Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space

We adapted the chord diagram plot to visualize China’s recent inter-provincial migration during 2010–2015. The arrowheads were added to present the direction of the flows. This method allows us to show the complete migration flows between 31 provinces in China including the direction and volume of the flows. The spatial component was also clearly depicted in the plot using four color palates representing four regions in China (i.e. East, Center, West, Northeast) and arranging the 31 provinces in an approximate geographic order. Besides that, we extend the chord diagram plot to describe China’s bilateral net migration during 2010–2015.

Despite 30 years of research on global value chains, the appropriation of nature in general and natural resource industries in particular remain marginal both theoretically and empirically. There is a parallel ecological deficit in labour process theory and a lack of applied research on natural resource industries. But since historical capitalism is based on the expanding appropriation and transformation of nature by labour, these lacunae must be redressed. Contributing to an emerging body of work in environmental economic geography and the international political economy of the environment, this article theorises global value chains through the lens of the circuit of capital as a tool to unravel some distinctive features of natural resources industries. We propose a framework for the study of natural resource industries as global value chains based on five propositions: (a) commodity frontier theory, (b) the fetishism of natural resources, (c) the socio-ecological indeterminacy of the labour process, (d) distance and durability in the production of time and (e) the contingency of the capitalist state in (re)producing global value chains. While far from exhaustive, we argue that this original synthetic framework provides crucial bases for a research agenda on global value chains in natural resources.

The extraction of unconventional hydrocarbons, particularly through hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’), has generated both support and opposition in many countries around the globe. Along with arguments about economic benefits, decarbonisation, transition fuels and groundwater contamination, etc., the rapid expansion of this industry presents a pressing problem as regards the disposal of the resultant waste – including drilling and cutting material, oil and gas residues, various chemicals used in the process, salts and produced water. One putative solution – ‘landfarming’ – is a disposal process that involves spreading oil and gas waste on to land and mixing it with topsoil to allow bioremediation of the hydrocarbons. This paper examines the case of landfarming in New Zealand where the practice has proved controversial due to its association with fracking, fears about the contamination of agricultural land and potential danger to milk supplies. Drawing upon Gieryn’s notion of cultural cartography and boundary work as well as the literature on the politics of scale it analyses the struggles for epistemic authority regarding the safety of landfarming. The paper concludes that scalar practices were central to the production of knowledge (and ignorance) in these credibility struggles, and that the prevailing cultural cartography of knowledge remained the arbiter and basis for policy. The case has wider implications in terms of the management of waste from unconventional hydrocarbons as well as other environmental issues in which the politics of scale figure in contested knowledge claims.

Cities around the world are suffering from mobility infrastructure crises. Governments are responding to these crises through different ‘fixes’. Mobilities researchers have analysed these fixes in terms of who they privilege and who they neglect. Yet little has been said about the actual materials that are used to garner support for these fixes, with analysis often focusing on the symbolic rhetoric of talk and text. This article develops geographical thought about the material agency of images by reflecting on four types of image-object used by WestConnex, a private motorway that is the proposed ‘fix’ to Sydney’s drivetime crisis. It does this to speculate on how different forms of geovisualisation might gain their authority through the material agencies of the images themselves, rather than just being the passive representations of a supposedly dominant power. In doing so, this article develops geographical understandings of the multiple ways that images participate in the production of future infrastructures.

In 2017, the idea that floods are exceptional and temporary episodes is a conviction increasingly contradicted by their growing incidence and severity across the globe. Floods have lasting consequences for affected populations and such effects can be wide-ranging depending on local context. However, prevailing misconceptions remain concerning the nature and effect of floods on populations. The advent of risk-based approaches is arguably responsible for a distinct managerial perspective on floods, which often undermines the local contexts and the impacts central to these experiences. This is observable in Ireland, the case study site for this article, where policy transitions into risk-based approaches are increasingly leading to growing discontent regarding the manner in which flooding and community vulnerabilities are represented. The matter is further complicated by the interplay between risk and conservation policy. This paper considers how these powerful discourses shape ideas and decisions around flooding. Using narrative-based data, centred on a case study in the west of Ireland, we explore the understanding and perception of flood risk and nature conservation by local communities and contrast these with the views expressed through managerial approaches linked to flood risk management and conservation. By bringing together these three distinct positions (i.e. the flood risk management approach, conservation practice and local narratives) we have found limitations in underlying assumptions informing current flood risk management approaches and we bring to light crucial human dimensions of flooding which, we argue, are consistently diluted and/or buried by fractured representations of environmental and social dynamics.

