Geo-Geography and Environment最新文献

Decarbonizing industrial sectors is a critical global challenge, involving the creation of new industrial spaces—‘net zero industrial clusters’—co-locating energy sectors and ‘hard-to-abate’ industries such as oil refining and steelmaking. This paper provides the first empirically grounded geographical investigation of these emerging spaces. It employs a place-based research agenda to unpack how UK net zero industrial clusters (ICs) are imagined and emplaced in policy and industry discourses through place-based naming, spatial configuring and mapping activities. By conducting document analysis, 33 in-depth stakeholder interviews and five field trips to three UK case studies, we show how cluster imaginaries vary across cases and policy contexts in terms of constituents, focus and purpose. Ontological complexity is compounded by different rationales among stakeholders in configuring clusters and by contested cluster naming and boundary setting. This ambiguous, evolving spatiality raises important political and justice concerns over who and where is excluded in cluster building. These findings advance the geographies of low-carbon transitions by showing: (1) ways that ICs' spatial embeddedness, which underlies cluster spatial configurations, helps increase industry actors' recognition of their economic, social and cultural ties with the places of their making, even if this risks path dependency; (2) how fluid cluster boundaries, reflected in cluster names and maps, emphasize the value of a network topology of scale to enable spatially inclusive, multi-scalar climate mitigation. Finally, we argue that a place-sensitive net zero policy mindset is vital for fulfilling ICs and the UK's decarbonization potential in a manner that is both fair and locally grounded.

Those concerned with climate governance will want to keep watching what is happening in AI governance. Far from unrelated, the two parallel one another in terms of how fractions of capital—whether within fossil fuel or tech sectors—call for legislating in the face of crisis or for voluntary pledges. In truth, both may be said to be forms of self-governance. Climate and AI intersect firstly in how they are imagined: dominant climate and AI discourses are both symptoms of Anthropocene thinking and ‘capitalist realism’. They also intersect in as much as ‘AI for Good’ initiatives propose that AI is ethical because it can help to address climate change. What seems missing, however, is any consideration of this climate AI as a procedure—is its knowledge valid, what knowledges does it displace or exclude, what biases are reproduced?—and consideration for its consequences, including harms. Does it actually result in climate mitigation and/or adaptation in a given context? What ‘maladaptive’ outcomes might it drive? What alternatives does it foreclose? These sorts of questions are ones where geographers will continue to have a lot to say.

Being a deltaic country and for its geographic location, Bangladesh faces devastating damages every year. In a new global index, Bangladesh has been ranked 7th among the countries most affected by extreme weather events in 20 years since 1998. The ability of a community to recover from a disaster is very much associated with strong social connections. For this research, both secondary and primary data sources have been considered. Socio-demographic characteristics have been identified from a community-based general questionnaire and BBS. Also, a newly developed integrated method has been used to measure the social capital of the community. Several statistical methods were used to analyse the data, such as factor analysis (PCA), ROC curve analysis and several GIS techniques, throughout the research. Results show that significant socio-demographic variables help to develop a specific type of social capital. Consequently, social capital indirectly works as a key for recovering from any disaster impact and could build resilience to hazards.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Global Climate Change are two developments that will come to define the twenty-first century. As such, examining their intersections is crucial and can yield important insights. Geography is well positioned to study these intersections through its diverse conceptual and methodological toolkit, which bridges the physical and environmental science, the social sciences and the humanities, as well as the human and more-than-human worlds. A first step in deploying a geographic analysis can be to ground the links between AI and Global Climate Change in concrete geographic contexts. I illustrate this exercise in the paragraphs that follow and identify its productive potential. Specifically, this text deploys a geographic perspective grounded in political economy to connect concerns about the data and energy inequalities embedded in various AI applications while showing how such inequalities are intertwined both with the monitoring of Global Climate Change and with its material impacts.

The need to swiftly transition to clean energy and expand electricity access is pressing; however, the goals of SDG7 are unlikely to be met by 2030, with the UN specifically mentioning land-locked states as being off track. Through the conceptual lens of ‘leapfrogging’ fossil fuels, straight from traditional fuel sources to renewable energy, this paper discusses the relationship between electricity production and independence. It makes a conceptual contribution by introducing the term ‘energy independence through leapfrogging’, which is used to characterise the process of reducing dependency on another country – in the case of Eswatini, electricity is supplied by South Africa. Drawing from empirical research in Eswatini involving document analysis and in-depth interviews, this paper discusses the potential for the country to move from being primarily an importer of electricity to generating its own supply from renewable sources. With Eswatini's current electricity supply from South Africa at risk/expiring in 2025, this research argues that the country faces a moment of opportunity for Eswatini to build further generation capacity, with a recommended focus on solar energy. The paper identifies potential challenges/barriers to this energy transition, examining power generation, storage, maintenance and affordability as key areas for intervention. Drawing on previous theories of electricity access, the paper argues that ‘access’ to electricity requires consideration of the affordability and reliability of energy systems. Eswatini is an understudied geographical area, and this paper makes a contribution to the literature on energy transitions by examining the specific circumstances attending this transition and examining these with relevance for other land-locked nations in sub-Saharan Africa.

