1. |
- Ronnås, Per, et al.
(author)
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Urbanisation, central planning and Tolley's model of urban growth : A critical review
- 1993
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier Ltd. - 1872-9398 .- 0016-7185. ; 24:2, s. 193-204
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The study of urbanisation under central planning, while rich in empirical documentation, still lacks a theory that can take recent advances in our understanding of the socialist (or formerly socialist) societies into account. However, one of a host of new developments in urbanisation studies, the model devised by Tolley, holds great promises in store to inform our endeavours to appreciate the circumstances under which the rural-to-urban drift might take place in a variety of settings. This prompts an effort to evaluate the model's potential contribution towards an improved comprehension of urbanisation in socialist polities. Although previous studies indicate that Tolley's model would seem to fit developments in China and that of other Soviet-type economies in a rather congenial manner, it is here suggested that it is not fully appropriate. As the original model is premised upon carefully specified causal links which are not present under central planning, the conclusions drawn from an apparent congruence of patterns derived from nationally aggregated statistics are spurious at best. Therefore, it is argued, while useful in other contexts Tolley's model sheds little light on urbanisation under central planning. More generally, scholars taking an interest in comparative urbanisation would benefit from studying the processes which mold the patterns in individual cases rather than merely comparing the patterns as such.
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2. |
- Acosta García, Nicolas, 1986, et al.
(author)
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The coloniality of power on the green frontier: commodities and violent territorialisation in Colombia's Amazon
- 2022
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185. ; 128, s. 192-201
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The dynamic frontier-making in Colombia's Amazon department of Caquet ' a is the focus of this article. Since the mid-nineteenth century, booms and busts of commodity production have been associated with violent struggles as actors have challenged pre-existing orders and authorities. At different times, the area has been controlled by the Catholic Church, the Colombian state, FARC and paramilitary groups, following the different boom-and-bust cycles of commodity production. We use this case to theorise on the general mechanisms behind frontier-making. Reading the frontier literature through the lens of the coloniality of power, we draw four interrelated categories to access frontier-making analytically: commodity production, dispossession, hegemon, and subjectivities. These are used to explain six distinct periods in the political economy of Caquet ' a and its spatial reconfigurations. We argue that current issues of distrust on the state, violence, and land grabbing, are best understood as part of a historical continuum of multiple actors keeping the area as a frontier space.
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3. |
- Adama, Onyanta, 1961-
(author)
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Abuja is not for the poor : Street vending and the politics of public space
- 2020
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 109, s. 14-23
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The article examines how street vendors in Abuja, Nigeria are experiencing and responding to the attempts to restrict their access to public space. Modernist planning and the increasing trend in the privatization of public space is limiting the amount and types of public spaces available to street vendors. Drawing largely on primary research, the article reports that street vendors are responding by adopting a range of spatial, relational and temporal tactics. Specifically, it cites the Ready-to-Run tactic, relocating to relatively more secure sites, informal relations and networks and operating at certain times of the day. Access to the street and mobility are key factors that shape the types of tactics adopted. Vendors prioritize proximity to the street in order to maximize access to potential customers. The highly mobile vendors are more likely to adopt spatial and temporal tactics, while the less mobile tend to rely on informal relations and networks. Furthermore, in the absence of formal organizing, individual agency is more prevalent. Where collective agency exists, it is often a response to an immediate challenge. Gender and age influence the experiences of vendors and the tactics adopted. The Abuja case is a notable example of the link between modernist planning, particularly the master plan approach and socio-spatial exclusion. As a city built from scratch, the plan laid the foundation for socio-spatial exclusion by planning the poor out of the city. The plan remains at the centre of contemporary urban politics, notably the relations between the state and informal workers.
