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Cultural Ecology Newsletter (CEN #35 -- Spring 2000) Editor: Simon Batterbury Last Updated: 4th Sept. 2000 Announcements Name Change? Obituaries - Adam Kolff, Barney Nietschmann Listserve, New Slate of Officers - message from Outgoing
Chair Cultural Ecologists in Science Annual Meetings: Pittsburgh 2000 Calls: Conferences, meetings, publications Many, including AAG 2001 Jobs Plenty Meeting Reports Nature, Society and History Members' News White, Kuhlken, Bridge,
Doolittle New Hires Book Reviews & Notes Batterbury on Mortimore McCook on Grossman Pavri on Khare, et.al. New Books Announcements Name Change? The Group is considering
changing its name to reflect new themes and issues in the study of
human-environment relationships. A debate was last held on this in 1991 (read
some debate here). To participate in the vigorous debate, join our listserve,
which is introduced in an item below this one. The listserve is located at
http://lists.psu.edu/archives/aag-cesg-l.html. Necrology: Adam Kolff Adam Kolff, PhD student in
Geography at the Adam's Masters, entitled "The Political Ecology of Mining and
Marginalization in the Peruvian Andes: A Case Study of the Cordillera
Huayhuash" (2000) may be read online. Necrology: Barney Nietschmann It is with enormous sadness and
regret that we report the untimely death of Professor Barney Nietschmann of
the Department of Geography, Information supplied by Michael Watts Nietschmann was awarded the
Group's Netting award following his death.
A brief Bibliography: Nietschmann, Bernard. 1997
Protecting Indigenous Coral Reefs and Nietschmann, Bernard. 1994 The
Fourth World: Nations Versus States, in 'Reordering the World: Geopolitical
Perspectives on the Twenty-First Century', George J. Demko and William Wood,
eds., Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado, pp. 225-242. Nietschmann, Bernard. 1995
Defending the Miskito Reefs with Maps and GPS: Mapping with Sail, Scuba and
Satellite. Cultural Survival Quarterly, 18:4,34-37. Nietschmann, Bernard. 1993 A
Fourth World Revolution: With Yapti Tasba Guerrillas Fighting the Sandinista
Occupation. Freedom House & University Press, New York. Nietschmann, Bernard. 1993
Nicaragua's New Environmental Alliance for Indian-Latin America, Research and
Exploration, Vol. 9, No. 3, pp. 270-271. Nietschmann, Bernard. 1989 The
unknown war: the Miskito nation, Nicaragua, and the United States New York :
Freedom House & University Press, New York. Nietschmann, Bernard. 1979.
Carribean Edge: the coming of modern times to isolated people and wildlife. Nietschmann, Bernard.1973
Between land and water : the subsistence ecology of the Miskito Indians,
eastern Nicaragua New York : Seminar Press. Listserve, and notes from the outgoing Chair Dear CESG Members: I am
delighted to announce that the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group now has its
own listserve, thanks to the efforts of Andrew Sluyter at Penn State. The
listserve will greatly facilitate communication among CESG members and, we
hope, provide a useful forum for the discussion of ideas, news and views on
matters of interest to cultural ecologists. Andrew has provided some
important explanation below on how the list will work. I also want to introduce our
Board for 2000-2002, as elected at the Pittsburgh meetings. Andrew Sluyter
(Penn State) will serve our new Chair and he's accompanied by Thom Whitmore
(UNC) as Secretary-Treasurer. Our regional councilors are Barbara Brower
(Portland State, Western region), Karl Offen (Oklahoma, Central region), and
Michael Steinberg (Southern Main, Eastern region). Our graduate student
representative is David Carr (UNC). Congradulations to all! Contact
information and photos are available here. In closing, I wish to thank all
of those who served on CESG's behalf over the past three years. Special
thanks to our out-going Board (Emily Young, Sec-Treasurer; Tony Bebbington,
Western region; Paul Robbins, Central; Julie Fischer, Eastern; and, Eric
Keys, Grad rep) for their energy and commitment, to Simon Batterbury -- our
indefatigable Newsletter Editor and webpage master -- for all of his efforts
on our behalf, and to Andrew Sluyter for enabling us to communicate through
the listserve, and for accepting to be our new Chair. With best wishes for a
pleasant and productive summer. Oliver Coomes, Chair, AAG
Cultural Ecology Specialty Group (1998-2000). The CESG Listserv (AAG-CESG-L)
is for general exchange of information, news, views, debate, questions and
answers by the members of the specialty group.All current CESG members have
been subscribed to the list. You can manage your subscription and see past
messages at http://lists.psu.edu/archives/aag-cesg-l.html. For all queries,
email sluyter@gis.psu.edu. Only list members (CESG members) can post
messages. To do so, send your message to the list address: Cultural Ecologists in Science Cultural Ecology, CLAG and Latin
American AAG specialty group members were showcased in Science no. 287 (Feb.
4, 2000) [http://www.sciencemag.org]. A four page piece addresses the earthworks
in Beni Bolivia and "black earth" in the Amazon basin in terms of
their implications for prehistory. Prominently cited are William Denevan
(CESG Netting Award Winner), Nigel Smith, and William Woods (see CEN 33). Essay Competition Prize Essay Competition, UK
Agricultural Economics Society. £250 Prize to be presented at Harper Adams
University College and winning entry published in the Journal of Agricultural
Economics. Author must be within six years of first graduation, or if
non-graduate, under 30. Subject may deal with any aspect of agricultural
economics and must be sole work and original. To be submitted by 31 December
2000. For further details: (+44) (0)1825 765353, Fax: 01825 766945 or Email:
aes@bhm.co.uk. Annual Meetings: Pittsburgh, April 2000 Sessions presented at the
Pittsburgh AAG meetings (4-8th April 2000) include a major retropective
'millennial' session on the fields of cultural and political ecology,
attended hundreds of people. Some of the relevant sessions were are as
follows: Reflections on
Cultural/Political Ecology I: Paths Taken, Directions Forged. [Millennial
session]. Organizer and Chair: Oliver Coomes, (McGill). Panellists: Billie Lee Turner
(Clark), Mike Watts (Berkeley), Karl Butzer (Texas), Piers Blaikie (East
Anglia). Discussant: Tony Bebbington (Colorado/World Bank). Reflections on
Cultural/Political Ecology II: Which Direction Now? Organizer and Chair: Paul
Robbins, (Ohio State). Panellists Simon Batterbury (LSE), Emily
Young (U Arizona), Juanita Sundberg (U of British Columbia), Brad Jokisch
(Ohio U), Paul Robbins (Ohio State U), Ken MacDonald (U of Iowa), Rheyna
Laney (Sonoma State U). Political ecologies and
alternative developments I: Power, livelihoods, social capital. Organizers,
Chairs: Tony Bebbington (Colorado/World Bank) and Raymond Bryant (King's,
London). Robin Mearns (the World Bank);
Anthony Bebbington (Colorado/the World Bank); Sarah J. Halvorson (Colorado);.
Dianne Rocheleau (Clark); Political ecologies and
alternative developments II: Social capital, cultural capital, moral capital.
. Discussant: Michael Watts (Berkeley) Jeffrey T. Bury (Colorado); Raymond L.
