Geoforum最新文献

Increase in wildfires has changed parts of the landscape and ecosystems of the Mediterranean region. By using the firecapes approach, this paper aims to establish a connection between wildfires as a natural phenomenon and the political dynamics surrounding land ownership, knowledge, and mitigation. Theoretically, we apply political ecology to contextualize firescapes by examining the historical processes that have shaped different uses of landscape which in turn has made land areas susceptible to wildfires. Empirical evidence is derived from literature review, semi-structured interviews, and focus groups with local municipal actors in wildfire mitigation in Tuscany, Italy. Results demonstrate that while Tuscany is climatically predisposed to wildfire activity, historical processes of industrialization and commercialization have rendered the land more vulnerable to destruction by wildfire. Historically-informed and community-based approaches are recommended for sustainable wildfire prevention and mitigation.

This paper considers the case of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s ‘Programs in Diplomacy’, which from 1960 to 73 provided international, bilingual training for the diplomats of ‘newer states’ – former colonies that gained independence after 1945. Drawing on archival research in three continents, we can see that the spaces and practices of diplomatic training through these programmes were inherently geopolitical: they would shape social and professional norms and networks, in turn shaping state-building and international life. As a result, the pedagogies, curricula, and spaces of these courses must be understood through the prism of contemporary (geo)political tensions: the ideological confrontations of decolonization and the Cold War. Organizers sought ‘neutral ground’ for the programmes, in terms of both their locations and their content. Beginning in Geneva and New York, the programmes shifted quickly towards universities in the Global South and articulated Third World ideals such as African unity. Despite consistent attempts to frame the programmes as technical and non-ideological, their discursive and material geographies reveal an approach to ‘learning the international’ that privileged Western liberal norms and practices, particularly through a pedagogy of socialization.

During the past decade, the eastern part of Romania has witnessed a rise in infrastructure projects. The paper sets out to determine the geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions that underpin these developments. In order to achieve this, we draw on the literature on new state capitalism, global infrastructure scramble, and the Second Cold War. First, we explore the geoeconomic and geopolitical conditions underpinning projects such as road construction prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and second, we analyze developments (modernization of railways, ports, and traffic on the Danube) following this major historical event. The first part of the analysis reveals that infrastructure construction in eastern Romania was driven by a state-led strategy to reduce subnational uneven geographic development through integration within transnational circuits of capital. These developments unfolded through a complex multidimensional sociospatiality involving processes of multiscalarity and regionalization. The second part of the analysis reveals how the unfoldings in neighboring Ukraine generated a series of infrastructure modernization projects in Romania, which were underpinned by geopolitical strategies, although they were also partially motivated by features identified in the pre-war stage, such as the statal strategy to promote local development.

Creative clusters – geographic concentrations of creative industries sector activity, its skilled individuals, organisations and institutions – have attracted significant investment globally, becoming an important driver of economic growth. In this paper, we frame investment in creative clusters as a mechanism for creative placemaking. Creative placemaking occupies a dual role as a driver of economic development via arts-led ‘regeneration’ of high streets and flagship infrastructural projects like cultural quarters, yet also as a sustained stewarding of creative places through social engagement and community-centred decision-making about cultural projects. This distinction is typically framed as ‘top-down’ versus ‘bottom-up’ creative placemaking. We use the Bristol+Bath Creative R+D (BBCRD) programme as a case study to show how this distinction becomes less black and white. BBCRD created a ‘twin city’ spatial imaginary distinct from the geography of existing cultural or placemaking policy remits. The novel contribution of this paper is in how it evidences the intersecting scales of creative placemaking and unpacks the effectiveness of multi-city regionality for creative clustering, using fine-grained empirical data on the impact of top-down placemaking initiatives for the existing creative ecology of a place. This type of data and analysis is largely missing from literature on both clustering and placemaking. Given the continued international replication of the clusters model, recently renewed via ‘supercluster’ and ‘creative corridor’ discourses, we propose that an ecological understanding − that takes place specificity, relationality and scale into consideration – is pressing, and offers a route for complementarity between top-down and bottom-up creative placemaking.

This article uses LinkedIn posts of responsible cobalt service providers to address the role of social media as a tool for corporate social responsibility. I argue that through written narrative, photographic practices, and knowledge production, these small companies assert their dominance on an industry that partly defines the transition to greener consumption. However, a close analysis of the discourses propagated via these mediums suggests that white supremacist, racist, and (post)colonial conceptions of African miners are reiterated and reproduced, largely preventing improvements in Congolese artisanal cobalt mines. Through invisibilization, fetishization, saviorism, and business development, these LinkedIn tales negate miners’ agencies. I illuminate a dual use of contrast in photographic content in the contrasting professionalization of white and African actors and using technical visual ratio and tones to legitimize and magnify their intended actions. Finally, I analyze the information grabbing through the control over information production and dissemination, with self-organized online events and participation in global and regional conferences as a system of othering of Congolese voices in favor of ‘feel good’ activities of service providers.’

