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Term
Definition
Global cities:
A city generally considered to be an E.g. New York to
important node in the global
America, Hong Kong to
economic system.
China, Saudi Arabia
Counter-urbanisation:
When large populations move from E.g. sea changers or tree
urban centres to rural areas
changers
Megacity:
Very large characterised by both
primacy and high centrality within
its national economy
E.g. Mumbai, India.
Cultural traits:
Single aspect of the complex of
routine practices that constitute a
particular cultural group.
E.g. Sport patriotism,
comradery, worshipping
of icons, totems,
symbols, drinking
alcohol at events.
Cultural complex:
Combination of traits characteristic E.g. the above forming a
of a particular group.
sports team, a large
festival concert,
Rites of passage:
Acts, customs, procedures or
practices that recognise key
transitions in human life.
Cultural region/ Cultural
system –
Accumulation of area that generally Asia
shares cultural norms.
Cultural imperialism
Cultures become homogenised
through co-option and contact with
dominant, powerful cultures
(structuralist viewpoint)
– Cultures are subsumed and
diminished, disappear
Americanisation
Hybrid Geographies
Thesis
Emphasises the malleability of
culture, looks at how agency
operates to reinterpret pre- existing
cultural systems. It is OPEN. (focus
on individual agency)
– Cultures engage and borrow, there
is exchange.
Local place and
individual specificities
reinterpret the 'spread' of
American capitalist
corporations to their own
values.
Triple Bottom line of
sustainability
Social, economic, environmental
Water sustainability is
placed on the triple
bottom line.
Think Copenhagen
Economic Rationalist
Neoliberalists
Privatisation of Water
utilities
Poststructuralism:
‘A post-1960s intellectual
movement that countered the
perceived rigidities, certainties and
essentialism thought to characterise
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Example
18th birthday party,
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structuralism.’
Postcolonialism:
‘An intellectual movement
originating in literary and cultural
studies concerned with the diverse,
uneven and contested impact of
colonialism on the cultures of
colonising and colonised
peoples...’
Assemblage
An aggregate with a certain
consistency being created from an
active, ad hoc and ongoing
entanglement of elements
Culture of camel assemblages –
‘reveals processes and relations
beyond the individual animal and
species, which are currently
marginalised in management
strategies’.
Gender
Feminine and masculine
Determines the characteristics that
a society or culture delineates as
masculine or feminine.
One can identify as
either, or neither gender.
Sex
Refers to biologically based
differences.
Male, Female
Dowry conditions
Payments that were made when a
woman got married to the Male
family
Payment brought by a
bride to her husband on
their
marriage: Elizabeth's
dowry was to be £45,000
in diamonds.
Paradoxical Space
Translated by others as Third space.
The hybrid – influenced by cyborg
theories (Haraway) and aim to upset
the dualism that dominates
geographic thought.
• ‘someone is liminally positioned
within a clash of two or more
cultures or belief systems – to
consider the ways women in
particular enter these liminal
spaces’ (Bardzell & Bardzell,
2010:3).
‘places that do not make
sense, results of mistakes,
of unfinished intentions,
of quick solutions or of
the unplanned, and
discovered 'roads to
nowhere',
'one-bank bridges',
'benches on which one
can not seat' and 'parking
lanterns'.
Intersectionality
the interconnected nature of social
categorizations such as race, class,
and gender as they apply to a given
NOT Intersectional
Feminism: Black
feminism and white
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individual or group, regarded as
creating overlapping and
interdependent systems of
discrimination or disadvantage
--> it marginalises individuals as it
categorises further rather than
unifies
feminism segregated as
two different things
Intersectional Feminism:
Feminism as a single,
overlapping belief
without discrimination.
Ecocentric approach to
value:
Ecosystems are inherently and
intrinsically valuable, speaks from
the position of ecology rather than
human values.
– Deep ecology
– no absolute divide
between humanity and
everything else
– diverse and complex
relations constitutes the
universe
– treat with respect
rather than exploitation
Anthropocentric approach
to value
approach to resource management
which is human centred, non-human
entities have value instrumentally
vis-à-vis humans
– Shallow green ecology
– worth conserving
environs for the
environmental services
they offer
E.g. recycling paper
based on economic
benefit rather than
environmental benefit
Environmental justice
An attempt to broaden the definition
and scope of environmentalism to
include the basic needs of poor and
politically less powerful groups.
How can developed
countries in the core ask
developing countries to
stop emitting carbon
when they really need the
use of carbon to develop
and grow their country?
These groups that aren't
even responsible for the
problem in the first place
Glocalisation
Globalising products --> mixing
culture and diversity to products
E.g. Sydney's Tetsuya's
Japanese chef, French
style and Australian fresh
product.
--> go against homogenisation of
products perspective (tradition
belief)
The green economy
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is defined as an economy that aims Carbon tax
at reducing environmental risks and
ecological scarcities, and that aims Incentivising green
for sustainable development without
degrading the environment. It is
closely related with
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ecological economics, but has a
more politically applied focus
Triple bottom line
Environmental, social and economic
balance
Colonialism:
The establishment and
maintenance of political and legal
domination by a state over a
separate and alien society.
Imperialism:
Extension of the power of a nation
Direct or indirect control of the
economic and political life of other
territories. (Knox and Marstan)
hegemonic influence
Ruling or dominant in a political or
social context
nutrition transition
Shift from plant-based diets to high Chicken consumption
animal-based foods, oils and fats,
and processed sugars and carbs.
"Nutricentric Citizen"
OECD countries experience more
food diversity and food security,
while semi-periphery nations are to
an extent
Importance of Place in Global Processes and vise versa.


