B4 Flashcards
Whatmore (2006) Materialist returns
- connection geo (earth) and bio (life)
- resurfacing more-than-human world
- landscapes co-fabricated human and earth
- humans part non-humanity’s composition
Giono (1953)
The man who planted trees
- transformation landscape by one man, Shepard who plants trees - eventually desolate landscape comes to be seen natural forest under protection
- fiction but people believed it - become one greatest stories conservation
- response to the story key
Raymond Williams (1976)
- word nature most complex english language
- nature conceals human history held within it - nature reflections humans but humans see it as external to them
- Nature 3 phenomena - essence, force, material
- Nature from a descriptive form to a noun (thing in its own right)
- Nature personified as female
- External nature
- enlightenment / romantic movement idea ideal society
Castree (2014)
- tendency to believe there’s a natural world existing separate from our attempts to understand it - we talk about nature, look at nature, do things to it etc. but never seen as part of nature or influenced by it
- nature = social construction
N vs S CS
Australia until 1967 aboriginals were classed as flora / fauna not human - see part of nature, not society - from white western understanding nature
External Nature CS
National Parks
- US 1872 Yellowstone = world’s first national park (wilderness notions)
- 1920s - 40s conservation ab circling off pristine nature from humans eg. international concern over species loss
- McKibben - we feel need for pristine place, places unaltered by man
Olwig (1996)
Nature is a ghost rarely visible under its own name
Kipling (1894)
The Jungle Book
one first things to break down human / non-human binary or at least help - popular fiction
Descartes (1647)
- cartesian dualisms
- body / mind (soul) - body material, works like machine, performs physical functions vs mind or soul non material, reason and intelligence
Marx (1967)
- humans transform material nature into new material forms
- but at same time humans transform themselves in process transformation nature
- thus dynamic process transformation material nature + human society together
Smith (1984)
- humans produce new altered forms of nature or second nature
- production is uneven process that dictates an uneven society eg. difference material resources available different groups
Latour
- reality consists hybrid social / natural phenomena
- society and nature are unnecessary categories as are hybrid
Actor network theory - Quasi-objects or hybrids - human and nature actors together - actors exist result networks (network draws things into being)
- refuses binary human/nature
- wolf = quasi-object - existence relies science studies them
- Principle symmetry - locate explanation quasi - both human and nature - eg. climate change human and biophysical
- Hybridity
Social constructionism CS
Clayaquot Sound
- First Nations community coastline - removed to reserves C20th (erased, seen as dying race - harmony with nature epistemology)
- vs mediation through silviculture - tree farming, max productivity
- political contest 1990s
- Environmentalists (beauty, aesthetics) vs resource communities (livelihoods)
Delaney (2003)
Law and Nature
- legality, law and nature - eg. bestiality - unnatural - vs if see zoophilia = naturalise it, make it medical condition which have no control over - engagement w nature / culture - WHO decides eg. if beast or zoo?
- what means to be human, what is natural?
- naming something is to transform ourselves and society - give meaning to things - cultural device give meaning world and to us - organised around ideas of nature (background on which humans meaningful) - making us different non-human
- baby material product of physical processes but has social meaning - what if dispute whose child name, born genetic defect - materiality may have greater prominence eg. foetus not yet legal attachment
- nature = cultural device to make material world meaningful
- nature politics - into law domain - eg. conflict beach erosion turned into one about property held farmers
Societies reliance water + insecurities / vulnerabilities CS
Charles Hatfield
- travelled arid US try make rain (psydoscience - reality showman)
- employed LA city 1914 $10,000 fill reservoir (1915/16 drought) - began rain when he set up - 1916 flooding = $4mn property damage - he would have to take responsibility for damage if did not leave
Water facts
- 3% freshwater
- 800mn lack adequate water
- 2.5bn lack adequate sanitation
- 5mn deaths year connected poor water and sanitation services
- 70% water used humans globally on agriculture (22% industry, 8% municipal)
- 1 bn live water stress conditions
- 4bn experience some form water stress annually
Water Control Conflict
- Nile Basin
- Israel / Palestine
Goubert (1986)
Double conquest of Water
- since industrialisation water = focus of conquest by humans
- but also conquest water over society - water central to economy, we can not live without it
Social Drivers of water scarcity - Inequality CS
Kooy and Bakker (2008)
Jakarta, Indonesia
- poorest lack access networked water supply - infrastructure - rely unreliable trucks deliver water - most rely unsafe, expensive, unreliable, informal sources
- water problem = poor governance, inequality and social marginalisation
- only those afford houses connect direct water supply
- high rainfall
- river water reliance = disease
- poorest pay more water than wealthy central system per unit
Colorado River CS!
