy was conducted from 1975 to 1984 and collected either stream sediments, lake sediments, or soils at more than 378,000 sites in both the conterminous U.S. and Alaska. The sampled area represented about 65% of the nation. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), from 1978 to 1982, collected samples from multiple soil horizons at sites within the major crop-growing regions of the conterminous U.S. This data set contains analyses of more than 3000 samples. The National Geochemical Survey, a USGS project conducted from 1997 to 2009, used a subset of the NURE-HSSR archival samples as its starting point and then collected primarily stream sediments, with occasional soils, in the parts of the U.S. not covered by the NURE-HSSR Program. This data set contains chemical analyses for more than 70,000 samples. The USGS, in collaboration with the Mexican Geological Survey and the Geological Survey of Canada, initiated soil sampling for the North American Soil Geochemical Landscapes Project in 2007. Sampling of three horizons or depths at more than 4800 sites in the U.S. was completed in 2010, and chemical analyses are currently ongoing. The NRCS initiated a project in the 1990s to analyze the various soil horizons from selected pedons throughout the U.S. This data set currently contains data from more than 1400 sites. This paper (1) discusses each data set in terms of its purpose, sample collection protocols, and analytical methods; and (2) evaluates each data set in terms of its appropriateness as a national-scale geochemical database and its usefulness for national-scale geochemical mapping.     

Fragmenting regimes: how water quality regulation is changing political-economic landscapes

Conflicts over water quality regulation are entering local economic development policy and re-shaping political-economic landscapes. Across the United States, decentralizing scales of regulation, scientific uncertainty, and increasing citizen participation are creating new regulatory contexts. Using regime and regulation theory, I address how regulation of the environment is altering economic regimes and creating new alliances among stakeholders. The research shows the dominant regime in the state of Ohio, a pro-growth stakeholder coalition between point source businesses (including electric utilities and municipal sewage treatment plants) and real estate development interests, is fragmenting. At the same time, there is a policy coalition emerging between environmentalists and government staff that is advocating for nonpoint source water pollution regulation. These emergent coalitions exemplify the changing nature of environmental regulation and economic regimes.     

Rural diversification in Eastern Europe: Introduction

The decline in agricultural production and the inevitability of reduced employment on the land makes rural diversification an important priority. The papers in this collection outline the problem and indicate the range of options available, noting the differences between the northern and southern parts of the region. Attention is given to the settlement system because opportunity will vary according to the accessibility of urban areas. The tourist industry offers considerable opportunity but has implications for environmental conservation which should therefore attract greater attention. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Poverty and Disasters in the United States: A Review of Recent Sociological Findings

This article synthesizes the literature on poverty and disasters in the United States and presents the results from a wide range of studies conducted over the past twenty years. The findings are organized into eight categories based on the stages of a disaster event. The review illustrates how people of different socioeconomic statuses perceive, prepare for, and respond to natural hazard risks, how low-income populations may be differentially impacted, both physically and psychologically, and how disaster effects vary by social class during the periods of emergency response, recovery, and reconstruction. The literature illustrates that the poor in the United States are more vulnerable to natural disasters due to such factors as place and type of residence, building construction, and social exclusion. The results have important implications for social equity and recommendations for future research and policy implementation are offered.     

Climate change and journalistic norms: A case-study of US mass-media coverage

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change – comprised of top climate scientists from around the globe – has reached consensus that human activities have contributed significantly to global climate change. However, over time, the United States has refused to join concerted international efforts – such as the Kyoto Protocol – to curb human activities contributing to climate change. US newspaper and television media constitute key influences among a set of complex dynamics shaping information dissemination in this politicized environment. Mass-media coverage of climate change is not simply a random amalgam of newspaper articles and television segments; rather, it is a social relationship between scientists, policy actors and the public that is mediated by such news packages. This paper demonstrates that consistent adherence to interacting journalistic norms has contributed to impediments in the coverage of anthropogenic climate change science. Through analysis of US newspaper and television coverage of human contributions to climate change from 1988 through 2004, this paper finds that adherence to first-order journalistic norms – personalization, dramatization, and novelty – significantly influence the employment of second-order norms – authority-order and balance – and that this has led to informationally deficient mass-media coverage of this crucial issue. By critically scrutinizing US print and television media as a ‘public arena,’ we improve understanding of how journalistic activities have shaped interactions at the interface with climate science, policy and the public.     

Neo-liberalising corporate social responsibility: A political economy of corporate citizenship

In this paper we situate the rise of corporate social responsibility in the context of a re-casting of the boundaries between corporate- and state-centred regulation. We argue that this process can be understood in a theoretical framework of “rolling-out” neoliberalisation. We focus firstly upon an emergent CSR consultancy industry within the UK context, demonstrating that there is now a network of organisations dedicated to making profit out of socially-responsible corporate behaviour. These organisations have helped to re-define the nature and meaning of the private sector. Then we interpret global framework agreements on corporate behaviour (such as the UN Global Compact, the Equator Principles, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Corporate Citizenship Initiative) as examples of how neoliberalism is created in and through new “in-between” spaces that set the rules of political action. Subsequently, we note that some NGOs have recently recognised the limits on campaigning for more socially responsible corporate activity, and re-connect these concerns with longer-term debates on corporate voluntarism versus state-centred regulation. We conclude that demonstrating how hegemony is constructed in and through neo-liberalising corporate social responsibility remains to be fully explored, but argue that it is beneficial to consider the diversity of political projects involved in this ongoing process.