Bryant (King's, London); Thomas Perreault (Colorado/Syracuse); Mixed Landscapes, Mixed Methods
I. Organizer: Paul Robbins, (Ohio State). Discussant - Andrew Warren (UCL).
Tom Bassett (Illinois), Rheyna Laney (Sonoma State), Emma Archer (Clark),
Matt Turner (Wisconsin) Mixed Landscapes, Mixed Methods
II. Organizer : Paul Robbins, (Ohio State). Discussant - Karl Zimmerer
(Wisconsin). Paul Robbins (Ohio State), Belinda Dodson (Queens), Simon
Batterbury (LSE), Kevin St. Martin (Clark), Eric Perramond (Stetson). Political environments in the
developing world. Organizer: Gary Gaile (Colorado). Gary Gaile, Betsy Olsen,
Adam Kolff, Brian H King (all at Colorado) Calls; conferences, meetings,
publications AAG New York Feb 2001 - Calls
for papers Several people have asked how to
have a session sponsored by a specialty group. You'll need to e-mail the
specialty group chair(s) [me] the request -- including the session title,
organizer, and chair. On the group participation form, you'll need to fill
out the specialty group name in the section called "name of sponsoring
organization." I'll circulate the agreed list of CESG (co)sponsored
sessions before the meetings . Andrew Sluyter Indigenous Geography-- Call for
Papers. The standardization and dissemination of modern-western geographical
concepts and worldviews over the past few hundred years has overshadowed
indigenous ways of knowing that developed over millenia. Those of us who are
engaged with indigenous systems recognize the unique value they have as
culturally encoded and observationally acute languages and systems,
containing enormous information about both peoples and their environments. The
Indigenous Peoples Specialty Group (formerly the American Indian Specialty
Group) is proud to sponsor one or more paper sessions on issues in Indigenous
Geography. This is an invitation to geographers and others who are indigenous
people, or who are working closely on indigenous ways of knowing, in any
region of the world, to come together to discuss and share. Issues that may
be addressed by his forum included --exploring the nature and value of
indigenous geographic and environmental knowledge, --problems of research on
indigenous geography, --issues pertaining to colonization (past and present)
including ongoing land and resource disputes based on conflicting geographic
and cultural systems, --the interface of indigenous geography with modern
geographic tools and technology, --indigenous geography and education, --or
simply the presentation of specific indigenous worldviews. Interested persons
should contact RDK Herman of Towson University/The Pacific Worlds Project:
rdkherman@earthlink.net Abstracts and materials must be received in time to
submit before the 1 September, 2000 deadline. RDK Herman "Pacific
Worlds" Geography & Env. Planning Towson University Linthicum Hall,
Room 18 Towson University Towson, Maryland 21252-0001 t. 202-352-2100 f.
410-830-4702 , USA The next generation: graduate
student papers in cultural/political ecology This session sets out to provide
a focused arena for graduate students undertaking research in a
cultural/political ecology context to present either their research findings
or their proposed doctoral research. In bringing together several graduate
students in one session it is hoped that not only will they receive valuable
feedback upon their work, but that it will also showcase the work and ideas
of future practitioners within the field of cultural/political ecology. The
session builds upon the retrospective sessions organized in Pittsburgh by
recognizing those who will help establish the focus and direction of future
theoretical and methodological questions in our field. Papers by either
Masters or Ph.D. students would be welcomed. It is also expected that Ph.D.
students currently preparing their proposals consider submitting, as the
session will provide time for questions, suggestions and feedback that might
benefit the author at such an early stage of the research process. The papers
in the session need not have any common theme, other than that they define
either the work or approach as being expressly influenced by either cultural
or political ecology. Papers that focus on either the developed or developing
world or rural or urban contexts are welcome. The session will be sponsored
by the CESG and will be chaired by the current president, Andrew Sluyter
(Penn State University). If interested please contact either Andres Guhl
guhl@ufl.edu or Robert Daniels daniels1@uiuc.edu as soon as possible. Title,
abstracts, fees etc. (all in accordance with AAG rules for submission) will
be need to be sent to Andres Guhl by August 15th. -- Andres Guhl Department
of Geography University of Florida. Beyond the social construction
of nature: re-thinking political economy and environment Organisers: Gavin
Bridge (University of Oklahoma), Terry Marsden (University of Cardiff), and
Phil McManus (University of Sydney). It is now over a decade since Margaret
Fitzsimmons provocatively placed the 'matter of nature' within the sights of
a politically engaged human geography (Fitzsimmons, M. 1989. The Matter of
Nature. Antipode 21(2):106-120). Since that time there has been a vibrant
engagement with the social construction of nature as geographers (among
others) have sought to uncover the material and discursive practices through
which nature has been historically produced, consumed, and regulated. Recent
work from fields as diverse as political ecology, ecological modernization
theory, agrarian restructuring, regulation theory, environmental history, and
ecological marxism suggests that this 'turn to nature' is changing the way we
think about political economy. One of the results is that nature is now being
taken seriously in accounts of political-economic transition. The objective
of these sessions is to take stock of this critical 're-naturing' of
political economy and to chart possible future research directions and
approaches. We invite papers that explore the integration of nature into
theories of production, consumption, and regulation. Of particular interest
are papers that link theorization with accounts of contemporary or historical
events by either deriving theory from, or evaluate existing theory against,
concrete circumstances. Papers could seek to do this, for example, through
case studies of restructuring in selected industries, through environmental
histories of political-economic change in specific regions, or by comparing
the analytical leverage of different theoretical frameworks in particular
contexts. If you would like to participate, please send a 250 word abstract
to one of the three organizers by August 1 2000. Gavin Bridge, University of
Oklahoma, United States gbridge@ou.eduTerry Marsden, University of Cardiff,
United Kingdom MarsdenTK@Cardiff.ac.uk Phil McManus, University of Sydney,
Australia pmcmanus@mail.usyd.edu.au Godzilla meets Bambi - (GIS
meets soc. theory) is a session that might be organised by Bill Turner, Clark
University Seeking Common Ground.
Roundtable session being organised by Andrew Sluyter [sluyter@GIS.PSU.EDU] Integrating Biophysical and
Social-political Approaches to Environmental Change: Theoretical and
Empirical Challenges and Prospects. Concern over environmental changes from
global warming, water resources, to deforestation and soil erosion has
escalated during the past few decades. Geographers from several different
sub-disciplines have addressed these issues including: climatology, remote
sensing, biogeography, and cultural and political ecology. One consensus
arising out of these various approaches is the need for integrating
biophysical and social-political analyses of environmental change. Papers are
sought that attempt such a synthesis and address the theoretical and
methodological challenges of this work. Theoretical papers that make
reference to empirical work are particularly encouraged but not required.
Please contact Andrea Nightingale anighti@geog.umn.edu for more information
and to submit abstracts. All materials must be received by August 25, 2000.
Sponsored by the Cultural Ecology Specialty Group. Conservation and Development
Territories in Africa and Latin America. Tom Bassett and Karl Zimmerer.