- 7 us states (97% basin), 2 Mexican (3%)
- seasonal flow management challenge
- development 1915-1970 - waters fully allocated 9 states - little reaches mouth
- fierce disputes
- conservationists = symbol everything mankind has done wrong (Reisner 1986)
- triumphant eg. Las Vegas, LA built vs env view bad
- 1800s diversions by irrigators
- Colorado Compact 1922 = basin agreement divide upper / lower basin - Mexico excluded - Arizona not sign - over-allocated water
- Boulder Canyon Act 1928 federal investment dams and canals - funding flood controls, water storage reservoirs, HEP - included creation Hoover dam
- US Mexico no right water vs Mexico claims eg. 1929 - 1944 agreement but US struggles to meet 1.5mn year to Mexico
- $1.4 tr annual economy + $26 bn recreational opportunities eg Grand Canyon
- demand river exceeds supply + more damns planned - add in CC = reduce flow 10-30% 2050
- most endangered river US 2015
Harvey 1996
There’s nothing unnatural about New York City
CS Nature in city
London
- turtles in waterways eat ducks as pets released into urban waterways
- pigeons at train stations / on tubes
Fitzsimmons 1989
urbanisation processes = reconstitution of relationship between humans and material world of everyday life
Cronon (1992)
Hinterlands CS
- Chicago + US west agriculture
- agriculture needs city (flow finance for commodity, land / equipment purchase - relies city Urban to Rural investment) - chicago transportation hub - agriculture on stock market
- rural economies rely chicago econ hub but equally city produced off back agriculture - dependent on each other
Brenner (2014)
Planetary urbanisation
- critique urban studies focus cities - need consider urbanisation as a process
- implosion (cities) and explosion (global networks)
- connections landscapes and places different scales - local and global linked
Planetary Urbanisation CS
Belt and Road Initiative China
- CCP policy - china invest infrastructure link underdevelopment parts china w europe, asia etc. through silk road belt
- reimagination global geog finance, people, trade connected infrastructure - hyper-connected cities and resources
Uneven urban landscapes CS
Loftus, 2007
Durban
- apartheid legacy
- informal settlements high costs and disconnections water
- water meters discipline consumption
Adam Smith (1776) economic liberalism (classical economics)
- understanding of markets as self-regulating towards max efficiency
- allow markets function on own w/o external intervention
- non-market forces (gov regulation, subsidies) scew market away efficiency
Chicago School 1970s
neo-classical economics
- push back gov / state strength market control
Neoliberalism Figures
Thatcher (79-90)
- lowered taxes, less public expenditure, less power trade unions, miners strike 1984-5, cut subsidies = de-industrialisation, privatisation (eg. Royal Mail)
- no such thing society, only individuals
Reagan (81-89)
- trickle down economics (private capital wealth accumulate trickle down benefit all)
- less gov spending
- reduce tax
- de-regulate
- individual choice
NL to post NL transition CS
NL
The Washington Consensus
- US dominance shaping global NL policies and dev agenda - IMF, WB
Post NL / today
- emergence China development practice - investment not entirely market efficiency based
- domestic change - Trump reduce tax, protect business but also protectionist - subsidies US sectors, against liberalisation trade
Types of Nature (NL) - Seeds CS
McAfee (2003) thoughts on genetic code patents
- GM and biological patents
- monsanto and DUPoint companies exist to create new crops and sell seeds
- corn bred native americans thousands yrs ago - now attempts patent it
- pushing global standardisation - once patent, patent globally
McAfee - double reductionism
- Molecular-genetic reductionism - genetic code not function way patent does - simplifying complex process - can’t give genes private property claims
- econ reductionism - value nature equated to price
Types of Nature (NL) - Carbon CS
Castree (2010) thoughts
- 1997 kyoto - carbon trading - cap and trade and offset
- offset eg. REDD+ - developing countries reduce GHGs protecting forests
- market to govern CC
- commodification of the atmosphere
Castree - EU-ETS is neoliberal as pollution market favours carbon-intensive industries that have sustained the European economy
Types of Nature (NL) - Water CS
- Water human right (UN) or econ good - commodity
- South Africa - National Constitution 1996 and Water Services Act 1997 say water right but privatisation (water delivered by quasi-private companies) - disconnections if can not pay
