nature&society

Possibilism

society influences nature. Humans have the capacity to choose between a range of possible responses to physical conditions. Although nature sets certain upper limits, we can pretty much do what we want. Ex. land reclamation. But there is a limit of how much to reclaim because of absolute space, costs, and politics. Environment deteriminism and possibilism stand at a continuum: Environment shapes societal development, limiting our options. But in time to come, technology overcome initial environment constraints Extreme possibilistic thinking can sanction a dystopic world that is all technology and no nature

Political Ecology of Soil Erosion

socio political reasons to explain soil erosion, rather solely on natural/environmental ones (recall naturalization and this week's tutorials) i.e. soil erosion not framed as a direct consequence of environmental constraints, should also be about mismanagement, overpopulation, or market failure -political ecology is concerned with how socio political and economic roots of natural/enviro degradation how political ecology economy and values affect our relationship with nature

Biomimicry

supertrees designed to mimic nature. =biomimicry. Good example of 3rd nature we use nature to such an extent that we recreate nature in lifelike way. Not only is ist lifelike but people actually like it. Technology mimic nature. Ex. Fake flowers

Sustainability

sustain to give support, hold up, give relief to, keep up, prolong from ecology: sustainable systems are those that can withstand outside interventiona dn maintain steady-state. n ecology, sustainability is how biological systems remain diverse and productive. Long-lived and healthy wetlands and forests are examples of sustainable biological systems In more general terms, sustainability is the endurance of systems and processes. The organizing principle for sustainability is sustainable development, which includes the four interconnected domains: ecology, economics, politics and culture.

Sustainable Development

• social progress which recognises the needs of everyone; • effective protection of the environment; • prudent use of natural resources; • maintenance of high and stable levels of economic growth. However, while definitions of sustainable development vary, most allude to the following core principles: • quality of life (including and linking social, economic and environmental aspects) • care for the environment • thought for the future and the precautionary principle • fairness and equity • participation and partnership

Discursive Constructs

A concept used to understand how facts are made. When normative statements are made to sound like positive statemets

Garden City Image

Actualizing Garden city image. As a symbol and pride. People link it with political leadership. When extualized become bigger than a....means so much more Shows complete human mastery over the environment Result of meticulous planning; reflects singapore's political ethos, expressing perhaps the social discipline, bureaucratic regimentation, official obedience and the one party dominant rule

Brown vs. Green Development

'Green' means a more wildlife focus while 'Brown' refers to a more people's approach. brown: 1). Improvement/revitalization of old urban industrial sites development=our living areas 2).gentrification **green: 1). Reducing wasteful consumption 2). Conserving nature sites 3). Recycling 4). Bringing "nature" back to the cities. We don't say what kind of nature bringing back, could be artifical, could be biomimmicry. Brown+green=eco cities

Rostow's Take-Off Model

(1960) Traditional society Preconditions for take off Take off Drive to maturity Age of high mass consumption Belief in the diffusion of economic growth Believe that every country can go through the model

Use Value

refers to the direct use of a given resource for its intended purposes Ex. To drink, to quench my thirst I will pay 1 dollar. Use Value is seen through the living out of elite eco-lifestyles within gated communities

Zoos

Zoos map the boundaries between human and animals as well as animals and animals Signigicant because humans are actually animals too, but zoos enable animals to collapse into nature Example of the Adelaide zoo

The Rule of Capture

a legal decision: any neighbors who manage to drill his own land such that you subsurgace oil now flows through his private land will be the new owner of sand oil. **if the oil from my land flows underground to your ground, it is yours

Wallerstein's World System's Theory

world as a system that has no single unchanging political core. The world powers are always changing. All is not lost at the periphery. The world divided into core, periphery, and semi-periphery (can either move up or move down). It IS possible for some countries to move up the hierarchy.

Trophy Hunting

• Hunting - a human instinct? • Hunting - an American tradition? A rite of passage? • Hunting - an issue of Masculinity and Patriarchy? • Hunting - a question of sport? Using the example of trophy hunting, explain how our relationship of nature has shifted from a 'first' to a 'third' nature relationship. What can using a political ecology lens tell us about the phenomenon of trophy hunting?

Eileen Crist: Against the Social Construction of Nature and Wilderness

-They argue that there exist no unmediated representations of nature for nature is anchored in social contexts. Constructivists believe that humans give meaning to nature -The constructivist approach fails to take the scientific documentation of the biodiversity crisis seriously; it diverts attention toward discourses about the environmental predicament, rather than examining that predicament itself; and it indirectly cashes in on, and thus supports, human colonization of the Earth. -a case about stable scientific knowledge can be made regarding the understanding of ecosystems. it is well known that the relationship between biological diversity and ecological resilience have markedly shifted...There are concrete facts we know about ecosystems. -a severe censure of the constructivist approach to nature is that not only does it distract attention from the environmental predicament but it also supports that predicament.

Assumptions of Political Ecology

1). Environmental change and ecological conditions are the product of political process 2). Costs and benefits (also recall how problematic measuring value is) associated with environmental change are distributed unequally among actors 3). Believe cause and effect are multi-scalar (from individual to household to global) 4). Ecological systems are political as are out very ideas/knowledge about ecological systems

Senoko

120 ha more than 180 specides of birds including 19 locally endangered to be razed for hdb housing (pillars of development and legitimacy of gov) state said it was not a natural area for a hundred of years ngo say it has rich biodiversity

Davoudi--Climate Change Securitization of Nature and Resilient Urbanism Risk Society Nature as a Threat Hazard vs Risk Threat Multiplier Resilient Urbanism

(According to davoudi climate change was morphed from being understoof as one of several global scale problems to ont that is seen as the driver of all kinds of environmental problems. Ex. Deteriorating water quality, so climate change is just was once considered as one of the many environmental probalems but now it is considered the mother of all environmental problems More importantly, because of this, climate change is seen as a global risk that has impacts on all realms of human society) By construing nature as a threat to rather than an asset for cities, they signify a departure from sustainability discourses. hazard refers to a natural event, risk is an artefact carefully crafted by humans "Risks are made, hazards naturally occur" Beck argues that "the basic problems today are not of the environment or nature, and not a simple matter of social irresponsibility or lack of respect for nature" but of the way in which nature is socially interpreted and culturally constructed in late modernity. suggesting that climate change acts as a "threat multiplier" and "will provide the conditions that will extend the war on terror" They are creating a new form of urbanism which can be summed up as 'resilient urbanism', whose defining characteristic is not so much about long-term adaptive capacity building but short-term emergency responses. Here, resilient urbanism is often defined by the physical stability of the urban infrastructure. Climate events are construed as sudden, external shocks imposed by nature, rather than as slow-burn effects of urbanization and its social-ecological processes. Such a view privileges reactionary responses in the form of emergency planning with an emphasis on the traditional disaster risk management practices of 'prevent, prepare, respond, and recover'. The pursuit of security is as much about security providers seeking raison d'êtres for their operations as it is about risk prevention. As a commodity with a price, climate security becomes factored into both private suppliers' (notably, the insurance companies) and urban governance's strategic decisions and calculations. For urban governance, climate security is now a highly sought after commodity which competes with other commodities in terms of economic and social costs

Nature is Imperfect

(deformities, genetic defect, weak species of plants, so biotechnology will improve on nature (particularly in science/medicine)

Developmental State Thesis

(importance of state power in achieving development) sarah whatmore: in process of being very liberal towards technology in nature what is developmental state? 1). Development goals as economic expansion 2). Legitimization of the state through growth 3). Obsession with planning: haunted by size and vulnerability 4). Public interest overrides private interests. We always see or think this is for the greater good

Local Knowledge

(not usually deemed as credible/legitimate) Scientific knowledge is not inherentaly more credible or legitimate than local knowledge rather it offers a different view of the situation Scientific knowledge might be a strategy to silence alternative/local knowledge and values The latter should be used in conjunction with science to develop appropriate knowledge and strategies which will improve the livelihoods of people

Modernism Neoliberal Economic Policies

-Neoliberal economic policies diminish role of state and favour that of multinational companies. Ex. Mining act of 1998 allows for 100% foreign ownership, insure foreign owners against nationalization and lets foreign owners unrestricted repatriation of profits 1). Fiscal/monetary austerity (must control public spending) 2). Elimination of government subsidies leading to the privatization of previously nationalized industries 3). Moderate taxation and encouragement FDI 4). Trade liberalization (cannot have closed economy) free access of people and companies=trade liberalization.