Detail soon. Property Regimes "Buffalo
kindle land war: Lack of good fences make angry neighbors" ; "A
scary attempt to nab public's land" ; "California and the West;
preservationists, builders tug at Coachella valley" . Headlines such as
these from nationally recognized newspapers are becoming commonplace. Both
academia and the general public have debated for years over the
"best," most "efficient," or most "sustainable"
type of property-rights regime. On the theoretical side, the arguments tap
into Hardin, environmental economics, common property theory and
institutional ecology, among others. On the practical side, it is individuals
who must comply with the rules and regulatory mechanisms that encompass a
particular property regime; with the very real potential of impacting their
daily livelihoods. How exactly do property regimes matter, to whom, and how
do they impact the environmental landscape? What conditions are necessary for
a property regime to work effectively? Papers relevant to the above outlined
issues, from both developed and developing country contexts, addressing a
variety of resource types (from fresh water and fisheries, to land, forests
etc.), and institutional settings, are welcome. Paul Robbins (Ohio State
University) will serve as discussant for this session. If interested, please
contact me by email - pavrifir@emporia.edu Title, abstract, fees etc. will
need to be sent to me by August 20 . Firooza Pavri, Emporia State University,
Department of Geography, Emporia, Kansas 66801, USA. Cultural and Political Ecology
in an Urban and Industrial World - Cultural and Political Ecology, with its
focus on the social regulation of nutrient and energy flows, the economic
structures of land management decision-making, and the power-laden patterns
of resource access and transformation, is uniquely positioned to examine
urban environments and developed contexts. Here, land managers, corporate
firms, households, and individuals all struggle and cooperate to adapt the
landscape and transform the ecological systems on which they depend. The papers
in this session bring the approaches of cultural and political ecology to
developed, industrial, and urban contexts to address the pressing and
puzzling questions of these diverse environments. Contact Paul Robbins, Ohio
State, probbins@geography.ohio-state.edu Soils in Archaeological and
Cultural Context Organizers Tim Beach (Georgetown University) and Nicholas
Dunning (University of Cincinnati). Many geoscientists, archaeologists,
cultural ecologists, and others are working on interdisciplinary problems of
soils in archaeological and cultural ecological contexts. For the fourth time
in the last eight years, this special session invites papers from anyone in
these disciplines with recent and ongoing field work to take part. Topics can
range from interdisciplinary studies of indigenous soil fertility, techniques
of indigenous, intensive agriculture, soil conservation, soil enhancement,
soils geomorphology and archaeological evidence, sustainability, landscape
remediation, and cultural ecology. Most papers thus far are about soils and
archaeology in the Neotropics, but we encourage a wider variety of papers on
topics from around the world. Each paper has 20 minutes for presentation and
discussion, and each session is 100 minutes in duration. In our previous
meetings, we have usually had three sessions. If you wish to register for
this session, please send Tim Beach (at the address listed below) a packet
that includes the AAG registration form (
http://www.aag.org/PDF/2001call.pdf) available at the AAG website, a check
for the Program Participation fee made out to the AAG, and your abstract on
diskette (Word or Wordperfect) and on paper. We will collect all the packets,
organize them into sessions, and send them to the AAG central office by the
AAG's September 1st due date. Due Date: 28 August 2000 Send Registration
Materials to: Tim Beach (out of the USA between 7-25 and 8-10-2000) Director,
Center for the Environment Program in Science, Technology, and International
Affairs School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University 37th and O Streets
Washington, D.C. 22307 Beacht@gusun.georgetown.edu Special Session on Mountain
Geography. Whether your work is Human, Physical, Techniques, Methods or
somewhere in-between, no matter. As long as it pertains to things mountain,
your work is welcome. We are also open to co-sponsoring sessions with other
specialty groups. If you are interested in this, please contact me directly.
DEADLINE: 25 AUGUST 1999. Donald A. Friend, Ph.D. Chair, Mountain Geography
Specialty Group of the Association of American Geographers Assistant
Professor of Geography Director of Earth Science Programs Department of
Geography Minnesota State University Armstrong Hall 7 Mankato, MN 56001 USA
507-389-2618 office 507-389-2980 fax http://www.mnsu.edu/dept/geog/Friend.html
friend@mnsu.edu Hello All, As you are thinking
about the AAG meetings, please consider whether you would like to participate
in one of these panels proposed by Ben Wisner or act on one of the other
options for participation. Remember the deadline is September 1. 1. "Big
City Blues: Worst Case Urban Hazards in the 21st Century" 2. Natural
Hazards and Public Health 3. The Political Economy of Hazards. If one of
these captures your interest please contact Ben Wisner (Oberlin College) soon.
He will be traveling beginning in mid-August. bwisner@igc.org At last year's meetings, there
were a number of papers addressing vulnerability to environmental variability
in a variety of sessions. This year I thought it would be interesting to give
the conceptual interest in vulnerability priority so I am organizing a
session. If you are interested in presenting a paper in a session focused on
bringing together the most recent work in that area. Please contact me.
Thanks, Kirstin Dow Kirstin-Dow@sc.edu Assistant Professor Department of
Geography, University of South Carolina Columbia, SC 29208, USA Tel (803)
777-2482; Fax (803) 777-4972 Agricultural Change and
Landscape Transformations. This session focuses on the relationship between
human driving forces andlandscape change in agricultural landscapes, with
micro- and meso-scale case studies that explore ways to link trajectories
ofagricultural change and/or land management systems with land-cover
change,with or without the use of GIS and remote-sensing
technology.Co-Organizers: Rheyna Laney, Sonoma State--Brad Jokisch, Ohio
Univ. Historical Ecology--Methods and
Applications. Papers that use both ecological and historical records to
better answer a particular question, or (2) revisit an ecological questionusing
historical records, or (3) revisit a historical question using ecological
records. Steve Norman - stevenorman@psu.edu Gardens as Cultural
Survival/Gardens as Resistance. The objective of this session is to place
urban gardens/urban agriculture within a framework of current debates in
cities: linkages between the local and the global; multiculturalism and
identity; growth machines and movements of resistance. Papers could be
ethnographies or case studies of cities in the South or North, theoretical or
policy related. This session focuses on gardens as cultural landscapes and as
strategies of resistance in a global economy. Urban gardens are a survival
strategy in cities of the South and North; in global cities with
multicultural populations, gardens are also sites for the creation of
cultural landscapes and transmission of indigenous knowledge. Gardens may
also become the sites of contestation between conflicting visions of how
vacant land might be used. The garden battles in New York city exemplify the
conflicts over land for growing controlled by local communities vs. land for
capital accumulation. Gerda R. Wekerle Faculty of Environmental Studies York
University gwekerle@yorku.ca Cusco 2001. Conservation of
Biodiversity in the Andes and Amazon Basin - linking science, NGOs and
indigenous people. call for papers and proposals. This international
interdisciplinary conference in Cusco, Peru will deal with the conservation
of biodiversity in the Andes and Amazon Basin with focus on Ecuador, Peru and
Bolivia. These countries have enormous cultural and natural diversity.
Biodiversity reaches its peak in the complex tropical mountain forests on the
slopes of the Andes, which have been declared as
"Biodiversity-Hotspots" . Ecosystems are threatened by logging,
burning, grazing or other land-use activities. The main objective is to
stimulate an exchange of knowledge and viewpoints between scientists, NGOs
and indigenous peoples. Investigators are invited to present papers, and NGOs
should present their project experiences in endangered areas. Indigenous and
local peoples will talk about their development needs and the environment.
Themes: 1. Biodiversity of the tropical regions in South America (with focus
on Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia) 2. How is science contributing to the
conservation of biodiversity? 3. Deficits of science and knowledge - from the
viewpoint of NGOs and indigenous people 4. How are NGOs contributing to the
conservation of biodiversity? 5. Chances and risks of ecotourism for the
conservation of diversity and a sustainable development 6. Cultural integrity
- ecotourism from the viewpoint of indigenous people. 7. Traditional
land-use-forms and knowledge about medical plant use 8. Development versus
intellectual property rights. Dates: 24th - 28th September 2001 in Cusco,
Peru. Organized by the International Network for the Conservation of
Biological and Cultural Diversity INKA e.V. (Munich, Germany) and the
Fundacion Cientifica San Francisco FCSF (San Diego, USA), which runs a
research station in the mountain forests of southern Ecuador. Call for
interest and papers - go to http://www.inka-ev.de/frameset17.htm and fill out
the form in English or Español, or fax (++49 - 89 -45 91 19 20), or contact
Sigrun.Lange@inka-ev.de. GEODERMA Special publication.
Local Soil Knowledge: Insights, Applications and Challenges. Guest Editors:
A. M. G. A. WinklerPrins, Michigan State University (coordinating guest
editor) J. Sandor, Iowa State University (guest editor) N. Barrera-Bassols,
Instituto de Ecología, Xalapa, Veracruz, México (guest editor) and K.