From the 1990s and onwards, environmental planning and governance has undergone a broad participatory turn. This paper focuses on one specific aspect of participatory processes and the concrete arrangements through which they are carried out, more specifically: how such processes always come to enact some actors as ‘legitimately concerned’ stakeholders and others not. Such investigations bring into focus context-specific effects of inclusion and exclusion as well as de/legitimization of specific actors and concerns. We propose a flexible framework for untangling the various components which in different ways influence the fine-grained power dynamics at play in such events, particularly focusing on the enactments of stakeholders that result from the situated interplay of rationales and infrastructures for participation. The guiding ambitions for the framework is for it to be applicable to a broad range of subfields of environmental planning and governance while avoiding the analytical risks of strong normative commitments from the outset regarding whether participation per se is good or bad, and offering some novel insights into the investigated cases. Throughout the paper, we utilize two case studies, from urban planning and fisheries management, to test the analytical productivity of the proposed framework while also searching for cues for the further development of the framework itself.

Whale-watching tourism is widely regarded as a manifestation of the transition from whale hunting to whale protection. However, in Jangsaengpo, South Korea, watching whales and eating whale-meat occur side by side for tourism purposes. Here, the concurrence of the two seemingly conflicting practices is legitimated through the by-catch which enables eating without killing by using “accidentally” caught whales for meat. Bringing together ontological discussions of multinaturalism and the topological analysis of space, this paper examines the ways in which spatial relations are performed to produce multiple whale ontologies within Jangsaengpo's whale tourism. It specifically unfolds diverse geographical connections (from Japan to the US), and their interactions, which enact whales in Jangsaengpo as a multiplicity – what I call “the whale multiple”. This paper first traces Jangsaengpo's historical and contemporary whale-related geographical connections through which an array of actors and entities are enrolled into, and transformed, within the assemblage of whale tourism. It then considers the spatial politics exercised through the by-catch, which configures a concurrence of conflicting whale ontologies. The paper discusses the political implications of the whale multiple which suggests strategic living with different ontological worlds as a way of moving beyond the killing–protecting antagonism. By illustrating the spatial production and configuration of ontological multiplicity, this paper engages with the spatial dimension of the multinatural theorisation of nature.

The scale of contemporary urbanization in Sub-Saharan Africa has culminated in the proliferation of informal settlements, with governments claiming a legitimate right to remove them. Drawing on new institutionalism as a conceptual framework and presenting the case of Old Fadama, an informal settlement within central Accra in Ghana, this paper sheds light on the way in which both formal and informal rules shape these legally unauthorized spaces. Using the analogy of a game, the author devises a novel typology to highlight the way in which different players maximize their personal advantage from maintaining the status quo. The paper concludes that as long as different interests are served by the existing socio-political arrangements then path dependency will endure, with government officials as the dominant playmaker in the locality ultimately controlling the rules and pace of the game.

Environmental conflicts are often framed by an assumption that there are clear divisions between interested parties. As a result, there is a tendency to polarise debates, simplify arguments and miss opportunities for constructive engagement. While these conflicts are rarely amenable to resolution through direct dialogue, diplomacy may offer a means to generate possible political settlements. In this paper, we seek to identify the scope for such diplomacy in the seemingly entrenched conflict that surrounds the case of bovine tuberculosis and badger culling in England. First, we use Q methodological techniques to map prevailing views among concerned publics about this highly contentious and apparently intractable issue. Second, we combine this method with diplomatic theory in order to identify areas in which diplomatic modes of engagement may be constructive. Our results show that there are predictable conflictual elements within two positions organised around opposition to, and support for, the culling of badgers. These positions, which we label ‘ethical empiricist’ and ‘nostalgic autonomist’, respectively, are not always straightforwardly oppositional. Their points of contact, as well as intersections with a third, alternative, subject position, which we label ‘liberal pragmatist’, suggest starting-points for diplomacy.