- water privatisation vs state supply - env challenges, econ competition
- 1989 GB privatised water eng and wales - water distribution systems into companies, hold natural monopolies on areas - 1 company certain area (scotland covered council tax)
- constructed industry bottled water - selling an image - Nestle
water-energy-food nexus connections
- 70% global water withdrawals used agriculture
- 30% energy used in agriculture
- 2012, 14, 15 UN world water days about nexus
Swyngedouw (2009)
Hydro-social cycle
- political-ecological view - link hydrological cycle and social, pol, econ, cultural power - transcend nature/society binary - water circulation physical and social process and need to approach policies this way
- global / local hydro-social cycle
- hydraulic environments = socio-physical constructions - eg. damn produced physical and social (labour and nature’s transformation) - dams show distribution social power (struggles)
- env social struggle - access, control, distribution hydro-social cycle - social inequalities
- who decides cycle organisation, who controls, who manages - who is entitled what qual, kind, volume water
- universal right water vs power and property rights - transformation - tension urban rural eg. Las Vegas water organised market mechanisms - fail meet Millennium dev goal halving no w/o adequate water/sanitation - neo-liberal model
- Lot big management water linked government and power eg. Three Gorges eg. Israel cut Gaza’s water
- need more equitable hydro-social mechanisms
Linton and Budds (2014)
Hydrosocial cycle
- hydrosocial cycle attends to the social nature of water flows - interrelation society and water
- water capacity to change social relations / human capacity to modify water cycle (1930s US make water and how humans modify legible to state)
- water flows connected to capital flows (Columbia River water flow to money dispossesses first nations water)
- Relational - things come into being in relation other things - water role social formations - water/social
- water takes on meanings depending on social circumstance (Hindus perform ablutions polluted river Ganges as believe healing power)
- water as a resource = hydrosocial cycle
- alteration hydrosocial cycle preceded or presupposes social structure and application social power eg. tech dam or policy privatisation - water product product power
- water unruly, attempt to fit into rigid social structures
- water embodies socio-natural processes, does not have a natural state eg. desalinsed water = produced relations seawater, tech infrastructure, energy flows etc. - different waters eg. Peru mining companies propose water swaps draw water Andes for mines and replace it downstream with desalinated water for towns - lot opposition
- virtual water flows
Harvey (1973)
City is an environment which is a social product
Castells
City is a site of collective consumption
Gregory (2000)
Neo-Liberalism
- New Right rise 80s - Thatcher, Reagan - market centre, laissez-faire, limited state role, private property
- Adam Smith
- globalisation, IMF, WB
Swyngedouw and Heynen (2003)
Urban Political Ecology
- Marxian urban pol ecology = integrated / relational approach econ, pol, socio, ecological processes which together form uneven, unjust landscapes - power relations - social production urban envs
- metabolisms support / maintain urban life eg. food combine social and physical processes - global creates the local - interconnectivity physical/human, local/global
- unsustainable modern cities - Engels ecological condition English cities related class character industrial urbanisation
- Raymond Williams transformation nature and social relations within urbanisation - socio-env change = production new natures
- capitalism commodity relation hides socioecological processes exploitation - commodification nature obscures social relations power and disconnects flows transformation nature - city = result urbanisation nature
- Marxist urban pol ecology = material conditions make up urban env, controlled and manipulated to serve the elite at expense marginalised
- Actor Network Theory
- across scales eg. recycling e waste seattle = exploitive spaces e-waste dumping china
ESSENTIALLY MARX METABOLISM, NATURE! - loss binary, wilderness, neil smith - pol ecology explains how econ/pol processes determine exploitation natural resources
- Cities not unnatural - built out of natural resources socially mediated
