Urban environmental services and the state in East Africa; between neo-developmental and network governance approaches

Although governments are generally expected to provide environmental services such as sanitation and solid waste collection for their citizens, most (municipal) governments in Sub-Saharan Africa seem hardly able to take up this task. Without ignoring the lack of material resources resulting from poverty, there are other structural causes for this failure as well and related to the role of the state. Since independence, the state in Africa has been debated in political as well as in academic circles and opposing views can still be discerned today. While some promote a strong interventionist state which can effectively enhance development, others consider introducing network governance by involving various societal actors in combination with different levels of government a more promising alternative. After presenting an historical overview, in this paper I will summarize this debate and discuss future options for East African authorities for providing more effective and sustainable urban environmental infrastructures and services.     

The limits to good governance and the state of exception: A case study of North Sea fisheries

This paper explores a series of maxims, widely known in policy and academic circles as the ‘principles of good governance’, which state that policymaking in the European Union (EU) should be participatory, conducted as close to citizens as practicable, transparent, accountable, effective and coherent. These maxims were introduced into EU fisheries management as part of a radical reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) in 2002. This reform was instituted in response to criticisms of a prevailing management regime alleged to be inefficient, undemocratic, and potentially responsible for an environmental crisis: the exhaustion of key fish stocks. The research for this work has found that there are limits to the actual achievement of good governance in EU fisheries. In practice governance innovations are very often contradictory and rife with tensions. I reason that such problems result not merely from policy implementation failures; they constitute a more endemic feature of the CFP reforms. We can begin to understand these limits to good governance principles by looking to Agamben’s permanent state of exception thesis. Agamben’s theory helps to show how these contradictions and tensions occur under new governance regimes, because the relationship between democratic norms (like good governance) and political power is no longer clear. I argue that this blurring has been exploited by groups seeking influence in these new regimes. They do this through citing a supposed need for emergency measures to mitigate crisis. Although this research broadly supports the state of exception thesis, my analysis leads me to question some aspects of its application in contemporary governance spaces.     

Geographies of security and statehood in Norway’s ‘Battle of the North’

In this paper, we explore how ‘peak oil’ anxieties are woven into the spaces and practices of the state in Norway and the consequences of this for environmental justice and the public sphere more widely. We focus in particular on an ongoing struggle over access to hydrocarbon deposits in the Norwegian Arctic, the so-called ‘Battle of the North’. We use this dispute to highlight three wider theoretical points regarding (i) the continuing relevance of the state in the governing of nature-society relations, (ii) the increasingly fragmented and fluid nature of state space, and (iii) the significance of ‘security’ as a term around which social, economic and environmental tensions pivot. The paper concludes by reflecting on current efforts to prevent new oil activities in the north of Norway.     

Evaluation of state indices in predicting the cyclic and monotonic strength of sands with different fines contents

State parameter, ψ, has been widely used to combine the influence of void ratio, e, and stress level, p′, on the soils behavior. Stress ratio, R_s, and modified state parameter, ψ_m, have also been proposed for the same purpose. This paper aims to evaluate and compare the different state indices in combining the effect of fines content, density and stress level for five different types of sands, by processing a large number of previously published experimental data. The use of the recently established concept of equivalent interparticle void ratio, e^⁎, in definition of the state indices is also evaluated. The results indicate that the influence of fines presence, in addition to the e and p′, on the behavior is favorably reflected by the state indices. Unique correlations were derived between the cyclic or monotonic strength and each of the state indices, independent of the fines content. The correlations, for all the different types of soils, fell into limited types of common formulations. ψ and R_s worked generally better than ψ_m, whether defined in terms of e or e^⁎. The extension of straight part of critical state line was found to be an appropriate reference line for calculating R_s used in conjunction with e or e^⁎.     

Conservation by racialized dispossession: The making of an eco-destination on Honduras’s North Coast

Within the context of neoliberal conservation and ecotourism development, the Honduran state has prioritized the desires of foreign tourists and private investors over the needs of indigenous and black coastal inhabitants, and increasingly this is leading to state-sanctioned violence against marginalized groups. I use Peluso’s analytic of coercive conservation (1993) to show how conservation practice furthers the expansionist policies of the state and elite investors while simultaneously dehumanizing the indigenous peoples that depend on natural resources for their livelihoods. While Garífuna culture is central to Honduras’s ecotourism ambitions, their livelihoods, in the eyes of many developers and conservation NGOs, are a potential threat to the viability of the emerging tourism imaginary. Black and indigenous coastal inhabitants are valued for the cultural cache they add to regional tourism plans, yet denigrated for their inherent “backwardness” and presumed inability to respect the delicate ecosystems they inhabit. This imaginary authorizes material practices of racialized dispossession, which were set in motion by neoliberal conservation regimes designed to exploit the natural and cultural resources upon which tourism development is premised.     

