Human-environment Relations Research Articles

Mobility, infrastructure and human environment relations in the Anthropocene

AbstractThis paper examines transport and mobility in rural and remote communities, focusing on trade‐offs between development and environmental protection in the Anthropocene. In Sarawak, a state of Malaysia, unpaved logging roads provide basic mobility for remote communities while contributing to the unsustainable and inequitable extraction of natural resources. I argue that the conditions under which transport infrastructure is provided prevent the possibility for sustainable development and pitch local people against a landscape that is the source of livelihoods and identities. The paper is interested in the life and agency of infrastructure and the environment, new materialism and critical approaches to development within human geography.

From Aesthetics to Asymmetry: Contradictions of Ecological Play in Cities: Skylines

Anchored in the Anthropocene era's paradigm of human mastery over nature, Cities: Skylines grants its players extensive agency to shape untouched terrains into sprawling cities. We draw upon “ecological thought”—a mode of awareness that highlights the radical interconnectedness of all beings and their environments—to consider the ecological dynamics of city-building by the game's players. Analyzing player-generated paratexts from online game communities reveals that while many players aspire toward ecocentric city designs, they instead inadvertently restage the asymmetric planetary relationship emblematic of our current era. Our analysis uncovers the capital-driven assumptions that characterize human–environment relations in the game. Attempts at ecocentric aesthetics invariably subsumed by cybernetic interactions that privilege the Anthropocene's prevailing power dynamics. These expressions highlight the inherent contradictions of the Anthropocene era as encountered in Cities: Skylines and illustrate the permeability between the contemporary material world and digital play.

Developing Place Attachment in Master-Planned Residential Estates in Sydney: The Influence of Neighbourhood Parks

Master-Planned Residential Estate (MPRE) is an integrated housing development form in Australia. MPREs are aimed to build a sense of place attachment and community via the provision of environmental and social infrastructure. Neighbourhood parks are regarded as a significant built environmental factor linked to residents’ place attachment and well-being in the literature. Understanding place attachment is crucial for promoting residents’ well-being in neighbourhoods and enhancing the attractiveness of real estates in the housing market. However, we know little about how place attachment is facilitated for park users in neighbourhoods. The psychological process of place attachment in MPREs is unclear in the literature, with a particular lack of qualitative studies in this area. This study explored the psychological process of place attachment and its associations with neighbourhood parks in MPREs in Sydney via a qualitative case study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 residents residing in two selected MPREs in Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Interviews found three themes and several subthemes regarding the process of place attachment for park users in MPREs: affect (emotional bonds), behaviour (place-related fulfilment of needs, place-related social bonds, and community participation), and cognition (membership of the community, place-related memory, and cultural significance). This study contributes to understanding place attachment and human-environment relations in sustainable neighbourhoods by adding new items into place attachment models from the perspective of MPREs in Sydney. It provides valuable qualitative evidence gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings furnish empirical insights for policymakers, developers, and urban planners involved in sustainable neighbourhoods’ development and housing management in Sydney and global regions.

Ecological efficiency: The ability to achieve human well-being while limiting environmental impact

To reach the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, humanity should improve its capacity to achieve well-being and development while reducing its environmental impact. This calls for increased efficiency in the process of transforming natural resources into well-being. We present here a novel indicator called Ecological Efficiency and developed to capture this important aspect of the human-environment relation. We found large differences in efficiency among world countries. We then analyzed the relation between our indicator and several country-level variables encompassing different human dimensions, such as economic, political, and demographic. Results highlighted that demography affects Ecological Efficiency more than other factors.

A situated urban political ecology of plastics recycling in Bangkok

Calls for better municipal waste management practices that are in line with the principles of ‘circular economy’ and ‘circular cities’ abound in many parts of the world including Thailand. Our research aimed to understand how waste pickers in Bangkok currently operate as key actors in the recycling economy, given the lack of state funding and infrastructure for operationalizing circularity, using a situated urban political ecology (SUPE) approach. We conducted surveys and walk-along interviews with waste pickers in two districts of the city. This was supplemented by desk reviews and key informant interviews. Mainly, walking with waste pickers in their daily work routes threw light on the embodiment of waste metabolisms and everyday practices in accessing and metabolizing waste. We find how waste economies were sustained despite policy neglect through fluid relationships between humans and non-humans that operate within a messy, contested urban space. Negative affect and corporeal harm characterized such a metabolism. Characterization of power in urban political ecology can be strengthened by locating diffuse forms in which power is enacted and by looking at the political dimensions of affect. Unexpected alliances between actors posited counter-narratives to powerful instruments of regulation and global waste flows. Through the results presented in this paper, we call for UPE scholars to draw from (a) embodied and situated processes and practices in the transformations of socio-natures and (b) spatio-sensorial methods that can trace circulations and metabolisms of socio-natures. We suggest that such a SUPE can underpin grounded projects of bettering human-environment relationships in the age of planetary crisis.

