Communities,abandonment and ‘recognition’: The case of post-state funding community bodies

Communities have increasingly been internalised as subjects with responsibilities in the delivery of urban policy and involvement in broader urban governance. A prominent example is the English New Deal for Communities (NDC) programme that ran between 2001 and 2012. Towards the end of government funding, NDCs were required to develop succession strategies that would leave a ‘legacy’ for their communities. This involved the development of social enterprise bodies that would continue to support community involvement and regeneration efforts through ownership of capital assets, acquisition of public service contracts, and partnership working with mainstream service providers. This paper examines the influence of communities on post-NDC bodies, and the relationship between these organisations and local government, which was a critical agent in the management of the previous NDC bodies. The ‘recognition’ perspective of Honneth (1995), which is concerned with the self-actualisation of actors through inter-subjective relations based on forms of recognition (e.g. respect), is deployed in the analysis of post-NDC bodies. The paper concludes that long term community representatives’ have incorporated market values as a means in which to acquire ‘respect’ from social enterprise professionals, and that there is a lack of recognition by state agents of the role of post-NDC bodies in contemporary urban governance.     

Understanding uncertainty and reducing vulnerability: lessons from resilience thinking

Vulnerability is registered not by exposure to hazards alone; it also resides in the resilience of the system experiencing the hazard. Resilience (the capacity of a system to absorb recurrent disturbances, such as natural disasters, so as to retain essential structures, processes and feedbacks) is important for the discussion of vulnerability for three reasons: (1) it helps evaluate hazards holistically in coupled human–environment systems, (2) it puts the emphasis on the ability of a system to deal with a hazard, absorbing the disturbance or adapting to it, and (3) it is forward-looking and helps explore policy options for dealing with uncertainty and future change. Building resilience into human–environment systems is an effective way to cope with change characterized by surprises and unknowable risks. There seem to be four clusters of factors relevant to building resilience: (1) learning to live with change and uncertainty, (2) nurturing various types of ecological, social and political diversity for increasing options and reducing risks, (3) increasing the range of knowledge for learning and problem-solving, and (4) creating opportunities for␣self-organization, including strengthening of local institutions and building cross-scale linkages and problem-solving networks.     

Transformational adaptation on the farm: Processes of change and persistence in transitions to ‘climate-smart’ regenerative agriculture

Regenerative agriculture, an alternative form of food and fiber production, concerns itself with enhancing and restoring resilient systems supported by functional ecosystem processes and healthy, organic soils capable of producing a full suite of ecosystem services, among them soil carbon sequestration and improved soil water retention. As such, climate change mitigation and adaptation are incidental to a larger enterprise that employs a systems approach to managing landscapes and communities. The transformative potential of regenerative agriculture has seen growing attention in the popular press, but few empirical studies have explored the processes by which farmers enter into, navigate, and, importantly, sustain the required paradigm shift in their approach to managing their properties, farm businesses, and personal lives. We draw on theories and insights associated with relational thinking to analyze the experiences of farmers in Australia who have undertaken and sustained transitions from conventional to regenerative agriculture. We present a conceptual framework of “zones of friction and traction” occurring in personal, practical, and political spheres of transformation that both challenge and facilitate the transition process. Our findings illustrate the ways in which deeply held values and emotions influence and interact with mental models, worldviews, and cultural norms as a result of regular monitoring; and how behavioral change is sustained through the establishment of self-amplifying positive feedbacks involving biophilic emotions, a sense of well-being, and an ever-expanding worldview. We conclude that transitioning to regenerative agriculture involves more than a suite of ‘climate-smart’ mitigation and adaptation practices supported by technical innovation, policy, education, and outreach. Rather, it involves subjective, nonmaterial factors associated with culture, values, ethics, identity, and emotion that operate at individual, household, and community scales and interact with regional, national and global processes. Findings have implications for strategies aimed at facilitating a large-scale transition to climate-smart regenerative agriculture.     

Governance and territoriality in Norwegian fisheries

This paper focuses on the informal and institutional governance structures that are embedded within local production systems in Norwegian fisheries. Important issues concern the regional distribution of fish landings resulting from the tendency in some regional production systems to use large fishing vessels, and the negative consequences of this for peripheral regions and inshore fisheries. The influence of powerful central production systems is considered in terms of territorial dominance over fishing grounds.     

大连石庙鲍育苗池冬!春季底栖藻类组成初探

对大连石庙鲍育苗池冬,春季底栖藻类的组成作了调研,共发现藻类５７种（含变种）,其中有２４种及变种为辽宁省新记录。藻类组成有如下特点：硅藻种类比较丰富;冬、春季藻类群落组成有一定的主次,演替表现十分明显,种类的重现率不高。     

Taking Stock: Farmers' reflections on the deregulation of Australian dairying

On 1 July 2000 significant changes to the regulation of Australian dairying came into effect. These changes eliminated subsidies to milk producers and removed barriers to the inter-State trade of dairy products. Victoria's dairy industry group was a powerful proponent of deregulation, because of the comparative advantage that the State's farmers have in production relative to Australia's other milk producers. However, the deregulation of the dairy industry was contested stridently by many stakeholders, particularly farmers and their representative groups in States other than Victoria. Even within Victoria some farmers were equivocal and some were opposed to the regulatory changes. This paper draws on interviews with informants in the Victorian dairy sector to reveal responses to the regulatory changes. The interviews indicate that opinion was divided before deregulation and remains so. The debate was largely between those who saw the regulatory changes as 'inevitable', some of whom thought it would be a 'good thing' and others who accepted, grudgingly, that it was simply going to happen, and those who thought there had to be alternatives that would avoid the expected adverse consequences.     