Climate change poses a threat to water security where both current and future generations are concerned, with its accompanying impacts set to be greater in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). As a result, questions pertaining to climate change adaption in LMICs are receiving increased attention from academics and policymakers alike. It is broadly accepted that top-down approaches to developing resilience to climate change challenges have been shown to be limited and that concerted efforts need to be made to engage local communities in advancing adaptive strategies. Based on the above, we make two main arguments: (1) while there has been a shift towards acknowledging the importance of community-driven data in generating a broader and deeper understanding of climate change, far better use could be made of local knowledge and (2) efforts at community-based solutions to problems of resilience are currently limited by issues of capacity, specifically linked to the need for further education and training, and improved representation with respect to gender, class and caste (as well as financial support). To illustrate these arguments, we present evidence provided by rural communities located in two countries affected heavily by climate change: Ethiopia and Nepal.

Novel combinations of global conditions, issues under investigation and research alliances require constant reassessment of how to conduct cross-cultural research. Here we recount an exploratory investigation considering cross-cultural research between Australian and Indonesian researchers. This paper sets out a range of considerations for practitioners of cross-cultural research between our two countries. This investigation supports intentions to develop trans-disciplinary climate change adaptation research but is applicable across multiple research topics and disciplines. We engaged a small multi-disciplinary mix of researchers, from both countries, conducted two initial focus groups, and subsequently involved participants in drafting of this paper as an exploration of how being cross cultural could manifest. We highlight that cross-cultural collaborations occur in environments of both cultural differences and power differences. Four main strategies emerged for dealing with the challenges (or opportunities): working respectfully, being reflective of cross-cultural research practice, being flexible, and learning about culture. Overarching these strategies, we found cross-cultural research requires considerable extra (long term) effort to tackle and that this is sustained by researchers' intrinsic motives to care for people and place, making this type of research a distinctive labour of love. Finally, we found similarities between cross-cultural research and climate change adaptation research (even when conducted within one country) where both endeavours call for boundaries of places, cultures and disciplines to be crossed in order to effectively engage with complex topics and environments. Negotiating the liminalities here often defies set formulas and requires a willingness to engage with and ‘muddle through’ the messiness. Our findings will be of value to those undertaking cross-cultural research across a wide range of issues.

This commentary reflects on the experiences of a cohort of human and physical geographers in enacting environmental collaborations during their doctoral studies. The authors identify three key structural barriers encountered whilst attempting a collaborative approach: (1) doctoral funding priorities, (2) doctoral resourcing and (3) assessing doctoral collaboration. The authors discuss how the negotiation of these encounters came to frame their understanding of collaborative approaches to environmental knowledge creation. Competitive application processes for doctoral studentships can encourage the overpromising of the impact of planned environmental collaboration, potentially co-opting the voices of partners/communities to satisfy doctoral funding requirements. Given insufficient funding of collaborations, the authors argue that this overpromising of doctoral research's impact can later result in difficult trade-offs between undertaking additional commitments at the expense of the career progression of the doctoral student, contributing to educational inequalities and scaling-back the initial plans at the cost of collaborators encountering environmental crises. The trade-off is further problematised by institutional assessment procedures that do not adequately recognise the more nuanced contributions of environmental collaborations and a prevailing culture promoting peer-review publishing. Overall, the commentary argues that these barriers help to reproduce inequalities in the distribution of voice in environmental scholarship, undermining efforts to democratise environmental knowledge creation in doctoral research. The authors call for specific structural reforms of doctoral programmes to help address these challenges and support a broader resistance to the inadequate resourcing and evaluation of environmental collaborative research in UK higher education.

People with disabilities (PWDs) have an equal right to independent mobility and dignified involvement in society, which is intrinsically related to their access to inclusive public transit systems. Yet, very often PWDs face injustices of unequal mobilities emanating from a combination of access barriers. Based on qualitative interviews and Focus Group Discussions with PWDs and station managers, this exploratory study assessed the responsiveness of public intercity bus services to the needs of PWDs with vision, hearing and walking/climbing difficulties. The findings show that, despite the Persons with Disabilities Act's passage in 2006, intercity public bus transportation services in Tamale, Ghana, do not meet the needs of PWDs. Intercity bus stations and vehicles are not disability-friendly, leading to people with disabilities facing severe discrimination and having a more difficult time using intercity bus services. This is due to a combination of environmental barriers, legislative/policy inadequacies, negative public attitudes and low compliance of transport operators to transport provisions in the Disability Act. PWDs express deep-seated feelings of marginalisation and resentment about the uneven access to transport services and the violation of their rights to autonomy in movement. It is concluded that the journey experiences of PWDs have a significant adverse influence on their travel decisions and full participation in society. Hence, suggestions for further research and policy recommendations to promote inclusive transport systems have been proffered.

The daily lives of female artisanal and small-scale miners revolve around an array of complex and labour-driven activities. The complexities and labour demands vary depending on the type of artisanal and small-scale mining involved, the underground pit (ghetto) or surface mining. Few studies have explored how gender roles manifest in the two major mining types to inform policy on the creation of a gendered mining environment for women. This paper fills the lacuna in the literature by investigating gender roles and the consequential effects on female artisanal miners' daily lives and practices along the underground pit and surface mining. The liberal feminist theoretical lens is employed as a framework. Data were sourced through field observations and in-depth interviews with 13 lead miners (men) and 67 female miners in the Upper West Region of Ghana. Findings show that sociocultural marginalisation of women is predominant in underground pit/ghetto mining. Women are content to work in surface mining operations and can form gangs to operate independently; nevertheless, sociocultural framings have limited women's space and access to mineralised concessions. The study argues that steps towards promoting gender equality in artisanal and small-scale mining should explore a gendered mineralised concessions distribution; thus, the distribution of mining concessions under the community mining project by the government of Ghana should be gender-sensitive.