‘Public intellectuals’, geography, its representations and its publics

Recent years have seen academic geographers engaged in a series of debates over the current state of the discipline, its ‘relevance’ to others in the social sciences, to policy-makers, and to those studying geography at school age. This short critical review builds upon an issue raised in this journal [Thrift, N., 2002. The future of geography. Geoforum 33, 291–298], namely the role of geographers as public intellectuals. After reviewing the different ways in which the notion of public intellectuals has been understood, the paper turns to geography’s representations and to its publics. The paper concludes by arguing for an appreciation of the full range of ways in which geographers call forth publics through a range of representational strategies. It suggests that regardless of how geographers perform publicly and intellectually, two things are perhaps worth remembering: it is in the interest of geographers to name what they do as geography and to name themselves as geographers.     

A most public of musical performances: the English art of change-ringing

Bells were installed in churches throughout much of the western world to announce upcoming services when there was no other means of transmitting such information over long distances and few people had watches. Their initial raison d’être is now obsolete but bell-ringing has been sustained, and significantly expanded, in England as a particular art-form, dependent on a peculiar technology, associated in large part with the established church there. The nature of the technology has strongly influenced the development of that art-form, whereas the resources that had to be invested in the installation of a ring of bells in a stable tower created a long-lasting geography of the practice.     

Contextualizing public art production in China: The urban sculpture planning system in Shanghai

This research examines urban sculpture production to understand how a public art (called “urban sculpture” in China) scene is produced in the country, using Shanghai as a case study. Theories of Chinese urban planning are innovatively applied. The findings generate theoretical implications for “contextualizing” public art production in geographical studies. All the chief officials in charge of urban sculpture planning in Shanghai were interviewed, and documentary analyses were conducted. The article argues that urban sculptures are conceived of as both symbolic capitals and didactic tools in the cultural policies of Shanghai. Urban sculpture planning plays an important role in coordinating and manipulating development of symbolic resources to advance urban entrepreneurialism within the ideological framework of the Communist Party’s leadership. The main features of the urban sculpture planning system of China are twofold: (1) The two-tier planning structure combines a master plan at the municipal level and detailed plans for site analysis and design guidance at the district level, all collaboratively working to create an attractive city image for urban entrepreneurialism. (2) An authoritarian style of planning system controls the contents and expression of urban sculpture within the ideological framework of urban sculpture planning.     

Investigation as legitimacy: the maturing of the big public inquiry

All major resource development schemes lie embedded in political prejudices and commitments, in interest group expectations which themselves are influenced by past events, and in the changing atmosphere of public priorities. A proposal to develop a new technology, which, especially if successful, would lead to further investments of a similar nature but which would by necessity restrict the scope for other opportunities in other policy areas, is bound to be controversial. The inevitable demand is for full justification through some kind of reputable open examination whose conduct and outcome are deemed to be fair and legitimate. While the form of that examination will vary from country to country its function remains the same — namely, to mobilise public support for a decision and the policies that envelop it. In the U.K. the public inquiry seeks to serve such a function. Its constitutional role, history, contemporary style and emerging problems of legitimacy are all examined with reference to the Sizewell B Inquiry into Britain's first pressurised water reactor.     

Beyond light: Physical, geological, and geochemical parameters as possible submersed aquatic vegetation habitat requirements

When determining the suitability of a certain area as a habitat for submersed aquatic vegetation (SAV), light and parameters that modify light (epiphytes, total suspended solids, chlorophyll concentration, nutrients) are the first factors to be taken into consideration. As a result, in the past 10 years, light has been the major focus of SAV research. Even so, we are still unable to explain why SAV often occurs in one area but is absent just a few meters away. Recent studies have shown that SAV may not occur in areas where light levels are adequate but other parameters like wave energy and sulfide concentrations are excessive. It is time to look beyond light when determining SAV habitat requirements. This paper summarizes the impact that physical (waves, currents, tides, and turbulence), geological (sediment grain size and organic matter), and geochemical (mainly sulfide) parameters may have on SAV habitat suitality. Light remains an integral part of the discussion but the focus shifts from maximum depths of distribution (determined mainly by light) to the range SAV can colonize between the maximum and minimum depths of distribution (determined mainly by physical forces). This paper establishes minimum depths of occurrence resulting from the effects of tides and waves, preferred ranges in particle size, organic content, and sulfide, as well as lilfide, as well as limits on currents and waves as related to the capacity to stay rooted at one extreme and diffusive boundary layer constrains at the other.     

