Suchergebnisse

Rez.: Erscheint: 25. Oktober 2000

The article deals with the structuration of environmental problems in the context of civil society engagement. This engagement cannot be adequately explained as a simple reaction to environmental burdens in particular places. In particular, this reaction cannot be reduced to questions of redistribution. To comprehend the normative aspects of corresponding cases it is helpful to also search into the broader struggles for recognition as they have been conceptualized over recent years. A theoretically refined concept of environmental justice can take these dimensions systematically into account. Consequently, the symbolic dimensions of environmental conflicts have to be analysed in more detail. This can be shown with regard to the conflicts around airport noise in the tri-national borderland Switzerland/France/Germany. As a result, we can get a better understanding of the scales and boundary work in this conflict and, on a more general level, on the politics of scale in struggles over environmental justice.

Die symbolische Aufladung von Orten, Räumen und Regionen ist zu einem dominanten Prinzip ökonomischer und politischer Praxis geworden. Doch was verbindet so unterschiedliche Orte wie das "Phantasialand" in Brühl und das barocke Salzburg, was die Berliner "Neue Wache" mit der tansanischen Serengeti oder den Canyons im US-Bundesstaat Utah? Der vorliegende Band geht der Frage nach, wie thematische Ortsbestimmungen produziert und durchgesetzt, aber auch konsumiert und ,gelesen' werden. Durch die Entschlüsselung unterschiedlicher Kontexte und Kriterien räumlicher Bestimmungen bieten die Beiträge Einsicht in die Problematik sozialräumlicher Ein- und Ausschlüsse sowie deren gesellschaftliche Folgen.

The search for suitable adaptation pathways to accommodate for rising sea levels resulting from global climate change is an ongoing concern for many megacities in Southeast Asia and beyond. Addressing already existing challenges resulting from land subsidence and increased occurrence of inland flooding, adaptation can take varied forms and cover widely differing concerns, spaces and time spans. Based on research carried out in the cities of Singapore, Jakarta (Indonesia), and Manila (Philippines), this paper looks at some key trajectories of current adaptation planning. We argue that the processes of infrastructuring coastal futures in these cities are characterized by different aims and measures that overlap and converge in their material effects but also compete in articulating diverging new claims to the coast. In this perspective, we describe and analyze three main trends of infrastructuring coastal futures: the securitization of coastal futures by way of transforming disaster risk reduction practices and integrating new policy concerns, the greening of coastal spaces in material and operational terms, and finally, the valorization of coastal areas through reclamation, waterfront development and the creation of high-end real estate. Along these three trajectories, coastal adaptation planning becomes a key force that can influence virtually every sector of urban development and governance, and has strong implications for the futures of coastal cities in social and political terms.

This paper discusses the role of securing women's land rights in improving household welfare in Gusiiland (Kenya). Land in Gusiiland is a social asset acquired through patrilineal descent. It is a means of production and primary source of income for the majority of the population. Although the 2010 constitution accords women full land ownership rights, a complex set of customary institutions and established practices typically restricts them to usufruct land rights. Using a Feminist Political Ecology (FPE) framework, this paper argues that for Gusiiland, the realization of key Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), in particular gender equality (5), poverty and hunger reduction (1 and 2) and peace and justice (16) depends on securing land rights which is crucial for supporting women's key role in household subsistence and gender equality broadly speaking. To this end, structural discrimination of women has to be fought in the areas of education and land governance, with the aim of implementing existing rights through improved institutional mechanisms. ; 219

Based on documents and political processes on the part of the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU) and German political actors, a potential "securitization" of climate change will be analysed and debated. The results of our analysis raises major doubts, that the respective actors are performing a securitizing move with regard to climate change in the sense of the Copenhagen School, and even more so, that we are witnessing a successful securitization in that sense. ; 168

Research on climate change impacts has so far largely focussed on the direct effects caused by changes in key climate parameters such as mean temperatures, levels of precipitation, likelihood of extreme weather events etc. The main changes in these factors are today well established and scientific projections for the coming decades widely accepted. Many of the predicted shifts and changes will have an impact on food production systems, in fisheries, forestry and agriculture including agro-pastoral systems. Yet, as discussed above, in the context of food security and with regard to the particular role of biological diversity, indirect and complex systemic links may be even more important in many cases. ; 157

Die Autoren schlüsseln in ihrem einleitenden Beitrag zum Sammelband "Konfliktfeld Natur" die diversen sachlichen, historischen und sozialen Dimensionen des Konflikts um biologische und genetische Ressourcen auf. Zunächst entwickeln sie ein Phasenmodell, das die Geschichte der Ressourcen selbst beleuchtet. Danach wird die Vielfalt der Auseinandersetzungen entlang der Achse von verteilungs- und identitätspolitischen Konflikten geordnet. Abschließend diskutieren und bündeln sie einige prinzipiell mögliche sozialwissenschaftliche Forschungsperspektiven. (prb)

Das Ende des Kalten Krieges hat nicht nur eine Neuordnung der internationalen Machtverhältnisse eingeleitet, sondern auch unsere Begriffe und die Bilder in Frage gestellt, die wir uns von der Welt machen. Besonders das Bild einer zugleich schrumpfenden wie "grenzenlosen" Welt hat rasch den Weg von der Managementliteratur in die soziologische Essayistik gefunden (Beck 1997). Parallel dazu haben sich aus der Sicht einiger Sozialwissenschaftler kollektive Überlebens-Fragen zu Lebensstil-Fragen verflüssigt. Schließlich haben westliche Sicherheitsexperten und Politikwissenschaftler eine Debatte darüber begonnen, ob die sogenannte Dritte Welt überhaupt noch gebraucht werde oder ob sie nicht vielmehr als hoffnungsloser Sozialfall abgewickelt werden könne. Für einen Augenblick schien sich der Westen auf einen Zustand vollkommener Unverletzlichkeit zuzubewegen, und Autoren wie Francis Fukuyama haben dieser triumphalistischen Utopie einen kurzlebigen Ausdruck gegeben.