School of Geography - Research Publications

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    Walking the creek: reconnecting place through light projection
    Edensor, T ; Andrews, J (WILEY, 2019-08)
    Abstract In this paper, we explore how a light projection sought to convey a range of qualities: conviviality, a sense of place, playfulness, defamiliarisation, and the affective and sensory capacities that were experienced through walking in the distinctive, liminal realm of Bendigo Creek in Victoria, Australia. The projection aspired to solicit a sensory and affective empathy that chimed with the experiences of an earlier event in which dozens of pedestrians were filmed walking in the creek. The projection contributed to a local campaign to reappraise the much‐maligned creek as a local public amenity. We discuss the productive potential of solitary and collective walking and, subsequently, the attributes of the projection in its static and mobile manifestation. In so doing, we suggest that publicly engaged, inclusive, creative practice can offer potent place‐making possibilities.
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    Public open space exposure measures in Australian health research: a critical review of the literature
    Lamb, KE ; Mavoa, S ; Coffee, NT ; Parker, K ; Richardson, EA ; Thornton, LE (WILEY, 2019-02)
    Abstract Numerous studies have shown associations between public open space and a variety of health outcomes. Yet the extent to which firm conclusions and planning policy recommendations can be drawn from this body of work depends on how public open space availability has been measured and reported. Other researchers have highlighted potential issues with the way that public open space has been measured but have not systematically assessed the extent of this problem. This paper provides a comprehensive critical review of studies of public open space and health conducted in Australia to identify and compare public open space measurement and data treatment. Our analysis showed wide variation in how public open space was measured, as well as a lack of consistency in reporting public open space exposure measures and under‐reporting of measurement methods. We find that such tendencies limit how much these studies can be compared and contrasted with each other. The corollary of that finding is that without more detailed reporting of exposure measures, it will be difficult to establish an evidence base that informs planning for healthy, liveable environments. In response, we develop and present a checklist for reporting public open space exposure to address this challenge.
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    Mining, movements and sustainable development: Concepts for a framework
    Bebbington, A ; Bebbington, DH (WILEY, 2018-09-01)
    Abstract Mining disrupts: it ruptures the boundary between the surface and the sub‐surface, it upsets pre‐existing modes of living on the surface, it changes biogeochemical, social and economic flows across surfaces, and it transforms imaginations of the future. Mining not only moves mountains, it also moves people – physically, emotionally, politically and economically. Some people leave, some refuse to get out of the way, some carry on, some stay but build new livelihoods, and others arrive in pursuit of the livelihoods made possible by this particular form of development. Development also disrupts: it modifies modes of living and social organization, it alters relations between humans and nature, it deepens the integration of places into broader flows of finance and ideas, and it shifts ideas about the future. Development is also implicated in the forced, voluntary and induced movement of people. Analytically, mining and development are therefore not dissimilar. This paper works from this similarity to suggest concepts for thinking about the relationships between mining, movement and development. These concepts are drawn from literature in Human Geography, Rural Territorial Development and Development Studies. It then uses these concepts to frame the relationships between mining and sustainable development.
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    Re-casting experience and risk along rocky coasts: A relational analysis using qualitative GIS
    Kamstra, P ; Cook, B ; Edensor, T ; Kennedy, DM (WILEY, 2019-03)
    This study invites readers to experience risk on Australia’s hazardous rocky coasts with the rock fishing community. In the paper, we offer an understanding of risk that is relational, a process that emerges within human–environment interactions in a dynamic coastal space that is constantly changing. Exploring the in situ and ongoing sensory attunement of the fishers, we contend, expands upon the quantitative understandings that tend to be deployed by risk managers, offering an innovative approach to conceptualising risk. In identifying how fishers perceive and experience a rocky coastal location in Sydney, Australia, we track rock fishers’ movements using global positioning systems (GPS), undertake participant observation, and draw on video footage, semi‐structured interviews and participatory sketch maps. In doing so, fishers’ perceptions of socio‐environmental stimuli were spatially represented in a GIS, with sketch mapping being the proxy and/or the window into perception–environment relations that produce risk. We contend that the findings show that experienced fishers are more capable of anticipating and reacting to hazardous situations “safely” because they are more attuned to how changing coastal conditions affect risk. This study draws attention to the spatial and temporal phenomena that drive risk perceptions as well as the implications for future perception‐oriented research that adopt a relational understanding.
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    Variance and Rate-of-Change as Early Warning Signals for a Critical Transition in an Aquatic Ecosystem State: A Test Case From Tasmania, Australia
    Beck, KK ; Fletcher, M-S ; Gadd, PS ; Heijnis, H ; Saunders, KM ; Simpson, GL ; Zawadzki, A (AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION, 2018-02)
    Abstract Critical transitions in ecosystem states are often sudden and unpredictable. Consequently, there is a concerted effort to identify measurable early warning signals (EWS) for these important events. Aquatic ecosystems provide an opportunity to observe critical transitions due to their high sensitivity and rapid response times. Using palaeoecological techniques, we can measure properties of time series data to determine if critical transitions are preceded by any measurable ecosystem metrics, that is, identify EWS. Using a suite of palaeoenvironmental data spanning the last 2,400 years (diatoms, pollen, geochemistry, and charcoal influx), we assess whether a critical transition in diatom community structure was preceded by measurable EWS. Lake Vera, in the temperate rain forest of western Tasmania, Australia, has a diatom community dominated by Discostella stelligera and undergoes an abrupt compositional shift at ca. 820 cal yr BP that is concomitant with increased fire disturbance of the local vegetation. This shift is manifest as a transition from less oligotrophic acidic diatom flora (Achnanthidium minutissimum, Brachysira styriaca, and Fragilaria capucina) to more oligotrophic acidic taxa (Frustulia elongatissima, Eunotia diodon, and Gomphonema multiforme). We observe a marked increase in compositional variance and rate‐of‐change prior to this critical transition, revealing these metrics are useful EWS in this system. Interestingly, vegetation remains complacent to fire disturbance until after the shift in the diatom community. Disturbance taxa invade and the vegetation system experiences an increase in both compositional variance and rate‐of‐change. These trends imply an approaching critical transition in the vegetation and the probable collapse of the local rain forest system.
