Green Infrastructure Planning: Cross-National Analysis between the North East of England (UK) and Catalonia (Spain)

As green infrastructure (GI) plans are being developed and implemented in a number of regions throughout the UK and interest in the theory and methods is emerging in various other countries there is opportunity to explore the potentials for GI planning throughout Europe. Using the experience of the UK, and particularly that of stakeholders and organizations in the North East of England, we analyse the functions and benefits that a GI network can provide and, through cross-national comparison, we critically theorize the potentials for GI planning in Catalonia. While recognizing that there are key differences between these regions, particularly in relation to climate, societal characteristics, institutional organizations and frameworks for landscape planning, we discuss the transferability of the characteristics which appear to be provided from GI planning in the UK. We conclude that, overall, the implementation of GI planning would be relatively easy to achieve and mostly beneficial under a Mediterranean environment. Our conclusions are tempered by a recognition that the provision of functions and benefits are subject to the influence of the particular organizational characteristics and the cultural background of each region, and in particular the different impacts that climate change is likely to have.     

Ancient Solomon Islands mtDNA: assessing Holocene settlement and the impact of European contact

Archaeologists, linguists and geneticists generally agree that Near Oceania was subject to two major pulses of human dispersal: a Pleistocene occupation around 40,000 BP and a Late-Holocene migration at 3500 BP commonly associated with the Austronesian expansion out of Taiwan. The latter led to the development of the Lapita cultural complex in the Bismarck Archipelago which resulted in the settlement of Remote Oceania and there are a variety of competing models (express train, slow boat, entangled bank, etc.) used to explain this. Recent genetic studies have focused on this issue, but none of them have taken into consideration the bias possibly introduced by 19th-century historically reported population decline caused by European contact.     

Making tuba in the Torres Strait Islands: the cultural diffusion and geographic mobility of an alcoholic drink

There is relatively scant evidence of the Indigenous production and consumption of intoxicating drinks on the Australian mainland prior to the arrival of outsiders. Although Australian Aboriginal peoples had mastered fermentation in some regions, the Indigenous manufacture of much stronger drinks by distillation was unknown on the Australian mainland. However, following contact with Pacific Island and Southeast Asian peoples in the 19th century, Islanders in the Torres Strait adopted techniques for fermenting and distilling what became a quasi-indigenous alcoholic drink known as tuba. This paper discusses the historical process of the diffusion of this substance as a result of labour migration and internationalisation in the Strait, and provides present-day accounts of tuba production from Torres Strait Islanders.     

Humanising the Cut Flower Chain: Confronting the Realities of Flower Production for Workers in Kenya

This article examines a particular international supply chain, the Kenya–UK cut flower supply chain, and looks at the implications of such globalised systems of production for women workers. Using womens' own accounts of their working lives as presented in recent research data and in campaigning activities within Kenya, it confronts the realities facing women workers. With the proliferation of codes of conduct in the cut flower industry, the importance of participatory social auditing (PSA) in uncovering workers' grievances is highlighted. These accounts have been significant in bringing together different stakeholders, including UK supermarkets, and the subsequent establishment of the Horticulture Ethical Business Initiative (HEBI). The importance of participatory methodology is highlighted in the context of both the research exercise and the auditing procedures recommended by HEBI. The establishment of the HEBI using a PSA methodology emphasizes the importance of a local, multi‐stakeholder approach to code implementation. It is concluded that although there are signs of some improvements in labour conditions on some farms, serious problems remain which are inherent in the downward pressures exerted in buyer controlled supply chains.     

Between space and place in mountaineering: navigating risk,death, and power

Abstract

The liminal status of mountains makes them attractive destinations for adventure, and related tourism and recreation activities. Stemming from critiques of Nepal’s growing adventure tourism industry, and recognising the centrality of Sherpas’ roles within it, of interest are the ways Climbing Sherpas experience liminality in mountaineering. Liminality, an anthropological concept introduced by Arnold van Gennep (1960 van Gennep, A. (1960). The rites of passage. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. [Google Scholar]), becomes transformative as Sherpas use encounters with death and periods of uncertainty to take stock of the purpose of their lives. Moreover, analysis of narrative findings reveal that Sherpas assert individual freedom and collective agency in response to the dangers and demands of Nepal’s commercial mountaineering industry, thereby shifting power relations on the mountainside. These findings challenge assumptions of immobile host populations that underlie some of the current understandings within tourism scholarship. Additionally, exploring the liminal landscapes of the mountainside draws attention to critical concerns regarding tourism (and its associated industries) as a mechanism for economic development.