湖南栖霞期的生物群落、古地理与生物礁

湖南栖霞期发育了8种不同类型的生物群落,各自反映了不同的沉积环境。这些生物群落的时空分布规律反映了当时的古地理概貌。根据群落分布及岩性特征可将栖霞期的湖南浅海划分为5个古地理单元。在涟(源)浏(阳)开阔浅海的部分海底隆起区,由Peronidella群落形成了生物礁。这是国内首次发现的栖霞期生物礁。     

Trade unions, coalitions and communities: Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union and the international stakeholder campaign against Rio Tinto

There is a growing geographical literature on the significance of organised labour. A key theoretical and political question concerns the extent and nature of the engagement between trade unions and other groups in the broader community. The paper seeks to contribute to this debate by focusing specifically on the ways in which trade unions engage collaboratively with such interest groups over international corporate campaign issues. It draws upon a case study of the encounter between Australia’s Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU) and Rio Tinto, one of the largest privately owned mining companies in the world. This was conducted through a loose alliance co-ordinated by the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mining and General Workers Unions (ICEM). The campaign included the use of stakeholder reports aimed at influencing corporate shareholders. The main issues concerned the rights of indigenous peoples, environmental consequences of mining operations, and human rights in the workplace. The attempt to change these aspects of corporate culture led to union-inspired resolutions at the firm’s May 2000 Annual General Meeting, the first attempt to challenge a company through international union-led action in this manner. Although defeated, the resolutions were backed by a significant minority of leading institutional shareholders. The paper interprets this campaign in terms of broader debates over the spatiality of organised labour and the role of trade unions, at a time when increased significance has been attached to alternative political movements. It seeks to theorise the specific implications of internationally-grounded interest-based campaigns and take into account the ways in which these are both constrained by, and draw strength from, their constitution at this spatial scale.     

江苏小庙洪牡蛎礁大型底栖动物多样性及群落结构

基于2011年春季的生态调查资料,报道了江苏小庙洪自然潮间带牡蛎礁大型底栖动物的多样性及其群落结构。通过16SrDNA基因序列分析发现,在小庙洪牡蛎礁内分布有3种牡蛎(熊本牡蛎Crassostrea sikamea、近江牡蛎C.ariakensis和密鳞牡蛎Ostrea denselamellosa),其中分布于潮间带区的造礁活体牡蛎为熊本牡蛎,其平均密度和生物量分别为(2199±363)ind/m2和(12361±1645)g/m2。在该牡蛎礁内记录到定居性大型底栖动物(不包括3种牡蛎)共计43科66种,礁体大型底栖动物的总栖息密度和生物量分别达到(2830±182)ind/m2和(499.59±35.41)g/m2,显著高于邻近的软相潮间带泥(沙)质滩涂[密度(102±29)ind/m2;生物量(53.10±22.80)g/m2]和潮下带泥滩[密度(140±60)ind/m2;生物量(43.23±22.37)g/m2](P<0.001)。     

Sustainable urban water management and integrated development in informal settlements: The contested politics of co-production in Santo Domingo,Dominican Republic

Given the implications of global climate change, including higher likelihood of extreme weather events, and the increasing urban density coupled with reduction in permeable surfaces in the Global South, Sustainable Urban Water Management (SUWM) has emerged as a preferred paradigm for stormwater management. However, the implementation of SUWM, which is premised on using vegetation or engineered capture technologies to control runoff at its source in an effort to replicate natural hydrology, is limited by a lack of institutional integration, not merely between administrative organs with responsibility for stormwater management but also between infrastructure departments, planning institutions, communities, and civil society organizations. This is particularly true in informal settlements in the humid tropics, where excessive impermeable surfaces and a lack of adequate solid waste collection exacerbate municipal limitations in stormwater management. This article discusses an effort to integrate local communities, civil society organizations, and local and regional authorities to improve drainage services within the framework of integrated development in the informal settlement of Los Platanitos, Santo Domingo Norte, Dominican Republic. In order to address the drainage and flooding issues in Los Platanitos while also fostering economic development, representatives of community groups, NGOs, local government, and state agencies have developed a participatory planning structure known as a mesa de concertación, or “cooperating table.” The mesa, which was established in 2014, has succeeded in bringing neighborhood, civil society, and government actors to the same “table” as a mechanism for addressing the community’s drainage challenges within the broader context of integrated community development.