Learning to trade ethically: Knowledgeable capitalism, retailers and contested commodity chains

This paper explores what happens when corporations engage explicitly in practices of organisational learning not only to become better capitalists by generating ever more innovative ways of maintaining profitability, improving competitiveness and maximising shareholder value, but also to become more responsible corporate citizens in their business practices. In particular, I evaluate the ways in which UK food and clothing retailers are learning to develop their ethical trading programmes in response to political calls for more responsible trading. Thrift’s [Thrift, N., 2005. Knowing Capitalism. Sage, London] notion of ‘knowledgeable, or soft, capitalism’ is adopted to understand the creative and experimental ways in which retailers and their mentors (ethical consultancies, social auditors and multi-stakeholder organisations) are learning to trade ethically. Two specific examples of formal learning spaces experienced by UK food and clothing retailers are examined: (i) training courses on social auditing and (ii) corporate awareness-raising courses on ethical trade. These courses are shown to encompass various participative and affective practices of learning. And while particular limits to the success of these courses are argued to exist, ethical learning practices discussed in this paper are nonetheless suggested to play a role in the making of new, albeit moderate, forms of responsible capitalism.     

Partial melting and P–T evolution of the Kodaikanal Metapelite Belt, southern India

The Kodaikanal region of the Madurai Block in southern India exposes a segment of high-grade metamorphic rocks dominated by an aluminous garnet–cordierite–spinel–sillimanite–quartz migmatite suite, designated herein as the Kodaikanal Metapelite Belt (KMB). These rocks were subjected to extreme crustal metamorphism during the Late Neoproterozoic despite the lack of diagnostic ultrahigh-temperature assemblages. The rocks preserve microstructural evidence demonstrating initial-heating, dehydration melting to generate the peak metamorphic assemblage and later retrogression of the residual assemblages with remaining melt. The peak metamorphic assemblage is interpreted to be garnet + sillimanite + K-feldspar + spinel + Fe–Ti oxide + quartz + melt, which indicates pressure–temperature (P–T) conditions around 950–1000 °C and 7–8 kbar based on calculated phase diagrams. A clockwise P–T path is proposed by integrating microstructural information with pseudosections. We show that evidence for extreme crustal metamorphism at ultrahigh-temperature conditions can be extracted even in the cases where the rocks lack diagnostic ultrahigh-temperature mineral assemblages. Our approach confirms the widespread regional occurrence of UHT metamorphism in the Madurai Block during Gondwana assembly and point out the need for similar studies on adjacent continental fragments.     

Predicting average annual groundwater levels from climatic variables: an empirical model

On the basis of one-dimensional theoretical water flow model, we demonstrate that the groundwater level variation follows a pattern similar to recharge fluctuation, with a time delay that depends on the characteristics of aquifer, recharge pattern as well as the distance between the recharge and observation locations. On the basis of a water budget model and the groundwater flow model, we propose an empirical model that links climatic variables to groundwater level. The empirical model is tested using a partial data set from historical records of water levels from more than 80 wells in a monitoring network for the carbonate rock aquifer, southern Manitoba, Canada. The testing results show that the predicted groundwater levels are very close to the observed ones in most cases. The overall average correlation coefficient between the predicted and observed water levels is 0.92. This proposed empirical statistical model could be used to predict variations in groundwater level in response to different climate scenarios in a climate change impact assessment.     

Evaluating Earthquake-Triggered Landslide Hazard at the Basin Scale Through Gis in the Upper Sele River Valley

To evaluate techniques for assessing earthquake-triggeredlandslide hazard in the Southern Apennines (Italy), a GIS-based analysis was used to modelseismically induced slope deformations. Geological, geotechnical, geomorphological and seismologicaldata were integrated into a standard earthquake slope stability model. The model assessed thelandslide potential that existed during the 1980 Irpinian earthquake in the Upper Sele river Valley.The standard Newmark displacement analysis, widely used for predicting the location of shallowunstable slopes, does not take into account errors and/or uncertainties in the input parameters.Therefore, a probabilistic Newmark displacement analysis technique has been used. Probabilistictechniques allow, e.g., an estimation of the probability that a slope will exceed a certain criticalvalue of Newmark displacement. In our probabilistic method, a Monte-Carlo based simulation modelis used in conjunction with a GIS. The random variability of geotechnical data is modelled by probabilitydensity functions (pdfs), while for the seismic input three different regression laws wereconsidered. Input probability distributions are sampled and the resulting values input into empiricalrelations for estimating Newmark displacement. The outcome is a map in which to each siteis related a spatial probability distribution for the expected displacement in response to seismic loading.Results of the experiments show a high grade of uncertainty in the application of the Newmarkanalysis both for the deterministic and probabilistic approach in a complex geological setting suchas the high Sele valley, quite common in the Southern Apennines. They show a strong dependence onthe reliability of the spatial data used in input, so that, when the model is used at basin scale,results are strongly influenced by local environmental condition (e.g., topography, lithology, groundwatercondition) and decrease the model performance.     