McSweeney, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Geoderma, editorial board) We invite contributions from
authors working creatively and innovatively on the topic, especially those
concentrating on efforts to: * Contribute original research
in the field of local soil knowledge/ ethnopedology; * Link local knowledge of the
soil with socio-economic, political, and/ or historical contexts; * Focus on the ideas and
concepts that underlie soil knowledge; * Seek ways of integrating local
and scientific soil knowledge; * Broaden local soil knowledge
to include related areas such as geomorphic processes and the soil landscape;
and also perspectives from archaeology, anthropology, geography, ecology, and
other fields; * Explore local soil knowledge
in relation to sustainable land-use; * Connect local soil knowledge
with soil fertility maintenance and soil and water conservation; * Investigate local perceptions
of soil erosion and/ or degradation; * Connect local knowledge of soil
micro-variability with crop diversity. Deadline for submission is
Wednesday October 18, 2000. Please discuss manuscripts with: Antoinette
WinklerPrins Department of Geography Michigan State University 315 Natural
Science, East Lansing, MI 48824-1115 USA antoinet@msu.edu Society for Human Ecology XIth
International Conference Snow King Resort, Jackson Hole, Wyoming, U.S.A.
October 18 - 22, 2000. The theme is "Democracy and Sustainability:
Adaptive Planning and Management". The concerns of Human Ecology are
distinctly interdisciplinary and transnational. SHE-XI will bring together
researchers from communities around the world whose concerns are the
enrichment of human well-being and the concomitant protection of
environmental quality. This call invites proposals for Symposia, Paper
Sessions and Workshops, Round Table Discussions, and Poster Sessions. For
conference planning purposes, the deadline for group proposals was May 15th,
and the deadline for specific presentation titles and abstracts will be June
30th 2000. If you plan to attend, organize a session, develop a round table,
or organize a workshop or symposium, please reply at your earliest possible
opportunity. SHE-XI is being held in one of the most
beautiful mountain environments in North America. please contact: Dr.
Jonathan G. Taylor, C/O Social, Economic, and Institutional Analysis Section
MESC / USGS 4512 McMurry Ave. Fort Collins, CO. 80525 Phone: [970] 226-9438
FAX: [970] 226-9230 e-mail: jonathan_taylor@usgs.gov See
http://www.SocietyforHumanEcology.org To be placed on the mailing list,
please contact: Ms Barbara Carter, Society for Human Ecology, College of the
Atlantic 105 Eden St. Bar Harbor, ME 04609 Phone: [208] 288-5015 FAX: [207]
288-4126. Journal of Ethnobiology. Mike
Steinberg, University of Southern Maine is seeking book reviews for the
Journal of Ethnobiology. Topics related to cultural ecology in any region are
welcome. If someone wants him to get a book for them, he may be contacted on
mstein@usm.maine.edu International Congress of
Ethnobiology - "Ethnobiology, Biocultural Diversity, and Benefits
Sharing". 23-27 October 2000, University of Georgia Athens, Georgia,
U.S.A. The ISE 7th Congress Planning Committee calls for symposia and/or
papers on: Ethnobiology of human health, Intellectual property rights and
ethnobiological research, Conservation of biological and cultural diversity,
sustainable development of plant resources, collaborative research protocols,
benefits sharing and drug discovery, and initiatives by indigenous, traditional,
and local communities and scientists to conserve biological diversity. The
Congress will be preceded by a number of Training Workshops, which focus on
topics relevant to particular geographical areas or specialized interests.
WORKSHOP TOPICS: Prior informed consent, Ethnobotany and education, Balancing
local preservation and global benefit sharing, people and plants: cultural
perspectives on conservation: Ethnobiological knowledge and public health,
ecological change, cultural transition, and human health and other
volunteered topics. Please send your abstracts (no more than 500 words)
before July 1, 2000, by e-mail (preferred) to rstepp@uga.edu John R. Stepp
Department of Anthropology The University of Georgia 250 Baldwin Hall Athens,
GA 30602-1619, USA. For more information please check our website at
http://guallart.dac.uga.edu/ISE Jobs (these are dated – do no apply) Job at Berkeley. Environmental
and Development Sociology. The Energy and Resources Group (ERG) at the
University of California, Berkeley seeks a Ph.D. in sociology, anthropology,
geography or related discipline whose emphasis is on the social dimensions of
energy, resources and/or the environment to fill a junior faculty, tenure
track position starting 2001-02. ERG is a graduate program comprising natural
and social scientists engaged in a multidisciplinary program of research,
education, and public service on the social, economic, technical, and
scientific dimensions of energy, resources, and the environment. The
appointee will stay abreast of a broad range of social developments related
to the program, undertake specific research (for example, on resource
extraction conflicts, social movements, environmental justice, etc.), and
seek an integrative perspective. Field research experience and the ability to
teach field methods are critical. In addition to the course on research
methods, the appointee will provide additional courses complementing her or
his research interests, be encouraged to co-teach with faculty in the natural
sciences or engineering, and oversee graduate seminars and student-initiated
reading groups. The nature of the position and the qualities of the
individual selected should lead to substantial public and professional
service. A curriculum vitae, a letter articulating the scope of the
applicants interest in and qualifications for this position, and a dossier
including three letters of recommendation, should be sent to: Chair of the
Social Science Search Committee, Energy and Resources Group, MC #3050,
University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, California 94720-3050.
Deadline for receipt is October 15, 2000. The University of California is an
Equal Opportunity Affirmative Action Employer. Energy and Resources Group Tel
510-642-1640 310 Barrows Hall Fax 510-642-1085.
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/erg Job at Nottingham, UK.
Postdoctoral Research Associate, School of Geography, University of
Nottingham, UK Applications are invited for the above post funded by the UK
Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB) on a project entitled 'Agrarian
Responses to extreme climatic events in colonial Mexico: 1521-1821', directed
by Dr Georgina H Endfield and Dr Sarah L O'Hara. Candidates should have a
doctorate in a relevant field and experience in archival research. The person
appointed must be prepared to spend extensive periods of time working in both
regional and national archives in Mexico. Preference will be given to
candidates who are fluent in both Spanish and English (verbal and written).
Salary will be within the range £16,286 - £18,185 per annum (under review),
depending on qualifications and experience. This post is available from 1
October 2000 and will be offered on a fixed-term contract for a period of
three years. Informal enquiries may be addressed to Dr Endfield, tel: 0115
951 5731, Georgina.Endfield@Nottingham.ac.uk or Dr O'Hara, tel: 0115 951
4381, Sarah.O'hara@Nottingham.ac.uk. Candidates should send a detailed CV,
together with the names and addresses of two referees, to Dr G H Endfield,
School of Geography, The University of Nottingham, University Park,
Nottingham, NG7 2RD. Closing date: 27 July 2000. CIESIN visiting scientist
program. The Center for International Earth Science Information Network
(CIESIN) at Columbia University seeks applications for its visiting scientist
program. The program is part of CIESIN's Socioeconomic Data and Applications
Center (SEDAC) and is targeted at scientists working on areas relevant to
SEDAC's core mission to facilitate integration of Earth science and social
science data to help understand human interactions in the environment. We are
especially interested in applicants seeking creative ways to integrate
cross-disciplinary, cross-scale datasets to understand the human dimensions
of environmental change. CIESIN is a unit of the Columbia University Earth
Institute, with offices at Columbia's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in
Palisades, New York (about 30 kilometers north of Manhattan). The
International Council of Scientific Unions has designated CIESIN as the World
Data Center for Human Interactions in the Environment. SEDAC is one of eight
Distributed Active Archive Centers in the Earth Observing System Data and
Information System of the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
(NASA). Further information on CIESIN and SEDAC may be found at
http://www.ciesin.columbia.edu and http://sedac.ciesin.columbia.edu. Visiting
scientists will be in residence from two to three months at CIESIN at a
mutually agreeable time between September 2000 and August 2001. Supplemental
financial support is available. Visiting scientists will have access to
CIESIN's computing facilities and data and information resources and will be
expected to interact with CIESIN's interdisciplinary staff. Please submit
your curriculum vitae, including names and contact information for at least
two references, and a two-page (or less) description of the project you
propose to work on as a visiting scientist. A Ph.D. in a relevant discipline
is required and postdoctoral research experience or equivalent is preferred.