Inclination vs. Essence

-The essence of something: "lemons are naturally sour," "nature of the beast" (If something is not sour, it cannot be a lemon) a lemon MUST be sour. -The propensity, inclination, or instinct to do something, or as Castree puts it "an inherent force." E.g. nature's wrath, let nature take its course, the "call of nature" The difference between inclination and essence she has a tendency to over analyze=inclination but this is not the essence of here being, there could be other things to describe her

Harvey Neo: Challenging the Development State: Nature COnservation in Singapore Developmental State Senoko Marina South Duck Ponds 4 criteria of state for conservation space value systems

. None of the sites you propose will get through the state criteria, the killer is the opportunity cost must be considered Because easy to quantify alternative but so difficult to quantify nature The other killer is the site must be natural and ecologically stable, nothing is like this now Such obstacles to conservation are especially apparent in developmental states where state legitimacy is largely derived from the state's ability to develop the country. A central focus in nature conservation studies is to determine a way to classify a place as both natural and deserving of conservation. For example, Cooper (2000) argues that existing ways of classifying potential conservation sites as 'biodiversity reserves', 'historic countryside parks', 'wilderness areas' or 'companion places' all have their respective strengths. What is clear from such elaborations of 'nature' by proponents of nature conservation is that their values system, which emphasises a normative love for nature (i.e. nature's beauty, nature as the source of wonder and curiosity and nature as a sense of place), is divergent to the state's constructions of 'nature' as quantified instrumentality explains that nature areas must be 'used for the purposes of recreation, education and scientific purposes' so that they do not cater to just a 'segment' of people. In other words, the conservation of nature should ideally be not only functional but also multi-functional and areas must serve a collective interest rather than any narrow segmental interest. Finally, the last two criteria clearly suggest that (economic) development can overrule nature areas most, if not all, of the time. By stating that the opportunity costs of alternative uses of would-be nature sites must be considered, the state can in theory effectively disqualify most nature areas - even existing ones.

Obstacles to Conservation

1). Access to nature in the city. Most people happy if provide substitute 2). Contestation of space between urban development and nature preservation 3). Key problematic of quantifying the value of nature/environment 4). Changing attitudes towards nature as a result of urbanization and poltics way grandparents think about nature is much different than your kids

Causality

Causality in nature and society relations Nature influence society- determinism Society change nature=possibilism Society and nature is mutually reinforicing The outcome of causality can be good, bad or neutral

Why Sustainable Development is Bad

Although sust dev is morally good its environmental ethics are bad: the intestes of nature are seldom considered or narrated. They exist for the good of human/society development In toehre words, natureand environment are seen as opportunities for ecploitation in a sustainable or wie manner

Utilitarianism

Any action is permissible if it maximizes overall good and minimizes pain... But what is good? How do we measure it? Ex. Slapping Yvonne. Yeah this is bad but what if she likes it or what is she did something bad? Ex. cretcacean dolphin thing

Kay Anderson: Culture and Nature at the Adelaide Zoo: At the Frontiers of Human Geography Adelaid Zoo, Australia Geography or Make Up of the Zoo Local Experience of Foreign Nature Media Press and Evolving Purpose of the Zoo Control Morality

Certainly, zoos contain a highly selective array of the species of the natural world, the majority of which are never seen by people in nature. Moreover, they are displayed in ways that cater to cultural demand and public expectations about animals and the world regions for which exhibits are made to emblematically stand At the zoo, the raw material of nature is crafted into an iconic representation of human capacity for order and control. Indeed, the images constructed are ones that dramatize, even glorify, this capacity for intervention in non-human nature (whether in menagerie-style caging of the nineteenth century or naturalistic spectacles of the 1990s). For zoos not only enshrine the (arbitrary) boundaries of humanity and animality, they impose their own boundaries between creatures defined as 'animal' - different enclosures, separate paddocks that segregate not only keeper and kept but also (non-human) animal from (non-human) animal, birds from reptiles the overwhelming focus of the collection was on 'difference', 'peculiarity', 'strangeness' and that which was 'far way'. One of the appeals of the zoo, it seems, was to provide a vicarious journey abroad. Like other vehicles of mass communications, including the National Geographic magazine and nature programmes later on in the century (see Wilson 1992), the zoo afforded a local experience of global nature. Familiar animals like sheep, goats, rabbits, donkeys and ponies, for example - not to mention the thoroughly domesticated companion animals of dogs and cats - had no place at the zoo, except much later on in the Children's Zoo The city's two daily newspapers fastened upon the zoo's entertainment potential and helped fashion an evolving definition of the zoo as an amusement park. In 1935, it was decided to introduce 'public feeding time', including on Sundays. The eating habits of the carnivora could be featured 'for the amusement of the public', so commencing a spectacle that afforded a titillating juxtaposition of savagery and captivity and a reassuring image of human control. Notable was the introduction in 1939 of a circus 'for the amusement of children' Come the 1980s, captive breeding' took on a new meaning, referring to a highly purposeful conservational strategy of propagating species recognized as 'endangered' in their own habitat

Jun Han Yeo & Harvey Neo: Monkey Business: Human-Animal Conflicts in Urban Singapore Macaques Culling Borderlands NParks Imaginaries

BTNR is an example of what Wolch, Emel and Wilbert (2003: 188) termed '"borderland" communities' where humans and wild animals share spaces The search for a more humane treatment of these transgressive animals can be seen as an attempt to extend and include nonhuman animals within humanistic notions of ethics and care, in the process, destabilizing the assumed divide between human/animal. Yet, a feasible solution is difficult to reach as National Parks Board (NParks), the state agency overseeing the conservation of reserves and wildlife, has to constantly negotiate between their goal of maintaining biodiversity and appeasing the complaining residents Hence, when animal behaviors contradict the way humans perceive or 'represent' them, or when they transgress those boundaries humans imaginatively scripted them into, conflict arises.

Foodborne diseases in Poultry commodified relaitonship

Bacteria in poultry Campylobacter in poultry is the main cause of food poisoning in the UK, resulting in 100 deaths a year from the consumption of undercooked chicken Human's relationship with food animals is now increasingly COMMODIFIED. We see them as things to be controlled and PRODUCED instead of non-human animals with lively agency Moral of the story: bio securing factory farms is not fail-safe as the nature of factory farsma are predisposed to outbreaks of diseases. Factory farms are by themselves unnatural. Enclosed spaces magnify the effects of disease with respect to the animals. Because the chickens are uniform or genetically similar so every chicken has similar low protection from the disease A commodified relationsbetween human society and food animals (as a form of nature( is problematic, complex and unnatural

Frenkel Old Theories in New Places? Environmental Determinism Bioregionalism Similarities and Differences Tropics

Bioregionalism is a political, cultural, and ecological system or set of views based on naturally defined areas called bioregions. Bioregions are defined through physical and environmental features, including watershed boundaries and soil and terrain characteristics. Bioregionalism was a response to the perception that human societies were becoming alienated from the natural environment Environmental Determinism: The environment was assumed to affect and to determine all aspects of social and economic development. Climatic conditions were linked to a racial, economic, and moral hierarchy so mid latitutdes were considered superior to the tropics. Similarities: -both assume a similar relationship between idealized human cultures and the environment: linking a specific environment with a lifestyle -Political organization is connected to the environment in both environmental determinism and bioregionalism. differing environmental conditions lead to different forms of government. Differences: -Where environmental determinists privilege the impact of the environment on culture, for bioregionalists, the environment is not necessarily a social and economic determinant. There is recognition that modern world society can and does outpace environmental constraints. -Unlike environmental determinism's implied racial or social hierarchy, bioregionalists assume that regional characteristics should be conceptualized in a socially unstratified manner. Each place or collection of places is just another bioregion-not better or worse, simply different from all others

Allen and Lavau: Just in Time Disease--Biosecurity, Poultry, and Power Containment of Disease Biosecurity

Biosecurity is the protection of agricultural animals from any type of infectious agent -- viral, bacterial, fungal, or parasitic. in taking control of the farmed animal population and reducing it to 'mere' life, the powers of life may actually be turned against itself. observation that attempts to secure life, to immunise and protect life, when brought to a certain threshold, may end up negating it; that is, where the very management of life itself (in this case, non-human life) runs the risk of producing ever greater harms Disease, we argue, is less about contamination from an unhealthy outside, as it is about just-in-time pressures folded into an already entangled mix of dense 'intra-actions' of pathogens, animals, equipment, capital and people such large-scale operations have helped to facilitate the involution, as opposed to the evolution, of viruses into highly pathogenic new forms, where viruses turn in on themselves, mixing and swapping segments to create ever more virulent strains that could result in more effective transmissions from animals to humans

Nature is Vulnerable

Biotechnology modifying and disciplining nature and animals Genetic engineering, genetic modification, genetechnology Nature is vulnerable: threatened by genetics and men's culture of science Nature as a threat: messing with nature through biotechnology will have negative impacts

Conservation vs. Needs of the Poor

Bushmeat reduces anemia in children but conservation goal remains Bushmeat is the cheapest access to animal protein but if you try to protect those animals then this can create tension. What is more important? Children protein or protect wildlife

Common Cold

Common cold in the uk The common cold research unit in the uk exemplifies how human and virus have always coexisted The unit is unique in that it particularly encourages the intermingling between humans and viruses because they want to find a solution to counter the impacts of the common cold virus. This unique space is conceived in part because the common cold virus is particularly attached to humans and difficult to replicate or study in other contexts This is not a relationship that viruses are impacted by the virus but they create a two way interaction space The relationship that the unit tries to establish is not one of virus to human but one for virus and human It is believed that through understanding the to and fro intermingling of virus and human bodies that we can find an effective cure for the common cold In other words, the cold unit accommodated the virus and actively tries to encourage and understand its agency so as to beat it Understand the agency means to understand the behavior or how the virus acts ex. If the virus likes some people With this active intermingling, human volunteers become better resisted against the cold virus while the virus in turn becomes less virulent Ultimately, the cold unit ironically demonstrates that humans can actually live quite amicably with the virus

Tan&Neo: COmmunity in Bloom: Loyal Participation of Community Gardens in Urban Singapore Community Gardens

Community gardens offer a space that allows facilitation of leisure activities, encourages interaction within different factions in a community and helps forge a sense of belonging towards the overall community. While the city is often regarded anti-nature, it can also be an arena where "nature" and the "social" meet and interact with each other. Green spaces within the city enable communities to engage with nature on a daily basis Retirees get involved Users of both community gardens can be categorised into three groups: The "Gardener" (the main person in charge of day-to-day management of the gardens); "Garden Members" (residents who assist the "gardener" in the garden undertakings); "Community Participants" (members of the community who benefit from the garden but are not actively involved in gardening roles).