Placing geographies of public health

Following the move to a 'post–medical' geography, a large amount of research has come to focus on public health issues. This paper explores these current geographies of public health and argues for the development of a more critical perspective. In particular, it draws on commentary that has emerged out of debates that have taken place within a body of literature usually identified as the critical 'new' public health. The paper goes on to argue that such scholarship offers crucial insights for the production of a critical geography of public health.     

Chasing a 'loose and baggy monster': almshouses and the geography of charity

This paper goes some way towards redressing the lack of geographical literature on charity through exploring the geography of the British domestic charitable sector. The size and geography of the third sector is outlined, followed by an analysis of how almshouses can be understood as inherently geographical and deeply embedded in local social networks of inclusion as well as exclusion.     

Virtual vegetables and adopted sheep: ethical relation, authenticity and Internet-mediated food production technologies

Associating ideas related to cultural geographies of 'quality' food production and consumption with recent discussion of Internet technologies, virtuality and simulation, this paper examines two newly constituted Internet enterprises offering customers 'virtual' experiences of food production, and 'quality' food products in which they have invested. The paper shows how these enterprises are associated with particular types of geographical and ethical relation, and a search for 'authentic', connected, relationships with food, farming, locality and 'nature'. These relationships are constituted in an assemblage of things held together by flows of food, products, money and electronic communication. The paper ends by suggesting a number of theoretical ideas that might usefully be explored in empirical research into Internet-mediated food production.     

Enrichissement en uranium authigène dans les sédiments glaciaires de l'océan AustralEnrichments in authigenic uranium in glacial sediments of the Southern Ocean

Four sediment cores from the Polar frontal zone and the Antarctic zone in the Indian sector of the Southern Ocean present an increase of authigenic uranium during glacial periods. We show that this increase in uranium is due to a combination of (i) an increase in the lateral transport of organic matter, (ii) a decrease in the oxygen in deep waters, and (iii) a process of diagenesis. It appears that uranium concentration cannot be used as a proxy of palaeoproductivity in the Southern Ocean, as previously suggested by Kumar et al. in 1995. To cite this article: L. Dezileau et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 1039–1046.     

Infiltration on mountain slopes: a comparison of three environments

Water is well established as a major driver of the geomorphic change that eventually reduces mountains to lower relief landscapes. Nonetheless, within the altitudinal limits of continuous vegetation in humid climates, water is also an essential factor in slope stability. In this paper, we present results from field experiments to determine infiltration rates at forested sites in the Andes Mountains (Ecuador), the southern Appalachian Mountains (USA), and the Luquillo Mountains (Puerto Rico). Using a portable rainfall simulator–infiltrometer (all three areas), and a single ring infiltrometer (Andes), we determined infiltration rates, even on steep slopes. Based on these results, we examine the spatial variability of infiltration, the relationship of rainfall runoff and infiltration to landscape position, the influence of vegetation on infiltration rates on slopes, and the implications of this research for better understanding erosional processes and landscape change.Infiltration rates ranged from 6 to 206 mm/h on lower slopes of the Andes, 16 to 117 mm/h in the southern Appalachians, and 0 to 106 mm/h in the Luquillo Mountains. These rates exceed those of most natural rain events, confirming that surface runoff is rare in montane forests with deep soil/regolith mantles. On well-drained forested slopes and ridges, apparent steady-state infiltration may be controlled by the near-surface downslope movement of infiltrated water rather than by characteristics of the full vertical soil profile. With only two exceptions, the local variability of infiltration rates at the scale of 10° m overpowered other expected spatial relationships between infiltration, vegetation type, slope position, and soil factors. One exception was the significant difference between infiltration rates on alluvial versus upland soils in the Andean study area. The other exception was the significant difference between infiltration rates in topographic coves compared to other slope positions in the tabonuco forest of one watershed in the Luquillo Mountains. Our research provides additional evidence of the ability of forests and forest soils to preserve geomorphic features from denudation by surface erosion, documents the importance of subsurface flow in mountain forests, and supports the need for caution in extrapolating infiltration rates.