Please indicate any preferences you have for the time period of residence, as
well as any financial needs. Review of applications will begin 15 August
2000. Visiting Scientist Program CIESIN Columbia University PO Box 1000, 61
Route 9W Palisades, NY 10964 USA Tel: (1-845) 365-8988 Fax: (1-845) 365-8922
email: ciesin.info@ciesin.columbia.edu EARTHWATCH INSTITUTE/THE CENTER
FOR FIELD RESEARCH Program Director, Social Sciences. Develop, review,
negotiate and recommend field research proposals in social sciences for
funding by Earthwatch Institute. Assists in partnership development, field
science program planning and project evaluation. International field research
experience and computer skills essential; strong knowledge of and networks in
national and international scientific and environmental communities
important. Background in social science perspectives on natural resource
management, public health/medical anthropology, environmental anthropology,
and/or applied cultural anthropology. Ph.D. strongly preferred. Send resumes
to: Creighton Peet, Earthwatch Institute, The Center for Field Research, PO
Box 75, Maynard, MA 01754 or, preferably, e-mail to: cpeet@earthwatch.org. Job at Clark Postdoctoral
Research Position. The George Perkins Marsh Institute of Clark University
seeks a highly qualified research scholar to take a leading role in
developing a new initiative on understanding of human vulnerability to
global/environmental change, with a specific emphasis on land and land use.
We particularly seek broadly educated candidates open to linkages among
diverse theoretical and disciplinary approaches, and capable of working with
diverse research teams of social scientists, ecologists, and integrated
modelers. In the initiative at hand, the Institute's internal
"vulnerability" effort joins an inter-institutional project that
involves research teams from Harvard and Stanford, and individuals from the
Stockholm Environment Institute and Potsdam Institute in a two-year
examination of linking vulnerability, sustainability, and decision science.
Substantive expertise includes but is not limited to climate impact analysis,
risk/hazards research, and cultural/political ecology. Strong analytic and
writing skills are essential, and a background in quantitative analysis,
geographic information systems, and/or modeling is helpful. Candidates should
preferably hold the Ph.D. in one of the social sciences, have demonstrated
strong research capabilities, and possess the ability to work collegially and
in a team context. The position is for two years' duration, beginning in
September 2000, at a salary of $36,000. Interested parties should contact
Clark immediately by internet (bturner@clarku.edu + cc otaylor@clarku.edu).
Applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Candidates should
submit, either by internet, fax (508-751-4600), or mail, a letter of
application, curriculum vitae, and the names of three references. B. L.
Turner II & O.Taylor George Perkins Marsh Institute Clark University
Worcester, MA 01601, USA. Job at Texas Tech.Two
tenure-track Assistant Professor positions, beginning Fall 2001. We invite
applications from HUMAN GEOGRAPHERS with sub-specialties open. One or both
positions will involve teaching a large (~200 students) section of World Regional
Geography; other classes will match the successful candidates' interests.
Teaching load is 9 hours/semester. Quality scholarship and teaching are
required for tenure. Expertise in Human-Environment Interactions, Economic
Geography, and/or Latin America will be viewed favorably. The Geography
program at Texas Tech is small, congenial, and currently has no graduate
program. The faculty, however, teach graduate courses and work with graduate
students and faculty from throughout the University. There are large-scale
interdisciplinary research programs at the University in natural hazards
(especially wind-related), Latin American and Iberian studies, arid lands
studies, and environmental health. Please send a letter of application, vita,
and names and addresses (postal and e-mail) of three references. Screening of
applicants will begin on 1 December. Texas Tech University is an equal
opportunity/affirmative action employer and is sensitive to the needs of dual
career couples. Apply: Chair, Geography Search Committee, Department of
Economics and Geography, Texas Tech University Lubbock, Texas 79409-1014,
USA. Gary Elbow: Voice mail: (806) 742-3838, ext. 244 FAX: (806) 742-1137
E-mail: adgse@ttacs.ttu.edu. Assistant/Associate Professor,
University of Arizona, 2001. Advert here. Meeting Reports "Nature, Society and
History" Long Term Dynamics of Social Metabolism. September 30 to
October 2, 1999 Vienna, Austria. A post-conference report on this large,
well-funded, and interdisciplinary conference built around human ecology and
environmental history is available here as a post-conference report to
funders. The meeting brought together researchers from several continents,
and combined innovative social activities and discussions with poster and
oral presentations on land use, environmental health, indigenous knowledge,
and conceptions of nature. CEN readers and friendly faces spotted at the
meeting included Nayna Jhaveri (Washington), Emilio Moran (Indiana), Bernhard
Glaeser (Berlin), a team from Madison led by Paul Voss, some human ecology
pioneers including Stephen Boyden and Aromar Revi, the radical economist Juan
Martinez-Alier (Barcelona) and the HDGEC director, Jill Jaeger (Bonn). The
main tension to emerge at the meeting was between human ecology approaches to
environmental questions, and the tools and techniques of environmental
history. Some presenters tried to bridge this divide. A range of publications
are emerging, including a book, and various journals including a special
issue of Land Use Policy on land use change, edited by Helmut Haberl, Simon
Batterbury, and Emilio Moran (2001). Members' News Gilbert F. White was selected by
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to receive the Academy's most
prestigious award, the Public Welfare Medal for 2000. White was chosen for
his "his enduring contributions to the study of environmental issues and
for his seminal work to reduce human suffering caused by natural
disasters." The Public Welfare Medal is presented annually to honor
extraordinary use of science for the public good. Previous recipients include
Arnold Beckman, C. Everett Koop, and Carl Sagan. "For more than 60
years, Gil White has worked with great energy and skill to improve both
domestic and international hazard management in many different areas,"
said NAS President Bruce Alberts. "To give but two examples, he has led
major efforts in this country to significantly improve the effectiveness of
federal flood-control efforts, and internationally he has tenaciously pursued
efforts to improve the water supplies in Africa and the Middle East."