Cultural Ecology

Demonstration that cultural adaptation was the key to understanding complex nature-society interactions

Development vs. Progress

Development= largely economic, linear, upward movement, short term profit motive (capitalism), tangible, measurable gains Developmet at is simplest means to improve the conditions of life Measuring economic development: GDP Other indicators of development: gini co-efficient (imcome gap, inequality), education level, infrastructural development (roads, housing etc.), UN Human Dveelopment Index Progress: holistic concerns--economic, social, environmental, expansive, laterl and even backward movement ( a return to a previous ideal relationship), long term permanent change, intangible immeasurable gains

Valuation of Nature

Differential valuation of nature • Utilitarian/ Scalar valuation • Moral/ Sentimental valuation • The impact of knowledge on valuation Who has the power to influence popular valuation of nature? State TNC Elite/ Wealthy 'Experts' Indigenous and close cousins of nature What are the means by which nature is prescribed a value? Discourse Materiality Everyday reproduction

Ecological Modernization Sustainable development (stronger) vs. Ecological Modernization (weaker) Noble Savage Thesis Myth of the Lazy Native

Ecological modernization is an optimistic school of thought in the social sciences that argues that the economy benefits from moves towards environmentalism. (newer cleaner technologies can be utilized more effectively by companies) Holistic, global social and environmental concerns vs short-term, regional or national economic concern Technocratic mechanisms and short-term measurable gains vs Intangible mechanisms and long-term, immeasurable gains like intergenerational equity and environmental awareness Modernization has led to the fixation for urban and economic development as well as self-gratification (forward movement) vs a return to a first-nature relationship, being one with nature (seen as a progression and NOT a regression) The development of a 'nature ethic' that was once inherent in man Yet, progress and development are social constructions and can be conflated to be the same thing in certain contexts The Myth of the Lazy Native The backwardness of the 'South' is due to the unproductiveness of its inhabitants The need for colonial masters to colonize and develop the land of the lazy native for wider progress to be made Social construction/ conflation of development and progress as a colonial ideology

Neo Ethical Consumption, Meaningful Substitution and the Challenges of Vegetarianism Advocacy Ethical Consumption Self Making Anti-Consumption

Ethical consumption can be defined as the avoidance of particular kinds of products because their consumption is thought to be morally wrong for particular reasons. Often, ethical consumption involves not just the non-consumption of a particular product but the consumption of another product in its place (for example, consumers may choose to buy an alternative brand of sneakers in place of those which are produced by exploited labour food consumption is more important for 'self-making' than other forms of material culture consumption. meat avoidance has enjoyed a privileged status in Indian society because of its association with the purity of the Brahmin class. Consequently, some lower castes are said to have turned vegetarian in part to elevate their social status assumes that if the consumers have the requisite knowledge, then they would change their consumption patterns towards similar products which are produced more ethically. The consumer's failure to choose what is ethical is presumably stymied by a knowledge gap. are vegetarians by necessity (i.e. people who are too poor to afford meat but would likely consume meat once their income level rises) truly ethical if they are in essence 'forced' to consume ethically because they currently have no economic means to consume unethically? The first is that there is a reasonable level of substitutability in all unethical foods in the sense that there is always a more ethical alternative out there. Following this and second, the dominant narrative on ethical food research is still about consumers consuming 'something', albeit something allegedly more ethical. This is why scholars distinguish between ethical consumption, which involves the choice of consuming alternatives and anti-consumption, which involves the choice to not consume at all Moreover, consumers could still continue to purchase alternatives. For example, boycotting one fast food chain does not preclude the patronage of its rival. Indeed, it is precisely through the patronage of rivals that compel the offending organisation to change their ways due to loss of income and market share.

Exchange Value

Exchange Value is seen through the appreciation in property prices such eco-residences command

Political Economy

Focus on the social relations of production under capitalism (how relations between groups of people change because of new ways of exploiting nature) failures of governing institutions (both political as well as economic and scientific institutions) drive irrational and/or coerced behaviors, which in turn result in the degradation of the environment. Ex. Overfishing

Fox hunting Social Construct of Animals

Fox hunting in the UK: fox as a foe (as game similar to the wolves example above), pest and victim It is not natural because you have to get over your feeling of empathy for the animal Money helps you overcome that barrier, that "empathy"

Gentrification

Gentrification is any facet of urban renewal that inevitably leads to displacement of the occupying demographic. This is a common and widespread controversial topic and term in urban planning.[1] It refers to shifts in an urban community lifestyle and an increasing share of wealthier residents and/or businesses and increasing property values

Lucy Larosz: Energy, CLimate Change, Meat and Markets: Mapping the Coordinates of the Current World Food Crisis

undersupply of food in the world is deemed to be a problem solvable by technological fixes - improving the production technology of small scale farmers. By perpetuating a production process underpinned by the capitalist mode of production (and increasing its dependency on investments and financial markets), this does little to actually solve the problem of distribution of food around the world and might even make it more precarious. to properly understand the problems inherent in the global supply of food, there is a need to study its links to energy, climate change, the financial crisis and unsustainable production methods.​

repelling and attracting animals raccoons birdwatching the home as a fortress

In Singapore your house is a fortress against bigger animals. Competing/sharing over resources and space Raccoons in homes; Socially constructed differently as pests or wildlife/natural heritage by opponents and proponents Also possums in Sydney Birdwatchers and their gardens. Birders in UK deliberately modify their gardens to entice birds into their spaces Lots of effort to attract some animals and repel some animals

Lake Victoria chief victim

In resource extracting economies, it often appears that the local male population is the chief victim The case of Lake Victoria TNC appropriation of Nile Perch as a resource rapidly depletes the environmental resource, inhibiting the ability of local fishermen to sustain their livelihoods They are forced into a subordinate relationship where value from their labour is extracted and repatriated overseas However, some are lucky and get hired in factories where their expertise is put into good use; as a result there is some room for personal economic progression However, upon closer scrutiny there are three other groups that are arguably worse off Using a Political Ecology perspective - in particular the thesis on gender and social relations - tells us that the analysis of relationships between TNC and local population must extend beyond just the local male population into other social groups Migrant Male Population Local/ Migrant Female Population Local Children **Migrant male population Often forced to work in jobs that are life threatening Security guards/ bodyguards/ hired assassins Local/ Migrant female population The former are often reduced to cleaning and processing of Fish Spines, working in environmentally deplorable conditions and subject to various health hazards The latter are subject to prostitution as the only viable means of livelihood; often abused and even assaulted - physiological and emotional trauma Children Children are denied a chance at a normal/ better from birth Resource extracting economies pull families apart, literally Aspirations for children are determined by their elders who are trapped in a vicious aspirational circle

Frederico Caprotti: Critical Research on Eco-Cities? A Walk Through the Sino-Singaporean Tianjin Eco-City, China Eco-city Green Urbanism Sustainability TIanjin China Flagship New Urban Poor

In the context of these broader concerns, eco-cities have been conceptualized as materializations of trends towards developing and implementing urban socio-technical and environmental-economic experiments In turn, these experiments can be seen as part of transitions-focused theories and management approaches which aim at economic and societal transition towards low-carbon economies and cities Eco-cities are an example of new urban visions which see the joint involvement of entrepreneurial states and capital in the engineering and envisioning of urban environments Seen through this lens, the eco-city is an entrepreneurial city, dependent on the 'active remaking of urban environments and ecologies' there is a potential corresponding rift between marketing and actual performance standards. In the case of Tianjin Eco-City, a key question is the extent to which air standards can be ensured when the project is being built in close proximity to densely industrialized areas of the Bohai Rim One thing seems certain: the workers who have built this city, and who represent the vast stream of rural populations moving to the city on China's seaboard, are not the intended inhabitants for this supposedly green idyll. The buildings, roads and infrastructure which constitute eco-cities such as Tianjin are, however, constructed by large workforces of mostly migrant labour. These new eco-urban centres, with their glittering executive apartments and commercial of- fice blocks, and with their ample provision for middle-class urban living, are nonetheless being built from scratch by low-paid workers, building eco-cities in which they will likely never be able to afford to live themselves. These workers constitute the subjects of temporary (and sometimes fixed) geographies of migration-fuelled displacement, from the temporary 'workers' cities' to the settlement of workers in low-rent areas close to construction sites, to the geographies of inequality which often see workers denied access to schooling and healthcare (and the trans-generational extension of these inequalities to workers' offspring and relatives who migrate to China's coastal mega-cities)