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
Processes of geography are contingent to the technologies of the time
Hearth areas "Agricultural-based mini systems"
o Agricultural economies --> concentration of populations around river systems
with agricultural sustained systems.
o There began trade, pastoralism, (domestication of animals), irrigation
Example: Growth of Early Empires
Egypt and the Nile River is an example where a regional economy was formed on the
basis of having a stable agricultural resource from the nearby water. This allowed for the
proliferation of other global processes to form: military power, inter-regional trade,
colonisation and urbanisation etc.
World Empire: group of mini systems that have been absorbed into a common political
system
Expansion of systems to larger powers
E.g. Egypt, China, Greece (Rome), Byzantium, America
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

From these empires: Colonisation and urbanisation
Colonisation: The physical settlement in a new territory of people from a colonising
state. The establishment and maintenance of political and legal domination by a state
over a separate and alien society.
Colonial world- empires; strong central state: China, India, America
Urbanisation: Process by which a greater proportion of a population increases over time


What were the intentions of exploration
Social, economic and scientific benefits
This had an affect of Colonialism
Colonialism: The establishment and maintenance of political and legal domination by a
state over a separate and alien society.
Imperialism: extension of the power of a nation Direct or indirect control of the
economic and political life of other territories. (Knox and Marstan)

Capitalism and imperialism are Symbiotic
The system is characterised by the separation of those who own the means of
production and those who work for them
Marxist analyst of terms:
Capitalist: workers and bourgeoisie. Surplus to shareowners via wage labour
Socialism: workers own the means of production and distribute surplus amongst
themselves and reinvest
Communism: State on behalf of the people owns production and distribute to ALL the
people of the nation
World Systems Theory
Interdependent system of countries linked by economic and political competition
WST divides the globe into core, periphery and semi-periphery areas:
 Core: those regions that dominate in trade, tech, productivity and economic
diversity
 Periphery: regions with dependent and disadvantageous trading relations, poor
tech, specialised economies and low predictably
 Semi Periphery: sit between them. Transition regions that exploit the Periphery but
are in turn exploited by the core.



Dependency theory:
First world countries developed because of colonial relationships which underdeveloped
those places.
Wealth has a net flow from Periphery to the Core, so that the Periphery will always
struggle to 'develop' while in trade with the Core.
Developments must occur through breaking or completely reforging relations with the
core and substituting to domestic trade agreements
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Globalisation

The increasing INTERCONNECTEDNESS of different parts of the world through
common processes of economic, environmental, political, and cultural change.
Globalisation today is qualitatively different
1. Greater speed of global connections
2. Larger scale – only a few people not entangled in someway- economic systems,
technology etc.
3. Scope is broader – economic, technological, political, legal, social, cultural.
4. High complexity in interactions and interdependencies

Driven by technology, cultural preferences, mediated by cultures, economies, politics,
and more…
Commodity chains
 Networks of labour and production processes that originate in the extraction or
production of raw materials and whose end result is the delivery and consumption of a
finished commodity.
 E.g. Iphone commodity chain --> outsourcing their production which is unethical in
peripheral countries.
Globalisation consensus

‘national economies with more liberalization of trade and finance, higher market
integration across borders, easier hostile takeovers of corporations and a narrower
economic role of the state experience higher economic growth, less poverty, higher
social mobility and less inequality than those with less, other things being equal.’
(Wade, 2010:143-144).
o Argues that a free market is better for the economic and social development

That globalisation consensus has provided the dominant economic narrative for over
thirty years – associated with early days of Reagan and Thatcher. It holds that a general
process of globalisation will drive a general process of catch-up growth.
o They suggest the Core will "trickle down" the economy to the development and
'catch up' of the peripheries.
o Amplifying the affect of capitalism.

China contributing to much of the development and growth of peripheral nations.
Today’s disorganised capitalism

Complex qualitative changes have affected economy, society, culture and politics,
especially:
o – New spaces of flows
o – economic, social, cultural
o – New spaces of places
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– global embedded in local?
– State neoliberalism: less state regulation of flows, support the thesis that markets
rule
By 2010, sixty per cent of world trade occurs within transnational corporations (TNCs)
and their networks/alliances
o
o

Material: objects and non-human entities…tangible
Discourse: ‘institutionalised ways of constituting knowledge’
Concluding comments
 Capitalism is a force of globalisation – bringing about material and discursive changes
in the way people live (Albrow and King, 1990)

Questioning its dynamics, including the costs and benefits of ‘free’ trade and
commodity chains that entrench inequity, can be done partly through spatial and
economic analysis.
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Cultural Geographies
• Culture cannot be fixed, but is fluid and dynamic
• Culture is a process but it is EMBODIED in the material and social world
• Includes social practices which shape shared meaning and those that are shaped by
shared meanings
• Important for identity, community cohesion
• Includes power relations
How then does culture connect to place – and geography?
• Systems of meaning interact with the specialties of place
• People are embodied in places
• Social relations and power relations are embedded in place
Cultural traits: single aspect of the complex of routine practices that constitute a particular
cultural group.
Cultural complex: combination of traits characteristic of a particular group.
Rites of passage: acts, customs, procedures or practices that recognise key transitions in
human life.
Hybrid geographies – focus on the spaces between (Sarah Whatmore’s work) – and the
interconnections rather than separations between categories, ranging from nature/culture
binaries, private/public, white/black.
 Often associated with movements across racial binaries.
 Emphasise that identities are not fixed and subtle understandings of the formation of
human beings as cultural subjects is required (Mahtani 2001).
Cultural imperialism vs hybridity
 Cultural imperialism: cultures become homogenised through co-option and contact with
dominant, powerful cultures (structuralist viewpoint)
– Cultures are subsumed and diminished, disappear.
 Hybridity emphasises the malleability of culture, looks at how agency operates to
reinterpret pre- existing cultural systems. It is OPEN. (focus on individual agency)
– Cultures engage and borrow, there is exchange.
Conclusion
 Culture is a complex process, rather than a thing, and changes over time, in part
through interactions in places.
 Culture and place are intricately interwoven, whether in Indigenous cultures, water
cultures or ‘western’ culture.
 Structural perspectives emphasise processes of cultural dominance or imperialism
 Agency perspectives emphasise processes of cultural hybridity and dynamic change.
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Sex and Gender



Mapping social and cultural difference
Early feminism – aims and politics
Later feminism
– Social, liberal, psychoanalytic, radical


Postmodern and postcolonial feminist geography
Digital spaces and cultural geographies
Gender – feminine and masculine. Which can refer to either social roles based on the sex of
the person (gender role) or personal identification of one's own gender based on an internal
awareness.
Sex refers to biologically based differences. The anatomy of an individual's reproductive
system, and biological characteristics.
Let’s examine feminism as a global force of change – situating it historically and seeing
how it has worked to resist capitalism and the patriarchy.
Early feminism (1550-1700)
• Social and cultural focus – not politically organised
 Mary Astell’s literature
• ‘Feminist’ not conceptualised until late 1800s – first French, then UK
• Addressing inequalities – to change attitudes
– Men controlled women’s movements
– Dowry conditions: an amount of property or money brought by a bride to her
husband on their marriage.
First Wave Feminism
 Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication on the Rights of Women’ 1792
 Emphasised need to make women educated and rational
 Did not envisage women leaving domestic sphere
 Women should use their education as part of their traditional role as a female
wife.
 Key personalities and campaigns