- town and urban as second nature (Lefebvre 1976)
- marginalised brunt neg env change
McCarthy and Prudham (2004)
Neoliberal Nature
- NL = self-regulated market, commodification of everything, little state interference (state rollback), private property rights defended by state
- re-scale govs to local level
- entrepreneurial individuals as citizens
- US/UK 80s Thatcher / Reagan
- env project - enclosing commons, property rights - restructured social relation nature - nature into market - accumulation by dispossession (locke - enclose land and access natural resources for individual) - giving nature value only through application human labour, unimproved nature as value-less
- env risk thorn side capitalist accumulation - env + social counter NL
- globalisation
Harvey (2005)
NL history
- turning point 70s/80s - 78 china steps liberalisation and capital, Thatcher and Reagan
- creation markets where did not exist eg. health care, education, water
- NL becoming hegemonic discourse - WTO, IMF, global
- time-space compression
- US war Iraq - NL on Iraq = privatisation, foreign owned business, banks open foreign control, no trade barriers
- NL state reflects interests private property owners, TNCs - NL theory claim measures necessary for wealth and wellbeing
- individual freedoms through market and trade freedom
- Chile NL state formation experiment - US economists into gov = acceptance IMF loans thus NL
- NL states and US imperial power (cold war, SAPs)
- post WW2 liberalism - welfare state, market has pol/ social constraints - NL removes capital from such constraints - embedded liberalism broke down 60s eg. GB bailed out IMF, gold backing not working - movement left, crisis 70s - US top 1% income 16% pre war to 8% post to NL 15%
- neoliberalisation was from start project to achieve restoration class power - greater social inequality and restoration econ power upper class
Williams et al (2018)
Urban resource nexus
- resource nexus = paradigm env governance, focused interconnections sectors typically managed separately
- links material flows in crisis and anthropocene
- water-energy-food nexus - challenges 3 systems interrelated - promoted UN World water day 2014 + 15 - sustainability and resilience
- water-energy - energy in water systems and water in energy ones - US energy sector = fastest growing water user nationwide - demand increased 50% 2005-30 - biofuels water intense, as is HEP
- need consider scale in nexus thinking eg. studying cities or global water ecosystems etc
- programmes integrate water, energy + other resources management in cities may catalyst broader change
- interactions = tensions (stress one = stress another), trade-offs (change one sector, neg other), maladaptations (adaption to problem increases vulnerability to the problem) and synergies (adaptations benefit multiple sectors)
- inefficiency root challenge integrated resource management - in LA same agency manages water and energy and can take advantage of nexus but not more sustainable - formed to promote expansionist consumption
- nexus and integration as call more efficiency through tech = neoliberal policy, market fixes - deeming complex challenges technical, tool depoliticisation nature, env externalities in env governance
- 800mn malnutrition, 2.5bn no adequate sanitation, 1.3bn live homes no electricity
Bulkeley (2005)
Reconfiguring env governance
- governance env issues transboundary international institutions - social institutions global scale agree norms, principles, authority - regimes to plug gaps between state space and atmosphere / oceans beyond state territory - strengthen territoriality nation-states reinforcing inter-state system but also weakens in allowing state regulation governed by global community
- global arena often mean lack bottom-up consideration
- many actors influence env governance diff scales - nation-state, horizontal networks and networks outside state-space (non-state actors)
- globalisation = overlapping and competing authorities diff scales - hollowing out of the state as functions state redistributed upwards to international organisations and down to non-state actors - scale no longer neatly packaged, links
- CCP China rescaling CC as a local issue as emissions reductions need done on this level - eg. traffic congestion - global dimensions, part network - new geog env governance
- env governance need move beyond hierarchies, separation of decision-making levels and divisions state and non-state - need hybrid governance things like climate