Resource Management and Geography - Research Publications

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    Contested sites, land claims and economic development in Poum, New Caledonia
    Kowasch, M ; BATTERBURY, S ; Neumann, M ; Neale, T ; Turner, S (Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2016)
    Property relations are often ambiguous in postcolonial settings. Property is only considered as such if socially legitimate institutions sanction it. In indigenous communities, access to natural resources is frequently multidimensional and overlapping, subject to conflict and negotiation in a ‘social arena’. Settler arrivals and new economic possibilities challenge these norms and extend the arena. The article analyses conflicts and negotiations in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in the light of its unique settler history and economic activity, focussing on the little-studied remote northern district of Poum on the Caledonian main island Grande Terre. In this region the descendants of British fishermen intermarried with the majority Kanak clans. We illustrate the interaction between customary conflicts, European settlement, struggles for independence, and a desire for economic development. Customary claims are in tension with the attractions of economic growth and service delivery, which has been slow in coming to Poum for reasons largely outside the control of local people.
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    L’environnement dans les géographies anglophone et française: émergence, transformations et circulations de la political ecology
    Kull, C ; BATTERBURY, S ; Blanc, G ; Demeulenaere, E ; Feurhahn, W (Publications de la Sorbonne, 2017)
    The purpose of this chapter is to trace the historical and socio-political context of “environment-in-geography”, including key moments as well as epistemological and institutional debates. We highlight in particular a sub-field called “political ecology”. In doing so, we transgress geography’s disciplinary boundaries, as the roots of this approach are found as much in anthropology as in geography, and the current political ecology community of practice spans the social sciences and beyond. But as this book addresses a Francophone audience, and given the important role of political ecology in recent developments in French environmental geography, this disciplinary focus is justified. We conclude with a section on geography in France.
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    Community bicycle workshops and “invisible cyclists” in Brussels
    Batterbury, S ; Vandermeersch, I ; Golub, A ; Hoffmann, ML ; Lugo, AE ; Sandoval, GF (Routledge, 2016-07-15)
    "Community bike workshops" are a little-studied aspect of bicycle justice. They provide facilities for almost anybody to learn bike maintenance skills at low cost, aided by volunteers, and using recycled parts. Fieldwork in Brussels, Belgium shows that bike workshops combines pro-bike activism with varying levels of professionalization and engagement with mainstream organizations. Many workshop organizers have problems maintaining a premises and attracting good volunteers. Because these are autonomous organizations and social hubs, they allow "rights" to mobility to be nurtured as well as providing low cost transport solutions.
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    Land-Based livelihoods
    Baro, M ; Batterbury, S ; Wisner, B ; Toulmin, C ; Chitiga, R (Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2005)
    African farmers and pastoralists have been meeting their everyday needs in diverse ways for many centuries. While this process has increasingly been recognized since the late colonial period, a major development since the publication of Lloyd Timberlake’s Africa in Crisis (Timberlake, 1985) has been the emergence of support to ‘livelihood security’ and the incorporation of ‘sustainable rural livelihoods’ in the rationales and thinking of government-led projects and the many international development agencies working in Africa. Researchers too have focused renewed attention on how diverse rural societies enhance their welfare and development options in many corners of the continent.
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    Doing political ecology inside and outside the academy
    BATTERBURY, S ; Bryant, RL (Edward Elgar, 2015-08-28)
    The chapter presents a survey of political ecology (PE) scholarship in, and beyond, academic institutions. This interdisciplinary field makes a contribution to understanding environmental and social justice issues that require explanations at multiple scales, often challenging powerful state and corporate actors. Radical and critical scholarship like PE survives because of sustained student demand, but in neoliberal universities battling financial shortfalls there is sometimes a reluctance to invest in research areas that offer critiques of powerful institutions and of injustice. Political ecologists have a substantial presence in North America and Europe, either as individual scholars or in small research clusters, but are found across the world and are networked virtually and through key events and collaborative ventures. Publishing outlets include at least three dedicated journals. The extent to which academic PE can, and should, make a contribution to engaged scholarship, stepping beyond the boundaries of academic investigation into the messy world of environmental politics is debated, but embraced by some academics, numerous NGOs and civil society organizations. The future of the field is assured if environmental despoliation, denial of access to resources, and inequality continue; and if its hopes for a better world are not extinguished by much more powerful actors in and outside the university system.
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    Natural Disasters and Adaptation to Climate Change
    Boulter, S ; Palutikof, J ; Karoly, DJ ; Guitart, D ; Boulter, S ; Palutikof, J ; Karoly, DJ ; Guitart, D (CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS, 2013)
    This volume presents eighteen case studies of natural disasters from Australia, Europe, North America and developing countries. By comparing the impacts, it seeks to identify what moves people to adapt, which adaptive activities succeed and which fail, and the underlying reasons, and the factors that determine when adaptation is required and when simply bearing the impact may be the more appropriate response. Much has been written about the theory of adaptation, and high-level, especially international, policy responses to climate change. This book aims to inform actual adaptation practice - what works, what does not, and why. It explores some of the lessons we can learn from past disasters and the adaptation that takes place after the event in preparation for the next. This volume will be especially useful for researchers and decision makers in policy and government concerned with climate change adaptation, emergency management, disaster risk reduction, environmental policy and planning.
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    Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific Islands
    Batterbury, SP ; Johnson, DL ; Haarmann, V ; Johnson, ML (Prentice Hall, 2014)
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