ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS AND URBAN ABANDONMENT: CASE STUDIES AND TYPOLOGICAL ISSUES

The article discusses the phenomenon of urban abandonment as a result of environmental hazards. Seen as an outcome of environmental drivers, the underlying assumption is that a characteristic of environmental hazards is their spatial and temporal constancy of impact, whereby processes and phenomena having taken place in the past have their analogies in the present. In order to generate insights for future research and policy development, there is a need to pay greater attention to the precarious relationship between humans and the natural environment, not least by drawing lessons from the past through the study of historical cases. The article clarifies the dynamic interactions of drivers and their progression through various stages of urban abandonment. This is done by recourse to an analysis of some general trends and an in‐depth examination of three selected case studies from Poland. It has two objectives. The first is to identify the historical role of environmental drivers in the process of urban abandonment, while the second one is to contribute to the typology of environmentally related processes of urban abandonment in order to better identify future calamities. With respect to the former, the findings reveal that the relation between environmental hazards and urban abandonment is pertinent in regions with specific geographic conditions and pertains only to certain categories of urban settlements. With respect to the latter, by drawing on these findings, we propose some alterations and amendments to McLeman's comprehensive model of settlement abandonment in the context of global environmental change.     

城市环境地质问题及研究方略

本文简要介绍城市环境地质的研究内容,它包括地面沉降、地裂缝、地下水污染等问题,通过实例阐明研究的思路,结合城市特点提出了应侧重做好的几项工作。     

Bridewealth a Pardon: New Relationships and Restoration of Good Daughters

Bridewealth is recognized as vital in the reproduction and reconfiguration of Pacific environments and women play an integral role in this process. In contemporary Papua New Guinea (PNG), bridewealth is reconfigured by kin to acknowledge the considered actions of women as they enter into relationships with men. This paper will explore how women's choices impact and influence their experience of these exchanges and determine the role of women and their kin as they undertake these practices. Here I aim to understand how the social relatedness that frames bridewealth exchanges enables the practices of bridewealth to be used as a tool for recognition of women's choices, autonomy and personhood. Although women enter into relationships without initial kin approval, bridewealth practices converge ultimately with a women's autonomous choice of husband. Wardlow suggests (2006:86) 'bridewealth confers value and dignity on female gender', and going beyond her observation, I show that bridewealth has been useful in achieving this in regard to managing and supporting social, kin and affinal relationships. This article will explore two cases, to identify what each tells us about women's ability to act in ways that are beneficial to them and important to kin. I show how moral evaluations frame (pasin) and recognize (luksave) kin and social relationships that ultimately constitute their personhood.     

(Un)Inventing America: the transpacific Indies in Oviedo and Gómara

In this article, I analyze the so-called ‘discovery of the Pacific’ and its implications for Spanish understanding of global geography, in two of the most important early histories of the early encounter with the New World: the works of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo and Francisco López de Gómara. Their general histories of the Indies tackle the Pacific in their accounts of the various expeditions that Spain sent to the Moluccas and Philippines between 1519 and 1542. There we see how both historians struggle to contain the discovery that the Pacific was much broader and emptier than anyone had expected it to be, and thereby prevent it from becoming, in the Spanish imagination, an insurmountable barrier that decisively separated America from Asia. Oviedo is committed to the idea that the Indies are a single tropical expanse that can be successfully spanned by Spanish military might and navigational skill, no matter how large an ocean it contains. Gómara gives up on the unified Indies, embraces the ‘invention of America,’ but miniaturizes the Pacific in order to keep Spain's South Sea ambitions alive. Each in his own way thereby articulates the New World with broader geographies and expansive horizons.     

Expanding (Environmental) Histories of the Holocaust

ABSTRACT

This epilogue draws out three ways that environmental histories of the Holocaust might challenge the current historiography to expand its horizons. Firstly, environmental histories of the Holocaust expand the range and nature of actors studied as we seek to understand genocide and its aftermath. Secondly, and closely linked to this, environmental histories of the Holocaust expand the range and nature of sources and methods drawn upon in genocide research. Thirdly, environmental – and ecological – histories of the Holocaust expand the chronological boundaries of study when conceptualizing histories of genocide. Taken together, the nascent literature on environmental and ecological histories of the Holocaust offer an important extension of what writing “integrated” histories of the Holocaust might entail.     

Writing the History of Archaeology in the Pacific: Voices and Perspectives

ABSTRACT

In histories of world archaeology to date the Pacific is all but missing. There has been some investigation into the history of archaeology in Australia and New Zealand, and other piecemeal work focusing on single countries or biographies of individuals, but much remains to be done. We offer a critical overview of general literature on the history of archaeology in the Pacific and stress the potential for a deeper knowledge of archaeology's histories in the region to transform current archaeological theory and practice. We then suggest important avenues for further investigation, including the historiography of Pacific archaeology, diverse national and linguistic traditions, international linkages between scholars and practitioners, pre-World War II excavations, theories about trans-Pacific contacts, and the often-hidden importance of women and Indigenous scholars and interlocutors in the field. Each of these themes is addressed by one or more of the papers in this special issue.     