White first presented his flood-management approach in his groundbreaking
study, Human Adjustment to Floods (1942). His landmark study on domestic
water supply in East Africa, Drawers of Water (1972) led to several policy
changes, including public support of rural water schemes in developing
countries. (This volume is being rewritten with new data, with John Thompson
and David Bradley - see CEN 32). White was born in Chicago on November 26,
1911, and was educated at the University of Chicago, where he received his
B.S. degree in 1932, his S.M. in 1933, and his Ph.D. in 1942. He is professor
Emeritus at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Gavin Bridge (PhD, Clark
University) of the Department of Geography, University of Oklahoma has been
promoted to the Samuel Roberts Noble Presidential Professorship. Harold Brookfield's new book,
'Exploring Agrodiversity' will be published by Columbia University Press in
New York in about February 2001. He describes it as a contribution to human
or cultural ecology, rather than to any of the parent disciplines of this
interdisciplinary field. harold.brookfield@anu.edu.au Prof. William Doolittle (right)
of the Department of Geography, University of Texas at Austin, is the UT-Austin
Erich W. Zimmermann Regents Professor of Geography from 1 September 2000. Robert Kuhlken, Assoc. Prof. at
Central Washington University, has published "Agricultural Terracing at
Nakauvadra, Vitir Levu: A Late Prehistoric Irrigated Agrosystem in Fiji"
in the latest issue of Asian Perspectives, the leading journal for
archaeology in the Asia-Pacific region, with Andrew Crosby. He has also
written a chapter in, The Prehistory of Food, eds. Chris Gosden and Jon
Hather, Routledge Press (1999). His chapter, entitled "Warfare and
Intensive Agriculture in Fiji," challenges prevailing notions in
anthropology and archaeology regardingr causal linkages between
socio-political development and population pressure on agricultural
resources. Hires Christian Brannstrom (PhD
student, University of Wisconsin-Madison) has been appointed lecturer,
Institute of Latin American Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of
London, UK from fall 1999. Tim Forsyth (Fellow, IDS and
Harvard University) has been appointed lecturer in geography ay the LSE, UK
from July 2000. Sarah Halvorson (PhD student,
University of Colorado) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography,
University of Montana, from fall 2000. Dan Klooster (visiting faculty,
Columbia University) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography at
Florida State Universty, from fall 2000. Peter Klepeis (PhD student,
Clark University) has been appointed visiting faculty, Colgate University, NY
from fall 2000. Christian Kull (PhD student,
Berkeley) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography, McGill
University, from fall 2000. Paul Laris (PhD student, Clark
University) is visiting faculty, Sonoma State University. Karl Offen (PhD, University of
Texas at Austin) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography,
University of Oklahoma, from 2000. Eric Perramond (PhD, University
of Texas at Austin) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography,
Stetson University, FL, from fall 1999. Chris Sneddon (PhD student,
Univ. of Minnesota) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography &
Environmental Studies, Dartmouth College, from fall 2000. Tom Perrault (PhD student,
University of Colorado, Boulder) has been appointed Assistant Professor of
Geography, Syracuse University. Mike Steinberg (PhD student,
LSU) has been appointed Assistant Professor of Geography, University of
Southern Maine, from fall 1999. Book Reviews All CESG members, and others, are invited to submit
reviews of books that would be of interest to our Specialty Group. Publishers
are invited to send books to the Editor, and willing reviewers are sought. Mortimore, Michael. 1998. Roots
in the African Dust: Sustaining the Drylands. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press 0 521 45173 6 hb £37.50. 0 521 45785 8 pb £13.95 Reviewed by Simon Batterbury, London School of Economics Michael Mortimore is best known
for his extensive studies of farming systems, environmental change and human
adaptation to drought in the drylands of northern Nigeria. In many respects
he epitomises the cultural ecology tradition, yet he has taken a profoundly
different tack to scholars better known in North America like Michael Watts,
Rick Schroeder, Nancy Peluso, and Tom Bassett. Mortimore's focus is on local,
populist human adaptations to a harsh and complex environment. He developed
his research focii when teaching geography at the universities of Ahmadu
Bello and Bayero in Nigeria for over twenty-five years, before moving to the
UK in the late 1980s where he is now a consultant. He has produced several
influential and thought provoking texts; these include Adapting to Drought
(1989), Working the Sahel (with W.M. Adams, 1999) and a revisionist account
of livelihoods in Machakos, Kenya entitled More People, Less Erosion (with M
Tiffen and F Gichuki, 1994). Roots in the African Dust is a synthesis volume,
accessible to students, scholars and policymakers, that reviews some of the
empirical material contained in these and other works. The book offers a
forceful argument that the sub-Saharan drylands (the natural environment, and
the people) are still coping under conditions of environmental, monetary and
demographic stress. Ten well-presented, liberally illustrated chapters
respond to questions posed in the introduction. If we believe expert views,
Mortimore says, the Sahelian peoples should have been engulfed by an
expanding Sahara many years ago, livestock markets should have collapsed due
to overgrazing, farms would have been obliterated by land degradation,
fuelwood should have run out, and entire areas depopulated for lack of
economic opportunity. Since rural communities farming systems clearly still
exist, the author uses several local examples to challenge these erronous
crisis discourses. The second chapter addresses the legacy of worries about
desertification and its impacts. Mortimore concludes that desertification is
usually short-term, and reversible. Chapter three responds to the need to
earth the global discourse in the realities of dryland households objectives
(p38) since the majority of decisions about farming in Africa (outside the
major commercial farms and ranch areas) are taken by smallholders. Defining
farmers goals in terms of welfare and the reproductive needs of households,
he offers a rich selection of material on labour, crop mixes and land use
systems, technical change, trees, water management, and the importance of
livestock (walking resources). Three chapters examine risk management.
Systems primarily dependent on pastoralism are shown to use opportunistic
stocking and herd mobility in an unstable, but resilient environment. Farmers
exploit rain and moisture, and manage technological and biological diversity
through sequential decision-making. Holding to a broad definition if
the African household as a network of implicit contracts (following Robert
Netting), Mortimore shows how risk is negotiated through maintenance of
household numbers, a focus on flexible food production, and famine avoidance.
He recognises that catastrophic policy errors and economic greed contributed
to recent famines, but concludes that Sahelian farming is resilient (p111).
This is partly due to non-farm activities, and the vigorous marketing of
crops and animals (despite price and demand fluctuations and political
uncertainty). Wage labour (involving circulatory migration), asset
liquidation, agricultural sales, and exploitation of social networks also
help to see people through hardship, and diversification away from
agriculture and pastoralism is not the act of desperate people. A clear
policy recommendation here is the necessity to keep borders permeable to
migrants; in the absence of a rich industrial or commercial sector in most
African countries, individuals will still keep their links to their rural
homes. A further three chapters examine
the extent of soil degradation, merits of agricultural intensification, and
conservation of biotic resources. Mortimore claims that high population
densities fuel intensification of agricultural production, if other
constraints are absent. His well-known Machakos studies are used to
demonstrate how commercial opportunities and population pressures drive
resource conservation. The highlight of the book is the last chapter, where
he speculates on the driving forces behind the transformation of rural
African land use systems, again trying to demonstrate resilience and
diversity in locally managed livelihoods. Africa's environmental and human
systems change at different rates, but their trajectories are closely linked.
Transitions are underway in land uses, and these are economic, demographic
and institutional. Policy must, for Mortimore, follow a populist model by
nourishing local creativity and adaptability (a version of Paul Richard's
indigenous agricultural revolution). All interventions must be technically
and culturally appropriate, and the goal of environmental management might be
best served by protecting local innovation and investment against crises, for
example through improving access to markets and recognising the need for free
circulation of people and capital. Mortimore's project is,
therefore, an intriguing and a potentially controversial one. In holding to a
notion of strong (Boserupian) human adaptation to environmental and economic
stresses, there is an open invitation for the political ecologist/economist to
wade in with countervailing evidence of class exploitation, conflict, the
systematic prevention of intensification or human development, or economic
crisis brought on by commodity markets or corruption. Social and political
conflict is downplayed (but not excluded) in the book. Not much is said about
struggle and open resistance and why such struggles (often gendered, or to do
with access issues) might have been necessary. Although at no point does the
author say that rural Nigerians and Kenyans are always capable of solving
problems without the state or any external assistance, but his view is that
they usually are, and that the state and development agencies may not be
suitable agents of positive agricultural transformation. Nonetheless, I have
great faith in the author's experience, his findings, and his main
recommendations. So much hinges on whether Northern Nigeria and Machakos (in
particular) are typical of other regions and situations. Intensified
agricultural systems have not always developed elsewhere, because different
social and environmental histories apply. What is most gratifying is that
Mortimore retains an attachment to rigorous comparative fieldwork that,
frankly, few other scholars can demonstrate; a dedication to supporting the
African smallholder; and a methodology that places equal weight on the
natural environment, and the relationship between environmental change and
human response. The book is an example of the real contribution of the
committed geographer to African agrarian and development studies, and it is
pleasing to have a single volume that offers such a breadth of analysis in a
holistic, wide-ranging view of rural livelihoods and landscapes. Lawrence S. Grossman. The
Political Ecology of Bananas: Contract Farming, Peasants, and Agrarian Change
in the Eastern Caribbean. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press,
1998. xv + 268 pp. Maps, notes, bibliography, index. $49.95 (cloth), ISBN
0-8078-2410-0; $19.95 (paper, ISBN 0-8078-4718-6). Reviewed by Stuart McCook, Department of History, The
College of New Jersey. First published
by H-LatAm (June, 2000), Copyright © 2000, H-Net, all rights reserved. Historians of Latin America are
familiar with the stories of the vertically integrated banana companies of
the early twentieth century -- United Fruit Company and Standard Fruit --
that controlled all aspects of the banana industry. They controlled the land
on which the bananas were grown, the labor that harvested the bananas, and
the transportation and marketing of the bananas. This vertically integrated
structure of production, however, represents only one possible way that
banana companies could get a reliable supply of fruit. After World War Two,
contract farming became common throughout the British Caribbean and Latin
America. Banana companies made contracts with peasant farmers (or farmers'
associations) to buy all bananas that met specified standards. The banana
companies thus obtained a reliable supply of fruit while avoiding many of the
costs and risks associated with owning land or hiring labor. One the other
side, peasant farmers got access to credit and technology through the buyer,
and had guaranteed markets for their bananas. The Political Ecology of
Bananas discusses contract farming in the eastern Caribbean island of St.