Caroline Norton – women’s rights as parents and marriage law campaigns.
THE VOTE!
Second wave feminism
 Advocated for the revival of the new generation to overcome the forces of capitalism
as an oppressive and perpetuated the inequality of women.
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Multiple forms of feminism


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
Liberal feminist tradition – tinker with status quo, not refigure. Put women in the
workplace and on board with high paying corporate jobs and then feminism will
Trickle down.
Radical feminism – feminism the theory/lesbianism the practice
Social feminism – attack Marxism’s failure to offer any materialist analysis of
women’s oppression; critiques Marxist and argues that reproduction can be a means
of contributing work to society.
Psychoanalytic feminism – the unconscious is the locus of all oppression – both men
and women subservient to the patriarchy
– But what can we DO here then?
Poststructuralism: ‘A post-1960s intellectual movement that countered the perceived
rigidities, certainties and essentialism thought to characterise structuralism.’ (Dictionary
of Human Geography, p 571)
Postcolonialism: ‘An intellectual movement originating in literary and cultural studies
concerned with the diverse, uneven and contested impact of colonialism on the cultures
of colonising and colonised peoples...’ (Dictionary of Human Geography, p 561).
Poststrucutural feminist geography
• Soja (1989) Postmodern Geographies and Harvey’s (1989) Condition of
Postmodernity critiqued for:
– Containing unexamined sexism – don’t position themselves!
 Although this is largely untrue because poststructuralists must acknowledge
they come from a background - rich, poor, male, female, white, ethnic,
educated, etc in order to write in a tone that acknowledges they ARE part of
the geography they are writing in (and shouldn’t try to conceal this either)
– Contain construction of postmodernity to the exclusion of women and
feminism!
– Don’t acknowledge racism/patriarchy as important parts of social relations!
 It exists but by not writing about it, it shows how twisted your literature is.
– Produce another grand narrative!

Seeks to uncover the ways in which colonisation continues through the elevation of
white, western experience and through the objectification and homogenisation of
‘others’, whether places or people... Johnson (2000) Placebound
Intersectionality in geography
‘In other words, in our contemporary concern to theorize the intersection of categories we
must not lose sight of the fact that the specific social structures of patriarchy,
heteronormativity, oralism, and so on that so preoccupied feminists of the 1970s still matter.
As such this article ends with a call for feminism, and specifically feminist geography, to
reengage with questions of structural inequalities and power, while at the same time retaining
a concern for theorizing the relationship between multiple categories and structures.’
(Valentine, 2007: 19)
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Global Forces to the Digital Sphere
Social media spaces for anti-sexism (like Destroy the Joint and Everyday Sexism) provide
meeting points for further engagement with feminist issues. The feminist revitalisation has
global reach and works to reinforce simultaneous campaigns and interventions.
For instance, Destroy the Joint social media pages cross-reference #everydaysexism and
#yesallwomen and invite followers to contribute to these globally-linked discursive feminist
spaces.
In this way they allow for distributed feminist networks to converge in online spaces to
focus support on contemporary gender issues and create a community around this.
Despite being "online" their campaigns have physical and material effects, suggesting
that campaigns facilitated through new media are effective and useful ways of
producing change.
Conclusion:
Feminism and feminist geography
Gender – received a great deal of attention from cultural geographers within the last three
decades.
Gender is a category reflecting the social differences between men and women.
Gender implies a socially created difference in power between groups.
NOT biologically determined but socially and culturally created. And spatially.
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Urban geography?
Historical processes underpinning global patterns of urbanisation
o The agricultural revolution
o Origins in the Fertile Crescent.
1. City based world empires – Egypt, Mesopotamia.
Population: agricultural base and food surplus to sustain population, ~25,000 people.
Environment: topography, climate, social conditions, natural resources.
Technology: river management – channel water ways, irrigate.
Social organisation: political, economic, social infrastructure, leadership, social
stratification.
2. Pre-Industrial revolution (10th-14th Century )
Feudal towns
• Ecclesiastical or university centres
• Defensive strongholds
• Administrative centres Merchant capitalism
• Collapse of feudal system
• Development of money economy/trade
• Merchant capital trade – regional specialisations
E.g. Lubeck Germany --> citizenship a strong movement to 'work together': prosocial actions by the citizens for the citizens



Pre-industrial revolution (15th-17th Century)
Increases in scale and complexity of merchant capitalism.
Colonialism and the growth of gateway cities as a link between one country and region
to another – physical locations.
Colonial cities.
3. The Industrial Revolution
 Industrial economies: large labour force, transportation networks, physical
infrastructure, consumer markets.
 Industrial cities: to assemble raw materials and to fabricate, assemble and distribute
manufactured goods.
Example: Manchester
‘Shock city’ First cotton mill built in 1780s; nearly 100 by 1830.
Dependent on transport connections – rail and canals.
--> control over the environment has always been a common theme in urbanisation
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Future global urbanisation trends
o Different urbanisation trends in core and periphery
o In 1950, 2/3 of the world’s population concentrated in the countries that form part of
the core economies. (US, Europe)
o Now, world’s urban population has tripled – most growth in the periphery.
Core Regions:
o Already highly urbanised - Often home to global cities
o Slow rates of urban growth
o Deindustrialisation
o Counter-urbanisation
o Regeneration
Global cities: a city generally considered to be an important node in the global economic
system. E.g. LA, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia,
Counter-urbanisation: when large populations move from urban centres to rural areas (e.g.
sea changers or tree changers)
Regeneration: Think Surry Hills, Newtown. Rebuilding and reconstruction of urban areas to
revitalise
Peripheral regions
o Less highly urbanised
o Very high rates of urban growth: rural-urban migration and natural population
increase Increased number of megacities;
o Over-urbanisation? (rapid and unforeseen rate of growth)
Megacity: very large city characterised by both primacy and high centrality within its
national economy e.g. Mumbai, India.
Summary of lecture
Global historical processes underpin current patterns of urbanisation:
• Earliest cities developed during the agricultural revolution
• Pre-industrial revolution and expansion of trade around the world established
merchant trading and gateway cities
• Industrial revolution generated new kinds of cities focused on large scale production
which required a higher population for labour
Current and future global urbanisation trends are more complex:
• Different patterns of urbanisation in world’s core and periphery
• Global cities predominantly located in core areas
• Future urbanisation predicted in peripheral areas, associated with development of
megacities
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Sustainability in cities?
Examples of ‘being green’ in the urban to combat the effects of climate change?
o Denmark - 80% of the transport is through public transport. The
city plans to be carbon neutral by 2025.
o Curitiba - greenest city in the world.
o Curitiba's bus rapid transit system satisfies 70 to 80 percent of
the daily trips made by Curitibanos, resulting in 25% lower
carbon emissions per capita than the average for Brasilian
cities.
Why water planning for sustainability?
1/ Situating Urban Water in Australia
 The environment is not just subject to changes in the economy. It goes hand in hand in
high water use influences the economy through industries.
Example: The Urban Water Cycle (from Melbourne Water)
Neoliberal water and sustainable water: 1980s, 1990s policy ships
• Privatisation or corporatisation of formerly public water utilities,
• the marketisation of water and
• the reconceptualisation of citizens as water customers
AND
• the triple bottom line of sustainability: social, economic, environmental