Beyond nationalism: Three visions of the European Union and their implications for the linguistic regime of its institutions

The linguistic diversity in the European Union is generally viewed as an essential component of the European identity, but the linguistic regime of the EU institutions (with eleven official and working languages) is not undisputed. In addition, the upcoming enlargements will complicate greatly the continuation of the present practices as new Member States bring new official languages. As a result, the debate about possible reforms is likely to be boosted by the necessity to prepare EU institutions for further enlargment. The present regime of institutional multilingualism is criticised from different angles, resulting in three options for the future. In this paper the linguistic regime of EU institutions is discussed in relation to general ideas about the nature of this supranational political system. Supranationalism is treated here as a program to supersede nationalism. Three variants are distinguished: pacified nationalism, neo-nationalism and post-nationalism. The paper examines how these different visions of Europe shed different lights on the issue of multilingualism (in terms of communication, identity and power) and its institutionalisation in the linguistic regime of the core instituions of the European Union. Although the three models are compatible with several arrangements, they support or oppose them for different reasons. Besides, they differ regarding the significance of the linguistic regime of the EU institutions for the whole polity and their ability to steer linguistic practices.     

Beyond the land issue: farm viability strategies

The issue of farmland retention or preservation must focus on both the farmland base and the economic viability of agriculture. Most jurisdictions in North America have tended to concentrate their concern on the land issue, often to the detriment of structural issues in agriculture and production. The following essay outlines the structural components of significance which must also be addressed if agricultural land retention policy is to be relevant in terms of enhancing and retaining a strong agricultural base. The components include: marketing —getting a price; reducing costs of agriculture; new farmer entry; the right to farm, and improving managerial capability of farmers.     

The International Stratigraphic Chart: state of the art

The International Stratigraphic Chart of the Phanerozoic is constructed by drawing lower boundaries of stratigraphic units with reference to Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point. Some systems retain former, usually European, names of stages, whereas new sequences of stages are proposed for others, such as for Cambrian and Ordovician. The boundaries of 64 stages of 100 had been approved by the beginning of 2014. Fifty-three of these boundaries were drawn with regard to biostratigraphic criteria; one ichnological, six magnetostratigraphic, two chemo stratigraphic, one impact, and one climatic criteria. Their type sections are distributed over continents as follows: thirty-nine in Europe, twelve in Asia, nine in North America, and four in Africa. They are located in 19 countries: ten in China, nine in the United Kingdom, nine in Italy, seven in the United States, six in France, five in Spain, three in Czech, two in Morocco, two in Sweden, and one in each of several more countries. Although none is in Russia, candidates are proposed for stages of the Cambrian, Carboniferous, Permian, Triassic, and Jurassic Systems. Type sections for the Sakmarian and Artinskian have already been agreed. With the present work speed, it will take two or three decades to complete the scale construction. The General Stratigraphic Scale of Russia and the International Chart gradually converge. Their similarity at the stage level is 84%. Major disagreements exist only in the Cambrian and Permian Systems.     