Carbon capture and storage policy in the United States: A new coalition endeavors to change existing policy

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is considered by some to be a promising technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and advocates are seeking policies to facilitate its deployment. Unlike many countries, which approach the development of policies for geologic storage (GS) of carbon dioxide (CO₂) with nearly a blank slate, the U.S. already has a mature policy regime devoted to the injection of CO₂ into deep geologic formations. However, the existing governance of CO₂ injection is designed to manage enhanced oil recovery (EOR), and policy changes would be needed to manage the risks and benefits of CO₂ injection for the purpose of avoiding GHG emissions. We review GS policy developments at both the U.S. federal and state levels, including original research on state GS policy development. By applying advocacy coalition framework theory, we identify two competing coalitions defined by their beliefs about the primary purpose of CO₂ injection: energy supply or greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions. The established energy coalition is the beneficiary of the current policy regime. Their vision of GS policy is protective: to minimize harm to fossil energy industries if climate policy were to be enacted. In contrast, the newly formed climate coalition seeks to change existing GS policy to support their proactive vision: to maximize GHG reductions using CCS when climate policy is enacted. We explore where and at what scale legislation emerges and examine which institutions gain prominence as drivers of policy change. Through a detailed textual analysis of the content of state GS legislation, we find that the energy coalition has had greater success than the climate coalition in shaping state laws to align with its policy preferences. It has enshrined its view of the purpose of CO₂ injection in state legislation, delegated authority for GS to state agencies aligned with the existing policy regime, and protected the EOR status quo, while creating new opportunities for EOR operators to profit from the storage of CO₂ The climate coalition's objective of proactively putting GS policy in place has been furthered, and important progress has been made on commonly held concerns, such as the resolution of property rights issues, but the net result is policy change that does not significantly revise the existing policy regime.     

Paleomagnetism and rock magnetism of the Neoproterozoic Itajaí Basin of the Rio de la Plata craton (Brazil): Cambrian to Cretaceous widespread remagnetizations of South America

A detailed rock magnetic and paleomagnetic study was performed on samples from the Neoproterozoic Itajaí Basin in the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil, in order to better constrain the paleogeographic evolution of the Rio de la Plata craton between 600 and 550 Ma. However, rock magnetic properties typical of remagnetized rocks and negative response in the fold test indicated that these rocks carried a secondary chemical remanent magnetization. After detailed AF and thermal cleaning, almost all samples showed a normal polarity characteristic remanent magnetization component close to the present geomagnetic field. The main magnetic carriers are magnetite and hematite, probably of authigenic origin. The mean paleomagnetic pole of the Itajaí Basin is located at Plat = − 84°, Plong = 97.5° (A95 = 2°) and overlaps the lower Cretaceous segment of the apparent polar wander path of South America, suggesting a cause and effect with the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. A compilation of remagnetized paleomagnetic poles from South America is presented that highlights the superposition of several large-scale remagnetization events between the Cambrian and the Cretaceous. It is suggested that some paleomagnetic poles used to calibrate the APWP of Gondwana at Precambrian times need to be revised; the indication of remagnetized areas in southern South America may offer some help in the selection of sites for future paleomagnetic investigations in Precambrian rocks.     