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    Beyond Space: Spatial (Re)Production and Middle-Class Remaking Driven by Jiaoyufication in Nanjing City, China
    Wu, Q ; Edensor, T ; Cheng, J (WILEY, 2018-01)
    Abstract An extension of gentrification, jiaoyufication–urban change driven by a desire for high‐quality education–is not only displacing previous lower‐class residents, but also replacing earlier jiaoyufiers with newcomers, turning formerly blue‐collar neighbourhoods into white‐collar ones. New middle‐class communities are emerging as spatially limited school catchment zones attract social groups who occupy these spaces in an attempt to facilitate social mobility or consolidate social status, causing tension between them. Consequently, jiaoyufication has narrowed down opportunities for intergenerational social mobility and exacerbated social polarization, gradually replacing traditional social hierarchies with intergenerational neoliberal stratification.
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    Socio-environmental Conflict, Political Settlements, and Mining Governance: A Cross-Border Comparison, El Salvador and Honduras
    Bebbington, A ; Fash, B ; Rogan, J (SAGE PUBLICATIONS INC, 2019-03)
    During the mid-2000s, Honduras and El Salvador implemented mining moratoria. By 2017 El Salvador had legislated a globally unprecedented ban on all forms of metal mining, while in Honduras mining was expanding aggressively. These neighboring countries present the explanatory challenge of understanding the distinct trajectories of mining policy and politics. These divergent pathways can be explained by the interactions between the political economy of subsoil resources, national political settlements, and the ways in which diverse actors have taken advantage (or not) of openings in these settlements. A mediados de la década del 2000, Honduras y El Salvador implementaron moratorias mineras. Para el 2017, El Salvador había legislado una prohibición sin precedentes a nivel mundial de todas las formas de minería de metales, mientras que en Honduras la minería se estaba expandiendo agresivamente. Estos países vecinos presentan el desafío explicativo de comprender las distintas trayectorias de la política minera y la política. Estas vías divergentes pueden explicarse por las interacciones entre la economía política de los recursos del subsuelo, los acuerdos políticos nacionales y las formas en que diversos actores han aprovechado (o no) las aperturas en estos acuerdos.
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    Rural social movements: Conflicts over the countryside
    Bebbington, A ; Cupples, J ; Palomino-Schalscha, M ; Prieto, M (Routledge, 2018-01-01)
    This chapter begins with a reflection on the meanings of social movements and follows this with a discussion of what it might mean to place the word rural in front of this term. It discusses the historical nature and role of rural social movements in the region, and reflects on some contemporary movement processes in the Latin American countryside. The chapter draws out broader observations on “Conflicts over the countryside.” It conveys the idea that there are many conflicts spread across Latin American countrysides, that these are conflicts over what that countryside should be for, who it should be for, and what its future should be, and that these conflicts are not just rural in nature but instead about country in the fullest sense of the term.
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    Mining and climate change: A review and framework for analysis
    Odell, SD ; Bebbington, A ; Frey, KE (Elsevier, 2018-01-01)
    In this paper, we demonstrate that climate change is critically important for the current and future status of mining activity and its impacts on surrounding communities and environments. We illustrate this through examples from Latin America, including a spatial analysis of the intersection between projected climate changes and existing mining operations. We then elaborate a framework to identify and investigate the relationships among mining, climate change, and public and private responses to them. The framework also notes the importance of political economy and learning processes to the forms taken by these relationships. Our paper then reports on a focused review of peer-reviewed publications that aims to identify the extent to which a core research literature on mining and climate change currently exists. We show that this literature is still very limited, but that the analysis that does exist can be encapsulated by the main elements of our framework. This enables us to describe the current structure of both peer-reviewed and policy research on mining and climate change, and identify areas for future research. In particular, we note the chronic absence of research on this relationship for the vast majority of developing countries, where some of the most serious vulnerabilities to climate change exist.
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    Assessing impacts of mining: Recent contributions from GIS and remote sensing
    Werner, TT ; Bebbington, A ; Gregory, G (ELSEVIER SCI LTD, 2019-07)
    Mining produces several environmental, social, and economic impacts which can be analysed spatially using remote sensing (RS) and geographical information systems (GIS). This paper provides an overview of recent studies using these techniques to assess mining impacts on water, land, and society. It also highlights the geographic complexities of these impacts via mining case studies, and discusses spatial research methods, data sources, and limitations. Despite noted simplifications, risks, and uncertainties of mapping the impacts of mining, the cases included in our overview illustrate that there are clearly beneficial applications. At a local level, these include environmental and socioeconomic risk assessments, disaster mitigation, and adjudication on mine-related conflicts. At a regional level, spatial analyses can support cumulative and strategic impact assessments. At a global level, spatial analyses can reveal industry-wide land use trends, and provide key land use data for comparative analyses of mining impacts between commodities, locations, and mine configurations. The degree to which such benefits are realised will likely depend on the resources afforded to what is a growing field of study.