'Water all around, you cannot even drink': the scaling of water in James Bay/Eeyou Istchee

Since the 1970s, the reconfiguration of the La Grande River into a hydroelectric complex has radically altered the James Bay region and brought about new scales of identification and exchanges between peoples and places. Through this process, water emerged as an increasingly globalized entity while at the same time being captured as a local icon of cultural identification both by the Eeyouch (Eastern James Bay Cree) and the Québécois. Using an historical and discursive approach, this paper explores the intersection between the rescaling of water and the rescaling of the nation for each community. The removal of the river from the traditional places of production of the Eeyouch to redirect it into electricity-generating facilities that put every drop of water to work has dramatically changed the meaning of 'here' and 'there'– as well as 'us' and 'them'– for the Eeyouch and the Québécois, indicating that a theory of the differentiation and hierarchical organization of space needs to inform collaborative efforts toward environmental management in the region.     

Space and sustainability: an exploratory essay on the production of social spaces through city-work

The purpose of this essay is to locate the making of social spaces as a particularly salient approach for understanding sustainability. Castells' spaces of places and spaces of flows are interpreted generically and a new social theory, Jacobs' moral syndromes, is introduced to underpin the production of these two spatial forms: commercial agents through their network practices make spaces of flows; guardian agents through their territorial practices make spaces of places. Both spaces are considered to be the outcome of city-work. A new division of labour is devised: four primary types of city-work are identified: hinter-work, net-work, territorial-work and hierarch-work. These ideas are considered as tools for thinking about developing spatial policies for sustainability. In conclusion, Jacobs' theory is used to discuss what the general strategy has to be for tackling sustainability.     

The making and unmaking of gendered crops in northern Ghana

In rural West Africa, the gendered division of labour extends to labelling certain crops as 'male' or 'female'. With the introduction of new varieties of crops and technologies, these constructions of gendered plants undergo a process of renegotiation at social intrafaces. This process of attaching meaning to new features in cultivation results in the remaking of gendered crops. These negotiations, in turn, have an effect on the construction of gender in specific ethnic and environmental settings, unlinking labour from its gendered connotations and, thus, unmaking the social meaning and creating room for manoeuvre. Based on fieldwork among the Dagomba and Kusasi people in northern Ghana, this study examines how gendered responsibilities and access to the cultivation of crops are linked and expressed in obligations related to the cultural ideal of a proper meal, in this case consisting of the food categories (male) staple and (female) soup, which serve as the blueprint for assigning crops to a specific gender.     

Getting a Handle on Social-ecological Systems in Catchments: the nature and importance of environmental perception

Several bodies of literature inform understanding of environmental perception but incorporation of the key aspects of perception has been limited in environmental management to date. Using a social-ecological systems approach, a case study of communities in the Collie catchment in Western Australia reveals strong place relatedness in both perception of environment condition and the interrelationship of social systems and the environment. Furthermore, it identifies the variation in perceptions by subgroups within communities. Finally, the implications of this research for environmental management are considered and learning and organisation development are identified as key management tools.     

生态区评价中的空间范围确定及其对全球变化的响应——自然单元、社会单元与信息单元的复合

针对正在兴起的集科学、政策、管理于一体进行综合分析的"生态区评价”理论与方法,本项研究就生态区评价中的空间范围确定的方法进行了探讨,并就其对全球变化的响应机制进行了讨论.提出把自然单元、社会单元和信息单元进行复合(集成)的概念化模型,并以此论证了生态区重要性与安全性水平排序的系统分析法.     

Social polarization and segregation in Beijing

I INTRODUCTIONIt is a popular belief that in socialist countries thereis less socio-spatial disparity than was present in the...past or in comparison with western countries(FRENCHet al., 1979) However, a new urban phenomenon social polarization and spatial segregation --has takenplace in Beijing since the implementation of the economic reforms and open-door policy in 1978, especiallywith the introduction of urban reforms in 1984 o. We.can summarize the urban reform in two points: the f…     

Social Network Approach to Understand the Ethnic Economy: A Theoretical Discourse<Superscript>1</Superscript>

In this paper we suggest how social network analysis, in contrast to looking at physical space, can be used to trace the social and economic location of ethnic enclaves. Taking skilled workers immigrating to Canada from China as an example, we analyze critically how split labor market theories describe materialist and structural factors that determine immigrants’ limited options. Cultural theories play up immigrants’ interest in using their cultural resources to pull themselves ahead. We propose that social network analysis as a single framework can bring together elements from materialist–structural and cultural theories. The position of people and firms in these networks gives us a view of the kinds of jobs immigrants get and the businesses they set up. To understand the ethnic economy, we discuss how networks of social and economic relations intersect each other. By seeing the ethnic economy embedded in social networks, we can provide a more general explanation of the social space of the ethnic economy in contrast to its physical location. We use three cases of ethnic entrepreneurs to illustrate how the social and economic relations locate their businesses in the enclave and how they are also linked to the mainstream economy. ¹This paper has benefitted from the critical clarifications of Chiu Luk and an anonymous reviewer, and the talented editing of Allen Sutterfield. Lynn Xu Liping helped on an earlier draft.     

Social geographies of learning disability: narratives of exclusion and inclusion

The social geographies of people with learning disabilities, one of the most marginalized groups in society, have largely been ignored. The paper explores these hidden geographies through the interpretation of narratives of people with learning disabilities in Scotland, within a social policy framework of social exclusion and inclusion. The paper interprets the experiences of being excluded from and included within mainstream socio-spaces, and the safe spaces that many people with learning disabilities have formed for themselves in between the positions of social exclusion and inclusion.     

POWER, NATURE AND NEOLIBERALISM: THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF WATER IN CHILE

Since the 1990s, international water sector reforms have centred heavily on economic and market approaches. In regard to water resources management, tradable water rights have been promoted, often supported by the neoliberal model adopted in Chile. Chile's 1981 Water Code was reformed to comprise a system of water rights that could be freely traded with few restrictions. International financial institutions have embraced the Chilean model, claiming that it results in more efficient water use, and potentially fosters social and environmental benefits. However, in Chile the Water Code is deeply contested. It has been criticised for being too permissive and has produced a number of problems in practice. Moreover, attempts to modify it have become the focus of a lengthy polemic debate. This paper employs a political ecology perspective to explore the socio‐environmental outcomes of water management in Chile, drawing on a case study of agriculture in the semi‐arid Norte Chico. The case illustrates how large‐scale farmers exert greater control over water, while peasant farmers have increasingly less access. I argue that these outcomes are facilitated by the mode of water management implemented within the framework of the Water Code. Through this preliminary examination of social equity and the environmental aspects of water resources management in Chile, I suggest that the omission of these issues from the international debates on water rights markets is a cause for concern.     

EDWARD BELLAMY AND THE WEATHER OF UTOPIA

ABSTRACT. Utopian thinkers have often assumed that radical geoengineering is necessary for the creation of a perfect world. This assumption necessarily puts them at odds with environmentalism, but the conflict is not inescapable. Human difficulties with the biophysical world can instead be interpreted as arising from the interaction of environment with society and thus as capable of being eradicated simply by reforming the latter. One notable early exponent of this kind of social constructionism was the American utopian novelist and publicist Edward Bellamy (1850–1898). His fictional and nonfictional writings analyzed the ways in which the troubles that Americans of his time had with weather and climate grew out of their ways of life and political‐economic institutions and would disappear if these were reformed. This line of thought allowed Bellamy to portray a utopia where human beings had ceased to suffer serious harm and inconvenience from the weather yet had not tampered with the atmospheric environment itself.