Kelp Highways,Siberian Girls in Maui,and Nuclear Walruses: The North Pacific in a Sea of Islands

ABSTRACT

Epeli Hau‘ofa's definition of the Pacific as a ‘sea of islands' should be extended to the Indigenous history of the North Pacific Ocean. Several themes prominent in the history of Oceania – such as humans' orientation towards the ocean, the complex ways in which European and Indigenous histories mixed in the colonial era, and the notion of vast, interconnected spaces – apply to North Pacific history as well. This essay looks at the ways in which the history of the Russian Far East and Alaska could be written as Pacific history and integrated into histories of Oceania. Such an integration would provide numerous benefits for historians and activists in the North Pacific. Some important topics in the history of these northern regions, such as the interdependence of human and natural systems, could also enrich historiography in Oceania.     

Gender,the work‐life course,and livelihood strategies in a South Indian fish market

This article examines how gender ideologies differentially inform men and women's work‐life courses in the fishing economy of southern India. Drawing on interviews conducted with fish traders in Trivandrum, India in 1993–94 and 1999, we construct economic life histories for men and women traders. These are then used to illustrate how gender creates different patterns of paid work for men and women throughout their life courses and to analyze how men and women formulate livelihood strategies differently as a result.     

White Men in Quarantine: Disease,Race, Commerce and Mobility in the Pacific, 1872

In July 1872, the steamship Hero underwent quarantine at Sydney’s North Head after a case of smallpox was diagnosed. This article brings together the histories of quarantine, white subjectivity and Pacific mobility through an analysis of the Loganiana newspaper produced by the passengers of the Hero during their confinement. The Loganiana provides a unique insight into the formation of white identities through discussions of race, commerce, science and inter-colonial politics. The case provides an important perspective on a transformative period in Australia’s border history, and also illuminates the tensions accompanying the transition from an older imperial order to political autonomy in the nineteenth-century Pacific.     

Promoting Women,Peace and Security in the Pacific Islands: hot conflict/slow violence

How has the Women, Peace and Security agenda been advanced in the Pacific Islands? While some observers argue that this region suffers from a contagion of unrest, violence and state weakness, these estimates commonly ignore the vital work women have performed in the region as promoters of peace and security. Even when such activity places them in direct personal danger, women across the region have spearheaded efforts to bridge communal boundaries and challenge the increasing normalisation of violence, gendered and otherwise, that accompanies threatened or actual incidents of conflict. As this article demonstrates, these efforts have had profound impacts on the ground in conflict-affected Pacific Island countries. They have also received increased recognition at the level of institutional politics, with member states of the Pacific Islands Forum recently accepting a Regional Action Plan on Women, Peace and Security. This has been hailed as a significant achievement for the region's women peacebuilders. But much of this plan is focused on women's contributions to peacebuilding at the pointy end of a crisis. This overlooks the extent to which the ‘slow violence’ of environmental degradation, masculinised politics and militarism also compound gendered insecurity in the region. Attention to these issues offers a contradictory picture of the gains made in promoting the Women, Peace and Security agenda in the Pacific Islands. While this advocacy framework has provided important opportunities for the region's women peacebuilders, it may also have discouraged broader reflection on the prevailing structural conditions at work across the region which function in an attenuated fashion to undermine women's security and the achievement of a gendered regional peace.     

Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) as a paleothermometer: otolith oxygen isotope reconstruction

Stable isotope studies are increasingly important for understanding past environmental and cultural developments along the North Pacific Rim. In this paper, we present methods for using Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths as a paleothermometer using a case study from Kodiak Island, Alaska. The results of this study indicate that Pacific cod otoliths record variable paleoenvironmental conditions during the Little Ice Age. The broad distribution of Pacific cod and success in using the otoliths as a paleothermometer makes this method widely applicable to researchers working throughout the northern Pacific Rim.     

The strange case of the Freudian case history: the role of long case histories in the development of psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud's five long case histories have been the focus of seemingly endless fascination and criticism. This article examines how the long case-history genre developed and its impact on the professionalization of psychoanalysis. It argues that the long case histories, using a distinctive form that highlighted the peculiarities of psychoanalytic theory, served as exemplars in the discipline. In doing so, the article extends John Forrester's work on "thinking in cases" to show the practical implications of that style of reasoning. The article illustrates how the form disappeared once the theoretical basis of the movement was set. The genre never became institutionalized, although the content of the five long case histories did, because of Freud's accepted role as theoretician of psychoanalysis.     