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4. |
- Ahlborg, Helene, 1980
(author)
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Changing energy geographies: The political effects of a small-scale electrification project
- 2018
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185. ; 97, s. 268-280
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article contributes theoretically and empirically to our understanding about how a transition to ‘modern and sustainable energy for all’ may reconfigure the life of citizens who live ‘outside the grid’ in rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. My inquiry is inspired by the question posed by James Ferguson and Tania Murray Li: what do development schemes do? I analyse a renewable energy pilot project in Tanzania that was implemented by an NGO, which eventually failed to continue its service delivery but still produced important effects. Conceptually, I build on and extend previous arguments about how development projects produce depoliticizing effects, have ambiguous effects, and reproduce unequal relations of power. Building on feminist and sociotechnical relational approaches to power, I identify when and where in the encounter between energy project and local community that these, and other, effects emerge. Case study data was collected by qualitative methodology, and consists of project documentation, observation, and interviews with actors involved. The study shows how particular material, social, emotional, and economic effects emerged from the encounter between the project and local society. Feedback between technical problems, financial difficulties, and social tensions created a downward spiral resulting in system failure. It had negative effects on the credibility of actors and on trust relations. I argue that asking what decentralized electrification schemes actually ‘do’ can provide insight relevant to energy geography, as the focus on effects reveals the sociotechnical and political relations through which electricity becomes possible and how it may reconfigure local places. The case study shows why and how a small-scale, renewable energy project only temporarily repositioned actors and places, produced ambiguous effects, and maintained unequal power relations.
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5. |
- Ahlers, R., et al.
(author)
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Ambitious development on fragile foundations : Criticalities of current large dam construction in Afghanistan
- 2014
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier. - 0016-7185. ; 54, s. 49-58
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- High social, environmental and financial costs of dam construction during the past century provide valuable lessons for improving large infrastructure governance and enhancing dam safety. The Italian Vajont dam tragedy in 1963, for example, where the urgency to boost post-war economic development overruled cautionary site selection and reservoir filling, led to improved safety regulations. Today, Afghanistan is facing similar pressure to spur economic development. Revisiting Afghanistan's own dam history may inform decision-making over large scale dam development. For this, we refer to dam development in Afghanistan during the Cold War institutional constellation, which combined with the discourse on the role of dams in state formation, modernisation and development, profoundly shaped Afghanistan's landscape. Current dam development shows little evidence that any historic reflection is taking place; instead the discourse of infrastructure-as-prerequisite-for-development is consistently repeated. We argue that four factors compromise dam development in Afghanistan today: (1) lack of security; (2) an institutional context under transition; (3) absence of transboundary dialogue and agreements and (4) uncertain and fragmented aid provision. The complexity of dam development and operation is exacerbated by the extended temporal and spatial scale of their impact, thus placing a heavy burden on management- and planning capacity. Given these conditions, these dam development plans are built on fragile institutional foundations. To address their feasibility under such circumstances this paper links lessons from the past with the criticalities in future Afghan dam development.
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6. |
- Alami, Ilias, et al.
(author)
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The ‘wicked trinity’ of late capitalism : Governing in an era of stagnation, surplus humanity, and environmental breakdown
- 2024
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 153
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Scholars within the fields of political ecology, environmental political theory, and international political economy tend to evaluate the prospects of state-led environmental transitions in general terms – enquiring as to the capitalist state’s inherent properties and their environmental implications. Less attention has been paid to how the state’s green capacities are conditioned by contemporary evolutions in the form and pace of capital accumulation. Capitalism’s directional pattern of historical development poses unique challenges for green state projects. Its drive to raise labour productivity metabolises nature on a growing scale, while generating conditions of overproduction and rendering a progressively larger portion of the population superfluous to the production process. Thus, the question is not simply whether the state can rise to the challenge of climate change, but rather how states are scrambling to govern the intersecting crises of climate catastrophe, economic stagnation, and surplus humanity. This ‘wicked trinity’ compounds the tensions at the heart of the capitalist state, resulting in an increasing inability to perform its role while sustaining its liberal form. This governance trilemma is illustrated by the case of the solar photovoltaic boom, where the spectacular increase in the productivity and scale of solar panel manufacturing have generated oversupply and falling profitability. States have reacted by indefinitely providing subsidies, financing automation technologies that exacerbate labour superfluity, and relocating solar panel manufacturing to places with authoritarian labour regimes. The case of photovoltaics is a microcosm of the general predicament faced by states as they struggle to govern capitalism’s secular developmental tendencies.
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7. |
- Alatalo, Juha M., et al.
