DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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'They got a project mentality’: Theorizing neighborhood dis-identification and the paradox of belonging through the lens of ‘the Ghetto’.
Get PDFIn a housing project in a small college town on the American East coast, a project that residents call ‘the Ghetto’, city administrators, social workers and politicians alike have often argued that housing projects offer living conditions that are not beneficial to the residents because, in a causal argument, they do not care about their community. Caring about the community is associated in public discourse and urban studies alike with positive identifications, and positive identifications with a sense of belonging, and sense of belonging with community. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this paper aims to critically discuss the question of how, on a meta-theoretical level, sense of belonging, community and positive identifications with a place are connected, showing that such connections are less obvious than sometimes suggested. Drawing on fieldwork on discourses of dis-identification and distancing in daily routines that constitute de-facto community as urban practice, this paper argues that first, sense of belonging and identification develops in an individual agents’ perspective, whereas community is relational and collective. This contrast explains the paradox of belonging: people say that others have ‘a project mentality’ and that they themselves do not ‘belong’ in the projects. Yet at the same time much of their networks and daily interactions consist of doing community locally. Second, this paper argues that usual explanations of simple stigma coping strategies - discursive constructions of dis-identification as a way of stigma - may play some role but do not suffice as a full explanation
Infrastructuring coastal futures: Key trajectories in Southeast Asian megacities
Get PDFThe search for suitable adaptation pathways to accommodate for rising sea levels resulting from global climate change is an ongoing concern for many megacities in Southeast Asia and beyond. Addressing already existing challenges resulting from land subsidence and increased occurrence of inland flooding, adaptation can take varied forms and cover widely differing concerns, spaces and time spans. Based on research carried out in the cities of Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), and Manila (Philippines), this paper looks at some key trajectories of current adaptation planning. We argue that the processes of infrastructuring coastal futures in these cities are characterized by different aims and measures that overlap and converge in their material effects but also compete in articulating diverging new claims to the coast. In this perspective, we describe and analyze three main trends of infrastructuring coastal futures: the securitization of coastal futures by way of transforming disaster risk reduction practices and integrating new policy concerns, the greening of coastal spaces in material and operational terms, and finally, the valorization of coastal areas through reclamation, waterfront development and the creation of high-end real estate. Along these three trajectories, coastal adaptation planning becomes a key force that can influence virtually every sector of urban development and governance, and has strong implications for the futures of coastal cities in social and political terms
Engaging in the ‘multi-territorial site of the political’: Political practices of Latin American landless movements in the struggle for food sovereignty
Get PDFIn both the global north and south the claim for food sovereignty (FS) has become a powerful antithesis to the globalized economy of food. Drawing on scientific debates around the spatial and political dimensions of FS, we will focus in this contribution on how this emerging claim materializes in practice and space. Therefore, we will analyze in an exemplary manner political practices of the Brazilian and Bolivian Landless Movements, which adopted the idea of FS as a guideline for their political action. Our results reveal that these groups do not only fight for FS in the form of ‘typical’ representational and overt political actions such as land occupations, the blocking of roads and manifestations. Rather, we will show that the Landless Movements also express their claims quite subtly, in surprising but yet very powerful ways through multifarious, spatially effective and meaningfully interconnected social practices, which reveal their political character only upon second glance. In order to conceptualize our observations and to recognize the political momentum of these practices, we draw on insights from social theory and political theory and identify three constitutive principles that enable us to make political practices in their ‘worldliness’ distinguishable and recognizable. Building on this conceptualization, we will further propose the approach of the ‘multi-territorial site of the political’ as an analytical tool to investigate the complex geographies of social movements, in particular but not exclusively, in the context of FS in Latin America
Detached Islands: Artificial Islands as adaptation challenges in the making
Get PDFThere is surprisingly little information and concern within academic literature in the field of coastal or marine planning and management related to the issue of artificial islands. This is particularly noteworthy considering the climate change phenomenon, vis-à-vis sea-level rise, the urgent need for adaptation, efforts aiming for sustainable use of coastal areas, and the recent focus in academic circles on marine spatial planning. Most literature (including grey literature) on artificial islands appears in the engineering and geology disciplines and is focused on energy extraction, i.e., oil and gas. Yet some coastal nations are intent on solving problems of lack of space and other resource shortages through construc- tion of near-shore artificial islands for myriad uses, including commercial, residential and transportation infrastructure. This paper presents a limited review of the policy literature about planning and construction of artificial islands. It reflects what repercussions artificial islands portend for marine conservation, sustainability and, most importantly, how climate change adaptation is highlighted or neglected in spatial solutions addressed by the building of nearshore artificial islands. The Israeli situation, where tenders have been recently published calling for planning and building of islands in the Mediterranean Sea, serves as an example
Comparison of water balance method and alternative evaporation methods applied to the Aswan High Dam Reservoir