Contrast and intertwine the idea that water is commodity (with neoliberal
practices) vs having to develop sustainable development.
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

Example: Gross Pollutant Trap: an artefact of sustainability?
Attempt to remove plastic litter in Cooke's River Catchment (rarely gets cleared out)
"environmental cleanser"
Case studies:
 The Georges River, Sydney shows how waterways are heavily affected by urban
development.

Pemulwuy: Resistance leader
o Pemulwuy used the Georges River to navigate and continue resisting the
British still a modern connection and engagement with the River
Sydney’s Desalination Plant:
What processes were underway in the creation of the Sydney desalination plant?
• Construct drought as a problem to deal with rather than a climatic reality
• Ideology that a drought produces a market (economic) that must be filled.
• 2002 – drought – serious concerns about Warragamba dam levels. 80% of water for
Sydney from here (Isler et al 2010).
• 2004 Sydney Metropolitan Water Plan posited desalination as solution (Tal, 2011)
• During 2002-2007 drought, focus on ‘drought readiness’ and drought ‘proofing’
rather than evaluating all possible water management options
• Drop in use from 506L (per capita) in 1990-1991 to 342L in 2004-2005 (Tal, 2011)
o Response to Neoliberal management and policy? Societal diffusing of the issue
on an individual level
• 2005 - $2 billion desal plant announced by Premier Carr only if dam levels continued
to drop
• When the desal plant WAS announced, Sydney had sufficient supply stored for two
years.
• August 2005 – Iemma – new premier, new VISION. Ignored own adaptive
management plan.
“Sydney needs a new source of clean drinking water, drought or no drought” Premier
Iemma.
--> Technical fixes (scientific) with strong Political influence under it




2005 Newspoll survey found that 60 per cent of Sydney residents opposed the decision
to build a desalination plant and would rather see investments in water recycling and
reuse.
$110 increase in water cost per house per year (Isler et al 2010)
Socio-political factors most important in pushing through water reform, at economic
and environmental cost.
Management of water: private companies WANT to make you pay MORE for money.
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Rain water tanks as a political Response against Neoliberalism (free
market)
Disrupting macro water planning?
RWTs work as agents that intervene in the ‘accepted’ urban water cycle. The
introduction of water markets (that neoliberal ship) is subverted if people go off grid
and rely on their own means to supply water.
More sustainable water, in this context, comes through individualised, micro-activities
of households – that challenge proper ‘management’.
How are Indigenous water knowledges incorporated in current water management?


Indigenous knowledge isnt incorporated into urban water planning
To our detriment to be so ignorant?
3/ Towards sustainability in urban water planning?
The emergence of ‘sustainable development’ along with water markets has produced
urban regions in Australia where water planning has been further industrialised (desal
plants) AND decentralised (RWTs).
These simultaneous processes have produced tensions and contradictions in water
planning practices, and, to a limited extent, responded to changing socio-cultural water
values. (Even less so, responding to climate and environmental needs)
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What is Environmental Humanities



The ecological humanities (also environmental humanities) is an interdisciplinary
area of research, drawing on the many environmental sub-disciplines, in particular
environmental literature, environmental philosophy, environmental history and
environmental anthropology).
Aims to help bridge traditional divides between the sciences and the humanities, and
between Western, Eastern and Indigenous ways of knowing the natural world and the
place of humans in it (Rose 2004).
The ecological humanities are characterised by a connectivity ontology and a
commitment to two fundamental axioms relating to the need to submit
to ecological laws and to see humanity as part of a larger living system.
Key Tenets:
 Environments are cultural
 Environmental issues are influenced by culture.
 Existence and prevalence of poaching in Chinese culture (valued)
 Indian vultures - suffered population declines (97% decrease in population) as they eat
dead cattle which are infused with drugs that indirectly kill them.
o Due to religious practices, funerals must leave the body --> which is eaten by
vultures and they die from the drugs they've taken.








Challenge 'human dimensions' as separate and partitioned
Humans are not completely rational beings that 'work' under traditional forms of
education. Rational campaigns do not necessary lead to rational outcomes --> needs to
be very socially valued to make a meaningful change.
Does not "capture the full range of commitments, assumptions, imaginaries and belief
systems" that shape diverse ways of life. (Holms, 2015, 978)
Need for a more thorough engagement with science and the humanities and
society.
Dual traffic
What can humanities do for the environment and what can the environment do
for the humanities? --> Two way street
Humanities to the environment
o "While any effective global response to climate change might be a relief at this
stage, can we imagine solutions that are not only technically and economically
feasible, but also democratic, creative and just?" (van Dooren, in press)
Environment for the humanities
o "Bursting the anthropocentric bubble" (van Dooren)
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Defining nature and society
‘Nature is a social creation as much as it is the physical universe that includes human beings’
(Knox and Marston, 2012: 107)
•

