DIE ERDE – Journal of the Geographical Society of Berlin
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Co-producing just and sustainable localities: emphasising the role of local authorities in current practices in Germany
Full text linkIn current debates on socio-ecological transformation, a growing number of stakeholders are highlighting the need to consistently move away from growth pressures. Several urban and rural development initiatives are pioneering alternative local production and consumption patterns in sustainable and integrated land use. Taking a spatial perspective, we discuss promising initiatives in three fields which we see as paradigmatic for a new kind of co-produced local development geared to a fairer and more sustainable future: co-operation projects between municipalities and community enterprises, participatory approaches to sustainable land use in rural communities, and collaborative development for sustainable urban residential estates. The aim of the paper is to discuss the transformative potential of these paradigmatic initiatives and what should be done to serve their interests and promote their mainstreaming. We draw on a diverse economies framing (Gibson-Graham 2008), arguing that it is important to bring these nascent post-growth practices to the attention of academic practice as well as politicians. Understanding these newly emerging practices in their potential and constraints is key to ultimately stimulating broader societal trend towards more just and sustainable localities. We argue that German municipalities have a fair amount of leeway in shaping the interplay of stakeholders and the interface between bottom-up initiatives and top-down steering policies towards just and sustainable localities. Our analysis emphasises the agency of local municipalities and their discretionary power to initiate change and transformation
How do social innovations contribute to growth-independent territorial development? Case studies from a Swiss mountain region
Full text linkIn this article we investigate the role of social innovations in territorial development. More specifically we examine the ways in which social innovations can contribute to growth-independent local and regional development. By growth-independent territorial development we understand the ways in which a society, including its economy and its institutions, can continue to fulfill its functions such as providing public services, while not being existentially dependent on economic growth. Growth independence is a precondition for a post-growth society. Based on case studies of social innovations in the Bernese Oberland (Switzerland), this article shows that the examined social innovations can contribute to economic growth independence through entrepreneurial decisions that foster (re-)localization, de-commercialization, low capital intensity, and self-governance. These decisions help make the social innovation initiatives growth-independent and hence they contribute to a post-growth society. Our research adds to the literature on the role of social innovation for a post-growth society and clarifies the role of socially innovative initiatives in territorial development
Revaluating “Germany’s worst street”. Commercial gentrification on Leipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße?
Full text linkLeipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße in Germany is currently discussed from different points of view. Ethnicity, crime, but also urban growth and revaluation processes are in the center of the discourse. As one of the city’s high streets, the Eisenbahnstraße and its two surrounding quarters show changes in the commercial structure, which are claimed to be gentrification processes. This paper aims to analyze both the process by using the concept of commercial gentrification and its local perception. This is done by mapping current commercial uses in the retail, service and gastronomy sector, categorizing them, and comparing them to secondary data. Apart from that, local stakeholder’s perspectives are evaluated based on 16 structured interviews conducted with shop owners on the one hand, and a survey among 105 passersby on the street on the other hand. The material indicates that the Eisenbahnstraße is currently in an initial phase of commercial gentrification. This is displayed by diversification of supply and demand structures, represented by the arrival of new potential customers, but also by a diversification of business concepts. Apart from that, commercial activities experience a strong increase in the area and have led to spatial dispersion from the high street to neighboring roads. We argue that Leipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße follows partially the East German gentrification path, as until now no displacement is identified, but the case also stands out due to the important role of ethnicity in commercial structures
Between food growing and leisure: contemporary allotment gardeners in Western Germany and Poland
Full text linkBis in die Mitte des 20. Jahrhundert waren das Kleingartenwesen in Deutschland und Polen weitgehend vergleichbar. Aufgrund der historischen und sozioökonomischen Transformationen in beiden Ländern im 20. und frühen 21. Jahrhundert haben sich die heutigen Kleingärten in beiden Ländern ausdifferenziert. Als Folge davon hat sich auch das Profil der Kleingärtnerinnen und –gärtner geändert. Der vorliegende Artikel identifiziert Merkmale der heutigen Gärtnerinnen und Gärtner aus Deutschland und Polen. Um Einblicke in die komplexen Charakteristika zeitgenössischer Kleingärtnerinnen und -gärtner zu gewinnen, führten die Autoren Befragungen in Kleingärten in der Region Westfalen-Lippe in Deutschland und in der Region Wielkopolska in Polen sowie strukturierte Interviews mit den Vorsitzenden der in die Studie einbezogenen Kleingartenvereine sowie vertiefte Interviews mit den Geschäftsführern der regionalen Kleingartenverbände durch. Einige Materialien wurden durch eigene Beobachtungen bei Studienbesuchen in beiden Regionen gewonnen.