Get PDFAswan High Dam Reservoir (AHDR) is a large human-made reservoir situated in southern Egypt and northern Sudan. The reservoir is located in a typical arid zone so that evaporation results in a significant water loss from the reservoir. To quantify these evaporation water losses, different methods can be applied. The water balance method was used to estimate water losses of the AHDR during 43 open-water seasons. Compared to earlier publications, this study used longer time series data and more evaporation approaches. Moreover, we evaluated the deviation between evaporation rates as derived from the water balance method and as calculated using 16 evaporation/evapotranspiration formulas. Five approaches are not well suited for use at the AHDR because they underestimated evaporation rates (e.g. Stephens-Stewart model), or overestimated evaporation rates (e.g. de Bruin model). Annual evaporation rates obtained by the Bowen ratio energy balance method at the three floating stations Raft, Allaqi and Abu Simbel were estimated at 7.9, 6.9 and 6.7 mm d-1, respectively. The monthly water losses of the years 1978 to 1984, a period with reasonable evaporation rates, are used to estimate the evaporation losses. The results of the study show a systematic deviation between the monthly average values determined using the water balance method through the period 1978 to 1984 and the monthly mean values determined by the 16 evaporation calculation approaches at three floating stations. This deviation is particularly clear in the months of May, June and September (primarily lower estimates) as well as in July (primarily higher estimates). The deviation can be attributed to the simplicity of the water balance method as well as to its limited suitability for large reservoirs as the AHDR over short periods like a month. Among the 16 evaporation calculation approaches the mass transfer method provided the most reasonable results under the given site conditions
Future agricultural conditions in the Nepal Himalaya - A fuzzy logic approach using high resolution climate scenarios
Get PDFUntil the end of the 21st century, ongoing climate change is expected to trigger major changes in site conditions and vertical species distributions in high mountain regions such as the Himalaya. Altitudinal ranges of species used as staple crops in Himalayan agriculture and currently suitable cultivation areas will be affected as well. Changing climatic variables such as temperature and precipitation will modify agricultural land-use options, and assessments of future crop growth conditions are in high demand. This GIS-based approach utilizes high resolution climate data of the present and two future scenarios and relates them to bioclimatic requirements of the five most important crops grown in Nepal: rice, maize, wheat, finger millet and potato. It takes into account soil pH as a basic constraint for the individual crop. The three factors temperature, precipitation,and soil pH are then combined using a fuzzy logic algorithm. The assessment visualizes the expected shifts in suitable cultivation zones for the individual crops. The results show that wheat is likely to experience the most severe loss of crop suitability until the end of the 21st century, while the cultivation of rice is likely to benefit
‘Real’ versus ‘mental’ food deserts from the consumer perspective – concepts and quantitative methods applied to rural areas of Germany
Get PDFDevelopments in food retail in Germany have for decades tended to lead to ever larger retail units, the filling of these units with ever broader and deeper product ranges, and an increasingly oligopolistic market dominated by chain stores. However, as the large chain stores only choose the ‘best possible’ sites according to population density, absolute purchasing power and transport networks, there has been a dramatic thinning out of food-retail facilities in large, particularly rural areas. Has this made it possible to detect supply gaps or, more polemically expressed, food deserts? The term ‘food deserts’, in particular, has achieved a certain amount of acclaim in the Anglo-American context since the 2000s. However, the concept has neither been transferred to nor empirically verified for the German context. In this paper quantitative and qualitative methods are applied to investigate the situation in the rural regions of the most northerly state of Germany (Schleswig-Holstein), in order that food deserts no longer be understood only as ‘real’, tangible and bounded patterns arising from the thinning out of infrastructure but rather as cognitive, perceived patterns (mental food deserts). It is suggested that customer (groups) have long-term and varied shopping predispositions so that diverse groups no longer perceive the loss of supply options and actually create local supply gaps for others through their shopping behaviour. Cluster, discriminant and network analyses are used to complement an inventory of tangible retail facilities with ‘lived’ mental attitudes and shopping behaviour, distinctly broadening the present understanding of food deserts
Quantitative text analysis in Geography: facilitating access and fostering collaboration
Get PDFQuantitative text analysis can support researchers working with a large number of documents. Corpus linguistic methods are already employed by geographers in the context of discourse studies, and recent discussions about big data and digital geographies point to a potential broadening of their application. However, building a corpus and adapting to existing data analysis tools can be challenging. In this paper, we outline possible steps towards collaborative quantitative text analysis through the use of computational methods and corpora that can be incorporated into a variety of research settings. We summarise key steps for creating annotated corpora from text sources using state of the art methods and tools. Using the open source software Corpus Workbench (Evert and Hardie 2011) and CQPweb (Hardie 2012), we provide a platform to access corpora and corpus analysis functionality via a web interface. We invite researchers to use this existing infrastructure for corpus linguistic methods in their teaching and research, and to collaborate in making interesting material available to the geographic research community
The effect of catchment soils on heavy metal concentrations in a brook situated in the historic mining region of Braubach, Germany
Get PDFForest soils located in the region of Braubach (Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany) are characterized by elevated concentrations of cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and lead (Pb), resulting from local heavy metal emissions. The regional geomorphology is dominated by the low mountain range of the Rhenish Massif and the frequent occurrence of V-shaped valleys crossed by small tributaries of the Rhine River. The frequent occurrence of steep valley slopes should theoretically facilitate the influence of polluted forest soils on brooks of the valley bottoms by intensified processes of slope water influx and soil erosion. To investigate pollution state and soil-water interactions in a heavy metal enriched catchment, concentrations of Cd, Cu, and Pb were determined for catchment soils, sediment, suspended matter, and surface water of a brook situated close to a former smelter area. Heavy metal binding was characterized by BCR sequential extraction method. Total concentrations of Cd increased with the transition from catchment soils to brook sediments and suspended matter, while the proportions of the analyzed binding fractions partially changed. The concentrations of Cu and Pb in soils were marked by a higher heterogeneity and exceeded the concentrations found in sediments and suspended matter. For Pb, the proportions of binding fractions were relatively static, whereas the Cu binding fractions in suspended matter clearly differed in comparison with soils and sediments. For all studied heavy metals, an increase in the concentration of the respective dissolved fraction was found along the course of the brook