Nature as resource: much more modern and western thought (Anthropocentric)
I=PAT
– Impact on earth resources
– Population
– Affluence
– Technology
Valuing the environment
How can we define value?
1. Anthropocentric/Instrumentally
Example: Mass extinction
 Biodiversity loss happening now Sixth wave of mass extinction.
 Instrumental application of thought: What if there are cures to cancer in a species
within the Amazon that we lose due to this wave of extinction?
 What would happen if our current food crops fail and we can’t draw on species
from undomesticated contexts?
2. Ecocentric: More ‘value’ notions Intrinsic value
– remove anthropocentric value from the context
Example: Mass extinction
• Flora and fauna have a right to exist and we are not entitled to deprive them of this
because of our over-consumptive practices.
• Non-humans are entities that deserve our respectful coexistence rather than
exploitation.
Anthropocentric vs ecocentric
 Anthropocentric: approach to resource management which is human centred, nonhuman entities have value instrumentally vis-à-vis humans
o Shallow green ecology
o worth conserving environs for the environmental services they offer

Ecocentric: ecosystems are inherently and intrinsically valuable, speaks from the
position of ecology rather than human values.
o Deep ecology
o no absolute divide between humanity and everything else
o diverse and complex relations constitutes the universe
o treat with respect
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How might culture affect environmental values?
• ‘Some relatively sharp distinctions between indigenous and EuroAustralian (or
‘settler’) relations to land have been made in the last few decades (e.g., Rose 1996,
200tib).
• Idealistically we all want to be more ecocentric, practically, we are all more
anthropocentric.
Earth Summit 1992
– pivotal moment in Environmental activism
• 1992 - put the environment on the political agenda for most countries – a
global level event
• Put global issues in the spotlight – including cumulative ones, like
biodiversity loss.
• International legislation negotiated
– Convention on Biological Diversity
• Recognition of multiple stakeholders including NGOs and scientists
– Precursor for Framework Convention on Climate Change (1997
Kyoto Protocols)

No longer a national or domestic problem--> it had global implications which
increased the debate space, increased recognition, and the process legitimised
Environmental activism.

Earth summit was Anthropocentric --> very American boastful and showing off
language.
o "We are the leaders to protecting the environment"
o "the world is OUR garden, so we must protect it."
o VERY linked to economic growth centred through protecting the
environment.
Ecocentric by speech and symbolism.

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20+ Earth Summit 2012 Contrast rhetoric to clear anthropocentric.
• Concern that since 1992 Earth Summit, simply watering down intentions to DO
SOMETHING
• From ‘sustainability’ to ‘sustainable development’ to ‘sustainable growth’ to
‘sustained growth’ --> econocentric to anthropocentric language.
• According to George Monbiot: No real targets, milestones just more green
economy talk
Environmental justice: an attempt to broaden the definition and scope of environmentalism to
include the basic needs of poor and politically less powerful groups.
o How can developed countries in the core ask developing countries to stop
emitting carbon when they really need the use of carbon to develop and grow
their country? These groups that aren't even responsible for the problem in the
first place
Concluding comments

How we value human and more-than-human life is linked to how these
relationships exist and change.

Environmental activism – in all its guises – has evolved at multiple scales. Global
level environmental concern and action is a force for change.

Scale is always complex – not least when dealing with environmental issues that
have a global dimension

Social scientists, including human geographers, can communicate, produce and
interpret scientific, social and cultural knowledge to achieve political, economic
and cultural change.

The way you think affects what you do.
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Geographies of Economy
(1) INTRODUCTION

This introduction to geographies of economy:
1. explores ‘economy’ and complex interactions with society, culture, politics and
environment
2. explains why in 2017 it is so widely believed economy has become ‘globalised’
3. explores flows and networks which have helped create a globalised economy
4. explores which people and places have gained and lost from these economic
changes
5. argues for continued importance of nation and place (locality) to understanding
economy
(2) ‘ECONOMY’
 Economic perspectives on society explore:
o material life:
 people’s livelihoods,
 resilience and
 access to economic and social opportunity -- inclusion
o geographies of:
 resource creation and destruction;
 production of goods and services;
 consumption;
 underpinning technologies;
 money and finance;
 labour and work;
 economic organisation and governance
 Economy is everywhere but cannot exist outside/without social, cultural, political,
environmental and spatial organisation
o Economy is constructed by its social, cultural, political and environmental
organisations.
 In all actually existing societies, diverse forms of economic organisation operate
simultaneously and are not just those based on ‘market forces’ and capitalism
Geographies of Development and ‘Globalisation’
 Social, cultural and political economy underpins levels of economic development in
countries and places [read: GEOP111 textbook, ch 8 ‘Geographies of Economic
Development’ pp 284-300. (pp 234-251 in 2014 ed.)
 To what extent can we say economy is ‘globalised’ in 2017? (Surely economy is local
and ‘national’ too?)
 --> Answer remain contested in politics and society as well as academic social science:
globalisation cannot be taken for granted even in 2017
o Depends who you ask
 Three fundamental things are now well-understood:
(1) global change over the past 20 years has been complex and qualitative
-> international change has always existed and its quantitative values e.g.
trade, migration, economics etc ; the word globalisation describes qualitative
change that has only come up recently.
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(2) the world is now highly interconnected economically (than before),
(3) the idea of globalisation has become a powerful ideology
Five Key Dimensions of the Globalising Economy
1. global flows of goods & services: trade
2. global flows of money & finance
3. transnational corporations (TNCs): global supply chains
4. global flows of people: migration – short-term and long-term
5. global flows of ideas, information and ideology * social media.
INTEGRATION and EXCLUSION ?


