DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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Book review: Österreich. Raum und Gesellschaft. Vermessung der Landschaft. Porträts der Bundesländer: Martin Seger
No full textChallenging the imperial mode of living by challenging ELSEWHERE: spatial narratives and justice
Full text linkThis article frames imperial lifestyles as a problem of global justice and discusses the spatial logic that engenders the actual discrepancy between this moral standard of equal rights and reality. It claims that the notion of ELSEWHERE, as Brand and Wissen (2022) put it, plays a central role in understanding the conditions that allow this grossly unjust global separation between responsibility and effect to be stable. In doing this, it establishes the concept of communities of justice that determine the boundaries of moral responsibility and analyses the global spatial logic that underlies the course of these boundaries, as they are experienced in everyday life. The Westphalian system of sovereign nation states is its main component but certainly not the only one. Finally, it sheds light on current attempts to challenge this spatial logic as well as their potentials and limitations
(Counter-)Imperial Mode of Living and Surviving: contextualizations from South America
Full text linkThe notion of the imperial mode of living (IML) has been widely taken up in both academic, activist and sociopolitical contexts. More recently, scholars have begun to explore the concept not only theoretically, but also empirically, dealing with how the IML works in practice. We see great potential for human geography to ground the IML. To do so, in this article we introduce a set of five geographical cornerstones on the IML, stating that (1) the IML demonstrates that capitalism requires a non-capitalist outside, (2) the IML relies on infrastructural colonialism constituted by global value chains, (3) the IML is tied to current notions of development, (4) the critique of the IML concept challenges the patriarchal order and that (5) the IML conditions a counter-imperial mode of living. Reflecting on soybean cultivation, transhumance and lithium mining in South America, we show that grounding the IML not only requires a critical analysis of the dominant power relations, but also a consideration of opposing tendencies. In this context, we observe that a reproduction of global discourses inherent to the IML often leads to an ‘imperial mode of surviving’ locally. In contrast, we understand protest movements and conflicts as a ‘counter-imperial mode of living’
The Anthropocene beyond stratigraphy – towards a normative imperative for science and universities
Full text linkThe Anthropocene, regardless of which interpretation of content and time one follows, is characterised by the fact that humans have become one, if not the global driver and creator. The increasingly intensive interventions in the Earth system result in global challenges that increasingly call the future of all humankind into question. A way out of this crisis situation only seems possible by means of a comprehensive socio-ecological transformation. In the context of this dualism between challenges and solution options, science is expected and demanded to take on a central role in overcoming the existential crisis. In order to fulfil this social responsibility, the science system must transform itself and overcome inherent lock-ins that have so far prevented significant impacts beyond the academic world. In the sense of a ‘normative imperative for science in general and universities in particular’ (also see Allerberger and Stötter 2022, this issue), we aim to provide starting points for such a self-transformation in relation to four different fields of action of universities. These include transdisciplinary and transformative research, among others, to fulfil the Third Mission, overcoming excellence fetishism, teaching that empowers students to deal with challenges in a solution-oriented way, and a completely different attitude towards the governance of universities, including changes in the dimensions of culture, structure, communication and cooperation
Gender and mobility in the car-dependent urban society of Muscat/ Oman
Full text linkThis article aims at analysing women’s possibilities in Muscat/Oman to participate in society by being mobile. Taking Muscat’s highly diversified population into account, we included both Omani and Indian family households in a mixedmethods approach using predominantly qualitative interviews. As a result of the urbanisation and modernisation process of the last five decades, the Capital Area of Muscat today forms a linear urban corridor that extends over roughly 80 km. The specific spatial context of a fast growing and widely dispersed urban space, as well as a well-developed road infrastructure combined with a high availability of individual cars are the reasons why individual mobility is predominantly car-based. For the analysis of Omani and Indian women’s mobility the concept of motility was chosen as theoretical framework. Considering the categories access, competence and appropriation, the concept offers a particular enlightening perspective for the case of Muscat, where the socioeconomic position as well as social norms and cultural restrictions play a decisive role in women’s mobility
The moral branding of Fairtrade: Opportunities and pitfalls of visual representations in the Fairtrade system – empirical insights on the perspectives of German consumers
Full text linkThe Fairtrade system can be considered as one of the most successful real-world experiments of alternative economies. However, Fairtrade more than other alternative economic approaches relies on mass market mechanisms and the sale of its products via conventional distribution channels and retail outlets. To gradually transform the ‘unfair’ mechanisms of world trade and to achieve its social and environmental goals, Fairtrade requires a constant growth in sales. This also means that the marketing of Fairtrade goods in the consumer countries is subject to established capitalist mechanisms of advertising and demand creation. Although Fairtrade’s brand building aims at differentiation through alternative values of cooperation, trust, and fairness, it also works within the constraints of simplified and abridged advertising messages. More often than not, contrasts and stereotypes are over-emphasized – a phenomenon that critics call the ‘exploitation of difference’. In this way, new forms of ‘distancing’ and ‘othering’ are constantly built up and reinforced. Individuals, livelihoods, production practices, and entire landscapes in the Global South become commodified and are used for brand development and sales promotion. This paper examines these issues based on interviews and a questionnaire survey among German consumers. Our empirical insights indicate that the visual language used for Fairtrade marketing has to be targeted to critical consumers, who are increasingly skeptical of overly moralizing and simplified images with exaggerated contrasts between the ‘different worlds’ of producers in the South and consumers in the North. However, it should also be noted that Fairtrade Germany is increasingly aware of challenges in its visual communication and is intensively reflecting on its visual language
