A social justice framing of climate change discourse and policy: Adaptation,resilience and vulnerability in a Jamaican agricultural landscape

It is now widely recognized that climate change is likely to have detrimental impacts across the Caribbean region, with the burden likely to fall disproportionately on the most vulnerable segments of society. It is therefore an appropriate time to ask whether the frameworks that lie behind climate change discourse and policy are consistent with the demands of social and environmental justice. In this paper, we use climate justice as a lens for evaluating three prominent frameworks for addressing climate change, those of adaptation, resilience, and vulnerability. Each of these discursive frameworks, we argue, can contribute to our understanding of climate change, but they do not all incorporate justice concerns to the same degree. In order to illustrate this, we examine the justice implications of using each of the three frameworks to assess a case study of agricultural transformation in Southwestern Jamaica. Farmers in this region have adapted to changing climate conditions in a variety of ways, including the use of new agricultural technology. The ability of many farmers to take advantage of such innovations, however, is constrained by the underlying landscape of vulnerability within the region. After interpreting this example from the perspectives of adaptation, resilience and vulnerability, we conclude that all three paradigms are capable of calling attention to climate justice issues, but only in the vulnerability perspective are such issues intrinsic. We believe, therefore, that a greater attention to vulnerability within Caribbean climate policy holds the potential to advance the goals of climate justice within the region.     

Spatial justice and the land politics of renewables: Dispossessing vulnerable communities through solar energy mega-projects

This paper considers aspects of spatial justice in the processes of land acquisition for large-scale solar energy projects in the developmentalist context of India. It explores the case of one of the world’s largest solar park projects in Charanka, Gujarat. While the official rhetoric suggests an inclusive project for globally benign renewable energy production, the research reveals a more controversial land and power politics of renewable energy. It is argued, in particular, that the project increases the precariousness of vulnerable communities, who are exposed to the loss of livelihoods due to the enclosure of common land and extra-legal mechanisms through which land acquisitions for the project have reportedly taken place. This case exemplifies how solar mega-projects may manifest a regime of accumulation whereby low-carbon coalitions of interests can maximize their gains by dispossessing vulnerable social groups of their life-sustaining assets.     

How effective is inclusive innovation without participation?

The last few years have seen an upsurge in the field of innovation studies especially ‘inclusive innovation’, aiming not only at economic but social development. In developing countries, like India, inclusive innovation must incorporate governance and for governance to be inclusive, it should encompass participation by all, especially the marginalized, to make public policies efficacious and deliverable. I argue that any model of inclusive innovation needs to take cognizance of participation by all stakeholders. The objective of innovation must be to enable and empower people at the periphery through awareness, accessibility and democratic deliberations rather than solely aiming at economic outcomes. There is a need to debate on the ‘inclusiveness’ of innovation and make it more participative. Such an endeavour may help promote United Nation’s sustainable development goals by making governance participatory and expediting the process of social justice.     

Fiscal decentralization,political centralization,and land urbanization in China

This study investigates the driving forces of land urbanization in China. Drawing upon insights from the institutional perspective, this study argues that fiscal decentralization tightens local budget constraints, stimulating local governments to urbanize land to relieve fiscal distress. Political centralization triggers interregional competition among government officials for better economic performance, inspiring local governments to employ land development to mobilize more capital investment for growth. Based on official land-use change data from 2002 to 2008 for prefectural cities, and the application of spatial econometric models, this study presents empirical evidence to support these theoretical arguments. Results imply that fiscal and political incentives derived from land development drive China’s land urbanization process. This study enriches the urbanization literature by providing an institutional understanding of rapid land urbanization in a transitional economy.     

