THE VALUE OF WATER VALUES: DEPARTING FROM GEOGRAPHY TOWARDS AN INTERDISCIPLINARY SYNTHESIS

Water valuation represents both an opportunity and a challenge for interdisciplinary scholarly research, given that it can mobilize academic work beyond unnecessary cleavages between physical and social sciences. The article revisits the most common valuation approaches – namely, water as an economic resource, entangled in commodification strategies and embedded in cultural heritages – as important, but incomplete, considerations of the multitude of water values. While previous publications have dealt with the values held by different social groups and by the territorialized manifestation of water values, the limitations of prevailing valuation strategies are discussed here and a relational synthesis is proposed. As relevant as the examination of particular values (e.g. economic, non‐economic, religious, cultural, aesthetic values, etc.) is the realization that the valuation of water is articulated according to socionatural interdependencies and the historic‐geographical trajectories of individuals and groups. Water valuation is, therefore, premised on a relational, holistic ontology, in the sense that values are necessarily interrelated and emerge out of concrete, politicized socionatural interactions. Making use of relevant examples, it is argued that the valuation of water is ultimately a political statement that synthesizes mechanisms of cooperation and competition between individuals and social groups for the allocation, use and conservation of water. Such politicized understanding of the interconnections between water values provides a helpful entry point into the causes and consequences of water management problems. These are all profoundly geographical, but also interdisciplinary, questions, as water values reflect multiscale connections between local processes and wider relations of production, consumption and reproduction.     

PANGAEA'S RETURN: TOWARDS AN ONTOLOGY OF INVASIVE LIFE

Invasive life has received much attention in recent years, being a prime example of the complex socio‐natural entanglements characterizing the present condition of the world. In this article we argue for an ontology of invasive life, consisting of three aspects. First, invasive life does indeed exist; second, it is deeply entangled with political action; and third, it has the capacity to produce new assemblages of socio‐natural phenomena. A recognition of these ontological premises opens up for analyses that go beyond the discussions of scientific moral judgement, and which will be a necessary part of reformulating the politics of human–nonhuman relations. The articulation of an invasive life ontology and its associated political project is inspired by, and vice versa serves as an introduction for, the following articles in this special issue, which address various aspects of these concerns.     

HETEROTEMPORALITY,THE ISLAMIC TRADITION,AND THE POLITICAL: LAROUI'S CONCEPT OF THE ANTINOMY OF HISTORY1

If tradition has often figured as modernity's other, the Islamic tradition has long played the role of the modern constitutive other par excellence. Modern secularizing practices of timing and spacing feed this grounding of the political beyond the conceptual grip of tradition. The works by the Moroccan historian and philosopher Abdallah Laroui (b. 1933) put forward a concept of heterotemporality that distances itself from secularizing practices of timing and spacing, and, importantly, also from theological ones. His critique enables us to understand each of these practices as viewing heterotemporality through one master temporality, a view that represents temporality as, in Laroui's words, “absolute” time. First, this privileged temporality is the homogeneous time of secular progress, and second, it is the homogeneous time of theological truth. Laroui unsettles both practices of timing and spacing by discussing heterotemporality as governed by what he calls the antinomy of the concept of history. For Laroui, this antinomy refers to a specific temporal dynamic that results from the tension between the fundamental discontinuity and incoherence of history, on the one hand, and the production of continuity and coherence through human observers, on the other. Laroui thus reveals that the claims about continuity and coherence that sustain groundings of the political within homogeneous time—either secular or theological—must always be understood in relation to their position within the temporal dynamic of the antinomy of the concept of history. In revealing the temporal dynamic of this antinomy within the Islamic tradition, Laroui reworks the architecture of difference that keeps the secular modern and the Islamic theological conceptually separated from each other.     

AN OVERVIEW OF BIOMEDICAL POLICY: LIFE AND DEATH ISSUES

This article attempts to encourage discussion and analysis of the policy implications of biomedical technology and proposes a framework for studying life and death issues arising out of this technology. It summarizes the status of research on a wide variety of specific policy areas, including those in human genetic inter-vention as well as the non-genetic biomedical issues at various life stages. It suggests that no set of issues has more serious implications for humanity and urges policy scientists to examine these technologies more fully. While the technical and ethical aspects of these issues are important, at the center of these con-cerns is the extent to which decision should be public–the degree to which the government should direct, limit, or facilitate applica-tion of the various technologies that affect life and death. This overview article concludes with a call for a PSJ symposium on this area of critical policy importance.     

对华贸易摩擦与我国对外贸易地理方向调整——基于收入需求偏好相似理论的分析

近来对华贸易摩擦数量更是呈现上升趋势。我国应该从贸易摩擦的国内原因着手,提升本国的国际竞争力。当前对华贸易摩擦与我国偏向性的对外贸易地理方向表现出重合性。要从根本上解决当前困境,就应该利用需求偏好相似理论逐步调整对外贸易方向,把原有的欧、美、日为主要导向出口贸易调整到各大洲并重的全球贸易战略。我国应特别注重拓展非洲、拉美市场,在缓解贸易摩擦危害的同时使中国走向贸易强国。     

TOWARDS AN EXPLANATION OF THE DEARTH OF CERAMIC FINE WARES IN CYPRUS AND PARTS OF THE LEVANT BETWEEN AD 150 AND 300

The article focuses on a rarely acknowledged cultural phenomenon – the steep decline of ceramic fine wares in parts of the Eastern Mediterranean between about AD 150 and 300 and explores possible reasons behind the dearth of these table wares, as attested through archaeological projects, in particular in Cyprus. As an explanatory model a “Product Life‐Cycle Theory” is tested against available data, in conjunction with other factors such as depletion of clay supplies and timber resources.     

SOFT VERSUS HARD: AN AUSTRALIAN STUDY OF AN IDEOLOGICAL BASIS TO ATTITUDES TOWARDS ENERGY USE AND SUPPLY

A distinguishing factor of western societies is their consumption of energy. In 1986, Canada, the United States, and Australia had per capita consumption rates of 6.3, 4.7, and 3.2 times the global rate, respectively (DIESA 1988). Much of this energy is supplied by fossil fuels. At present, fossil fuels are economically attractive and their relatively high energy densities make them particularly attractive for transport purposes. However, their supply is finite (particularly in the case of petroleum) and their consumption produces atmospheric pollution. The depletion of fossil fuels or a rapid global warming of the atmosphere may eventually force changes in the way developed countries use energy (Lowe 1989). As everyone is an energy consumer, changes in consumption at a societal level are linked with changes at a personal level.