Parsons, Leonard: The Role of Culture and Traditional Knowledge in Climate Change Adaptation: Insights from East Kimberly, Australia Traditional Knowledge Miriwoong

Indigenous peoples offer alternative knowledge about climate variability and change based on their own locally developed knowledges and practices of resource use East Kimberley region of north-west Australia For Miriwoong people the year is divided into three distinctive seasons: Nyinggiyi-mageny (wet season), followed by Warnkamageny (cold season) and then Barndenyirriny (hot season). Each season is further differentiated into sub-seasonal weather patterns, with each sub-season associated with particular climatic conditions (including cloud formations, wind direction, rainfall, and temperatures). The time to collect, hunt and fish is related to the season, the associated weather conditions, and phenological events. This facet of Miriwoong traditional ecological knowledge consists of the identification, naming and classification of distinctive components of the environment. It contains empirical observations, and information about the behaviour and abundance of flora and fauna at particular times of the year. Miriwoong people traditionally relied on such knowledge to ensure food, water, shelter, medicines and other resources. Physical and biological events served as indicators of change and were interpreted as signals that particular actions needed to be undertaken at certain times However Miriwoong respondents suggest that climate change, in interaction with other non-climatic drivers of environmental changes (such as mining, dams, and irrigated agriculture), is decreasing their ability to predict the availability of certain resources

Hinchcliffe Geographies of Nature Nature as independent state Nature as dependent colony Nature as enacted

It is difficult to find pure nature, humans have infiltrates all parts of the world Nature as independent state (but threatened by invasion): Nature and Society are separate spaces but Nature is about to be or has been engulfed by Society Nature as dependent colony (a holiday home: Nature is a product of the human imagination; what is understood as natural is nothing but a product of the ways in which we order the world. Nature as enacted: nature and society make one another. The more activity in one, the more we expect from another.

Indirect Use

values include a wide range of ecological functions and services of ecosystems, maintenance of water sheds, sustaining wild pollinators for certain crops, the extra price a "view" commands on homes. Ex. To keep bees alive not because they are pretty but in order to pollinate, we value bees not just because they are bees but because of their function.

Marina South Duck Ponds

Key issues: is it a antureal site/ no wilflife was observed in the area, site was not natural to start with—the ponds being dug out by humans. It was reclaimed land and made by humans but the wildlife came later. The wilflife not rare, very common in area What are the opportunity costs? Too commercially valuable to be set aside as a bird sanctuary Is it a safe site? There're were several complaints in the papers on the mosquito nuisance at marina south and htus to reslve the problem and to prevent future mosquito breeding the ministry decided to fill up this ponds

Castree Nature Cognitive, Aesthetic and Moral Knowledge Descriptive and Normative Knowledge

Knowledge comes in 3 forms: Cognitive, Aesthetic, Moral Cognitive=make claims about what is and isn't natural; they seek to describe and explain those things we call nature//to establish what is or is not natural, describe and explain nature, as well as N-S relationships Moral=entails value judgments about propriety of what is done to those things we consider to be natural//to do with value judgments and our attitudes/policies towards animal conservation Aesthetic=seek to instruct us on what is beautiful, uplifting or otherwise pleasurable.//not o do with whats good or right but to do with whats beautiful uplifitting etc about nature Moral + Aesthetic knowledge comes in 2 forms: Descriptive and Normative Descriptive Knowledge=currently existing moral and aesthetic knowledge have some purchase in society//similar to positive statements versus normative knowledges Normative Knowledge=Suggestions about the kind of moral and aesthetic knowledge we should adhere to in the future. Does not describe congitive.

Why Sustainable Development is so Successful

Malleability: broad and vagues (advocacy groups can hijack the concept to push forth their goals, goals can often be contested) Tendency to maintain status quo (little chance of big drastic change) Therefore popular ppolitical administrative rhetoric Has sustainable development achieved anything? If not, is it for lack of trying? Have they not tried or have they just failed?

Matt Huber: Enforcing Scarcity: Oil, Violence, and the Making of the Market Resource Scarcity + War Balancing Abundances and Scarcity Overproduction Creates Crisis

Many analysts focused on the geopolitics of oil also presume that natural oil scarcity is the primary driver of global conflict and "resource wars." In contrast, I follow geographical discussions of the social production of scarcity, to problematize oil scarcity as not a geological fact but as a social relationship mediated by capitalist commodity relations. scarcity must itself be produced for commodity markets and the price mechanism to function; Scarcity has to be socially produced Supply is certainly not the result of petroleum producers producing at the maximum capacity that geology allows. " If oil scarcity is not actively managed, prices will not be high enough for profitable accumulation. The oil market is beset by a struggle to find a balance between abundance and scarcity that both allows high enough prices for profitable accumulation and low enough prices to maintain levels of demand. Concretely, overproduction resulted from a specific legal decision in 1889 by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court known as "the rule of capture. By June 1931, 700 wells were drilled and the field was producing 350,000 barrels per day (bpd), or nearly 15 percent of total domestic consumption (Olien and Hinton 2007, 58). At the same time, the price of oil plummeted—15 cents per barrel nationally. With the oil market in disarray, it was clear that some mechanisms had to be put into place to control production in East Texas.

Measles Vaccinations Why people Refuse Vaccinations Hard Mentality

Measles vaccination in the US Measles vaccine developed in 1963 in the US by isolating a weaker version of the measles virus Injecting this weaker measles virus into human will ensure almost certain immunizations against measles By 2000 the disease is no longer endemic in the US, (no longer native in US, oll of the 100 or less cases in the 2000s were all from people who have contracted the diseases overseas But in 2014 the number of cases spiked to over 600 , and the disease has since become endemic in the US although in a very much confined scale Measles vaccination in the US Measles vaccine developed in 1963 in the US by isolating a weaker version of the measles virus Injecting this weaker measles virus into human will ensure almost certain immunizations against measles By 2000 the disease is no longer endemic in the US, (no longer native in US, oll of the 100 or less cases in the 2000s were all from people who have contracted the diseases overseas But in 2014 the number of cases spiked to over 600 , and the disease has since become endemic in the US although in a very much confined scale Reasons people refuse vaccinations Herd mentality: believe that as long as others vaccinate, the disease will never be endemic, in other words: let other people protect us so we may be free riders See vaccine as unnatural that can lead to a host of diseases like autism, which has been consistently debunked by the scientific community Unlike smallpox, measles is rarely considered fatal and some see the disease as natural, (although fatality is significantly higher in infants and the eldery) So for the anti-vaccine lobby: the disease is natural and the vaccine is unnatural. Humans should embrace the natural and reject the unnatural

Hunting Male Prowess Guilt

Men reaffirmed their prowess, power, and domination over nature in killing wolves even as they may have admired them. This learned capacity to cut off feelings in order to facilitate death or degradation manifested itself through intense cruelty in the killing" Even though we admire this animals asthetic value, we cut off our emotion sin order to kill them

Nature

Nature (noun): -Everything that is non-human (i.e. includes the environment and animals

Whatmore Culture Nature 1st, 2nd, 3rd Nature

Nature is socially constructed and nature-society relations are seen to have changed over time from first (original) nature, to second (industrial) nature and today's third (virtual) nature 1st=God's pure nature. "our original relationship with nature. E.g. hunter-gatherers, swidden agriculturalists, little distinction between nature, culture, and human society. In general, non-accumulative=You don't keep surplus materials/you don't accumulate things" 2nd=Nature produced by capitalism. "capitalist exploitation of nature, industrialization of nature, production of nature (nature as a product)" 3rd=Computer simulated and televisual landscapes & creatures. "simulation (amusement parks), technological manipulation of nature (biotechnology, GM food), nature increasingly displaces and redefined. The change between these three is transitional. 1 ½ nature? One part of nature can go through all of these stages Ex. potato

Captivity vs. No Captivity

Pro-captive campL keeping dolphins in captivity is neither unnatural nor immoral, hence it should be and is indeed legal Anti-captive camp: unnatural → cruely → immorality hence should be made illegal Why doe that say its not unnatural? The dolphins can still thrive in an enclosed space like this therefor it is moral and therefore it is legal anti-captivity performing tricks is unnatural, hence harmful to dolphins, albeit not in the purely physical sense. In other words, anything that affects the wildness of the dolphins is unnatural and harmful Pro-captivity: nothing inherently unnatural about dolphins performing or being in close contact with humans point to the evolving nature of dolphins

Belinda Yuen, Lily Kong, Clive Briffett: Nature and the Singapore Resident Park Connectors Fear of Nature Nature as Classroom Nature as Recreation Nature as Healty