This article studies the effects of the neighborhood in which a school is located on children's mathematics achievement in Chile. It uses data taken from a sample of 127,020 sixth grade students measured by the National Education Quality Measurement System [Sistema Nacional de Medición de la Calidad de la Educación]. The incorporation of a measurement of socio-economic polarization of the geographic environment, which is innovative in urban studies, allows us to qualify some critical aspects suggested in the academic discussion. A lagged dependent variable model is used, controlling for the score obtained by the same students in fourth grade. Using multilevel linear regressions, the results show positive effects related to participation in neighborhood organizations. One critical finding is that socio-economic polarization has a negative and significant impact on the educational achievement of sixth graders. The conclusions highlight the repercussions associated with acute inequalities in the neighborhoods, and speak to the importance of accessing dimensions which are more closely linked to cities' social structure.

Cities are key sites of action for adaptation to climate change. However, there are a wide variety of responses to hazards at the municipal level. Why do communities take adaptive action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk? We studied what cities are doing in response to existing natural hazards, such as floods, droughts, and blizzards as an analog for understanding the drivers of adaptive behavior toward climate change risks. We conducted a survey of 60 U.S. municipalities followed by six in-depth case studies in the intermountain west states of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah that regularly experience weather and climate extreme events. Our analysis shows that perception of risk and external factors such as planning requirements and availability of funding stand out as important drivers. Nevertheless, political action is rarely driven by a single factor or event. Overall, our results suggest that multiple factors interact or act in combination to produce an enabling environment for action in the face of weather- and climate-related risk.

Coastal megacities pose a particular challenge for climate change adaptation and resilience planning. These dense concentrations of population, economic activity, and consumption—the majority of which are in the Global South—are often extremely vulnerable to climate change impacts such as sea level rise and extreme weather. This paper unpacks these complexities through a case study of Metropolitan Manila, the capital of the Philippines, which represents an example of “double exposure” to climate change impacts and globalization. The city is experiencing tremendous population and economic growth, yet Manila is plagued by frequent natural disasters, congestion, inadequate infrastructure, poverty, and income inequality. The need for metro-wide planning and infrastructure transformations to address these problems is widely recognized, but governance challenges are a major barrier. Drawing on fieldwork, interviews, and other primary and secondary sources, I argue that climate change and globalization, in combination with Manila’s historical and physical context, critically shape metro-wide infrastructure planning. Focusing on electricity and green infrastructure, I find that the largely decentralized and privatized urban governance regime is perpetuating a fragmented and unequal city, which may undermine urban climate resilience. This study extends the double exposure framework to examine how global processes interact with contextual factors to critically shape urban infrastructure planning, and how the resulting system conforms to theorized characteristics of urban climate resilience. In doing so, I help to connect emerging literatures on double exposure, urban infrastructure planning, and urban climate resilience.

Climate adaptation planning is said to be a necessary and inevitable facet of future societies, and is rapidly occurring across a range of geopolitical scales. Previous scholarship suggests that a democratic decentralized approach, one that fosters inclusive participation and representation, is central to achieving equitable and sustainable outcomes of adaptation. However, recent studies frequently characterize the adaptation process as dominated by a techoscientific approach, among expert and elite actors, that tends to obscure or neglect the perceptions and desires of more marginalized members of society. This paper employs a values-based approach to better understand motivational factors for a closed and non-inclusive adaptation process. Through a case study of early, yet formidable stages of adaptation planning in the urban, coastal region of Hampton Roads, Virginia, empirical data among the epistemic community were gathered by interviews and participant observation at de facto adaptation planning forums. Research results document an exclusionary process favoring the participation and representation of technocratic elites and the exclusion of elected officials and local citizens. When linking these case study findings to value theory, inferences are made that adaptation planning in Hampton Roads is motivated by dominant institutional actor values of power and security, those that are theorized to be in opposition to values fostering social and environmental justice. In light of these research results, this paper calls for a critically reflexive adaptation practice, thereby challenging values, assumptions, and beliefs of the self, as well as social structures and power relations that shape adaptation planning.