Wild(er)ness: Reconfiguring the Geographies of Wildlife

Amidst millennial talk of the 'end of nature' ( McKibben 1989 ), this paper examines the precarious geographies of 'wildlife' in rather less apocalyptic terms. Animal (and plant) species designated wild are placed categorically outside the ambit of 'human society', confined to inhabiting the margins and interstices of the social world. Yet, we contend, such animals have long been routinely imagined and organized within multiple circuits of social power, which (re)configure them in important ways. These social orderings of animal life confound the moral geographies of wilderness, which presuppose an easy coincidence between the species and spaces of a pristine nature. In this paper, we employ the fluid spatial vocabulary of topology to map a more volatile and relational conception of the fabrics of wildlife. Our arguments are worked through glimpses of two historically very different social orderings of 'wild' animals – those associated with the military vernacular of the gladiatorial games of Imperial Rome, and the scientific vernacular of endangered species listing and conservation under CITES (the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species). These 'foldings' of wildlife in distant time/space aim to disrupt the linear historical narratives of 'civilization' and 'evolution', which consign wildlife to marginal spaces with a teleological destiny of erasure.     

Exercising the Utmost Vigilance: The Catholic Campaign AgainstContraception in New Zealand During the 1930s*

The Catholic campaign against contraception in New Zealand during the 1930s is usually interpreted from the perspective of the promoters of birth control, who accused the church of exercising undue influence over the Labour government (1935–49). This paper argues that while Catholics were the most outspoken opponents of contraception, their opposition to the dissemination of birth control information and contraceptive devices was shared with other influential groups, notably the Protestant churches, the medical profession, journalists, and politicians. It was the combined strength of these conservative interests, not pressure from Catholics alone, which discouraged the Labour government from establishing birth control clinics. Catholics and many other New Zealanders feared that increased access to contraceptives would reduce the birth rate, leaving New Zealand vulnerable to non-British migration or even invasion. There was also widespread concern that the promotion of birth control would encourage sexual promiscuity. Since Catholics sought a compete ban on artificial contraception, however, they were unable to cooperate with non-Catholics who, accepting the restrained use of contraceptives, sought only to limit their availability. Catholic influence reinforced the efforts of other conservative interests but was not strong enough to secure legislation reflecting distinctively Catholic principles.     

Urbanization,ruination, and refusal: racialized geographies in 1920s Rio de Janeiro

This article focuses on a community located in downtown Rio de Janeiro that was destroyed to make way for the commemorations of Brazil’s Centenary of Independence in 1922. Morro do Castelo was once a space customarily inhabited by Afro-descendants, but Italian and Portuguese immigrants predominated there by the time of its destruction. I argue that whatever Castelo’s racial heterogeneity it was imagined and treated as a black space by planners and policy makers, hence its disposability. In Castelo's neglect during the colonial period and in the urbanization projects that sought to destroy it in the first two decades of the 20th century, one can discern the continuity of imperial processes of ruination of racialized spaces and bodies. The article examines ways in which residents of Morro do Castelo established territory and engaged in various forms of refusal when faced with the ruination of their neighborhood. The spatial practices of the hillside’s diverse population suggest that its various racialized and ethnic groups mapped difference onto a palimpsestic site that defied official classificatory systems and troubled official mappings of the concept city.     

Producer Services, Economic Geography, and Services Tradability

We investigate how the incorporation of producer services linkages affects the outcome of an economic geography model. We specify the production of manufactures such that a variety of producer services is needed to transform tradable unfinished goods into final consumption goods. We find that service linkages promote the concentration of economic activity in a single region, but whether full concentration is achieved depends on the costs and mode of services trade. Applying the model to a multiregion world shows that incorporating producer services may also give rise to regions that specialize in different economic activities.