Mountain erosion and mitigation: global state of art

Mountain erosion mapping is one of the important aspects for monitoring environmental degradation. Global climate change coupled with human activities is eroding the mountain regions of the world at an alarming rate. The various types of erosion can be classified as water erosion, aeolian erosion, glaciered erosion, gravity erosion and man-made erosion. Tectonic activity also plays a major role towards mountain erosion. Soil erosion along with debris flow and rock falling not only causes loss of human life and property, but also affects the climatic condition of the mountain regions. Mountain erosion mitigation and protection methods include wire mesh fencing with inclusion of brush layers and brush mats on fascines, constructing check dams and slope benches and application of bioengineering works such as plantation and vegetation growth. This study consists of the global scenario with some of the state-of-the-art methods for mitigation and mappings of mountain erosion. The erosion in mountainous regions can be controlled with the help of suitable vegetation and plant growth, with installation of special bioengineered materials. However, public awareness is also considered as an important factor. Moreover, it is found that mapping the rate of erosion greatly helps to make proper action plan against the erosion process.     

Optical mineralogy: new colour in a dying art

The words ‘optical mineralogy’ are capable of conjuring fear even in trained geologists. Every one of us will have spent hour after hour staring down the microscope until we are no longer able to focus on the clock on the wall to see if it is time to go home yet. Every geologist will remember the sheer confusion and terrifying uncertainty involved in trying to recognize all but the most obvious minerals. Still to this day many of us will experience a momentary wave of panic if a petrological microscope is pushed in our direction.     

Putting stakeholder engagement in its place: how situating public participation in community improves natural resource management outcomes

Stakeholders in natural resource management decisions are also multifaceted individuals and members of communities; as such, they bring complex histories, experiences, values, aspirations, and relationships to public participation processes. When these processes fail to take this social context into account, multiple problems can result, including a perceived lack of process trustworthiness; perceived focus on issues that seem immaterial or irrelevant; failure to equitably represent and take account of diverse voices; and failure to engage participants in productive dialogue. In this article we evaluate the Community Voice Method (CVM) as a way of addressing those problems by better situating public participation in place. CVM is a mixed-method approach to public participation in which stakeholders are interviewed and the interview data is presented through a film, which is then screened at public meetings to catalyze dialogue. We draw on 14 years of CVM projects addressing natural resource management issues in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Caribbean. Through an overview of nine projects and their results, and more in-depth consideration of three, we elucidate how this method fosters trustworthy, relevant, representative, and productive public participation that has resulted in community capacity-building, institutional capacity-building, and stakeholder-guided policymaking.

     

Violence and conservation: Beyond unintended consequences and unfortunate coincidences

While the relationship between violence and conservation has gained increasing attention in both academic and activist circles, official and public discourses often portray their entanglements as (unlucky) overlapping phenomena. In this article, we show how, under specific practices of state territorialization, conservation becomes both the means and reasons for violence. Based on ethnographic research in Colombia’s emblematic Tayrona National Natural Park, we detail how both the war on drugs and tourism promotion shape these state practices, and how they have translated into everyday, yet powerful, means of dispossession in the name of conservation. By analyzing the effects of the production of peasants as environmental predators, illegal occupants and collateral damage, we show how official conservation strategies have justified local communities’ political and material erasure, and how they have resulted in the destruction of their lived ecologies and the erosion of their livelihood strategies.     

Triassic biochronology: State of the art and main problems

According to known resolution of the IUGS, the International Stratigraphic Commission entrusted its subcommissions with a task to prepare proposals for the official approval of boundaries between Phanerozoic stages. Specially organized working groups were later renamed as special teams for seeking the Global Stratotype Sections and Points (GSSP) for these boundaries. In 2001, the GSSP of lower boundary for the Induan Stage, the basal one in the Triassic System, was officially approved to be in the Meishan section of southern China. The selection appeared to be lame, because the Permian-Triassic boundary layers of the stratotype section are lacking ammonoids. As a result, this boundary is now based only on the first occurrence level (FO) of conodont species Hindeodus parvus. Soon, the proposal of Chinese paleontologists to consider the western Pingdingshan section in the Anhui Province as the GSSP for the lower boundary of the Olenekian Stage may win the official recognition. This boundary between the Olenekian and Anisian stages, which is placed at the FO of conodont species Neospathodus waageni is the least debatable. The Mt. Desli Caira section in northern Dobrogea (Romania) is most appropriate for its global stratotype. In contrast, the Anisian-Ladinian boundary appeared to be most disputable. The Subcommission on Triassic Stratigraphy should select one of three GSSP candidates proposed. The lower Carnian boundary traditionally drawn at the aon Zone base suffered some changes. It is proposed to place it at the FO of the ammonoid genus Daxatina with the GSSP in the Dolomites of Italy. The Norian and Rhaetian boundaries are under discussion.     