近代云南城市空间演化的外生动力分析

对19世纪70年代至1949年云南的城镇空间演化进行了纵向梳理和横向比较,研究了交通与政治两种演化影响因素的变迁,结果显示:(1)在1910年滇越铁路通车之前的清末,对外交通线路的兴衰对沿线城市空间演化有明显的影响,交通区位因素是云南城市空间演化的主要外生动力。(2)进入民国之后,地方政府对城市的建设管理和资源投入能力都强于清代,中心城市获得的资源尤其明显,因此政治因素开始成为中心城市空间演化的主要推动因素。(3)在空间分布上,铁路交通对城市演化推动的极化程度明显高于传统交通方式,因此,在交通因素与政治因素的协同作用下,在民国时期昆明城市演化的外生动力明显强于省内其他城市。     

Hacked Landscapes: Tensions,Borders, and Positionality in Spatial Literacy

By focusing on critical geographies, landscape, and spatial literacy, this article evaluates a semester-long spatial justice project conducted in a preservice teacher education program. The analysis recognizes the limitations of reading the products literally as a means of comprehending spatial representation. It expands the analysis by hacking the products and producing new landscapes to read against or up against the products as sociospatial texts. It considers the deployment of landscape concepts—borders, the representation of tension, and the gaze and subjectivity of the reader-authors—as central elements of spatial literacy that is of consequence.     

How mega-events capture their hosts: event seizure and the World Cup 2018 in Russia

This paper develops the notion of “event seizure” to better understand how mega-events, and the elites associated with them, take possession of host cities and societies—of development plans, funds and legislation—and impose their priorities on cities and citizens. It illustrates how event seizure plays out in the preparations for the Football World Cup 2018 in Russia, which is on course to become the most expensive World Cup ever with a total cost of about USD 20 billion. Drawing on government and FIFA documents, public statements from authorities and officials, and media coverage, the paper examines three different dimensions of event seizure. First, infrastructural seizure, where event-related infrastructure, particularly sports venues, crowd out infrastructure that serves wider urban needs. Second, financial seizure, where a close circle of political and business elites benefits from state funding, while the public underwrites cost overruns. Third and last, legal seizure, where the event introduces exceptional legislation, infringing citizen rights and compromising due oversight of event preparations.     

Job losses and political acceptability of climate policies: why the ‘job-killing’ argument is so persistent and how to overturn it

Political acceptability is an essential issue in choosing appropriate climate policies. Sociologists and behavioural scientists recognize the importance of selecting environmental policies that have broad political support, while economists tend to compare different instruments first on the basis of their efficiency, and then by assessing their distributional impacts and thus their political acceptability. This paper examines case-study and empirical evidence that the job losses ascribed (correctly or incorrectly) to climate policies have substantial impacts on the willingness of affected workers to support these policies. In aggregate, the costs of these losses are significantly smaller than the benefits, both in terms of health and, probably, of labour market outcomes, but the losses are concentrated in specific areas, sectors and social groups that have been hit hard by the great recession and international competition. Localized contextual effects, such as peer group pressure, and politico-economic factors, such as weakened unions and tightened government budgets, amplify the strength and the persistence of the ‘job-killing’ argument. Compensating for the effects of climate policies on ‘left-behind’ workers appears to be the key priority to increase the political acceptability of such policies, but the design of compensatory policies poses serious challenges.

Key policy insights

• Public perception of, and support for, climate policies is substantially reduced in the presence of large negative shocks, especially job losses.

• Climate policies can be perceived as negative for employment, especially in areas where polluting industries represent a large share of employment and in occupations and sectors already damaged by globalization and automation.

• Policymakers should distinguish between small and large distributional effects of climate policies, and find the appropriate combination of revenue recycling schemes, industrial and retraining policies as well as compensation packages to increase the support for such policies.

     

Geographical Publications

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine the geography of poverty in the state of Illinois and to use these empirical results as a basis for classroom discussions and exercises intended to involve students in the current debate on poverty. Although poverty is generally associated with inner city locations, our results indicate that poverty levels are higher in rural areas, particularly those that are not adjacent to metropolitan locations. The prevalence of low-wage employment and the growing number of single-parent families in rural areas are closely linked to increased poverty. Student surveys and the presentation of data were successful in generating discussion among undergraduate students at Western Illinois University. Student comments revealed a high degree of concern about poverty and sensitivity to the circumstances of the poor.