Dissolved silica in the Garonne River waters: changes in the weathering dynamics

 The major ion chemistry of the Garonne River is indicative of seasonal variations in the weathering dynamics of the drainage basin. Using the geochemical model MEGA for calculation of the contribution of atmospheric CO₂ to the total bicarbonate fluxes exported by the Garonne River allows estimations of the concentrations of the major dissolved elements that originate from silicate- and carbonate-rock weathering. The molecular ratio SiO₂/Al₂O₃ was calculated for the 1989–1992 period to identify the main type of weathering in the Garonne River, and montmorillonite was shown to be the major mineral occurring in the weathering products. The seasonal variations of the SiO₂/Al₂O₃ ratio also showed that removal of silica was accelerated during humid periods. Revision received: 14 May 1999 · Accepted: 12 January 2000     

Writing difference differently

This paper investigates the writing of situated knowledge and explores the possibilities of enacting difference by writing differently. We present a selection of research stories in which carrier bags, sounds, baskets, gardens and potatoes are interpreted less as objects of research or metaphors to aid in analysing phenomena, than as mediators of the stories. Our stories emphasise the ontological politics of engaging with and representing the relational, the messy, the spontaneous, the unpredictable, the non‐human and bodily experiences. These stories demonstrate how writing is performative and how it is integral to the production of knowledge.     

'Totally Wild'? Colonising discourses,indigenous knowledges and managing wildlife

This paper offers a critique of politically dominant Eurocentric notions of culture and nature in Australia. In particular, it interrogates Eurocentric concepts of animals, wildlife and management, and seeks to unsettle these concepts by considering some of the diverse ways in which indigenous people in Australia know country, animals and wilderness. Using the metaphor of Eurocentric ontology in a hall of mirrors, the paper argues that Eurocentric claims of universalism for naturalised discourses that assume the adequacy of a nature-culture binary form a very fragile circular argument. Self-justifying the imposition and assertion of Eurocentric concepts and practices is a mechanistic reflection of the particular terms of reference set by Eurocentric knowledges and a denial of multiple ways of knowing. The dangers this presents are illustrated by examining how concepts and practices underlying wildlife management have self-justified (continuing) colonising processes in Australia. Finally, the paper attempts to open up spaces that address these dangers. Situated engagement is introduced as an approach which could shatter the hall of mirrors--by clearly embodying and emplacing all thought and action, universalised boundaries can be recognised and breached and new possibilities imagined and realised.