When seed fails: The contested nature of neoliberalism in South Korea

In recent years, many geographers have examined the ways that the production of nature has changed as a result of neoliberal practices. In this paper we examine a conflict in South Korea that started when some Chinese-cabbage seeds were affected by a virus, causing crop failure. This failure came shortly after liberalization in the Korean seed industry led to foreign ownership of the firm that sold the seed. We focus in particular on the farmers’ creative political responses - and their subsequent defeat in court. Drawing on Antonio Gramsci’s insights on politics, science, and law, we examine how the seed failure came to be evaluated through scientific and legal practices. We argue that the adjudication of the truth of the seed failure through science and law reveals how socionatures are contested under prevailing hegemonic conditions. These conditions are both general and specific: although law and science are relatively hegemonic spheres of truth-production in all capitalist societies, the ways that the seeds were disputed and evaluated were distinctly Korean.     

‘Unionising’ the new spaces of the new economy? Alternative labour organising in India’s IT Enabled Services-Business Process Outsourcing industry

This paper explores the lived experiences and aspirational social constructions of call centre work and employment in India’s high profile IT Enabled Services-Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) industry; the ways in which they differ from those previously documented amongst call centre workers in the Global North (specifically the UK); and the consequences of that geographical reconfiguration of offshored call centre work for the replicability in India of workplace collective bargaining strategies successfully developed in some UK call centres. These issues are analysed using new empirical evidence from a regional survey of 511 non-unionised ITES-BPO workers and 42 in-depth interviews in India’s National Capital Region. Based on this analysis, the paper then discusses the operation, outcomes and ongoing challenges faced by the newly formed ‘Union for ITES Professionals’ (UNITES Pro) in developing an alternative occupational organising model better suited to the particular needs, motivations and preferences of India’s young, mobile, call centre workers. The empirical analysis presented in the paper is located, therefore, within wider debates on the role of geographical context in shaping possibilities for organising white-collar service workers at different ends of global service chains in the new economy.     

波阻抗反演在南海北部神狐海域天然气水合物勘探中的应用

针对神狐海域的地质构造和天然气水合物的赋存特征,以重点测线三维地震数据为基础,分析讨论了基于宽带约束的模拟退火波阻抗反演方法、流程和关键技术问题,定量获得了含天然气水合物沉积物的波阻抗特征。结果表明:基于宽带约束的模拟退火波阻抗反演数据具有较高的有效垂向分辨率和较好的横向连续性;神狐海域高波阻抗异常反映了含天然气水合物沉积层,而不连续异常低波阻抗层是水合物层之下游离气的表现,这与钻探结果吻合。由此可见,基于宽带约束的模拟退火波阻抗反演可为天然气水合物层识别和预测、勘探目标圈定、钻探井位选择提供重要依据。     

南海西部盐水层CO2埋存潜力评估

南海西部东方1-1、崖城13-1和乐东等气田具有CO2含量高的特点,每年从生产出的天然气中分离出大量的CO2。为了减少CO2在大气中的排放,考虑在莺歌海地区选择合适的盐水层埋存体,拟进行CO2地质埋存示范工程。根据CO2在盐水层中的各种埋存机理,并考虑盐水层构造特征对CO2运移分布的影响,提出了一种较为准确的CO2埋存潜力评估方法,并利用此方法对筛选出的5个备选盐水层进行了评估。评估结果表明,各盐水层埋存潜力巨大,都远远大于示范工程期限内预计的CO2埋存总量,并可将这些盐水层作为将来海南省及临近广东省人为CO2的埋存场所。南海西部东方1-1、崖城13-1和乐东等气田具有CO2含量高的特点,每年从生产出的天然气中分离出大量的CO2。为了减少CO2在大气中的排放,考虑在莺歌海地区选择合适的盐水层埋存体,拟进行CO2地质埋存示范工程。根据CO2在盐水层中的各种埋存机理,并考虑盐水层构造特征对CO2运移分布的影响,提出了一种较为准确的CO2埋存潜力评估方法,并利用此方法对筛选出的5个备选盐水层进行了评估。评估结果表明,各盐水层埋存潜力巨大,都远远大于示范工程期限内预计的CO2埋存总量,并可将这些盐水层作为将来海南省及临近广东省人为CO2的埋存场所。     

Geological Evolution of Longhushan World Geopark in Relation to Global Tectonics

The South China fold belt has experienced a complex series of tectonic events that span 1.0 billion years of earth history. Longhushan (龙虎山) World Geopark is located on the Proterozoic suture between the Yangtze craton and Cathyasia block and highlights the long history of this belt. Collision of the Cathyasia and Yangtze cratons 1.0 billion years ago was associated with the formation of the Rodinian supercontinent where most of the planet's landmasses were amalgamated into one block. Jurassic through Early...     