Park connectors are linear open spaces that will be developed along drainage reserves and buffer zones throughout the island (Figure 1). The purpose is to connect all the existing major parks and nature areas located in different parts of the island so as to form a network of open spaces residents' enjoyment of nature was at times tinged with feelings of fear and a cognisance of danger. first, the fear of personal crimes especially sexual violence (flashing, rape and molestation) and also property crime (snatch thieves), and second, fear of an absence of human company. nature as a living classroom (offering opportunities for them to teach their children about the wonders and workings of nature), as a recreational space (offering opportunities for family play, self-relaxation and personal development) healthy environment (offering opportunities to enjoy 'green and clean air')

Hinchcliffe: The Thought of Nature Darwin Nature is totally a social construction

Rather than being an independent state, nature is totally dependent on humans—it is constructed all the way down Evolutionists like Darwin were feared because a challenge to the fixed order of nature was also a challenge to the fixed order of society

Bioregionalism

way of living that tries to connect us with nature in a broader way. 1). Humans are alienated from nature 2). Propose restructuring of everyday lifer where everyone, whether rural or urban, can live in harmony with nature by adopting ecologically sustainable land ethic. would not be divided by human made border by nature made

Mekong River Delta flood pulse

Players involved: Asian Development Bank, Mekong River Commission, Riparian States Resource periphery: cambodia Laos -battery of southeast asia Exports power to electricity hungry countries of Thailand and Vietnam Problems with this? Threaten ecological productivity: hydrological changes, affecting the flood pulse of the Mekong river; Upstream and downstream effects? Threaten food security: devastating impacts on Mekong fisheries Threaten biodiversity: Irrawaddy dolphin Infringement of human rights; lack of information, compensation? Flood pulse: benefits dependent on the annual pattern of flooding: flood pulse is seasonal changes in water level Peak flood is vital to the fish spawning and growth cycle marginalized people based on unsubstantiated science??? The Mekong river as a natural link between the six nations Language of underdevelopment (recall environmental determinism and neo-colonialism) but the river is being utilized by rural people

Walker: Politics of Nature--an Overview of Political Ecology Political Ecology Third World / Periphery Tragedy of the Commons Ecofeminism Amazon

Political ecology is the study of the relationships between political, economic and social factors with environmental issues and changes. It politicizes environmental issues Perhaps the most widely-known of these approaches is the linking of core-periphery analysis to studies of Third World ecological change, particularly in the case of deforestation in the Amazon Political ecology asks not only what kinds of social relations shape the ways people use natural resources, it also asks how different groups of people are affected in different ways. In particular, political ecology considers gender-differentiated uses and relationships to the environment, and how broader social relations affect women's use of the environment as compared to men's.

Normative vs. Positive Statements eternal truths process of falsification universal truths

Positive: statements that pertain to brute facts, such facts are derived from empirical experience and experimentation. Falsifiable and Verifiable. (in other words, does not necessarily mean that they are true). Does not mean they are true or false but means that they can be proven Normative: "ought to" or "preference" statements or opinions, usually underpinned by particular values ethics. Often have little directly to do with truth/facts. Can be harder to disprove. Ex. I like the color blue positive statements are not necessarily eternal truth, they can go through a process of falsification like the sun revolves around the earth example (positive statement). One problem with normative statements is that most people mistake them as true positive statements (in other words conflate personal views with universal facts. Ex. Politicians) Normative statements may start to become true through social conditioning Ex. Pig

Post-Humanism Humanism

Posthumanism seeks to rewrite the very definition of being human. In the posthuman, there are no essential differences or absolute demarcations between bodily existence and computer simulation, cybernetic mechanism and biological organism, robot technology and human goals". For the purposes of this argument, a philosophical humanist is anyone who believes that humans are importantly distinct from non-humans.

Resource Over-Production

Resource over production implies that one or more of the following has occurred or is occurring: Labor has been overly focused on extraction of one sector, there has been devastation of land, overinvestment in tools and tech (especially in small-holders), and price collapse of said resource All of these lead to physical violence as well as abstract violence (prostitution, child labor, lack of education), the latter leading to hunger, livelihood, insecurity, and displacement

Intermediaries

Role of intermediaries (Nparks caught between multiple responsibilities and shareholders like animal lovers, visitors and residents) Intermediaries are people who are charged with salving the conflict, oftentimes don't live in the area, and not directly affected

Anthropocentric understanding of nature

Seeing climate change as a threat, as a risk that needs our (i.e. society) response to neutralize the risk is based on an anthropocentric understanding of nature. That is, nature exists for humans Other anthropocentric understanding of nature includes 1). Seeing nature as something to be exploited and conquered. 2). Seeing nature as a finite resource that society must exploit sustainabiy Ex. Lion

Neo Antipode: They Hate Pigs, Chines Farmers...Everything! Beastly Racialization in Multiethnic Malaysia Racialization Animal Geographies Pigs Malaysia HINI outbreak in 2009 Portrayals of Pigs

Social construction of animals Every animal is socially constructed because everyone has a different idea of what an animal represents Ex. Pig Are there any other reasons that make these different aversions occur? SYMBOLIC REASONS: Egypt, falcon god seen as superior to pig god SURVIVALIST/MATERIALIST: pig competes with humans for resources MEDICAL/SCIENTIFIC: pigs may be unclean, seen as diseased and unhygienic Mix of reasons, pigs dig the ground...? Not all cultures are adverse to pigs: Ex. Hindus lord Vishnu the pig was portrayed as a slayer of demonic forces and actually saved.... This paper details the construction of the pig and the pig industry in Malaysia. It argues that a pattern of "animal-linked racialization" continually polices the boundary between the dominant, elite Malay-Muslim hegemony and the comparatively less powerful Chinese pig farmers You know all these diseases? It's because pigs are dirty. The farmers cannot keep them clean and they become infected too! In other words, because explicit racist remarks and acts are officially frowned upon in Malaysia, criticizing the practices of Chinese pig farmers and their "relation" with pigs becomes a covert way to racialize an entire community. the particular traits of animals can even be projected onto their human companions or owners such as when the petite "lap-dogs" of Victorian times and their bourgeois white women owners were both mutually seen as symbols of domesticity that needed to be confined indoors. In such a projection, one sees the importance of race, place and animal in defining particular (gender) roles and identity. In other words, just as animals can be anthropomorphized with human characteristics); beastly natures of animals can be conflated with and assigned to people who come into close contact with the former 62 nonliteral negative uses of the words "pig", "hog" and 'swine". These include "filthy pig", "misogynist swine", "hog the limelight" and "fascist pigs". Nonetheless, the mythologies of some other cultures see the pig "as nothing short of divine". In Hindu mythology, for example, as one of the many incarnations of Lord Vishnu, the pig was portrayed as a slayer of demonic forces and had actually saved the world from a massive flood.

Dependency Theory

Take-off theory not reflection of realtiy Development at the periphery systematically blocked by the core Poor countries are dependent on the developed countries Key role played by colonialism Dependency theory is you will helpothers so that they will always be in a subordinate state Raul Prebisch & Andrew Gunder Frank

Makene Emel: Calling for Justice in the Goldfields of Tanzania Neoliberalism Environmental Justice Lake Victoria/Tanzania

Tanzania is the third largest gold exporter in Africa, thanks in part to the liberalization of the mining sector which started in the early 1990s. Neoliberal mining reforms promised a win-win situation in which government, investors and local host communities would benefit through export earnings, profits, local employment, and corporate social responsibility initiatives It brings attention to the ways in which the exploitation of land is directly associated with the exploitation of people, often of color or minorities, who are marginalized socioeconomically, overburdened by environmental hazards, and unable to participate in the decision-making processes that locate and enable large-scale extractive activities to begin in the first place Broadly speaking, environmental justice is about "fairness" to marginalized groups (e.g., based on color, locality, economic status, education levels, etc.) regarding the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens Lake Victoria goldfields (LVGs), an area host to more than 80% of the large scale mining activities and approximately 95% of national gold production

Nature vs. Nurture (Tarzan)

Tarzan: Nature vs. Nurture "Nature" here uses 2nd meaning of natures: "essence" and the "propensity to do something" "Nurture" here refers to the "natural environment" as an explanatory factor His character and aristocratic heritage vs. never being exposed to human society Maybe all along there was an essence of human inside him that was waiting to get out

Technocratic

Technocracy is a term used to describe an organizational structure or system of governance where decision-makers are selected on the basis of technological knowledge. When climate change is seen as a risk and a threat, it actually encourages a form of relationsihop with nature that is highly technocratic, quantified and model-based. This is not the only way to relate to climate change in society etc

Aesthetication of Exclusion

The aestheticization of urban space is cultivated and maintained through spatial exclusion that acts to protect the pristine and beautiful landscape from the urban poor in the city. By being thoroughly aestheticized, class relations are depoliticized and reduced to questions of lifestyle choices, consumption patterns, visual pleasures and "good taste". To this extent, the seemingly innocent pleasure in the aesthetic appreciation of landscapes and the desire to protect the beauty and serenity of landscape can thus act as a subtle yet highly effective mechanism of/for social exclusion and the reaffirmation of elite class identities.