The inheritance of energy and the evolution of unsustainability

Across contemporary and historical human groups, there is variation in how cultures interact with the environment and this variation is inherited through culture. Some human-environment relationships maximize group fitness relative to other relationships. Thus, there is heritable, fitness-associated variation in human-environment interactions and so human-environment interactions may be understood to be an evolved trait. However, one fitness-maximizing human-environment relationship could be unsustainable resource extraction. Anthroecological theory proposes that human cultures and genotypes have been selected for unsustainability, although several mechanisms have been proposed for how this selection may have worked. Here, I extend anthroecological theory and argue that energy inheritances are critical to understanding the evolution of human unsustainability and the human-environment relationship. I develop an agent-based model to illustrate the hypotheses and find that the ability to pass energy to successive generations has impacts on sustainability. Simulations in which energy cannot be passed to subsequent generations are more stable and sustainable than those that can pass energy to offspring, but simulations in which energy cannot be inherited evolve higher reproductive rates than those with energy inheritance. A significant loss of diversity occurs in the simulations and I tentatively compare this loss to the cultural hegemony associated with historic colonization.

Human-environment interactions in the Mesolithic – The case of site Paliwodzizna 29, a lakeside site in central Poland

Human-environmental relations before agriculture can be revealed at archaeological sites through multi-method palaeoenvironmental studies, particularly at sites which have both dryland and wetland areas. Paliwodzizna 29 is such as site, being a series of pits and hearths at the edge of Lake Grodno in Central Poland. A combination of faunal analysis, lithostratigraphy, pollen, diaspores, charcoal and sedaDNA from the site revealed seasonal collecting-type occupation based on the catching of pike (a superfood) in the spring in the early Mesolithic, but a different foraging-type pattern of occupation probably in the summer in the late Mesolithic. Subtle human impacts on the local environment are also seen, including probably burning of some woodland and reed-beds as well as localized soil erosion. This analysis reveals the potential of both such sites, and the combined methodology, for the testing of theoretical models of human mobility and activities in the Mesolithic.

Anthropocene: Shrug, engage, or do new sorts of work?

In this article, I make some comparisons between approaches to the Anthropocene in archaeology and geography and use them to consider where to go from here. The Anthropocene has lacked purchase in archaeology due to three main disciplinary trends; the importance of process and contingency, the increasing importance of de-periodisation and the increasing critique of the universal human in human origins discussions. Each of these trends has an expression in geography but geographers have tended to critically engage while archaeologists have shrugged. The sense that we have all moved beyond the Anthropocene is a luxury challenged by three important convergences between recent scientific and social scientific thought: a much enhanced set of data about the variable specifics of human–environment relations, particularly across time; increasing recognition of the role of colonialism and capitalism in constituting not only the earth system changes but also the subjectivities and conceptualisation of the Anthropocene; the profound challenges of a transforming and transformable Earth. These convergences demand new and different sorts of work.

THE BETWEENNESS OF CONTEXTS: MILITARY COUPS, INTERNATIONALIZATION, AND THE STRUGGLE FOR INNOVATION IN TURKISH GEOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT This paper provides an analysis of the historical trajectory of Turkish geographical practice over the past four decades, situated within the broader socio-political landscape of the country. The transmission of the modern geographical tradition from continental Europe to Turkey during the interwar period established the discipline as a holistic science of the human-environment relationship. Although this understanding started to change after the 1968 events, the 1980 Turkish military coup abruptly disrupted innovative endeavors in the discipline, prompting a resurgence of regionally focused synthesis within geography. This insular approach prevailed for several decades but began to evolve in response to the internationalization trends that emerged in the 2000s, with deliberate steps taken toward fostering innovation. Despite institutional damage resulting from the political developments following the 2016 military coup attempt, the discipline maintained its commitment to innovation. This paper critically examines the divergent responses of Turkish geography and its practitioners to the 1980 military coup and the 2016 coup attempt, highlighting the significant influence of globalization.