Changing territorialities in the Argentine Andes: lithium mining at Salar de Olaroz-Cauchari and Salinas Grandes
Full text linkIn the context of climate change, electro-mobility has become a symbol of hope to reduce the emissions of the growing transport sector. At the same time, it has also renewed interest in strategic resources utilized in battery production, such as lithium. In the areas of extraction, reactions to lithium mining range from hope for paid work and increased in-come to resistance and conflict. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork stays realized between February 2018 and August 2019, this article associates the opposed reactions to lithium mining in the communities of the drainage basins of Salar de Olaroz-Cauchari and Salinas Grandes-Guayatayoc with divergent territorialities. In doing so, historically different strategies – resistance and negotiation – of dealing with overlapping territorialities can be identified. Based on a reciprocal relationship, different strategies and divergent territorialities are mutually dependent. In the two case studies, the new territoriality related to the global market implies diverging socio-spatial consequences with different risks. Using the example of lithium mining, it can thus be shown that the sustainability transition continues to be based on social-ecological inequalities and global asymmetries of power
Uneven time-space of unpaid reproductive work: an intersectional analysis of the Balearic Islands
Full text linkThis paper aims to examine the relationship between social reproduction and the production of space and, more specifically, the role of unpaid reproductive work in the unequal production of urban space. Although many studies have addressed the social dimension of space in cities, there nevertheless remains a lack of theory relating to the production of space through the oppression and privilege associated, with or caused by, the relations of social reproduction. With the aim of helping to fill this gap, the spatiality of unpaid reproductive work was studied through intersectional analysis. This was done by exploring the spatial practice of the temporary load of unpaid reproductive work as an element responsible for inequality and by relating this to the dimensions of: 1) space and time, and 2) class, sex and age. This intersectional approach allowed us to analyse inequalities in social reproduction and identify spaces of privilege and spaces of oppression in terms of unpaid reproductive work. The study focused on the Balearic Islands and used the latest Time Use Survey (TUS) available in Spain. It is a dialogue between critical urban geography, urban sociology and feminist theory, which makes it possible to visualise the power relations and urban inequality that have derived from the sexual division of labour within the logic of historical capitalism
China’s Belt and Road rail freight transport corridors – the economic geography of underdevelopment
Full text linkTraffic volumes between China, Europe and Central Asia through China’s ‘CR Express’ intercontinental rail freight system remain intransparent. We sought new methods of data collection to better understand the significance of this novel trans-Eurasian transport mode. Cumulative causation economic theory can explain how positive industrial development can occur in both linear transport corridors and industrial cluster development in node cities. However on current economic metrics, it is difficult to accept the China narrative of structurally transformative economic development resulting from the intercontinental rail system policy. This paper expresses doubt as to the underlying institutional factors behind the intercontinental rail system being developed by China and its surrounding Eurasian transport policy. We detail the economic theory underpinning the development of the ‘CR Express’ policy through examination of China central level transport policy sources and their horizontal integration with other central-level spatial planning policies, and we examine the deployment of China’s model of intercontinental rail development in the ‘Middle Corridor’ between the Kazakhstan border and Eastern European ports. Both theory and practice point to supply-side development of greater containerised transport capacity resulting in complementarity-driven economic growth clusters. However, without adequate demand, industrial investment in Eurasian clusters, or transparent statistics with which to gauge either the rail freight logistics development or the economic development spill-over effects, we expect to find the initial practical economic results in the Eurasian economies underwhelming. We argue that China’s Eurasian transport policies are not multifaceted enough to result in future growth
Just transitions through digitally enabled sharing economies?
Full text linkDigital technologies have become central to social interaction and accessing goods and services. Development strategies and approaches to governance have increasingly deployed self-labelled ‘smart’ technologies and systems at various spatial scales, often promoted as rectifying social and geographic inequalities and increasing economic and environmental efficiencies. These have also been accompanied with similarly digitalized commercial and non-profit offers, particularly within the sharing economy. Concern has grown, however, over possible inequalities linked to their introduction. In this paper we critically analyse the role of sharing economies’ contribution to more inclusive, socially equitable and spatially just transitions. Conceptually, this paper brings together literature on sharing economies, smart urbanism and just transitions. Drawing on an explorative database of sharing initiatives within the cross-border region of Luxembourg and Germany, we discuss aspects of sustainability as they relate to distributive justice through spatial accessibility, intended benefits, and their operationalization. The regional analysis shows the diversity of sharing models, how they are appropriated in different ways and how intent and operationalization matter in terms of potential benefits. Results emphasize the need for more fine-grained, qualitative research revealing who is, and is not, participating and benefitting from sharing economies