Needs vs Wants

The desire to progress? Transition from hunter gatherer societies to other forms of society changes societeal needs When do certain wants become needs? Ex. Cell phone, fridge etc. Needs change across time and space. So what used to be a want might be a need now. Or something might be a need here but not there

Neo and Ngiam: Contesting Captive Cetaceans: Illegal Spaces and the Nature of Dolphins in Urban Singpaore Captivity Dolphins Harm vs. Naturalness

The dolphins in question are twenty-five Indo-Pacific bottlenose held in captivity by the Marine Life Park (MLP) of an integrated resort, Resorts World Sentosa (RWS). Led by the Singapore-based non-governmental organization, Animal Concerns Research & Education Society (ACRES), Opponents argue that captivity should be illegal once we are cognizant of both the unnaturalness and non-necessity of captivity and concomitantly its immorality and harmfulness. On the other hand, proponents believe that captivity is harmless, natural (to some extent) and serves a purpose (in other words, there is a functional need for it), hence it is morally defensible and questions of its legality should not arise More importantly, for animal rights activists, the questions of 'harm' and 'natural' are quite different things. In other words, that which is harmless does not necessarily mean that it is natural. Hence, even if human -cetacean interactions do not harm the animal, one might still question if it is natural

Hopkins and Dacev: Vegetarian Meat: Could Technology Save Animals and Satisfy Meat Eaters? Moral Vegetarianism cultured meat objections

what if there were a meat that could be created with biotechnology that was no cruel or environmentally harmful? Our attitude about what is moral and immoral determine how we think about ourselves in relation to food Cultured meat is created by painlessly harvesting muscle cells from a living cow. objections to cultured meat: =danger, cannibalism, reality of meat, naturalness, yuck factor, animal integrity, taint of the source, lack of moral regard, dignity and respect,

Blaikie: Changing Environments of Changing Views? A Political Ecology for Developing Countries Interactionist View Different Discourses on Nature Amazon Example

The social sciences however have significantly shifted towards a more interactionist mode in which there is not an objective reality, but many subjective ones which are provided by different people who see their 'real' landscape in their own ways. By the act of viewing our environment we interact with it and bring to our view our own social construction A patch of land somewhere in the tropics ... How can it be described and by whom? • Ideal site for tourist lodge - tour operators, entrepreneurs • Reserve of endangered species of birds - scientists, hunters, nature lovers • State forest - bureaucrats, lumber contractors • Agricultural land - local farmers • Forest for indigenous subsistence - forest dwellers There can be a wide variety of ways by which discourses about any environment can be entered into: oral testimonies, religious ceremony and ritual, agricultural practice, scientific research papers, multi-lateral projects, NGO activities, World Bank documents Biodiversity may be understood by forest dwellers in the South as a list of species needed for a diversification of diet, medicinal purposes, construction materials, dyeing, etc. They know when their habitat is being destroyed and their own interpretation of biodiversity is being eroded. However, their criteria will be quite different from a prospecting transnational company looking for medicinal compounds.

Quantifying Risks & Securitization

This arose because risks are deemed to be calculable and indeed, risks could very well be calculable and active steps taken to prevent these risks through acts of securitization. Society has a calculable manner of quanitifying risks. Once we see something as a risk, it compels us to quantify the risk and to take active steps to prevent the steps, and we see these steps as acts of securitization Once act of securitization is instituted you would think that risk level is neutralized but its heightened because human society always thinks of more risks Our risks are always on upward trend A cycle of risks --<security measures → heightened risks → more security measures emerge. A cycle that is underpinned by the supposed superitotity of science and technology in prediciting liely risks and producing solutions of securitization against such risks

Lisa Hoffman: Government Rationalities of Environmental City Building in Contemporary China Quantification Biopolitics

Through mechanism of quanitficiation the environment becomes a way to demonstrate status, whether as membership in international environmental communites as a model for other cities to follow as a desirable site for leisure or business activities or as a site of environmental degradation and failure

C. P. Pow and Harvey Neo: Modelling Green Urbanism sustainability three harmonies

To the extent that 'nature' (and alongside its social construction and production) has always been a necessary precondition for capital accumulation, sustainable development itself can be interpreted as part of the search for a spatio-institutional fix to safeguard growth trajectories in the wake of industrial capitalism's long downturn, The final master plan is said to promote the 'three harmonies' (三合) - man living in harmony with man, now and for future generations; man living in harmony with economic activities; and man living in harmony with the environment.

Global Diamond Value Chain 4 c's 5th c conflict diamonds

To trace a product from its conception until its end when its sold to a consumer Starts at explorations and production, physically extracting mineral from ground Basically we are paying a lot (high premium) that in the last few stages have little value ^^extreme markup of consumers toward end of chain The 4 Cs of choosing a diamond Color, Clarity, Cut, Carat -the closer a diamond is to being colorless, the greater its value, but most diamonds have impurities. --the clarity of a diamond is determined by the size and number of inclusions within it, i.e. how many other outlying minerals are in it -cut affects the brilliance of the diamond, i.e. you can hide impurities with this -carat, the bigger the better the 5th c=Conflict conflict diamonds are mined in conditions that are extremely detrimental to miners diamonds that were sold to market by regime that uses revenues to fuel own war violence=diamonds

Kimberley Process

certification to track where a diamond comes from and so we can definitely say where it came from. I.e. the workers have a reasonable livelihood and regime doesn't use it for violence

Andrea K Bolla and Alice J Hovorka: Placing Wild Animals in Botswana: Engaging Geography's Transpecies Spatial Theory Transpecies Spatial Theory Botswana: Chobe Game Reserve/Central Kalahari Game Reserve Animals as a Resource Fear

Transspecies spatial theory: Humans place animals in a variety of imaginary, literary, psychological, and virtual spaces, as well as in physical spaces as diverse as homes, fields, factories, zoos, and national parks. This occurs through classification schemes whereby humans neatly identify, delimit, and position animals in their proper conceptual and material space relative to themselves and to other animals. Such placements dictate where animals belong, where they should go ). As such, the role and significance of animals is essentially produced and developed through encounters between people and animals whereby human spatial practices are based on economic, political, social, and cultural requirements, and animal agency comes in relation to such practices Human wonderment at such charismatic fauna has spurred enthusiasm for containing them, for example within national parks, conservation areas, and game reserves, in order for both gazing upon them and protecting them from humanity. In turn, the ecological valuing of wild animals, and the ethical belief that they should be sheltered from humans, have provided humans with numerous economic benefits. Wild animals as resources for and foundations of tourism activities have generated income and national pride, ultimately reinforcing protectionist paradigms in the human-animal relationship. Further, protectionism takes on a spatial expression necessarily delineating rigid boundaries and containing "us" in human settlements and "them" in protected areas. Given this human presence, wild animals have become habituated to people, their vehicles, and their machinations Kasane residents take measures to avoid wild animal encounters by, for example, not traveling by foot after dark. Fear of wild animals is closely connected not only with bodily harm and fear of encounter, but also with threat to human livelihood, especially damage to crops and livestock, given increased competition for space and food amongst various animal species

Rich-Poor Gap natural?

UN's 2014 human development report states that the 85 richest people in the world have as much wealth as the 3.5 billion poorest Recall politicial ecology: the poorest are inequaitably affected by the negative impacts of economic development and resource extraction. Therefore they say this is a natural pattern∙

Scarcity & Value & Violence

Value and scarcity are socially and politically produced NOT NATURAL is treated as a natural fact of economic life It actually might not be natural. It is actually socially and politically produced for most resources. Scarcity and violence. Scarcity could create violence, but violence could also lead to resource scarcity. Ex. War-torn country If the economic market cannot arrve at a satisfactory price for natural resource, scarcity must be produced If scarcity cannot be produced through collusion of similar interests of produces, then scarcity must be producted through violence The threat of violence legitimized the authorities to impose martial law to manage the market...

Viruses can be good

Viruses are generally seen as harmful however there are millions of viruses that can possible interact with humans but very few actually harm us Yet popular imagination sees viruses and bacteria as all evil and something that need to be eliminated *Viruses can be good because it has been found that engineered viruses have been used to good effect in attacking cancer tumors. Also weaker versions of viruses have been deliberately introduced to our bodies, vaccinations to develop immunity

Prediction of Future Generations

We assume that future generations will use resources at the same rate we do today so maybe technology will improve and future generations will be able to consume resources at a different rate Prediction of duture generations that future generations will want the same things that we want right now

wildlife +Our Direct Relationships with Wild Animals

Wildlife defy the boundaries humans impose on the landscape and people have only limited ability to keep "good" animals in and "bad" animals out probably depends on where they are found Hunting, other forms of recreation ex. Watching (whale/dolphin) competing over resources and space consumption (literally consuming the wild animals-bush meat, game, roadkill)

