Accumulation by dispossession and hazardscape production in post-corporate gold mining in Itogon,Philippines

This study investigates the experience of a gold mining community two decades after corporate mining activities ceased and were replaced by informal subcontract small-scale mining in Itogon, Philippines. Drawing on David Harvey’s accumulation by dispossession and Daanish Mustafa’s hazardscape, we consider the lasting effects, from 1903, of dispossession upon the establishment of the first commercial mines in the Philippines as experienced by traditional miners in Itogon. Despite the closure of mining operations, mineral lands remain privately owned, resulting in the persistence of legal land dispossession among local small-scale gold miners. Mining activities still continue as small-scale miners are able to access abandoned mines through subcontract mining. Subcontract mining has changed the source of capital that funds mining activities from mining corporation to rent-seeking small-scale mining financiers, but the new economic relations still benefit from the capitalist logic of low natural resources and labour value. We argue that the production of hazardscapes is a consequence of accumulation by dispossession through (1) processes of expropriation of mineral lands and the consequent creation of free labour among local miners; (2) the externalisation environmental cost as an accumulation strategy that results in the production of socionatural hazards; and (3) exploitation of those who labour and who are made to work in precarious work environment while contributing to the production of hazardscapes.     

Digging Deep for Justice: A Radical Re-imagination of the Artisanal Gold Mining Sector in Ghana

Abstract:  This article explores the concept of "contact zones" to counteract misrecognition and exclusion in the artisanal gold mining sector of Ghana. The large majority of the 300,000–500,000 Ghanaian artisanal miners work without an official license, illegally. Due to their encroachment on corporate concession lands, the use of toxic mercury in the gold extraction process, and the social disruption caused by their migratory activities, these miners are often marginalized and criminalized. Yet, devaluation and misrecognition hamper environmental stewardship and participation in political decision-making. Through parity-fostering participatory research, I propose a radical re-imagination of the sector that encourages agency and flourishing among these ostracized men and women diggers.     

The Aral Sea Crisis and Its Future: An Assessment in 2006

An American geographer and noted international authority on water management problems in Russia and Central Asia presents an account of an expedition, in late 2005 (under the sponsorship of the National Geographic Society) to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, focused on the Aral Sea. The steadily drying inland sea, with a surface area of 67,500 km² in 1960, had split into two parts and shrunk to 17,380 km2 in 2006. The paper provides an up-to-date overview of the crisis and presents an optimistic scenario of the sea's future, noting development of economic activities (particularly fisheries) in its surrounding settlements. Journal of Economic Literature, Classification Numbers: O13, Q15, Q25. 6 figures, 1 table, 55 references.     

The border floods,August 1956

The dominance of Mexico City over the remainder of the country appears to offer conclusive evidence that Mexico's space economy is characterised by core‐periphery relationships. Most measurable criteria indicate that the Yucatan peninsula is part of the periphery. Despite this, it is possible to argue that within the Yucatan peninsula* itself, the city of Merida acts as a core area and has been responsible for a considerable degree of autonomous economic growth, thus acting as a core within the periphery.     

Mobility,Land Use,and Leadership in Small-Scale and Middle-Range Societies

Over the past century, the fields of archaeology and anthropology have produced a number of different theoretical approaches and a substantial body of data aimed at ways to understand hunter-gatherer, horticultural, and agropastoral societies. This review considers four recent edited volumes on foraging and food-producing societies. These books deal in innovative ways with a broad array of issues, including transitions in human prehistory and history, mobility, land use, sharing, technology, social leveling strategies, leadership, and the formation of social hierarchies. Small-scale societies include hunter-gatherers or foragers, while middle-range societies may include complex hunter-gatherer (ones with storage and delayed return systems), horticultural, and agropastoral societies, some of them with institutionalized leadership, status hierarchies, and differential access to power and resources. An important set of themes in these books includes diversity in adaptations to complex social and natural environments, the significance of (1) matter, (2) energy, and (3) information in small-scale and middle-range societies on several continents, the persistence of foraging, and the development of inequality. The roles of sharing, exchange, and leadership in small-scale and middle-range societies are explored, as are explanations for social, economic, and political transformations among groups over time and across space.     

‘Man can’t give birth,woman can't fish’: gender dynamics in the small-scale fisheries of Bangladesh

Going beyond the myths prevalent in the socio-cultural embeddedness of rural Bangladesh, this article examines the diverse visible and invisible roles of fisherwomen in small-scale fisheries. This research considered two ethnic groups situated in two different ecosystems: the floodplain freshwater ecosystem is represented by new-entrant Muslim fishers ‘Maimal’ and the coastal ecosystem is represented by caste-based Hindu fishers ‘Jaladas’. From the basic ontological worldview of human dignity, moral individualism, and the social recognition of women’s rights, we argue that fisherwomen’s roles need to be recognized, focused, and valued to develop a horizontal understanding that is a prerequisite to the process of democratization, and the proper functioning of a just society. In the rural societies, a host of attributes, such as the deep-rooted socio-cultural constructions of the motherly myth, extreme tolerance, family teaching, religious antagonism, poverty, lack of education, internalization of a subordinate position, lack of supportive institutions, and fear of loss of societal patronage, profoundly undermine the capacity of women to aspire and raise their voice. Fisherwomen are accrued an inferior social position although they perform unique roles in the areas of childcare, household upkeep, livelihoods, and psycho-social support for the seafaring fishers. Conducive to the ecotone of marine fisheries, this article also portrays how a rigid patriarchal form of society is seasonally transformed to matrifocality when fishermen are away for fishing for half the year.     

