PE of fronteirs Flashcards
Does land become investible by just utilising it as property?
No, existing uses need to be disregarded and ignored
Li 2014
Why does Li (2014) refer to the frontier as “empty but full”?
It is discursively framed as empty, when in actuality it has a range of human and non-human uses
Li 2014
What is the main criticism I have about Li’s (2014) focus on inscriptive devices?
It makes it sound like people are not driven by profit motives, and so the element of malice appears overstated
Is investment in land always apolitical?
- Li (2014) suggests that land is made investable for profit by making it appear degraded
- Malthusian narratives of overpopulation and backwardness used to justify investing in productive forms of agriculture
What does environmentality do?
Constructs nature through disciplinary power, co-opted by the state
What is a good paper on indigeneity vs the state?
Li 2000
- Power and resistances
What might be an interesting way to think about frontiers?
- Geographical (real) frontiers of extraction
- Conceptual frontiers in PE studies
How is indigeneity associated with the state?
It is antagonistic to the state, esp in social movements
Yet it can be ratified by the state - the state decides who is considered indigenous
Why is the ratification of indigeneity by the state significant?
Highlights where the legal and epistemological power lies
All about recognition and sovereignty
What does PE question about resources?
PE considers the transient qualities of resources
“Resources are not; they become” Zimmerman (1933) - holistic
What is the association between the state, pastoralism, and climate change?
- Climate change framed as a threat
- Yet the state is more of a threat than climate change
- If state respects pastoralists, climate change might be commensurable
What links are there to other parts of the course re climate change impacts?
Could link to pol forests and agriculture
- State a threat in the past
- Is climate change more of a threat in the future?
Why is there an injustice re state and pastoralism during climate change?
It is caused by activities in the G North
(Davies & Nori, 2008)
Also Machado 2022
Who gets blamed for environmental mismanagement?
The poorest (Gray and Moseley 2005)
What official intl organisation blamed poor for environmental mismanagement?
WB 1996
- Poor cannot INVEST in environmental protection
- Overlooks other methods of protecting the environment
Who has suggested that the state is responsible for poverty in the South?
Gray and Moseley 2005
How can Foucault and environmentality be applied to pastoralist livelihoods being considered inferior?
State sees them as backward
Creates truths about the nature of environmental change
What simple fact proves that peasants are able to adapt to climate change?
They have endured millennia of change (Machado 2022)
(But CC might be more rapid change!)
How does Scott 1976 refer to smallholder resistance?
They have the “basis of subsistence” (Scott 1978)
Who suggests that smallholders are the solution to c change?
Machado 2022 - we should all learn from smallholders
Also Netting 1993
What is a good case study for state expropriation of smallholder land deteriorating livelihoods and the environment?
Yeh 2003; Cao et al 2013 Tibetan plateau rangelands
- Chinese state control over land = degradation
- Grass production went down
- Equilibrium changed in landscape socio-ecology
- Less mobility for pastoralists
- State worse than climate change
- Consider how smallholders are then blamed (Foucault and truths in discourse) - Cao et al 2013 good for this!
Is the Chinese state directly involved in the degradation of grassland degradation in Tibet?
No, indirectly involved in privatisation over the last 30 years (Cao et al 2013)
(of course, technically any conversion of communal land to property for accumulation, even if owned by state, is a form of privatisation)
Why are webs of relations important for pastoral livelihoods?
- Mobility of smallholders in Tibet
- There are “spatial and temporal mismatches between grassland production and livestock access to forage”
Cao et al 2013
How have changes to grasslands in Tibet been framed?
- Considered a tragedy of the commons
- Misleading statistics
Cao et al 2013
What is the general advantage of Cao et al 2013 and what is a limitation?
- Uncovered the state-endorsed changes to agriculture and misleading attribution to tragedy of the commons
- Yet only considers past climatic changes, and not more intense future climate changes
In what ways does Cao et al 2013 link to Gramsci’s (1971) Cultural Hegemony?
Cao et al 2013 found that local governments appeased the Chinese state in an effort to receive favourable treatment
Does not use Cultural Hegemony, though…
What is a good example of “violent evictions” for capitalist development in the G South?
Verhoeven 2011
/fata morgana/ imposed in S Sudan in the 1970s
Who suggests that climate change is a smokescreen for state-led degradation?
Verhoeven 2011
Climate change legitimises intervention
Good links to pol forests and the moral aspects of global concerns
Why is the tragedy of the commons particularly problematic?
