DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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How Do Environmental and Methodological Factors Influence Study Participants’ Answers in Surveys on Risk Perception in the Context of Climate Change and Heat Stress?
Full text linkResearch on climate change and impacts of natural hazards, such as heat waves, on human health has increased in recent years. Various approaches are used to study people’s attitudes and actions in this context, but little is known about the extent to which different modes or other environmental variables influence the results. Therefore, we ex- amined differences between surveys in three German cities, compared survey modes and investigated the influence of the temperature on the day of the survey and the previous days. We conducted two surveys on the topics of climate change risk perception and heat risk perception. In summer and autumn of 2019, in total 1,417 people from the three medium-sized German cities of Potsdam, Remscheid and Würzburg were surveyed via telephone or online. In sum- mer of 2020, 280 people were surveyed face-to-face in public parks in Potsdam. Climate change risk perception, the perception of heat waves as a health threat and the knowledge of heat warnings differed depending on place of resi- dence, survey mode and temperature. Participants of the online survey showed higher scores of risk perception than participants of the telephone and face-to-face surveys, indicating a self-selection bias. Increased temperature was associated with slightly higher levels of respondents’ heat wave risk perception and, among participants surveyed outside, climate change risk perception. The finding that both survey mode and environmental factors can influence survey results should be heeded when planning or interpreting and comparing studies
The Politics of Pine Tree Disease: Interspecies Politics in the Inter-Korean Borderlands
Full text linkThis study explores the politics of interspecies relationships in the inter-Korean borderlands. Pine trees (Pinus) are regarded as significant national symbols in both North and South Korea, making them a relevant topic in interKorean politics. As a result, diseases affecting pine trees have come to be viewed as an enemy of the state for the two Koreas. The spread of pine tree disease from the southern regions of South Korea to the northern parts of the Korean Peninsula has prompted both states to implement biosecurity measures. This research demonstrates how these biosecurity measures are enforced despite restrictions on human access to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) between the two Koreas. To better understand this, I propose a framework of more-than-human territoriality, which analyzes how biosecurity measures shape and are shaped by interspecies interactions, highlighting the geopolitical implications of these dynamics. This dual process emphasizes how biosecurity measures mediate species mobility, reflecting geopolitical priorities while challenging conventional notions of sovereignty in the Korean DMZ. By framing inter-Korean politics within the context of interspecies dynamics, this paper challenges the conventional view of the DMZ as a “pure” and “untouched” natural area. This study reframes the DMZ as a politically contested and ecologically dynamic space where interspecies relationships actively influence territorial practices and state sovereignty.
More-Than-Human Borderlands and Mobilities
Full text linkThis editorial contextualizes the research presented in the special issue on More-than-Human Borderlands and Mobilities. The contributions seek to unravel some of the complex more-than-human assemblages that constitute spatial mobilities and territorial bordering processes. The five research articles engage with emerging debates on posthuman border studies through empirical case studies from different regional contexts in Europe and Asia. The articles signal the productive potentials for scholars to integrate nonhuman entities in the study of borders and cross-border movements
Research on Risk in Global Production Networks—New Methodological Directions
Full text linkRisk has become almost ubiquitous in today’s global economy and has developed into an emerging topic of global production networks (GPN) research. Recent conceptual contributions emphasize that risks are socially constructed and can gradually convert into a performative risk narrative (PRN) in global production networks. To explore how PRNs can be empirically analyzed, this article aims to outline new methodological directions to risk-related GPN research. Against this background, we discuss two methods: discourse analysis and vignette studies. Hence, we argue for research designs open to qualitative and quantitative methods, to gather the diversity of risk expectations and related actor-specific strategic reactions. With this contribution, we seek to stimulate a critical debate on the methodological reorientation of risk-related GPN research
Bordering Through Biosecurity: Wild Boars and Veterinary Fences in the German-Polish Borderlands
Full text linkThis article analyzes how the “risky” mobilities of animals and viruses provoke government reactions that result in bordering processes: From 2020 onwards, German authorities erected hundreds of kilometers of fence along the Eastern border with Poland in response to the spreading of African swine fever (ASF), a highly contagious viral disease that affects both wild boars and domesticated pigs. The government’s main intention behind fencing was to secure the German borderline against the unwanted border crossings of potentially infected wild boars from Poland. At this point in time, the animals were framed as a disease reservoir, while their wayward spatial movements were depicted as a biosecurity threat to the export-dependent German pig sector. Drawing on qualitative fieldwork in the state of Saxony, the article illustrates how government actors employed three techniques seeking to depoliticize the erection of veterinary fences, presenting them as an apolitical matter of concern, while withdrawing them from public scrutiny and contestation: first, re-scaling authority to the sub-national level; second, securitization; and third, disinformation. Yet, adopting a more-than-human approach to the study of borders, the article also points out how a number of human and nonhuman entities forged wayward relations that worked towards a repoliticization of the fences, while counteracting government intentions in the management and control of disease