Constructivism/ Social Construction & Implications harsh v plentiful

a set of specific meanings that become attributed to the characteristics and identities of people and places by common social or cultural usage. Social constructs will often represent a loaded view of the subject, according to the sources from which, and the channels through which, ideas are circulates in society 1). Social constructivism makes us think deeper about one of the meanings of nature. Ex. can we ask the question "is everything about nature socially constructed?" if affirmative, we do make the definition of nature as something that has an essence or an essential trait? -people cannot think of an essential trait of nature from around the world if it is socially constructed *2). Social constructivism (especially extreme versions of it) legitimizes the continual modification of nature because nature has no meaning without human input or interaction so we own nature. -nature has no meaning without us 3). Obviously, no meaning does not mean that nature is useless. Is extreme social constructivism the height of human arrogance? Ex. Meaningless sex isn't necessary useless, can make a baby. So you cant really think that nature is useless without humans, like animals will still use nature etc. 4). BUT on the other hand, using social constructivism as a concept precisely allows us to see/expose certain ideas or facts (some of which are arguably bad) about nature as without scientific, logical or rational basis. Ex. Galileo example (positive versus normative statements) -it allows us to see through some unstable facts Environment socially constructed to be harsh, then used to justify domination -Ex. People can barely survive in desert so we need to go in and save them OR environmental constructed to be plentiful, also lead to domination too

Transpecies Urban vs Spatial Theory

a theory that calls for a more harmonious mixing and relationship between wild animals and humans in urban places. The theory rejects the anthropocentrism of existing urban theories where urban development is for humans only. Societal commitment to biodiversity and wildlife conservation/protection cannot stop at the city gates Animals still stay in cities but cities are meant for people, so how do was accomate for animals and why do we get Refuses to make explicate judgment on animals: refuses to say you are a rat or pest so we are getting rid of you, so the prob is it refuses to make this strong judgment call Transpecies urban theory helps us understand how urbanization impacts wildlife How and why residents react to wildlife and the way they do How city building practices shape urban ecologies How urban planning can better incorporate wild animals Transpecies urban theory argues that urban spaces are fundamentally sites of spatial and mental transgressions of different species this argument would say that humans do believe in going to Antarctica which is usually meant for animals. Because this creates more of a physical relationship it could mean the symbolic ordering of animals as morally less/more signigicant than the interests of other animals or the interests of humans this theory says that humans should not always be on the top of hierarchy in most cases the symbolic ordering is intimately tied with spatial ordering. In other words the more morally insignificant you consider some animals, the more you police the spatialboundary between them and humans. To mainting a physical distance. The more morally significant you consider them, the more the spatial boundary disapperars and you do not mind they coming into your most private spaces

Intrinsic Value

allow that the essence or nature of a thing can have a value in and of itself. Or even the mere existence of that thing can have value. Some actions are good in itself or bad in itself, some have characteristics that we can agree are good or bad. Ex. Love is always good. But what if someone says they love sharks. Like want to have sex with sharks. You cant measure love. Blakie "intrinsic values of species are quite independent of humans and their monetary valuation...they elude he most ingenious economist"

Probabilism

although the physical environment does not uniquely determine human actions, it does nonetheless make some responses more likely than others

Brown and Rasmussen: Bestiality and the Queering of the Human Animal Washington Kenneth Pinyan human excpetionalism

argued that the rationale behind antibestiality laws was the philosophy of human exceptionalism. ``Thus, when Roach's legislation passes, the law's preamble should explicitly state that one of the reasons bestiality is condemned through law is that such degrading conduct unacceptably subverts standards of basic human dignity and is an affront to humankind's inestimable importance and intrinsic moral worth'' The most common animals involved in bestiality öhorses, cows, sheep, and dogsöare all domesticated animals, meaning they are no longer `wild' animals and their lives are largely structured to serve human needs. In addition, sex itself is often considered an activity that threatens to transgress the nature ^ culture boundary. Human sexuality is often described as animal like or bestial because of its apparent physical or primal nature. As a consequence, sex must be regulated by civilized rules that distinguish between acceptable and unacceptable sexual expression

Manifest Destiny + Predestiny +capitalism

belief held by early migrants in america's destiny that it was their destiny to develop this place and god put them there so they must make it better for everyone; protestant ethic; beginnings of capitalism-increasing exploitation of environment the transcendence of god. So the weberian argument goes.... Our whole life has been pre-destined because god knows exactly when youll die and what your achievements will be, so they believe that god knows all that you will do. As long as I am living well, this means that god is favoring me. We fulfill our manifest destiny, we do the best we can, therefore we will be favored. This leads to capitalism. If you have a materially good life on earth, you are probably favored by god to go to heaven!

Alternative Food Networks (AFN)

consumers as producers (e.g. community gardens), he explosion of organic, FairTrade, and local, quality, and premium specialty foods.In these networks, it is claimed that the production and consumption of food are more closely tied together spatially, economically, and socially; however, the politics and practices of alternative food networks have more recently come under critical scrutiny from geographers and others as a narrow and weakly politicized expression of middle- and upper-class angst (vegetarianism) (1) by shorter distances between producers and consumers; (2) by small farm size and scale; (3) by the existence of food purchasing avenues such as food cooperatives, farmers markets and community supported agriculture

No-Use Value

describe the value that people place on certain resource even if they would never get the chance to utilize it Ex. Even though I may not care about something, ill pay to preserve it because I'm sure its important even if its not necessarily important to me. It has the right to exist and it has value even though I don't gain any pleasure from it.

Domestication and Racism Civilizing Process

domesticationL the work of domestication has in the main been effected by our own Aryan race. In the continent of Africa excepting the lands about the Mediterranean and the red sea, the native peoples have never attained the stage of culture in which men become inclined to subjugate wild animals. Hencesuch men had themselves remained savage. because certain groups have never been able to domesticate animals they are like wild animals themselves besides survival, why else domesticate? Cultural reasons: domesticated to serve in the religious ceremonies of sedentary populations believed that chickens were first domesticated for rituals (cock-fighting) and as gifts to spirits aesthetic satisfaction as pets (as discussed earlier) you don't domesticate cats to eat cats dogs MIGHT be useful for hunting you must either like cats how they look or for cultural purposes what does domestication mean to human self-identity domestication marked man's transition beyond the threshold of barbarism. It was a mark of culture that deparated people from creatures of the wild domestication is not only functional but also aesthetical and the desire to bring other beings into association with human lives. Ie domestication as civilizing civilizing process how is domestication civilizing? Man can control his instincts through thought and self reflection but animals cant. Humans advanced the animals by bringing them closer to humanity's interests, though the process of domestication it is a civilizing process for both the humans and animals!e dichotomy between man and animal thus concretized. In other words, the latter is always seen as something that is separate from the former and that needs to be "helped"

Emma R Power: Domestication and the Dog: Embodying Home Australia Early Domestication Middle Domestication Prior to Victorian Enlightenment

early domestication was driven by wolves moving in for scavenging benefits. Behavioural modifications such as begging for food underpinned selection processes with tamer animals rewarded with food and the safety of human settlement and subsequently achieving greater opportunity to reproduce. ). These dogs predominately existed on the outskirts of human settlements. As this position strengthened, a second phase of relations, driven by the desire to productively utilise dogs' unique skills for security, hunting and companionship, emerged. This shift drove the intentional selection and breeding of dogs along functional lines Prior to the Victorian era, people who kept pets were subject to criticism and ridicule, social conventions that only the elite could ignore First, the Enlightenment fostered a sense of mastery over nature that developed into curiosity toward animals. When combined with the pet-keeping practices of society's elite, this created a foundation for widespread pet-keeping. Second, from the 1800s the emergence of the middle-classes ruptured traditional demarcations of social class and status. In this void, pet-keeping became a marker of social status. The consequent emphasis on 'high status' animals led to experiments in dog husbandry in pursuit of new and unusual breeds and characteristics. dogs were disciplined to embody and perform domestic ideals of cleanliness, orderliness and control instead of humans changing their own lifestyles or homes to fit that of the dog, so many people dont choose a dog that sheds, many people dont take dogs out for walks, poddy training etc.

Exceptionalism human exceptionalism

example of sexual intercourse with horse The mission of Discovery Institute's Center on Human Exceptionalism is to affirm and uphold the intrinsic nature of human dignity, liberty, and equality. In resistance to a growing movement against unique human personhood, we aim to revitalize a commitment to the traditional Western view of human rights and concomitant duties—both of which are summed up by the term "human exceptionalism."