Working Towards Regional Agreements: Recent Developments in Co‐operative Resource Management in Canada's British Columbia

Canada's experience with ‘regional agreements’ has attracted considerable attention in Australia as a means by which Indigenous people can secure their native title rights to land and sea and ensure they can participate in the development and management of their homeland territories. However, regional agreements implemented in Canada thus far have often taken years to negotiate. To provide a degree of certainty for resource management and decision‐making while the native title claims process is underway, Canadian governments have proceeded to establish interim resource use and management agreements with Indigenous communities. While both governments and Indigenous people stress that interim arrangements do not replace or limit the scope for future claim settlements, it is recognised that the development of such co‐operative relationships will make long‐lasting formal agreements easier to achieve. This paper draws on several recent examples of interim agreements that have been negotiated for the salmon fishery resource in the Skeena River catchment, and considers how these local experiences offer useful approaches for resource management and native title issues in Australia. These examples demonstrate the importance of building shared understandings of resource values and management approaches prior to cementing co‐management partnerships in formal settlements. They also show some of the problems and prospects facing Indigenous peoples in their efforts to benefit from such co‐management agreements.     

10,000 years of human predation and size changes in the owl limpet (Lottia gigantea) on San Miguel Island,California

To investigate potential human impacts on California Channel Island shellfish stocks over the past 10,000 years, we measured 1718 owl limpet shells from 19 archaeological components on San Miguel Island. Inhabiting the middle intertidal zone of Pacific Coast rocky shores, owl limpets are slow-growing mollusks that can live for 30 years and reach lengths of over 100 mm. Recent ecological studies indicate that owl limpets are highly susceptible to heavy human predation, which results in reduced mean shell sizes among Lottia populations along the coasts of Alta and Baja California. On San Miguel Island, we identified a significant trans-Holocene reduction in mean owl limpet size, beginning more than 6500 years ago and accelerating at least 4400 years ago. Fluctuations in limpet size show no clear correlation with changes in sea surface temperature and marine productivity, suggesting that increased predation by growing human populations was primarily responsible for the reduction in Lottia size over time. Our results provide further evidence that prehistoric peoples significantly influenced nearshore fisheries long before the development of the commercial and industrialized fisheries of historic times.     

Modern Slavery and Freedom: Exploring Contradictions through Labour Scandals in the Thai Fisheries

This paper examines the modern anti-slavery movement through the lens of the slavery scandal in Thailand’s fisheries sector. The slavery framing provoked a response on the part of governments, corporations and NGOs that produced improvements in working conditions. Nevertheless, we argue that while the slavery framing was effective in drawing attention and resources to solidarity groups, it provided a poor guide to action because of how it resolves complex and embodied relations of freedom and unfreedom into a simplified opposition that can be used to justify capitalism as the realm of freedom—rather than a cause of unfree labour or slavery. The Work in Fishing Convention (ILO C-188) has provided a guide for laws and regulations intended to improve working conditions in industrial fishing in Thailand and elsewhere, but it does not address slavery or human trafficking. It also frames work in fisheries as exceptional, and thus allows for working conditions that would be considered unacceptable on land. We suggest that critical scholars be cautious about working with a slavery framing, and that they might want to engage with working conditions in ways that start less with questions of unfree labour, and more with how capitalist labour practices can be constrained.     

Human impacts on ancient shellfish: a 10,000 year record from San Miguel Island,California

We use measurements of more than 11,000 marine shells from 41 archaeological components to construct a 10,000 year record of human impacts on ancient mussel and abalone stocks on San Miguel Island, California. General reductions in the mean size of mussel and abalone shells gathered through time are attributed to growing human population and predation pressure. Based on comparison with historically documented changes in shellfish communities caused by the local extinction of sea otters in the 19th century, changes in mean shell size and the abundance of other shellfish species may have been facilitated by Native American predation on sea otters as early as 7500 years ago. Despite having measurable impacts on local ecosystems, Native Americans on San Miguel harvested huge quantities of shellfish throughout the Holocene. Such long-term harvests appear to have been sustained by an early emphasis on fishing at lower trophic levels, by periodically shifting village locations, and by intensifying the use of finfish and sea mammals through time. This pattern of “fishing up the food web” contrasts with many modern fisheries, suggesting that the study of ancient fisheries can help us better manage our own endangered coastal ecosystems.