Comparing forest product harvest rates and livelihood activities among migrant and Indigenous households in the Congo Basin

Understanding uneven patterns of forest use and tracking changes in the composition of forest residents are both important for sensitive forest policy and management. With increases in migration streams in several tropical forest regions, we need corresponding information about how new immigrants are influencing human-environment relations in sites of ecological significance. We use data from over 6500 household surveys collected by the Wildlife Conservation Society in three sites in Central Africa: the forests surrounding Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park and Lac Télé Community Reserve in the Republic of Congo, and the Okapi Wildlife Reserve in the Democratic Republic of Congo. We compare household characteristics, livelihoods, and forest use among recent migrants (arriving within the past decade), longer-established households, and households belonging to an Indigenous group. We find that recent migrants are less likely to engage in forest-harvest-based livelihoods and harvest several types of forest foods and fibers less frequently than other households. Recent migrants also tend to be wealthier, younger, and over-represented in salaried jobs. Meanwhile, Indigenous households are 3 to 16 times more likely to participate in a forest-based livelihood, depending on the site. Other consistent predictors of forest harvest include village, age of the household head, household size, whether a household is female-headed (−), and wealth (−). Many trends hold broadly across all three sites, but there are also site-specific patterns related to differences in remoteness and economic opportunities. We conclude with reflections about what the changing make-up of forest-proximate communities might mean for forest management and governance.

Characterizing land use transition in China by accounting for the conflicts underlying land use structure and function

Human activities and global changes have undergone significant transformations in land systems. It is imperative to comprehend the intricacies of land use transitions (LUT), as they serve as indicators of the evolving dynamics within the complex human-environmental relationship. In this study, we adopt the conflict-coordination theoretical framework to delve into the role of land-use conflicts (LUC) in driving LUT. Our investigation involves the quantification of LUT and the assessment of LUC within China, spanning from 1980 to 2020. Subsequently, we scrutinized the interplay between LUT and LUC using Spearman correlation analysis and the Wilcoxon test. Our findings reveal that greater diversity in land-use structure can be attributed to ecological land fragmentation and the restoration of unused land, while the expansion of urban and cropland areas contributes to a less diverse land-use pattern. Furthermore, there is a discernible upward trend in land use function. Although the overall degree of LUC in China is relatively mild, there is a noticeable upward trajectory over the past four decades. More pronounced conflicts within land-use patterns promote a diversified land-use pattern, while conflicts arising from competing land-use functions elevate the level of land-use functionality. Moreover, a dynamic interplay between land-use transitions and conflicts becomes evident, with intense conflicts within land-use patterns weakening land-use functionality, and imbalances in functionality driving greater diversity in land-use patterns. Our research introduces an innovative analytical framework that elucidates LUT through the lens of LUC, with the potential for broader applicability across different regions. This framework not only enhances our understanding of LUT but also provides valuable scientific guidance for the effective management of conflicts to promote the sustainable development of land resources.

Drivers of ineffective environmental sanitation bye-laws in Ghana: Implications for environmental governance

Historically, many national governments of Sub-Saharan African countries, including Ghana, have devolved the responsibility of environmental sanitation to local government authorities to enact bye-laws within their catchment areas. Sanitation bye-laws are context-specific rules of the game aimed at shaping human-environment relationships at the local level. Yet, few studies have assessed their effectiveness in addressing environmental sanitation problems in Ghana. Through a comparative analysis of four local government authorities, this study evaluated the effectiveness of sanitation bye-laws in Ghana by drawing data from key informant interviews. It was revealed that the effectiveness of local government authorities sanitation bye-laws, was compromised by political interference, funding, lack of a proper sanctioning system and the lack of awareness of these bye-laws. The depoliticization of environmental sanitation and the establishment of environmental tribunals are necessary for environmental governance. This would enable local government authorities put developing countries on the right trajectory towards sustainable development at the local level.

Empowering Non-Academic Staff for the Implementation of Sustainability in Higher Education Institutions

Sustainability within higher education institutions (HEIs) is a well-established topic in the literature. Many fields of education for sustainable development have been explored, mainly focused on HEI students, as well as on academic staff. The technical, administrative, and management staff, referred to as non-academic staff has not received as much attention as the remaining HEI community, which leaves a gap in the successful implementation of sustainability practices and policies, as they play a vital and central role in the HEIs’ everyday functioning. Hence, the EUSTEPs project launched two sustainability training courses dedicated exclusively to this segment of the university community, aiming to increase their knowledge on facts and tools for the best sustainability transition. The first short-term online training, organized by the University of Aveiro and Universidade Aberta, Portugal, was run in May 2021. The training targeted 27 non-academic staff from different sectors. The second online training course was implemented one year later and involved 17 elements from the previous training. The results showed very high levels of overall satisfaction and full achievement of the participants’ expectations in sustainability issues. The non-academic staff learned and discussed the human–environment relationship, tracked and discussed their personal ecological footprint in the workspace, actively participated on how to run the university ecological footprint calculator, developed within the EUSTEPs project, and felt mobilized to implement actions to reduce their university’s environmental impacts (as well as in their general daily activities). Similar training programs can be used to empower non-academic staff for the implementation of sustainability in other higher education institutions, hence contributing to a successful integrated sustainability approach for the whole school.