Vincent from World War Two to the mid-1990s. Recent historical writing on the
banana industry has begun to focus on fine-grained analyses of power
relations in the plantations. These analyses show that local actors often
exercised considerable agency and autonomy. Grossman, a geographer, explores
the tensions between structural forces and local agency in contract farming
by using the framework of political ecology. Political ecology
"emphasizes that human-environment relations at local, regional, and global
scales can be understood only by examining the relationships of patterns of
resource use to political-economic forces." (p. 18) While scholars of
agrarian change have often equated the growth of contract farming with the
industrial process of "deskilling," Grossman argues that industry
and agriculture are very different processes because agriculture, unlike
industry, is environmentally rooted. Because agriculture is environmentally
rooted, contract farmers must respond to a wide range of local environmental
conditions. This makes it impossible to deskill the agricultural process in
the same way that the industrial process has been deskilled. (p. 14)
Environmental forces, therefore, help shape the relationship between
peasants, the state, and capital. Grossman also uses the political ecology
framework to question structural analyses of globalization, which have tended
to minimize the role of state and local forces, and to paint a picture of a
passive periphery. By studying agricultural production literally from the
ground up, he argues that "we cannot see the patterns associated with
contract farming as a reflection of the forces of globalization." (p.
18) Although globalization might seem to be a homogenizing force, at the
local level of production, Grossman still finds local agency, variability,
contingency, and diversity. The first three chapters give a
broad historical overview of the banana industry in the Windward Islands.
Grossman locates the origins of the Windward Islands' banana industry in attempts
by the British government to limit U.S. influence in the Caribbean in the
twentieth century. After World War Two, Great Britain provided a protective
umbrella to the banana industry in the Windward Islands by imposing tariffs
and quotas on "dollar fruit," bananas grown by U.S.-owned companies
in Latin America. After 1954, Geest, an English company, contracted to buy
the entire banana production of the Windward Islands, distributing and
marketing it exclusively in Great Britain. The guaranteed and protected
British market sustained the banana industry in the Windward Islands
(sometimes unsteadily) until the early 1990s. Although the protected markets
offered Caribbean banana growers some security, they were still in a weak
position. Grossman locates the weakness of the Vincentian producers partly in
unequal relations with Geest. The company frequently dictated the terms of
the contracts, shifting many of the obligations onto the contract framers.
Another major source of weakness in banana production was St. Vincent's
environment. Between 1955 and 1997, no fewer than twenty hurricanes or
tropical storms, twelve droughts, and four large-scale outbreaks of diseases
or pests struck St. Vincent. (p. 63) A new source of weakness emerged in the
early 1990s. The quotas and tariff barriers that had propped up the Windward
Islands' banana industry began to erode after Great Britain entered the
European Common Market. Further pressures from GATT and the World Trade
Organization eroded the protected markets even further. Chapters four through seven give
a fine-grained analysis of banana production in St. Vincent. Grossman's
fieldwork centered on the community of Restin Hill, in a mountain valley a
short drive from St. Vincent's capital city of Kingstown. After a chapter
describing daily life and social structure in the village, Grossman devotes a
chapter each to the questions of labor, food, and the environment. Grossman
argues that the labor process in contract banana farming does not reflect
"deskilling" or "disguised wage labor." (p. 152) Changing
labor requirements in banana production reflected demands for higher-quality
fruit from Geest. Consumers in British supermarkets came to expect fruits
that were of uniform size and free of blemishes. As a result, the entire
process of banana cultivation, harvesting, and packaging became much more
complex. Geest shifted more of these processes to the contract farmers in St.
Vincent. The efforts to standardize banana production produced more complex,
rather than a simpler, organization of labor. Contract farmers relied on a
combination of household labor, wage labor, and "swap labor" (in
which labor is provided with the expectation of reciprocation in the near
future), to undertake the increasingly complex process of growing,
harvesting, and packaging the bananas. Similarly, Grossman finds local
factors were important in explaining the decline of domestic food production.
As banana exports grew, domestic food production declined, requiring an
increase in food imports. Scholars have commonly argued that the growth of
export crops caused the decline of domestic food production. Grossman argues
that the relationship between export agriculture and domestic agriculture is
much more complex. In St. Vincent, the growth of food imports was not
directly linked to the growth in banana exports. Export crops and food crops
did not necessarily compete for the same fields: Contract farmers in St.