Effect of non-aqueous drilling fluid and its synthetic base oil on soil health as indicated by its dehydrogenase activity

Drilling fluids are used for drilling natural gas, oil and water wells. These spill over into the surrounding soil at the point of drilling, which may impair soil health. A laboratory investigation was carried out to determine the effect of non aqueous drilling fluid (NADF) and synthetic base oil used with it on soil health as indicated by the dehydrogenase activity. A non-sterile sandy loam soil was treated with different amounts of NADF and base oil at a rate of 800, 8,000 and 16,000 mg kg⁻¹. Initially, reduction in dehydrogenase activity was observed, but it increased with the incubation time. On the 60th day of incubation dehydrogenase activity in untreated control was 1.04 mg TPF g⁻¹ h⁻¹ whereas in the soil samples treated with NADF and the base oil (16,000 mg kg⁻¹), the activity was 1.53 mg TPF h⁻¹ and 1.90 mg TPF h⁻¹, respectively, which was 72 and 82% more than in untreated control. Base oil-treated soil showed more dehydrogenase activity than that observed with NADF. Both NADF and base oil stimulated the soil dehydrogenase activity.     

Beyond the Anglo-American hegemony in human geography: a European perspective

Over the past five years or so, Anglo-American hegemony in human geography has been widely debated. This debate has highlighted the obstacles put in the way of the building of a more international geographical discipline. In this paper, we reflect on the possibilities and also the limitations of Europe as a context for the experimentation with a more cross-national discipline. In doing so, we notice on the one hand the increasing attention towards the Europeanisation of human geography, particularly at an institutional level, but on the other hand we also notice the lack of some basic forms and tools of communication and exchange that might facilitate the mobilisation of scholars around the ‘European project’. The paper tries to offer a contribution to this issue by discussing the ways in which a European journal of human geography might be conceived and also concretely organised. In this respect the paper takes into account issues of language, access to scientific knowledge and recognition of cultural and academic diversities.

Beyond flexible citizenship: Towards a study of many Chinese transnationalisms

Over the last decade, flexible citizenship has contributed much to our understandings of how contemporary Chinese migrate across the world in late capitalism. This corpus has not only called attention to the manifold strategies that these migrants adopt to inhabit multiple spaces, but has also elucidated how transnational migration can be deployed for the purposes of capital accumulation and enhancement of one’s lifestyle. This paper argues that the current fixation on the flexible strategies of the Chinese ‘shuttling’ between the East and West inevitably occludes other logics of mobilities that may be more germane for other (neglected) segments of the ‘new Chinese diaspora’. Through its consistent rehearsal, the present preoccupation may have led to an inadvertent reification of flexible citizenship, as the paradigmatic model of modern-day Chinese mobilities. In an effort to move the discussion forward, this paper weaves a deliberately dissonant story with the narratives of 50 Singaporean Chinese migrants who are living in, or who have returned to Singapore from, New York or the Californian-Bay Area. The viewpoints offered by these less ‘conventional’ Chinese subjects not only diverge from the usual ‘strategic’ or ‘calculative’ storylines among the Hong Kongers and Taiwanese, but also uncover distinctive assemblages that span across multi-sited and transcultural contexts. Although this paper has no intentions to discredit flexible citizenship, it hopes to have begun the process of decentring the locus of our knowledge pertaining to the subject, drawing attention to the possibility of alternative realities within many Chinese transnationalisms.