(1) GLOBAL TRADE
Things that havent previously been traded are now being internationally traded e.g.
lettuce with climate control across ships, planes etc that keep it fresh to be transported
across the world.
DON'T look at global trade as JUST an increase in quantity, look at the qualitative
changes.
A ‘Triangle’ of Global Trade? --> intensified trade


More than two-thirds of world trade now occurs within or between TNCs (OF THE
SAME COMPANY) (2016)* --> is that really 'trading'? Its just a company charging
itself!
Moves towards increasingly free trade, ‘policed’ by the World Trade Organisation
(WTO) have been uneven and resisted
* In 2015 UNCTAD estimated 80% of global trade (Not international trade, global
trade) in goods & services took place in global value chains linked to TNCs
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(2) GLOBAL FINANCE




Major changes in national/international regulation of money from the mid 1970s:
increasing reliance on ‘market forces’ to organise currency and finance – greater
‘foreign investment flows’ after mid-1980s
Emergence of genuinely globalised banking over last 25 years
Global ‘securitisation’ and financial ‘derivatives’: burgeoning debt economies
Why this is important: volatility not stability
o an unregulated pool of ‘global’ finance
o massive increase in flows: banking system or a casino?
o massive rise in debt (corporations, governments, people)
The World’s Debt Mountain 2010
Global Financial Crisis 2008-2009
 What went wrong? ‘sub-prime’ real estate lending and ‘toxic assets’ crashed in USA
and quickly spread through globalised banking system

Many governments bailed out leading banks and financial institutions: “too big to
fail?” Debt crises?
o by 2015-17 many countries have been left with unsustainable levels of public (and
private) debt: government ‘austerity’ drives introduced (e.g. Greece) with
dramatic impacts on economic recovery, poverty and social inequality
(3) TNCs: GLOBAL SUPPLY (‘VALUE’) CHAINS


Complex production networking by 2017: strategic alliances & joint ventures,
subcontracting, franchising and licensing
Continued importance of TNC investment in ‘the triangle’ by 2017
TNCs: Global Supply Chains
 Example: complex networking of motor vehicles and components between developed
countries and newly-industrialising countries by 1990s.
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

(4) GLOBAL FLOWS OF PEOPLE
Short-term: expansion of business travel and tourism – affected by economic conditions
post 2008
Qualitative changes in migration streams post-1990:
o away from settler migration towards labour migration, illegal migration (people
seeking work) and refugee re-settlement (fastest-growing category 2005-17)
o diversity of sources and destinations including to and from developing countries
(especially NICs)
o feminisation of migration streams
Labour Migration: Sending Money Back Home --> qualitative changes

Money sent back home by short-term migrants (“remittances”) is a crucial economic
flow in 2017
(5) FLOWS OF IDEAS & INFORMATION

Uneven power of the Internet: ideas, information and ideologies
SO WHAT IS GLOBALISATION?
 Globalisation does not mean internationalisation

‘Spaces of flows’: resources, goods and services; finance; networking of TNCs;
streams of tourists, workers and refugees; ideas/information/images
 ‘Spaces of places’: the global scale is embedded in national (specific countries) and
local (places)
 Qualitative change – greater interconnection across national borders BUT in 2017 a
‘global economy’ remains an ideal (for some) not a reality
 Economic globalisation has been a PROCESS not an end state: greater connection and
integration has happened for some (people and places) while others have been
marginalised or excluded
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Reminder: What is Globalisation of Economy?
Globalisation =/ (does not equal) internationalisation
 ‘Spaces of flows’:
1. resources, goods and services;
2. finance;
3. networking of TNCs; streams of tourists,
4. workers and refugees;
5. ideas/information/images



‘Spaces of places’: global scale is embedded in national (countries) and local (places)
Qualitative change – much greater connection across national borders BUT not an allpowerful ‘global economy’ in practice by 2017?
Economic globalisation is a PROCESS not an end state, so: the economy has been
‘globalising’ with greater connection and integration for some (people and places) but
with exclusion or marginalisation for others
(1) INTRODUCTION
“we are what we eat” (Dicken, Global Shift, 2011, p. 347)
“why, in a world that produces more than enough food to feed everybody, do so many –
one in seven of us – go hungry?” (Oxfam quoted in Knox and Marston, 2014)

This lecture explores
1. globalised food chains or fear chains?
2. what it means to say food is ‘globalised’
3. limits to globalised food: nature, culture and economy
4. local resistance and alternative food networks– a push for ‘re-localised’ food?
(2) GLOBALISED FOOD CHAINS OR ‘FEAR CHAINS’?
“It’s not a food chain as much as a fear chain” - supermarket directors live in fear of losing market share and not being able to
deliver endless growth to their shareholders - supermarket buyers live in fear of not meeting their targets and always want to
buy cheap and sell expensive - food processors and packers live in mortal fear of being delisted by the
supermarkets – loss of shelf space and profile - farmers live in fear of having their food rejected or prices falling below their
costs of production - food consumers fear food safety and feel increasingly insecure while too many
can’t get enough!
Causes of Global Food Crisis 2008-17
 Complex combinations of:
o Food production cost rises esp. OIL-related x10 cost of oil in 6 months 2008.
o Diversion of grains into biofuel, rising meat/ protein diets and increased food
waste
o Speculative hoarding and ‘grain futures’ trading
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
o
o
o
o
Speculative Hoarding: Future's market for food to iron out (speculated)
fluctuations in the future.
 Buying, selling food in a global massive scale based on market values.
Impacts of climate change especially drought (catastrophic 2017 in parts of
Africa)
Degradation of soil and water quality
Loss of food lands (esp to urbanisation)
Structure of global food trade – price rises and volatility catastrophic for poor
farmers and poorest urban households
Food Crisis in Africa 2017
 Catastrophic drought combined with devastating civil wars ==> famine (South Sudan +
Somalia & Nigeria + Yemen on Arabian peninsula): food as a mass weapon of war?
(3) KEY DIMENSIONS OF FOOD GLOBALISATION
Global Supply Chains in Food
Dimension 1. Food Trade

Global food trade has increased sharply since 2000 for five interrelated reasons:
1. developed countries have been ‘dumping’ food surpluses while developing
countries increase exports to pay for basic food imports (strategy encouraged
by IMF, WTO)
2. complex TNC food networks: ‘food swaps’
3. supermarkets’ global sourcing strategies
4. energy-intensive climate-control in transport means more fresh food in global
trade (e.g. lettuces!)
5. no fresh food seasonality: consumers come to expect year-round supply (urban
middle class?)
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Food Trade: Unequal Exchange

Countries formerly self-sufficient in food became import dependent in 1990s so were
devastated when world grain prices rose dramatically in 2008
 Prices for other exported foods swung wildly falling to very low levels by 2000s (esp.
coffee, tea, cocoa)

Governments in developed countries support ‘free trade’ but are reluctant to reduce
protecting their markets against food imports or subsidising farmers
Dimension 2: Food and Global Finance




Emergence of globalised banking system from mid1980s: selling food delivers high
cash flow so food corporations became targets for corporate raiders armed with huge
loans from global banks
o Food is a stable income, so TNCs buy food organisations to utilise as a stable
means of profit to iron out their higher risk loans
‘Debt over-hang’ after 1987 financial crisis: local corporate collapses lead to instability
and increased foreign control of some Australian food sectors – drawing them into
globalised networks
Finance has increasingly driven corporate globalisation in food industries 1985-2017
Post 2000: speculation & ‘ food futures’ – currency hedging, continuing in 2017
Dimension 3: Agrifood Corporations and their Supply Networks
 A rash of corporate takeovers strengthen global brand names with powerful ‘global
reach’ BUT also mean hundreds of LOCAL brands are now owned by TNCs to control
local markets (tastes, trusted quality, brand loyalty)
 TNCs often localise recipes and selling styles for global brand name foods (even
McDonalds!)
 a ‘glocalisation’ strategy – selling diversity?