Through a case study of Songshan Cultural and Creative Park, Xinyi District, Taipei (Taiwan), this paper contributes to debates in creative city building by emphasising the importance of regional power-dynamics in shaping such spaces; and conceptualising the resulting entities as para-diplomatic modalities. The paper is based on a synthesis of policy documentation and academic accounts; and qualitative interviews and ethnographic data collected between 2016 and 2024. The main argument of the paper is that the logics that underpin the development of creative cities should not be solely understood through the language of neoliberal globalization as has so often been the case elsewhere. Rather we provide an explanation that contextualises Taiwan’s economic liberalisation, democratic ideals and cultural policy as emerging out of an absence of sovereign recognition, with particular reference to mainland China. We draw particular attention to the spatialisation of particular national values and identity in the development and operation of Songshan as a symbolic cultural space. In doing so we show how the park acts as a para-diplomatic modality managed by sub-state actors to spatialise and communicate values referring to cosmopolitanism, paternalism, and internationalism. We conclude by reiterating the explanatory power (and limits) of geo-politics when trying to understand the spatialisation of creative city agendas.

Despite the expanse of studies on artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) in Africa, discussions on how the organization of workers and the division of work tasks influence labour outcomes in the sector remain marginal. There are growing concerns that ASM may account for rising income inequalities in communities. Using a case study from Ghana and relying on qualitative data from semi-structured interviews with miners and other stakeholders, this paper examines processes of labour exploitation and domination in ASM. It is revealed that ASM labour processes facilitate capitalist accumulation among elites as the organization of work in the sector is moulded around pre-existing social identities and relations. The production of social differences, such as class and gender, is integral to labour exploitation, value extraction and profit accumulation in ASM. The deeply entrenched patriarchal system influences mining practices and facilitates the domination of women in ASM, producing inequalities between men and women. It is argued that capital-labour social relations underpin extractive activities in the sector hence the need to recognize ASM as a capitalist form of production. The paper concludes that the development potential of ASM will not be realized without addressing the persistent gender inequities and prevalence of exploitative relationships in the sector.

Just transitions – responses to environmental change that minimise negative impacts on the most affected people and places, while ensuring nobody is left behind – are gaining scholarly and policy significance in areas beyond their original focus on carbon-intensive jobs and sectors. Yet attention to what a just transition means for biodiversity, as another aspect of the global environmental crisis, remains limited. Given the critical role that biodiversity plays in supporting livelihoods and wellbeing, this is a notable gap. This paper assesses what a just transition means for biodiversity, focusing on urban environments as the spaces in which many people encounter biodiversity globally. We undertake interview research across three case study cities representing different geopolitical and environmental contexts: Bristol (UK); Yubari (Japan); and Cape Town (South Africa) and ask two questions: what does biodiversity tell us about the concept of just transitions in the lived environment; and what are the consequences of considering just transitions in the context of biodiversity in the lived urban environment? Based on our findings, we set out six principles for a just transition in relation to urban biodiversity, as areas for further empirical enquiry: a shared sense of what a just transition and biodiversity mean in the local context; diverse social and ecological knowledge systems informing decision-making; integration and cohesion across policies; inclusive, meaningful and early engagement; supporting communities during and after implementation; and measures for assessing the effectiveness of outcomes from an ecological and a social perspective.

Water security is important globally for sustaining households, communities, and the environment. However, most studies have focused on water availability and accessibility, whereas research examining the role of power and politics in shaping water insecurity remains marginal. This study contributes to this research gap by unpacking the overlapping drivers and politics in water governance dynamics that co-produce the water insecurity of Typhoon Haiyan disaster-displaced households in resettlement villages in the Philippines. Using political ecology and water governance perspectives, we ask, What does household water insecurity look like in post-disaster resettlement villages in the Philippines? What are its drivers and how do politics and governance dynamics impact the provision of water services to these villages? Our findings suggest five overlapping drivers: the haphazard relocation of internally displaced persons to areas without access to basic facilities like water; the institutional disharmony and late involvement of water institutions in the resettlement processes; the influence of governance regime in the rapid but substandard housing development, including water distribution systems; the micropolitics in water district management affecting water projects; and the impact of maladaptive resettlement outcomes on households’ capacity to afford water. Ultimately, this study demonstrates how various drivers, including power relations and contestations in water governance, lead to household water insecurity outcomes. It ends by providing brief policy recommendations to improve institutional arrangements for the better governance of water services to resettlement communities.

Geopolitical strategies and transnational governance can synergistically interact to meet strategic ambitions and environmental targets. International NGOs and their transnational operations are the heart of these entangled dynamics. This study reveals how geopolitical strategies influence international NGOs and their transnational activities. Drawing on empirical insights from a comparative study of international NGOs (Japanese and Chinese) in Cambodia, we developed two models to elucidate the nature of this relationship. The “tight coupling” model is exemplified by Japanese NGOs that are closely aligned with the Japanese state’s geopolitical focus on soft power in Southeast Asia. This alignment results in strong state support in terms of resources and networking capabilities, enabling the NGOs to conduct long-term environmental work and build relationships with Cambodian communities through deep engagement. The “loose coupling” model is exemplified by Chinese NGOs whose alignment with China’s dominant geopolitical strategy (the Belt and Road Initiative) is relatively weak. Consequently, these NGOs receive limited state support, which restrict their ability to engage with local communities and achieve a sustainable impact. This study breaks new ground by weaving together the fields of geopolitics and transnational environmental governance, offering new insights regarding how to incorporate geopolitical perspectives in examining the roles of non-state actors in global environmental politics.