ANTHROPOGENIC ENVIRONMENTAL ALTERATION OF THE SEA OF AZOV

The authors concentrate on four aspects of environmental alteration of the Sea of Azov. First, they trace the Azov's problems back to Soviet resource-use conflicts. Second, they present several examples of anthropogenically induced environmental disruption of the Azov's ecosystem. Third, modeling is utilized to project possible future salinity conditions within the Azov. Fourth, in their attempt to evaluate the various ameliorative efforts that have been made or are being proposed, they challenge the overall ecologic-economic effectiveness of the proposed dam across the Kerch' Strait designed to regulate the salinity of the Azov. Finally, they conclude it is unlikely that the Azov ever will be returned to its previous “natural” condition. This article should be read in conjunction with Pecherin's article also in this issue of Soviet Geography. (Illustrations by Elinore Mathews, University of Washington, Seattle.)     

Scales of grievability: on moving children and the geopolitics of precariousness

This article investigates legal performativities of grievability in contemporary child migration and argues for a scalar approach to analyse and understand the cultural politics underpinning current debates on the ‘moving’ child. I turn to two court cases in the Dutch context that involve alleged child trafficking in international adoption on the one hand and the threat of deportation in child asylum on the other. These two forms of child migration have rarely been investigated in tandem although both concern the transnational movement of children from the global South to the wealthy North. By focusing on the legal concept of ‘the right to family life’ and ‘the best interest of the child’ I point to the performativity of law and the ways in which cultural constructions of the child, childhood, kin and humanitarianism intervene in our work of justification. My contention is that placing these ‘different-but-same bodies’ within a scalar dimension – one that takes into account spatio-temporal conditions of grievability – enables us to understand modern investments in child-bodies and the complexities of justice in globalization.     

The Chinese Pacifics: A Brief Historical Review

ABSTRACT

This survey reviews the growing role and presence of China in the Island Pacific. As the late Professor Ron Crocombe remarked, in the Pacific a major transition is under way from a range of European to Asian influences. Many Western observers have viewed this rise of Asian, and specifically Chinese, influence with alarm, but Crocombe saw it as offering Pacific Islanders new opportunities. This paper first analyses the diversity that can be masked by terms such as ‘China’ and ‘the Pacific’. Then it surveys recent literature on China in the Pacific and scholarship concerned with longer Chinese histories in the region that most recent commentators ignore and which question a number of their assertions. Finally, it suggests possible future directions for historical research on this topic.     

Does Nature Always Matter? Following Dirt through History

Despite several decades of impressive scholarship in environmental history, the field remains largely marginal to the discipline as a whole. Environmental stories are still more likely to turn up in introductions, sidebars, and footnotes to political, social, and economic histories than they are to be incorporated into those narratives in a transformative way, though we as environmental historians know that potential is there. As we struggle to identify what precisely it is that we want other historians to do with our work, we run up against questions of definition and mission: What is environmental history? What do we do that is unique? What do we want other historians to learn from what we do? Some scholars in our field have suggested that we can answer these questions by framing “environment” as a category of analysis parallel to race, class, and gender, arguing that careful attention to the environment offers as rich a way of uncovering power relationships in societies as attention to these other categories does. While it is true that power can be read in the environment, and is frequently expressed through it, I argue that “environment” as both concept and fact is so fundamentally different from class, race, and gender that the analogy does not work, and distracts us from another, more fruitful strategy for articulating the broader relevance of our scholarship: demonstrating the significance of material nature for histories beyond the environmental realm. If other historians would join us in our attention to the physical, biological, and ecological nature of dirt, water, air, trees, and animals (including humans), they would find themselves led to new questions and new answers about the past.     

Visual Histories and Photographic Evidence

Over the last decade, historical research into photography in the Pacific has grown and diversified, yet an enormous amount of visual material remains untapped, new approaches and questions await exploration, and most historians still neglect critical engagement with visual evidence. This article, in summarising developments in the historical research of photography both generally and in the Pacific, identifies directions in recent work, and argues that closer links between visual history and Pacific History promise revisions and new vistas of Pacific pasts.     

Drawing,toponymy, and linguistic pilgrimage

This article scrutinises an ongoing concern with how the naming of landscape is informed by micro personal and macro cultural narratives. The author takes the position of a toponymist and linguistic pilgrim. The perspectives identify ways of understanding the meanings of place ascribed through language and placenames, the role of intention in language documentation, and relationships between the affect of place and belonging. Drawing is melded with processes of placenaming, specifically a single fishing ground placename recorded during linguistic fieldwork in February 2008 with an elderly man on Norfolk Island, South Pacific. The argument uses drawing as a method to reveal how elicited stories can reveal the meanings of placenames and the histories of observations that inform them. The view taken questions whether the discipline of toponymy could incorporate a more involved and evolved aesthetic dimension. New ways to contextualise observations about placenaming and documentation within relevant interdisciplinary contexts such as drawing research and cartography are offered.     

中国传统文化与环境保护关系初探

加强环境保护是世界各国面临的一项迫切任务。中国传统文化中"天人合一"的观点促进了环境的保护,但"多子多福"、"不孝有三、无后为大"等观念又强烈统治着人们的思想,人口的膨胀导致人们不得不以牺牲环境为代价来满足生活的基本需求。因此,正确认识和评价传统文化对环境保护正反两方面的影响,吸收古文化的精髓,剔除糟粕,对我国环境保护的改善有重要意义。