华南成矿省（云南部分）堆积型铝土矿典型矿床

云南堆积型铝土矿典型矿床称为卖酒坪式,成矿物质来源于吴家坪组或龙潭组原生沉积铝土矿／岩层。矿床分布于与矿源层邻近的下伏中、上泥盆统一下二叠统中发育的溶丘漏斗、溶蚀坡地、石牙坡地和峰丛谷地等4种岩溶地貌类型中。岩溶地貌对堆积体厚度及形态起控制作用,各堆积类型Al2O3、A／S和含矿率均有一定规律。     

Palynological records of Holocene monsoon change from the Gulf of Tonkin (Beibuwan), northwestern South China Sea

Palynological records in cores C4 and B106 from the Gulf of Tonkin reveal signals of paleo-monsoon and paleoenvironmental change during the late Pleistocene and Holocene. Before ∼ 13.4 cal kyr BP, the Gulf of Tonkin was exposed to the atmosphere and covered by grassland. Starting at ∼ 11.7 cal kyr BP, the Gulf of Tonkin was inundated by brackish water, indicated by the appearance of the brackish algae Cleistosphaeridium, Sentusidinium and Spiniferites, a decrease of herb content, and an increase of Pinus. After Hainan Island was completely separated from the Leizhou Peninsula by Qiongzhou Strait at ∼ 8.5 cal kyr BP, a continuous marine sedimentary environment was found. The current patterns were similar to those of the present, with a general trend of current homogenization reflected by gradually decreasing quantities of Quercus pollen and a narrowing gap between the palynological concentrations of the southern and northern parts of the region. The data suggest that three short periods of strengthened winter monsoons and currents were centered at ∼ 6.0 cal kyr BP, ∼ 2.7 cal kyr BP and ∼ 0.2 cal kyr BP and that two short periods of strengthened summer monsoons and currents were centered at ∼ 7.5 cal kyr BP and ∼ 3.4 cal kyr BP.     

Glacial paleoceanography off the mouth of the Mekong River, southern South China Sea, during the last 500 ka

We have analyzed core MD01-2392, ∼ 360 km east of the Mekong River mouth in the South China Sea (SCS). Over the past 500 ka, planktonic foraminiferal oxygen-isotopic values are consistently lighter than northern SCS and open-ocean records by up to 0.5‰, indicating the influence of run-off from the Mekong River during both glacial and interglacial periods. Carbonate content is higher during interglacials; sedimentation rates were higher during glacials. Increased sedimentation rates since 30 ka imply increased run-off during the last glacial maximum and Holocene Period. Contrary to general experience, in which it is classed as a warm species for temperature estimates, the thermocline-dwelling species Pulleniatina obliquiloculata increased its numbers during glacial periods. This implies an estuarine circulation and even brackish-water caps during glacial periods, reinforcing the sense of strong run-off. In an overall decline of warm water, the thermocline shoaled stepwise, with rapid rises across the glacial terminations. We infer that the southern SCS was opened to an influx of Indian Ocean waters through southern passages at those times of rising sea levels.     

Phytoliths infer locally dense and heterogeneous paleovegetation at FLK North and surrounding localities during upper Bed I time, Olduvai Gorge, Tanzania

The phytolith content of 10 samples collected immediately under Tuff IF (~ 1.785 Ma) at FLK N and other surrounding localities (~ 2 km²) provides a direct botanical evidence for woody vegetation in the eastern margin of Olduvai Gorge during uppermost Bed I time. Observation and counting of 143 phytolith types (5 to >150 μ) reveal dense but heterogeneous woody cover (~ 40–90%) of unidentified trees and/or shrubs and palms associated to the freshwater springs surrounding FLK N, and more open formation (presumably ~ 25–70% woody cover) in the southeast at localities VEK, HWK W and HWK E. The paleovegetation is best described as groundwater palm forest/woodland or bushland, which current analogue may be found near Lake Manyara in similar hydrogeological context (freshwater springs near saline/alkaline lake). Re-evaluating the published pollen data based on this analogy shows that 70% of the pollen signal at FLK N may be attributed to thicket-woodland, Acacia groundwater woodland, gallery and groundwater forests; while < 30% is attributed to swamp herbage and grasslands. Micro-botanical, isotopic, and taphonomical studies of faunal remains converge on the same conclusion that the area surrounding FLK N, which attracted both carnivores and hominins in the early Pleistocene, was densely wooded during uppermost Bed I time.