Die Forschungsergebnisse zeigen, dass ein/e typische/r deutsche/r Kleingärtner/in in erster Linie ein/e Produzent/in und Ökologe/in ist, der/die auf die Erhaltung der Biodiversität in seinem/ihrem Kleingarten achtet. Im Gegensatz dazu ist ein/e typische/r polnische/r Kleingartennutzer/in eher ein/e Gärtner/in, der/die sich im Garten vorwiegend ausruht und den Garten auch für Urlaube nutzt. Im Gegensatz zur multinationalen Gemeinschaft der deutschen Kleingartennutzer ist ihr polnisches Pendant in Bezug auf die Nationalität praktisch homogen. Allerdings ist in beiden Ländern die Gemeinschaft der Gärtnerinnen und Gärtner nicht abschließend definierbar, da sie, ausgelöst durch einen Generationswechsel in vielen Kleingärten einer weiteren Entwicklung unterworfen ist.Allotment gardens have existed in Europe for 170 years and have changed their functions over time. While the scholarly literature emphasizes the economic, social and ecological benefits of allotment gardens, little is known about today’s allotment gardeners, especially in different geopolitical environments. This paper describes allotment gardeners’ profiles based on empirical data obtained from surveys conducted in two countries with, on the one hand, a long tradition of allotment gardens and, on the other hand, a recent history of belonging to two different geopolitical regions: Poland and West Germany. Inspired by the cultural-geographical approach that acknowledges that the gardening practice is influenced by culture and based on the method of non-hierarchical “k-means” clustering, this paper identifies characteristics of today’s allotment gardeners from the region of Westphalia-Lippe in Germany and of Wielkopolska in Poland. Significant differences in profiles were factored together in the statistical analysis based on garden practices and the meanings attributed to these practices as reported by the gardeners in the survey. As a result, German gardeners can be described first and foremost as urban farmers and ecologists, while Polish allotmenteers seem to prefer using their gardens for leisure (as well as a holiday retreat) and for ornamental purposes. Results can inform municipalities, stakeholders and garden organizations who are interested in adjusting existing allotment garden areas to meet future needs. However, in both countries the community of gardeners cannot be conclusively defined, as it is subject to further development, triggered by a generational change in many allotment gardens. For instance, in the context of the recent COVID-19 crisis, a significant increase in demand for allotment plots has been reported in both countries, which again confirms their role in times of crisis
Book review: Stadterneuerung in Klein- und Mittelstädten. Jahrbuch Stadterneuerung.: Altrock, Uwe, Detlef Kurth, Ronald Kunze, Holger Schmidt, Gisela Schmitt (Hrsg.). Wiesbaden 2020
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Brazils Highway BR-319: The road to the collapse of the Amazon and the violation of indigenous rights
Full text linkOne of the greatest threats to the Brazilian Amazon is the reconstruction and paving of the formerly abandoned Highway BR-319, which would link one of the most conserved blocks in the Amazon forest to the “arc of deforestation” on the southern edge of the region where most forest has already been destroyed. BR-319 and its planned side roads would allow the actors and processes from the arc of deforestation to move into vast areas of unprotected rainforest. In the specific case of this highway, a judicial decision that is not subject to further appeal established that environmental studies for the first section of the highway to be reconstructed (“Lot C”) must be carried out before paving. The federal highway department and the “Civil House” of President Bolsonaro’s presidential office ignored this decision and issued a call for bids for the construction work. Due to the current lack of governance in the BR-319 area and the history of deforestation whenever Amazonian highways are built, the decision on whether to suspend the contract for the “Lot C” is critical for the maintenance of both the ecosystem services of the Amazon forest and the way of life of indigenous and riverside people. This decision is expected to be made shortly by a single person
Book review: Ernährung, Stadt und soziale Ungleichheit. Barrieren und Chancen für den Zugang zu Lebensmitteln in deutschen Städten: Hanna Augustin. Bielefeld 2020
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Brazilian government violates Indigenous rights: What could induce a change?
Full text linkThe current presidential administration of Brazil has implemented a legislative agenda aimed at weakening protections of Indigenous peoples, in line with an ideological discourse and the direct participation of the armed forces in this process. This agenda has enabled invasions of Indigenous lands and a much higher COVID-19 mortality rate for Indigenous peoples when compared to non-Indigenous people. A bill recently approved by the Chamber of Deputies aims to extinguish all Indigenous lands established by the Brazilian government from 1988 onwards. This bill represents the official opening for violation of the rights of Indigenous peoples by the Bolsonaro administration and facilitates invasion of Indigenous lands. The president’s multiple efforts to weaken or deny protection of these peoples, to usurp their lands and to deny their rights to consultation on projects that affect them need to be judged by Brazil’s Federal Supreme Court, the UN Human Rights Council, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR) and the International Criminal Court
Ambiguous avant-gardes and their geographies: on blank spots of the postgrowth debate
Full text linkIn the following article, the focus is on the transformative potentials created by so-called persistence avant-gardes and prevention innovators. The text extends Blühdorn’s guiding concept of narratives of hope (Blühdorn 2017; Blühdorn and Butzlaff 2019) by considering those groups that are marginalized within debates on socio-ecological transformation. With a closer look at the narratives of prevention and blockade that these actors engage, the ambiguous nature of postgrowth avant-gardes is carved out. Their discursive, argumentative, and effective inhibition of transitory policies is interpreted as a pro-active potential, rather than a mere obstacle to socio-ecological transformation. Adding a geographical perspective, the paper pleads for a more precise theoretical penetration of the ambivalent figure of avant-gardes when analyzing processes of local and regional postgrowth