Nestle´ is a Switzerland brand that has bought out Peters - the Australian food label and
resells the product back to Australians.
o --> Peters now a part of the global supply network.
Dimension 4: Flows of People – Cultural Displacement and Consuming Difference


food and tourism: consuming difference
food and migration: (1) increasing migrant workers in food agriculture (2)
national/local cuisines change over time through culture contact – cultural
displacement (e.g. pasta)
Dimension 5: Flows of Ideas and Information – Food on the Internet
 corporate food websites support global brands and corporate image: selling ‘difference’
not homogeneity
 using Internet advertising to help localise brands e.g. Nestle and Kit Kat
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
Regional varieties of kit kat "localisation" --> all profits go back to the global network -> TNC.
(3) LIMITS TO GLOBALISING FOOD: NATURE, CULTURE AND ECONOMY
“….globalisation of the food sector is uniquely constrained by nature and culture: food
production requires the transformation of natural entities into edible form while the act
of eating itself is a profoundly cultural exercise….In other words, globalised food
chains never escape local ecologies and cultures”. (after Morgan et al., 2006)

Globalised foods then become culturalised/localised into the region's experience.
(4) RISING FOOD INSECURITY AND ANXIETY IN 21st CENTURY
 Globalised food provision system (FPS) has vastly increased the quantities/diversity of
fresh & processed foods since mid1980s – (technically) enough to provide basic
nourishment to world’s population but ….
 Anxiety about food in developing countries, among development agencies and UN
World Food Program especially about poorest countries (Africa, parts of Asia) and
rising hunger since mid1990s: urban food riots widespread 2008-09
 Price volatility 2008-2017 for basic grains has had socially-uneven impacts
 Conventional globalised FPS is not delivering socially just distribution nor ecological
sustainability in 2017
Food Anxieties in the Well-fed World
 Rising anxieties in developed countries about 21st century FPSs because of:
o doubts over future ecological sustainability of food agriculture especially through
impacts of climate change
o concerns about health problems related to overconsumption of food/beverages and
food additives
o periodic food scares over plant or animal diseases, pesticide residues &
contamination e.g. BSE (“mad cow”)
o household/personal food insecurity – diminished access to affordable/healthy food
increasing for some people
o disconnection of people from cooking skills/knowledge (despite food mags and
TV cooking shows!)
o declining trust in globalised food provision systems
 Focus on food waste: unacceptable given hunger
(5) CONCLUSIONS
 Geographies of food have globalised rapidly since 1990 although this has been uneven
sectorally and geographically: many different pathways to ‘global’
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


Globalisation of food provision has involved: vast increase in food trade; super-mobile
finance driving change; complex production-supply networks of TNC food processors
and supermarkets; rising diversity of consumer demand encouraged by global migration
and IT-based communications networks
Nature, culture and economy limit globalisation of food systems
But … despite abundance and diversity of food, hunger, food insecurity and anxiety
have increased for some places and people over past 15 years
(6) ALTERNATIVES TO CONVENTIONAL GLOBALISED FOOD PROVISION
 The next 7 slides will not be discussed in lecture 14 (no lack of time) but are included
here as additional resources. They consider a variety of practical alternatives to
conventional globalised food provision. Some of these alternative food networks
(AFNs) have grown faster than the conventional systems over the past 15 years.
‘Re-localising’ Food?
 Strong movements in early 21st century to (re-) localise food systems – shorten supply
chains:
o globalised food involves “eating oil”: switching to local food can reduce ‘foodmiles’ – important when oil prices rise and in reducing total CO2 emissions
o food farmers can get better returns from localised systems in both developed and
developing countries and there are regional development benefits
o levels of knowledge and trust rise when consumers are re-connected to local food
provision systems
o many nutritionally-based public health problems can be addressed more directly at
local scale
o local food insecurity may be reduced
National and Local Resistance
 Globalised food systems are resisted on a daily basis at all geographical scales, for
example by:
o governments, state and trans-state regulatory agencies and inter-governmental
bodies (e.g. WHO, UNEP), environmental treaty obligations etc
o NGOs concerned with development, environment, health, human rights and
codes-of-conduct (example: Red Cross – ‘crisis’ food’ + food security programs)
o International Union of Food Workers (a globalised trade union): although mostly
focused on justice for food workers in particular countries rather than farmers or
consumers
National and Local Resistance (2)
 organised campaigns targeted at particular companies or foods on the Internet, in court
actions etc (e.g. the ‘McLibel’ case v. McDonalds)
 smaller (capitalist) firms – ‘indies’ and boutique food processors, ‘buy local’
campaigns, ethical investment in alternative food networks (AFNs)
 non-capitalist/‘community’ enterprises growing, trading, processing and distributing
food (AFNs) – includes a resurgence of ‘backyard’ gardening
 local ‘culture jamming’: disruption of corporate images and food advertising – use of
satire
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Globalising Local Resistance?
 Fair Trade networks in developed countries have direct connection to farmers in
developing world, by-passing TNC trade: improve farmer livelihoods/stabilise prices.
‘Fair Trade’ labels in supermarkets (e.g. Sainsbury’s UK – eventual decision to stock
100% fair trade bananas)
 ‘anti-globalisation’ movement from late 1990s focused, symbolically, on trade (where
to by 2015?
Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) Some Examples of AFNs
 Fair Trade Networks (global – becoming mainstream?)
 Organic food networks (globalising & mainstreaming?)
 The ‘Slow Food’ Movement (Europe-based but globalising)
 Community-supported farming (inc. global ‘WWOOFers’)
 Farmgate shops and farmers’ markets (local)
 Community food box schemes (local/regional)
 Community food gardens (local) + ‘backyard’
Concluding Comments on Alternative Food Networks
 Resistance to globalised food happens on a daily basis involving a variety of agents,
communities, households
 Such resistance shapes the way conventional (global) food provision systems work
 There have been strong movements to (re-)localise food systems, especially in
developed countries, to help create more sustainable, socially-just food systems: some
great results but …
 Beware ‘local trap’: local cannot be simply equated with environmentally-sustainable or
socially-just (all food production is local) – local food campaigns, e.g. those aimed at
reducing ‘food-miles’, can cut across fair trade; how much food can be grown in large
cities?
 Diverse alternative food networks exist in the early 21st century, most localised but
some globally-networked
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Development Theories