Traditional Cultural Landscapes Revisited: Classification, Diversity, Services, and Their Restoration
Full text linkDue to urbanization, land-use intensification as well as land abandonment, traditional cultural landscapes are continuously declining worldwide. However, those landscapes often exhibit a high biodiversity and can provide numerous ecosystem and landscape services. Accordingly, traditional cultural landscapes with their low-input land-use systems might act as a blueprint for sustainable land use and landscape development. Against this background, a classification of traditional cultural landscapes is suggested as a basis for further research and for environmental or rural development policies. This is based on a holistic understanding of landscapes and cultural landscapes, respectively, and the perception of traditions. The criteria for the classification of traditional cultural landscapes encompass prevailing land-use types (e.g., pastures, agroforestry systems), particular land-use practices in order to overcome natural limitations for land use (e.g., terracing of slopes, irrigation), and/or cultural-historical drivers for long-term landscape development (e.g., impact of monasteries). The value of traditional cultural landscapes for nature conservation and sustainable rural development is given through ecological/environmental, social, and economic multifunctionality and multifaceted landscape services. Through their often embedded indigenous and local (ecological) knowledge, they can also contribute to current environmental and socio-economic challenges such as climate change adaptation. A global Red Books of Threatened Landscapes, already suggested in the 1990ies, could support national and international environmental and rural development policies. The restoration of traditional cultural landscapes will not only contribute positively to biodiversity on all levels and the re-establishment of lost or degraded ecosystem and landscape services but will also promote sustainable social-ecological systems
Meat Power in a Tropical Region of Mexico: Unequal Power Relations and Vulnerabilities Between the Transnational Beef Industry and Small- and Medium-Scale Cattle Raisers
Full text linkConventional extensive cattle raising has involved deforestation and biodiversity loss in tropical regions throughout the world. In Mexico, since the 1990s, cattle raising has largely undergone economic and political transformation from free-range grazing to feedlots owned by large transnational meat corporations, along with increased meat exportation. Transnational corporations exercise power over small- and medium-scale cattle raisers by setting prices and conditions upon purchasing their young cattle to complete their development in feedlots, leading to vulnerabilities and inequalities based on the scale of production. Low prices paid to cattle raisers result in a lack of investment in innovations and sustainable practices, while middlemen and feedlots earn very high profits. The corporations further increase their meat power by shortening the fattening period of the cattle and exercising control over the entire cattle production process. This article analyzes how the current cattle-raising model, which favors large feedlots, has led to vulnerabilities for small- and medium-scale cattle raisers of southern Veracruz, Mexico, as well as the economic, social, political, and cultural obstacles to sustainable forms of cattle raising as a result of the imposition of this model. Silvopastoral systems have been implemented to raise livestock while also recovering rainforests and water security in the study region. However, the fact that these cattle are sold to feedlots for their final stage of development limits the implementation of sustainable cattle raising systems. As a result of extensive fieldwork in the Los Tuxtlas region involving interviews, focal groups, and workshops, scholars (including the author), cattle raisers, and NGOs have been jointly developing and implementing a sustainable cattle-raising project based on silvopastoral systems since 2019
Voluntary Sustainability Standards and Social Network Development: The Unpredictable Impact Pathways to Achieving a Living Income Amongst Indonesian Coffee Farmers
No full textThis paper presents coffee producers’ subjective perceptions of voluntary sustainability standards (VSS) programs across southern Sumatra, a global center for Robusta coffee production. Household surveys and a series of farmer interviews revealed that producers generally had positive perceptions of these programs. Despite positive perceptions, the standards had little impact on yield or household incomes. This apparent paradox is explained by improved social networks and social capital, which were seen as important for broader livelihood security. Producers believed that VSS facilitated access to material support and increased knowledge exchange. This builds both bonding and bridging social capital, all with minimal disruption to the low-input system of coffee production that fits within farmers’ broader livelihood strategies. Our approach highlights the challenges that impact assessments (including applications of the living income concept) face when seeking to establish ostensibly objective measures of well-being
Living Wages and Living Incomes in Fair Supply Chains? A Critical Review
Full text linkThe living wages and living incomes approach was designed to contribute to poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and social justice. It is prominently positioned in the Fair Trade movement, which treats living wages and living incomes as a core political demand. While the concept of living wages and living incomes is not new, the challenges arising from a globalized, crisis-ridden world are increasingly complex and poorly understood. This special issue presents four international, wide-ranging empirical papers that, first and foremost, ask whether living wages and living incomes provide socially just and sustainable livelihoods for workers and smallholder farmers in countries that produce key primary commodities, mainly in the Global South. This editorial first reviews the origins and evolution of the living wages and living incomes concept and different methods of calculation. It then previews the empirical contributions in this special issue and discusses the practical implementation challenges of living wages and living income ideals.