An integrated archaeo-palaeoenvironmental approach to the study of human-environment relationships in the Wierzchowo Lake microregion (Northern Poland) during the Mid- to Late Holocene

The area surrounding Wierzchowo Lake, located in the central part of Pomerania (Northern Poland), is of particular interest from the point of view of the development of past settlements. Archaeological data have revealed human activity during various periods, ranging from the Palaeolithic through the Modern Period. This may suggest the relative and long-term attractiveness of this area. Among archaeological sites from this microregion, a monumental, well-preserved hillfort located in the Wierzchowo Lake peninsula stands out. Although limited excavations were carried out and numerous archaeological materials were collected, its origin remains unclear. Unfortunately, this hillfort could not be properly investigated during the excavations, due to the conservation conditions resulting in a high level of administrative protection. Having these limitations in mind, it was decided to conduct a palaeoenvironmental investigation in the vicinity of this hillfort and correlate its results with the extensive archaeological information available for this area. An investigation based on pollen, charcoal, and geochemical analysis of the lake sediments and their juxtaposition with the available archaeological record, a broad insight into the past of this region, and the nature of the relationship between people and the natural environment were revealed. The first traces of permanent settlement have been linked to the Funnel Beaker culture. A strong increase in human impact within the microregion and important changes in local vegetation (e.g., deforestation, the spread of ruderal habitats) have been associated with the activities of Lusatian culture groups at the end of the Late Bronze Age. A significant transformation of the natural environment and modification of farming practices has been recorded during the Roman Period (Wielbark culture communities) and Medieval Times (Slavic culture). Changes in vegetation composition have also been related to climatic fluctuations around 850 BCE, during the Migration Period and Little Ice Age, when temporary settlement regressions were observed.

Introduction to Entangled Indigenous Historicities from the Eurasian North

The present collection examines the ways Indigenous peoples across the Eurasian North—Sámi, Nenets, Khanty, and Tyva—deal with the past and how their conceptualizations of the past are entangled with dominant ideologies in Russia and Finland, human-environment relations, and the colonial experiences they went through. The authors operate with the notion of historicity, which is understood in François Hartog’s terms as a 'temporal experience'. In the present collection, we expand this notion towards a relational nature of 'temporal experiences' where 'their' and 'our' historicities are not necessarily 'the same' or culturally determined but have been situated in long-term peaceful and conflictual encounters. Through those encounters, the diversity of meanings of the past has been shaped and developed within and between local communities and communities of scholars. The collection comprises the work of scholars from Folklore studies, Ethnology, Cultural studies, and History, who analyse Indigenous historicities through deep archival and field research.
 Keywords: historicities, ethnohistory, Indigenous peoples, Eurasian North

Paul Bishop: recalling an academic life

ABSTRACT The rationale for this theme section of the journal on Paul Bishop, eminent physical geographer, earth scientist and researcher of human-environment relations, is explained. Paul Bishop (1949–2022), a long-time Professor of Geography at the University of Glasgow, was – indeed, still very much is – a major figure at the cutting-edge of research, scholarship, education and applications in the fields indicated. His academic work has been global in its focus – spanning four continents (Africa, Asia, Australia, and Europe), including a substantial body of inquiries centred in Scotland – and has encompassed the time-spans of planetary history (and the geotectonics of long-term landscape change), human history (and the dynamics of environmental influence on human settlement, resource use and cultural practice) and human life-spans (including the histories and heritages of locality). Paul died, too soon, early in 2022. An event to commemorate his academic life and work was held in September 2022, and several contributions to that event have now been written through in substantially revised form for the present theme section. The current piece introduces this theme section, providing a sketch of Paul’s biography, including notes on his time in Glasgow, and cross-referencing with the articles that follow. Appended is also a near-comprehensive bibliography of Paul’s published outputs.