Development theories seek to explain:
o Why the world is so uneven
o How inequalities can be overcome
o And how people can be empowered with opportunities to pursue full and
rewarding lives
Three approaches:
o Market based theories
 Modernisation, neo-liberalism
 Key beliefs
 Free markets lead to economic growth and prosperity
 Government influences should be minimised and orientated to
providing the conditions for markets to operate
 Approaches:
 Capitalist models, privitising industries
 IMF
o State-based theories
 Neo-Marxism, structuralism, dependency theory, world system theory
 Key belief:
 For equitable development to occur governments must nurture and
protect and (sometimes) own national industries
 Developing countries have been systematically exploited by G markets
 Approaches:
 Socialist models of development, large government, small private
sector, strong welfare systems
 Unions, socialist countries
 Subsidised by the states, free training and education --> assistance
 Advocates: Andre Frank: "development and underdevelopment are two
different sides of a universal historical process."
o Community-based approach
 Grassroots, alternative, community development, post-development
 Key beliefs:
 Communities know best and should be empowered to pursue their own
forms of development
 Governments are out of touch and markets have the potential to exploit
 Diverse development pathways reflecting society and culture
 Approach:
 Small scale activities, rights-based approaches, participatory
methodologies, local and indigenous knowledges.
 Civil society organisations
 Support for communities to develop the way they want to develop
Example: bombie accidents in Laos


How might market/ state/ community based approaches to bombies differ?
Kids play, locals try to sell scrap metal from the bombs.
o Market approach: $1 million grant to the most efficient way to remove bombs
o State based approach: invest in the government and training/skill/detection
techniques/education to investing the government to look after it themselves.
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o
Community: designated person in the community to take care of the bomb in the
community.
Geographies of consumption
Constraints and opportunities in development --> Poverty Cycle
Energy: Saudi Arabia vs africa
Cultivatable land: agriculture vs importing fresh food.
Carrying capacity: amount of people that can be sustained by a land unit.
Industrial resources: infrastructure to enable and increase economic development
Agricultural land cover: Some countries are fortunate in having a broad range of cultivable
land
Others must rely on exploitation of one major resource for economic development
Analysing economic structure
What can we see from this map of economic activity from primary economic activities
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Geographies of consumption: food and nutrition
‘the nutrition transition that has been underway internationally for over a century … [is
the] outcome of a particular socio-technical system that has mobilised the material and
symbolic values of nutrition with "a will to govern."' (Dixon, 2009: 321)
The Co-Evolution of Capitalism and Food systems




Trade/aid relationships (commodity chains)
Geo-political expansion
Global labour force productivity gains and harmony
Product differentiation strategies (Dixon)
Nutrition science is co-opted by corporate interests to extract extra value and add authority to
food products, most visible when corporate plans and public health policies are framed in
terms of undernourishment, and health/wealth improvement
What is nutrition transition?
 Shift from plant-based diets to high animal-based foods, oils and fats, and processed
sugars and carbs.
 OECD countries experience more food diversity and food security, while semiperiphery nations are to an extent - see chicken consumption
 Largely celebrated
 Two phases:
1. increase in dietary diversity and meat consumption
2. Food supply convergence and divergence.
Second phase – more a crisis
 How a crisis? One-third of the world undernourished or overnourished. Serious global
inequities!
 Environmental impacts:
o Affluent nation's diets are not sustainable environmentally or health wise
o Huge consumption of dairy - more CO2 and land degradation
o Most energy intensive food commodities also most health impairing
On changes in the US in 1950s, making the good "housewife" of a modern home. -->
obsessive focus on nutrients and counts.
‘…enumerated food [calories and price] made gastronomic knowledge impersonal, and
devoid of any social, cultural, or geographic influences. The definition of reason and
rationality shifted the discourse of food and eating from taste and experience to calculation
and equation. The shift still resonates with us today.' (Mudry 2006)
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Origins for nutritionism
 Protein!
 Von Liebig in mid 1800s (German) - identified protein as growth accelerant - attributed
as 'discoverer.'

Linked to dominant European ideology of progress and civility - primary/master
nutrient

US -stimultaneous to protein discovery, the calorie measure was established by scientist
Atwater.

1890s- Atwater promoted diets to enable American workers to make more than German
counterparts. Animal-based diets heralded as the way into modernity!

"scientific eating" forwarded by governments and corporations as the way to progress.
Nutritional Progression

Thinking about food consumption raises issues around economies, cultural practices,
science, discourses, wealth and preferences
If we return to the geographies of economic development that Bob Fagan talked about last
week, we remember how there are limits to globalising food and that gaps in the systems
emerge: food chains, distribution, local issues

Let's look differently at economic systems for the rest of the lecture to examine
diversity in economics.
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Move away from Capitalocentrism?
 Diverse economies (from Gibson-Graham)
Gender and economic development

What are some ways that gender equality benefits the economy?
Aside from moral argument --> look at it rationally and economically --> if woman earn 17
more cents to equal males, they have more money to spend and therefore it adds to the GNP
etc etc --> flow of money they contribute with more money for the same job.

Critiques of measuring Growth Quantitatively: Marilyn Waring
o Things below the market line is not measured so it entrenches feminist values.

Academics, including feminist academics, critiques GNI for not counting important
work, like reproductive labour, childcare, caregiving work more generally.
Conclusion
 Important to recognise economic development opportunities/costs: socially,
environmentally, politically constructed
 Resources, energy, and development: contingent
 Food is political! There are discursive processes at play that draw it away from 'just
food'.
 Gender and development - gendered disparities persist despite significant changes -->
diverse economies and relabelling of growth needed for feminism.
GEOP111 END OF SEM EXAM NOTES
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