Not just that it reproduces neo-Malthusian narratives about scarcity
It suggests that scarcity is the fault of poor agricultural practices
Worst of all, it calls for the benevolent state to intervene
Hardin 1968
Who discussed the “politics of seeds” in the Green Revolution?
Scoones and Thompson 2011
Yet still reproduces Malthusain narratives re population growth
Who has most famously criticised the state re green revolutions?
Shiva 1992
The green revolution “produced scarcity, not abundance”
(Moseley 2017)
Who has suggested an alternative Green Revolution with more equitable seeds?
Moseley 2017 - a PE critique
Who has suggested that land grabs are oversimplified?
Borras & Franco (2012)
There are complicated processes
Good critique of political economy approaches
Give a good paper on the emotional dimensions of water struggles (or emotional geographies generally)?
Sultana 2011
WORTH MENTIONING
Who has suggested that pastoralists are too often homogenised?
Little et al 2011
- Some pastoralists are affected by environmental change more than others
- Those most affected could hardly be called pastoralists - their labour has been commodified
Who proved that commons could, contrary to Hardin, be sustainably used?
Ostrom 1990
Who has discussed the “new pastoral commons” in Eastern Africa?
Bollig & Lesorogol 2016
What is the problem with the “new pastoral commons”?
Don’t actually garantee rights and autonomy to pastotalists (Bollig & Lesorogol 2016)
- Bottom up good, top down part of the state, still disembedding economic life from social life
- need “moral” arrangements to allow the “new commons” to work
What does the “new pastoral paradigm” / “new commons” seek to do?
Seek to incrementally re-embed economic activity with the land back into relations of kin
Particularly through re-establishing mobility in rangelands
Turner 2011
What is the primary constraint on pastoralist livelihoods? Why?
- Restricting mobility
- Disrupts equilibria between people and the landscape = “nonequilibria ecology”
Turner 2011 focusing on drylands in Africa
What “attacks” have there been on pastoralist livelihoods in African Drylands (Turner 2011)?
- Settlement programs without a choice
- Expropriation of lands and livestock
Turner 2011
Does state ratification of pastoralism and indigeneity always work?
No, pastoralism still declined in E Africa
Turner 2011
Who has suggested that pastoralism decline is due to climate change?
Turner 2011 (because ratified by state, why else declined? - except ignores nature of state ratification, and restricted mobility)
Why does restricting mobility exposre pastoralists to C Change?
Unable to move to find places with/without rainfall (Turner 2011)
What should be done instead of destroying pastoral livelihoods?
We should be trying to learn from pastoral livelihoods (Behnke 2018)
Where does pastoralism take place?
In land that is convetionally defined as marginal (Behnke 2018)
Who has put forward a (problematic and) pessimistic view of pastoralism during climate change?
Kirkbride 2008 - pastoralists impoverished by environmental change
Why are matters associated with climate change particularly intriguing in PE?
It is morally loaded - link to Foucauldian Discourse analysis
Who summarised the -ve impacts of c change for pastoralists?
Kirkbride 2008
Who has suggested commodifying pastoralism to solve the (supposed)impacts of climate change?
Herrero et al 2018
- Pastoralists one of the “most climate change-vulnerable groups on the planet”
Why are discussions of pastoral vulnerability misleading?
Vulnerability is arguably an integral part of pastoralism - it is a risk reducing system (Kratli et al 2013)
Pastoralism is “written off as an unsustainable system”
Who suggests that the capitalist state could exacerbate the impacts of climate change?
Kratli et al 2013
Who suggests that pastoralists could adapt to c change if the state steps back?
Davies & Nori 2008
Pastoralism can adapt if given the opportunity to
How much of the world’s area is used for pastoralism?
25% Davies & Nori 2008
What is more important - access to resources or availability of resources?
Davies and Nori (2008) suggest that ACCESS trumps AVAILABILITY for pastoralism
Who has linked climate change, pastoralism and conflict in Africa?
Butler & Gates (2012) - “range wars”
How much will global temperatures rise by 2100?
“global temperatures will rise by between 1.4º and 5.8º C by 2100” (Nori et al 2008)
Are the impacts of climate change equal?
No heterogenous (Nori et al 2008)
What is the difference between pastoralist subsistence and commercialised / commodified agriculture?
Pastoralists work WITH the land, not ON the land (i.e., land is detached in capitalism)
Do all pastoralists act outside of the market?
No, they produce quantified, market value! (Kirkbride 2008)