Vincent often intercropped their food crops and their banana crops. Grossman
argues that the decline of domestic food production was at least partly a
function of domestic demand. The Vincentians he interviewed found that
imported food to be cheaper than domestic foods. They also claimed it had a
longer shelf life, was easier to prepare, and tasted better than domestically
produced good. Local environmental and cultural factors also played a role in
limiting state attempts to regulate banana cultivation. As efforts to
standardize the final product have grown since World War Two, so have the
attempts to standardize production. While the Saint Vincent Banana Growers
Association attempted to impose a 'uniform regime of agrochemical use,'
Grossman found that pesticide practices in Restin Hill varied considerably
depending on the individual 'preferences, needs, and perceptions,' of each
farmer. Contract farmers adjusted the application of pesticides to reflect
the varying environmental conditions of production on each farm. Grossman
concludes with a discussion of the persistence of local forces in the face of
globalization. The political ecology framework helps Grossman look at the
"interaction among local and global forces, political economy, and the
environment." (p. 211) While he recognizes the importance of global
forces of homogenization, he argues that the process of globalization
ultimately plays out in particular localities. Paradoxically, localities
often react to the forces of standardization in non-standard ways. One of the great strengths of
Grossman's study is that it treats agriculture as an environmental process as
well as a social process. Of the three factors of production, historians have
traditionally focused on labor and capital, while placing land in the
background. Grossman convincingly shows that the history of the interactions
of labor and capital cannot be fully understood without also paying attention
to the land, or more broadly, the environment. His presentation of the
environment as source of variability shows how it is possible to discuss
human-environment interactions without falling into traditional environmental
determinism. In this, his analysis complements other recent histories of the
banana industry which treat the environment as an integral part of the
analysis, such as John Soluri's dissertation on banana agriculture in Honduras.[1]
It also complements environmental histories of tropical commodities such as
Warren Dean's classic study on rubber agriculture in Brazil.[2] Grossman could have deepened the
political ecological perspective to look at larger-scale interactions between
nature and society in St. Vincent. For example, his analysis implicitly
treats natural disasters as external events. Recent work in the anthropology
of natural disasters, however, argues that they are never simply natural. In
particular, the vulnerability of given societies (and given modes of
production) to natural disasters is socially constructed. As he notes when
listing the many disasters that have struck the island, "the Windwards
environment is hardly ideal for banana production" (p. 61). In spite of
this, the British and St. Vincent governments continued to promote banana
agriculture. Even though hurricanes that struck St. Vincent were not the
result of human agency, the pattern of destruction they left behind reflected
human choices about how to organize their environments and their modes of
production. Root crops for domestic consumption, for example, were far less
vulnerable to hurricanes than the fragile banana trees. Similarly, Grossman
could have developed a more detailed environmental explanation of the spread
of pesticide use (p. 192). Planters began to use more pesticides at least
partly because pest infestations were becoming more commonplace. Pesticide
infestations became more commonplace because the intensive nature of banana
agriculture created large, homogeneous agricultural ecosystems that were
ideal for promoting promoted the spread of diseases and pests. Wherever
intensive banana agriculture was practiced, diseases and pests quickly became
a major problem within a few years after the initial planting. The outbreaks
of diseases and pests in the banana industry, then, also reflected human
choices about how to organize the natural world for economic production. The Political Ecology of Bananas
is an eloquent addition to the growing literature on the history of tropical
commodities. Grossman's argument moves fluidly from the local to the regional
to the global, making the convincing case that scholars should not lose sight
of local forces even if they are studying larger issues. It complements
recent work by historians of Latin America, who have also begun to study
unity and diversity in agricultural regimes. The recent volumes Coffee,
Society, and Power in Latin America [3] and The Second Conquest of Latin
America [4] are good examples of this new approach. Similarly, Grossman's
study starts to explore similarities and differences in banana agriculture
within the British Empire, and between the British Caribbean and Latin
America. Comparing agricultural regimes between regions, between different
political spheres of influence, is a topic that deserves much more systematic
attention in the literature. Most important, however, Grossman's thorough
fieldwork and sharp analysis reminds scholars that agricultural regimes
develop in particular environments and particular places. Because of this, it
is important not to lose sight of the local, even when analyzing the global. Notes [1]. John Soluri.
"Landscape and Livelihood: An Agroecological History of Export Banana
Growing in the Honduras, 1870-1975." (Ph.D. dissertation, University of
Michigan, 1998). [2]. Warren Dean, Brazil and the
Struggle for Rubber, An Environmental History. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1987. [3]. William Roseberry, Lowell
Gudmundson, and Mario Samper Kutschbach, eds. Coffee, Society, and Power in
Latin America. Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1995. [4]. Steven Topik and Allen
Wells, The Second Conquest of Latin America: Coffee, Henequen, and Oil during
the Export Boom, 1850-1930. Austin: University of Texas Press,1998. Khare, A., M. Sarin, N.C.
Saxena, S. Palit, S. Bathia, F. Vania and M. Satyanarayana. 2000. Joint
Forest Management: Policy, Practice and Prospects. Policy that works for
forest and people series no. 3. World Wide Fund for Nature - India, New Delhi
and International Institute for Environment and Development, London. xiv +
142 pp. annexes, tables, figures, boxes and index. ISSN: 1028-8228. £12.50. Reviewed by Firooza Pavri, Department of Geography,
Emporia State University, Kansas. Pavrifir@emporia.edu How does one undertake the
formidable task of evaluating a forest policy initiative undertaken by the
Government of India that affects several million people and currently covers
approximately 70,000 sq. km.? Khare have taken on this challenge and done an
admirable job at presenting the Indian government's recently adopted (since
the early 1990s) Joint Forest Management (JFM) policy framework. Along the
way, they tell the age-old story of forests and people in India, provide an
overview of landmark forest policy statements, and while assessing the impact
of the Indian Forest Department's latest mantra calling for a people-centered
forestry, present recommendations and prospects for the future. This volume,
one of six country studies commissioned under the Policy that works for
forest and people series is a collaborative effort between World Wide Fund
for Nature-India and the International Institute for Environment and
Development, London. [Book summary here]. The first two chapters of this
volume acquaint readers with forest use and management in India, discussing
three issues which provide a much needed framework to help contextualize the
study. First, the authors outline the administrative setup charged with managing
forest use in India, and elaborate on different categories (Reserved,
Protected and Unclassed) of forests and varying rights and rules that govern
them. Next, they consider forest dependent communities, spending some time
spent on adivasi or indigenous groups, and highlight the important role of
forest resources in fulfilling daily local requirements of fuelwood, fodder
and other non-timber products. Lastly, the authors identify different
stakeholders (including local communities, industry, state and central
government bureaucracies, conservationists and social activists), and assess
their vested interests and roles in shaping forest policy. Having provided
readers with this background, the three chapters that follow launch into a
detailed account of forest policy in India, discussing past and current
practices of management and future prospects for the recently initiated
people-centered approach. Khare et. al. trace policy developments from the
early colonial era which emphasized commercial forestry, to the period
following independence which reaffirmed the new state's development
imperatives of industrialization and agricultural expansion (as evidenced in
policy statements of the time -- most notably, the National Forest Policy of
1952 and the National Commission on Agriculture's recommendations, 1976). As
expected, by the end of the 1970s, the era of expanding industrial forestry
impacted not only the forested areas of the country, but also many dependent
communities. Here, the authors use various studies to document the large
scale clearing of India's existing forest cover to make way for commercially
viable timber farms. They further detail the alienation of local populations
from any stake in these new commercial ventures, and the steady criminalization
of their long established forest resource extraction activities. So what explains the Indian
government's dramatic turn by 1988 from this early period, to a supposedly
more people-centered forest management approach? The authors identify several
factors including the rise of strong locally based social movements (Chipko
being one good example here), the state's recognition of links between rural
poverty and land degradation, and increasing international attention on
environmental issues. Recent changes including the now famous 1988 policy
statement and the practice of Joint Forest Management are detailed in
chapters 4 & 5 of the book. It is here that the reader learns about JFM
for the first time, and is made familiar with its roots in a 1990 Government
of India resolution which calls for a closer working relationship between
local people and forest management. Chapter 5 tackles implementation
difficulties and institutional constraints, and inquires after the true
motivations of JFM and its real beneficiaries versus those touted on paper.
In doing so, the chapter sheds light on how access rights to forests are
being remolded, it documents new and evolving local forest-use practices, and
cautions against lumping local groups into all-encompassing categories with
scant regard for class, caste, and gender differences when promoting such
policy. One wishes that the authors had spent more time detailing these daily
realities, for it is here that the true difficulties of policy implementation
come forth with clarity. The volume's final chapter identifies strategies for
the future, and calls for open dialogue between different stakeholders in an
attempt to make each 'see' the other's perspective. This chapter also
provides a long list of recommendations targeted at the national, state and
local levels, exhorting policy makers and institutional players alike to
democratize the process of forest management foremost, and make serious
commitments to engage disparate local voices; hence paying heed to those that
have been unheeded. To the uninitiated this volume
provides a quick but comprehensive introduction to forest policy and
management in independent New Books: Rain, D.R. 1999. Eaters of the
Dry Season: a circular migration system in the West African Sahel. Townsend, Patricia K. 2000.
Environmental Anthropology: From Pigs to Policies. Waveland Press. 106 pages,
U.S.$10.50 ISBN 1-57766-126-5. A good, new teaching book for the field,
suitable for undergrads. - contact info@waveland.com (Tom Curtin) for
information. |
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