The Afeição augen-gneiss Suite and the record of the Cariris Velhos Orogeny (1000–960 Ma) within the Riacho do Pontal fold belt,NE Brazil

Early Tonian (∼1000–920 Ma) rocks occur within the Transversal Zone of the Borborema Province in Northeast Brazil comprising the 700 km-long sigmoidal Cariris Velhos belt. The Afeição augen-gneiss Suite crops out in the internal zone of the Riacho do Pontal fold belt, about 100 km southwestward of the closest Cariris Velhos occurrence within the Transversal Zone, and has been proposed to represent a continuation of this belt within the Southern subprovince of the Borborema Province. Several plutons included within this unit intrude or are thrust upon metavolcanosedimentary sequences of three different units (Santa Filomena, Paulistana and Morro Branco complexes). The Afeição Suite is composed mostly of calc-alkaline, high-K, peraluminous, high-silica ferroan and magnesian granites. Chondrite-normalized REE patterns are moderate to highly fractionated, with a pronounced negative Eu anomaly. Incompatible element spidergrams show a negative Nb–Ta anomaly, akin to convergence setting (Cordilleran-type) granites. U–Pb zircon data constrain the age of crystallization between 1000 and 960 Ma, thus confirming chrono-correlation with the Cariris Velhos belt. Values of εNd(t) between −1.0 and +3.1 and T_DM of 1.2–1.5 Ga, similar to other Cariris Velhos occurrences, suggest variable mixing of Tonian juvenile sources with older crustal sources, the latter involving Archean/Paleoproterozoic basement. Although there are currently no reliable geochronological data for the supracrustal sequences of the internal zone, cross-cutting relationships indicate that the Santa Filomena and Morro Branco complexes are older or of similar age to the Afeição Suite, and thus could be related to the Cariris Velhos Orogeny. Based on petrographic, lithogeochemical, geochronological and isotope data, and according to previous models proposed for the Cariris Velhos belt, we interpret the Afeição Suite as the southwestern edge of a continental margin magmatic arc accreted to this portion of West Gondwana during the Early Tonian. Late-Brasiliano dextral displacement through the western branch of the Pernambuco shear zone separated these Cariris Velhos occurrences from its equivalents within the Transversal Zone of the Borborema Province (Recanto-type augen-gneiss of the Alto Pajeú Terrane).     

New U–Pb ages and lithochemical attributes of the Ediacaran Rio Doce magmatic arc,Araçuaí confined orogen,southeastern Brazil

The Araçuaí orogen of southeastern Brazil, together with its counterpart located in Africa, the West Congo belt, formed through closure of a gulf connected to the Adamastor Ocean by the end of the Ediacaran and beginning of the Cambrian. Convergence of the margins of the gulf led to the development of the Rio Doce magmatic arc between 630 Ma and 580 Ma on a continental basement mostly composed of Rhyacian orthogneisses. The Rio Doce arc mainly consists of tonalite-granodiorite batholiths, generally crowded with mafic to dioritic enclaves, and minor gabbronorite-enderbite-charnockite plutons, suggesting mixing processes involving crustal and mantle sources. We investigate the basement, magma sources and emplacement ages of the Rio Doce arc. Our data suggest the arc comprises three main granitic rock groups: i) Opx-bearing rocks mostly of enderbite to charnockite composition; ii) enclave-rich tonalite-granodiorite (ETG); and iii) enclave-poor granite-granodiorite with minor tonalite (GT). The Opx-bearing rocks are magnesian, calc-alkalic to alkali-calcic and metaluminous. Together, the ETG and GT rock groups range in composition from tonalite to granite, are metaluminous to slightly peraluminous, show a predominantly medium- to high-K, expanded calc-alkaline signature, and other geochemical and isotopic attributes typical of a pre-collisional volcanic arc formed on a continental margin setting. Mineralogical, chemical, and geochronological data suggest the involvement of HT-melting of granulitic (H₂O-depleted) sources of Rhyacian age for the generation of Opx-bearing granitic rocks, additionally to magma mixing and fractional crystallization processes. In conclusion, the studied rock groups of the Rio Doce arc were likely formed by interactions of mantle and crustal processes, in an active continental margin setting. These processes involved ascent of mantle magmas that induced partial melting on the continental basement represented by the Rhyacian gneisses.     

State Vectors-A New Method for Seismicity Analysis

The concept of state vector stems from statistical physics, where it is usually used to describe the evolution of a continuum field in its way of coarse-graining. In this paper, the state vector is employed to depict the evolution of seismicity quantitatively, and some interesting results are presented. The authors investigated some famous earthquake cases (e.g., the Haicheng earthquake, the Tangshan earthquake, the west Kunlun Mountains earthquake, etc.) and found that the state vectors evidently change prior to the occurrence of large earthquakes. Thus it is believed that the state vector can be used as a kind of precursor to predict large earthquakes.