Tanzania Gold Mining compensation varying valuation division

gold account for 96.5% of mineral exports of Tanzania usd 1 billion dollar industry but gold mining argued to have detrimental effects on local communities and environment Tanzania gdp remains a low of usd 509 in 2009 althought this is an increase from 1999 figure usd 300 Toal export of gold between 1998 and 2005 was usd3 billion but the gov received only usd90 million in revenues a measly 3% of export value -compensation of village land for gold mining is unfair and not all environmental amenities important to villagers are compensated (recall the different valuation of nature) **different way of valuing nature because compensation because very inadequate and arbitrary, village may have different and more value of river, ex. Spiritual -unequal distribution of risks, costs, benefits. Ex. Cattle deaths as a result of drinking contaminated water. Ex. Mining workers living in company facilities are shieled much better than villagers from the environmental impacts of mining (ex. Dust, flooding etc) -slow but sure divide of society into the rich and the poor. Also the mergence of an underclass (ex. Prostitutes)

Smallpox post eradication vaccine pros v cons of destroyign the virus completely

is a very deadly virus, very ancient, suspected to have evolved naturally from a type of rodent virus and the earliest documented case at least 3000 years ago Vaccine discovered in the 1800 but not only in dec 1979 was the disease considered to be fully eradicated, so this took a very very long time!! Post-eradication of virus is very interesting Last remaining and confirmed vial cases of smallpox is housed in usa and Russia So why do we keep valves of the virus separate in two different locations? What relationship would we want to maintain with smallpox? Should smallpox be destroyed completely? Yes because the virus is insignificant now since the infection has not showed in 30 years! They want to avoid accidental infection of remaining vials, like in 1978 when a medical photographer accidentally contracted smallpox in brimingham med school, and he subsewuently died No it should not be destroyed= No one can be certain if there are undiscovered specimen of the virus somewhere in the world Bio-terrorists may create new versions of the virus with these undiscovered specimen and the stocks of smallpox will be critical in countering these threats Acts of destroying smallpox is ireeversible-no way to recreate the virus This is why we consider smallpox a part of nature because we cannot recreate the virus once its gone. *Moral of the story: viral threats should be contained but not necessarily eradicated Better to manage than erase

Option Value

is the value that people place to reserve the right to use the resource in future. It is hence not a direct use value but a potential use value Ex. If you behave, I will give you candy. They are valuing the potential of a reward. Preservation of rainforest, may not need rainforest now, but what if we really do need resources there in the future like medicine

White Science the Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis Western view Medieval view Christian view Anthropocentrism

jud-christ to be blamed for ecological crisis; the wanton destruction of the natural environment by human beings) why? -God planned everything for human benefit, no item in the physical creation had any other purpose but to serve men...i.e. christianity an anthropocentric religion. Up to men to make full use of it and prove themselves -Dualism or dichotomy of man and nature established and it is god's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends. (i.e. implying a unity or harmony between nature/human prior to dichotomy) -Paganism destroyed/suppressed -god as inspiration for science and technology which accelerate destruction of nature What people do about their ecology' depends on what- they think' about themselves in relation to things around them. Western: both modern technology and modern science are distinctively occidental. Today, around the globe, all significant science is Western in style and method, whatever the pigmentation or language of the scientists. Medieval: Thus, distribution of land was based no longer on the needs of a family but, rather, on the capacity of a power machine to till the earth. Man's relation to the soil was profoundly changed. Formerly man had been part of nature; now he was the exploiter of nature. Christian: Christianity is the most anthropocentric religion the world has seen. not only established a dualism of man and nature but also insisted that it is God's will that man exploit nature for his proper ends.

Determinism Ratzel Semple

nature influences society, nature causes changes in society, the outcomes always happen to be negative. Friedrich Ratzel: effect of physical features on history; state as an organism that nees to expand; lebensraum. We should expand, there are environmental constraints to what we can do (did not mean to influence holocaust), but misused Ellen Semple: human activities are controlled by the environment. Exp. Climate.... First prime minister of Singapore!!! Air conditioning, must enhance environment in order to become more productive Environment deteriminism and possibilism stand at a continuum: Environment shapes societal development, limiting our options. But in time to come, technology overcome initial environment constraints Extreme possibilistic thinking can sanction a dystopic world that is all technology and no nature

Myth of the Lazy Native

no compulsion to work as nature prvides for everything...therefore nature makes people "lazy!" "bad" kind of relationship...or is it good...? Can lead to a type of racism, This is the idea that nature linked to a racial economic and moral hierarchy which demonstrated, among other things, that denizens of the mid latitudes were superior to those of the tropics justified colonial expansion.

Caprotti: Eco Urbanism and the Eco-City; Denying the Right to the City? New Urban Poor

ordinary" geographies least visible in current urban research is that of the mass of construction workers on whose labour new flagship projects are built. Eco-cities, built on areas of low-value land and sometimes on areas subjected to "green grabbing" practices, are intended as green utopias for their target demographics and for transnational capital. The ways in which these projects generate temporary urban environments encircling rising steel and glass "eco-buildings" and "eco-towers" has not been the focus of signifi- cant critical attention

Political Ecology

our understanding of nature and our relationship with nature are fundamentally political Our most fundamental view of nature sets us off on different political paths (even if we might not explicitly act in political ways to demonstrate our views of nature)

Gavin Bridge: Past Peak Oil: Political Economy of Energy Crises Geographies of Deprivation HydroCarbon Commodity Chain Upstream and Downstream Ends

peak oil roots the origins of scarcity firmly below ground rather than in the above ground social realm At the centre of this problematic is management of an extended, complex and unruly hydrocarbon commodity chain that stretches from the upstream processes of fossil fuel extraction and processing to the downstream processes of distribution consumption and the sequestration of carbon. At the downstream end of the hydrocarbon commodity chain where hydrocarbons are combusted and carbon dioxide released, the gap between rates of carbon emission and carbon sequestration is problematisezed through the science and discource of greenhouse gas accumulation and climate change. (Basically the everyday person is worried about climate change impact) At the upstream end of the chain there is an insurgent skepticism about the ability to expand or even sustain the current rate at which conventional oil is extracted worldwide (Basically the rich people are worried it will run out)

The 9 P's of Political Ecology

politics, parity (equity), progress, policies, profits, power, production of knowledge, players, phyricial environment

Biofuels

recall third nature: nature can be manipulate for human purposes hence limits of nature continually breached boundary between what Is natural and not natural is increasingly blurred prompts us to think what we want from nature involves politics and ethics

Williams and Millington: The Diverse and Contested Meanings of Sustainable Development Sustainable Development Weak Sustainability Strong Sustainability Moderate Sustainability

sustainable development means 'development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs' Weak Sustainability: argues that one needs to expand the stock of resources. This can be done by developing renewable resources, creating substitutes for non-renewable resources, making more effective use of existing resources, and/or by searching for technological solutions to problems such as resource depletion and pollution. In this view, there is seen to be no need to transform either the predominant narrative on nature or the existing dominant discourse on what constitutes economic progress and development. Nature is predominantly seen as a resource to which we have a right of dominion and there is a belief that economic growth is a valid measure of 'progress' (anthropocentric) At the heart of weaker sustainable development is an implicit optimism. There is a confidence that people will be able to find a solution Strong Sustainability: argues that the demands that we make on the Earth need to be revised so that, for instance, we consume less. In this view, in consequence, rather than adapt the Earth to suit ourselves, we adapt ourselves to meet the finitude of nature. the 'weaker' versions of sustainable development discussed above are much more about 'sustaining development' rather than sustaining environment, (Earth is finite) Moderate Sustainability: combines elements of the weak and strong approaches - the two core schools of thought in sustainability science. It seeks to both expand the stock of resources and reduce demands on this stock in order to conjoin resources and demands.

Synthetic Diamonds

synthetic diamonds =unnatural diamons synthetic (cultured diamonds) made in labs using carbon natural diamonds formed by geological processes impossible to distinguish between the tro, need specialized labs for this. The one sign is that synthetic diamonds may be completely colorless

Nature Is Challenge/Puzzle

testing humans to unravel its secrets (DNA technology/human genome)

Greenhough--Where Species Meet and Mingle: Endemic Human Virus Relations, Embodies Communication and More Than Human Agency at he Common Cold Unit 1947-90 Portrayal of Viruses, Risk/Non-Risk UK CCU

the UK's Common Cold Research Unit (CCU) where humans and viruses were encouraged to meet and mingle so scientists could study the common cold. I conclude that rather than seeing viruses as an external threat to be eradicated, we might recognize how we have learned and are learning to live endemically with our viral companions. emphasizes how humans are put at risk by viral agency, attempts to re-structure human-virus relations in the CCU meant viruses as well as humans were placed 'at risk' we need to treat viruses as having agency and that they can change human-virus relationships, not just humans can. also we should normalize our intermingling with them we think we have absolute control over them but they also change and shape how we behave, like people can be afraid of our choose to embrace viruses since they act independently of us so we cant control them, only how we respond to t

Noble Savage Thesis

the belief that humans in their original or natural state are non-violent, peaceful, selfless, stoic, etc. society, modernity etc. made humans stray from their original "pure" state. Key is to bring society and humans back into nature

Hunters

the characterization of hunting as the human pursuit of animals that are wild though it speaks volumes about out western view of hunters is quite inappropriate when it comes to the hunters' view of animals. For they are not regarded as strange alien beings from another world, but as participants in the same world to which the people also belong hunters are: 1). Opportunitist? Lazy native myth. If hunters are hungry they'll eat and that's it 2). No conerns about storage of food or the future 3). On imbued with symbolism and significance? Ex. Cree Indians of north Canada → careul, pudent, respectful of resources 4). Difference between the conservation ethics of hunter-gatherers and contemporary nature conservation

Bacteria

there is good bacteria vs. bad bacteria lactobaciullus (many different species) these are frienfdly live in our digestive systems and is in some yogurt and dietary supplements. Highly encouraged for humans to intermingle with such bacteria The majority of 636 known bacterial, viral, fungal and animal species detected were non-pathogenic and represent normal bacteria present on human skin and human body. Culture experiements revealed that all subway sites tested possess live bacteria