(author)
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The Swedish system : The image cracking when taking a closer look
- 2014
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 53, s. 82-83
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Research review (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Sweden has a high international profile regarding social issues and projects an image as one of the best countries in the world in terms of social indicators. Here we argue for a revised view as the reality is that Swedish system is very segregated, particularly in terms of (1) relative lack of women in positions of high influence, (2) it is the worst country in the EU28 regarding long-term unemployment for people born outside the country, and (3) it has a education system that after a number of reforms is involved in a "race towards the bottom" to profit from students. At the same time Sweden undervalues foreign academic qualifications and getting work largely depends on "who you know", not "what you know".
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8. |
- Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes, et al.
(author)
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Community, cohesion and context: agrarian development and religion in Eastern Region, Ghana
- 2014
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-9398 .- 0016-7185. ; 52, s. 78-89
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The role of community based dynamics in successful agrarian development is considered through comparing two neighbouring villages in Ghana, with similar agro-ecological conditions and market access: one, Gyedi, is a religious community and the other, Apaa, is not. While the direct role of religion in promoting agrarian development is limited, interaction with extension staff in Gyedi enables farmers to avoid problems characteristic of smallholder realities in Africa in general. Skills intensive technologies and internal market co-ordination promoted by community cohesion are key explanations for diverging development trajectories. The role of tenancy arrangements in diverging trajectories, pointing to the potential challenges for pro-poor agricultural growth strategies in other settings.
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9. |
- Andersson Djurfeldt, Agnes, et al.
(author)
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Pro-poor agricultural growth – Inclusion or differentiation? Village level perspectives from Zambia
- 2016
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier BV. - 0016-7185. ; 75, s. 220-233
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Over the past decade pro-poor agricultural growth strategies intended to raise smallholder productivity and increase commercialization among smallholders have been put forth as the key method for addressing poverty in rural Africa. By contrast perspectives that challenge this model question the market optimism and presumptions of higher smallholder efficiency that underpin the pro-poor agricultural growth model. Little longitudinal data exists that can shed light on questions related to sustainability of growth patterns and their distributional consequences at the village level, however. This paper uses a mixed methods approach to trace growth dynamics as well as the distributional aspects of such growth in terms of access to agrarian resources and local level labour relations. Quantitative data was used to select three villages in Zambia that had experienced pro-poor agricultural growth between 2002 and 2008. These villages were re-surveyed in 2013 and supplementary qualitative data was collected. Two of the three villages showed sustainable growth patterns. While the sources of such growth as well their distributional outcomes were different in the two villages, the reasons for such differences are related to Zambian agricultural policy as well as geography.
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10. |
- Andersson, Ida, fil. dr. 1982-, et al.
(author)
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Regional policy mobilities : Shaping and reshaping bioeconomy policies in Värmland and Västerbotten, Sweden
- 2021
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In: Geoforum. - : Elsevier. - 0016-7185 .- 1872-9398. ; 121, s. 142-151
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Interest has grown over recent years in policy programs targeting a green, bio-based economy. In the European Union, the European Commission promotes the development of bioeconomy policy and encourages the use of biomass and waste for industrial purposes. Alongside these technical dimensions, European bioeconomy policy also promotes knowledge sharing, learning from others, and so-called ‘best practice’. Consequently, many European places and policymakers that have committed to developing a bio-based economy are now sharing their positive policy experiences. However, sharing ‘best practice’ for green economy policy programs has sometimes been described as producing oversimplified views of complex climate issues. Despite such criticisms, policymakers continue to search for and share bioeconomy policy ‘best practice’. This paper explores the development of bioeconomy policy with a focus on shareability and dissemination of ‘best practice’ in two Swedish regions, Värmland and Västerbotten. Herein, we adopt the conceptual underpinnings of urban policy mobilities to explain green policymaking, and more specifically bioeconomy policy development on a regional scale. So far, policy mobilities research has had a primarily urban focus, whereas this paper provides valuable insights into how these processes take place within regional and more peripheral settings. Thus, we seek to understand the role of ‘best practice’ in the development of regional bioeconomy policies and which elements of these policies are promoted as transferable elsewhere.
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