Planet.Health: An Ecosystem Approach to Imagine and Coordinate for Planetary Health Futures

Planet.Health addresses imagination and coordination challenges for planetary health through innovative approaches to social organising. This report presents the findings from the inaugural Planet.Health event in 2022, including the Planet.Health unconference. An unconference is a participant-driven event format that provides flexibility for emergent ideas and connections. In this (un)conference report, we share the challenges, achievements, and lessons learned during the initial year of activities in the leadup to and following the Planet.Health unconference event. We also discuss how the intersection of web3 and planetary health—a major focus of the first year—provides an alternative lens for envisioning, innovating, and coordinating beyond conventional social and institutional frameworks. We explore the potential impact of web3 technologies and decentralised social, economic, and financial networks and highlight the implications of these approaches for addressing planetary crises and supporting a flourishing human–environment relationship. As a new contribution to the planetary health field, this work emphasises the importance of building decentralised systems to foster creative actions and inspire global engagement for planetary wellbeing. The report concludes with some practical insights on how we begin to build and sustain decentralised social networks, including a discussion of the benefits and limitations of these approaches.

The Emergence of Different Sustainable Development Approaches According to Environmental Ethics Theories

In recent years, population growth, changes in consumption patterns, urbanization, industrialization, and structural changes in agricultural production have brought about various environmental problems worldwide. At the core of these issues lies the significant impact of viewing nature as a resource repository and a dumping ground for waste in production processes aimed at satisfying increasing consumption. Humanity in the twentieth century came to terms with the fact that these problems also threatened its own existence. Global risks that began with pollution from waste sources and thinning of the ozone layer in the twentieth century have made it imperative for governments to seek solutions beyond their borders in the twenty-first century, particularly with climate change and global warming. The sustainable development approach, under the leadership of the United Nations, has come to the forefront in meetings addressing these challenges. Sustainable development, in essence, envisions restructuring today's activities in a way that they can also be carried out by future generations. However, the fundamental cause of environmental problems is the uncertainty of human domination in human-environment relationships. Measures taken without ethical scrutiny in this context are only aimed at addressing current problems. This study interprets the sustainable development approaches that have emerged in the quest for global solutions to environmental problems through various environmental ethics theories and discusses their theoretical foundations. Within the scope of this study, sustainability approaches are interpreted according to different environmental ethics theories, and different attitudes toward certain environmental problems are attempted to be revealed.

The impacts of climate change, energy policy and traditional ecological practices on future firewood availability for Diné (Navajo) People.

Local-scale human-environment relationships are fundamental to energy sovereignty, and in many contexts, Indigenous ecological knowledge (IEK) is integral to such relationships. For example, Tribal leaders in southwestern USA identify firewood harvested from local woodlands as vital. For Diné people, firewood is central to cultural and physical survival and offers a reliable fuel for energy embedded in local ecological systems. However, there are two acute problems: first, climate change-induced drought will diminish local sources of firewood; second, policies aimed at reducing reliance on greenhouse-gas-emitting energy sources may limit alternatives like coal for home use, thereby increasing firewood demand to unsustainable levels. We develop an agent-based model trained with ecological and community-generated ethnographic data to assess the future of firewood availability under varying climate, demand and IEK scenarios. We find that the long-term sustainability of Indigenous firewood harvesting is maximized under low-emissions and low-to-moderate demand scenarios when harvesters adhere to IEK guidance. Results show how Indigenous ecological practices and resulting ecological legacies maintain resilient socio-environmental systems. Insights offered focus on creating energy equity for Indigenous people and broad lessons about how Indigenous knowledge is integral for adapting to climate change. This article is part of the theme issue 'Climate change adaptation needs a science of culture'.

Harvesting Underground: (re)generative theories and vegetal analogies in the early modern debate on mineral ores (I)

The early modern use of vegetal terms to explain the origin and growth of ores was widespread in mining industry, alchemy, and natural philosophy. In the writings of authors from many different backgrounds, mineral veins were often described as ‘trees’ which moved upwards, bore fruits, and underwent a life cycle. Accordingly, the existence in ores of ‘seeds’ (and, therefore, of a (re)generative power) was frequently invoked to explain the apparent similarities between minerals and plants. This method of describing mineral processes—called here the botanical model —also had a lasting terminological influence, as is attested by various expressions that are still common among miners and scientists. The notions underlying these terms are part of a larger body of ‘organic interpretations’ of mineral resources that endured into the eighteenth century and contributed to the development of the Earth sciences, mining industry, and the human–environment relationship. In focusing mainly on the rise of the botanical model in Renaissance Europe, this essay is the first part of a more extensive study (to be completed in a forthcoming paper) on the evolution of this important concept and its interaction with the new science throughout the early modern period.