Socio-ecological Crisis Research Articles

Doing urban geography in times of crisis: introduction to the forum “Urban geography in times of crisis”

Abstract. Crises dominate current political debates. They shift the spaces of possibility for geographical research practice and global theory formation. Our starting point in this forum is the diagnosis of a dual crisis: on the one hand, the epistemological crisis put forth in post- and decolonial scholarship and, on the other hand, the ubiquity of worldly crises – variously described as the pluri-crisis, polycrisis, or socio-ecological crisis. This pervasiveness poses new questions about how the entanglement of these diagnoses operates in the realm of geographical knowledge practice. Clearly, crisis phenomena have always conditioned the production of geographical knowledge. As crises restrict mobility or create precarious working conditions, they have not only shaped the everyday research life of many scholars worldwide, but also defined current knowledge (production) through the absence of certain scholars' voices at international conferences or in international publications. Having patterned global theory formation in this way, crises are firmly embedded in any knowledge canon. This forum discusses the transformation of urban geography in times of multiple crises. In our introductory reflections, we highlight some of the forum contributions' crosscutting insights, weave a common thread through this dialogue, and discuss obstacles to as well as critical resources necessary when rethinking and possibly changing practices of knowledge production.

How can relational, decolonial and feminist approaches inform the EU bioeconomy?

Abstract In this commentary we argue that, to transform the bioeconomy sectors towards ecologically less harmful and socially fairer outcomes, the bioeconomy policy project must be questioned, re-politicised and fundamentally reframed and reinvented. We firstly identify some of the main root causes for continuity of extractivism and injustices in the bioeconomy policy and, more broadly, in the green transition (“Root causes of today’s socioecological crises and why they matter for the EU bioeconomy project” section). Secondly, we outline the largely neglected ideas and concerns emerging from relational, feminist and decolonial approaches and perspectives (“Moving beyond growth while enabling marginalised voices, knowledges, and practices that nurture web of life and wellbeing for all” section). Finally, we compile a list of 11 actions and 47 suggestions for decisionmakers, practitioners and academics to contemplate on how to cocreate bioeconomies founded on ethics of care, relationality and socioecological justice. Ultimately, the aim is to reject socioecological domination, extractivism and exploitation and foster collective wellbeing for all beings, human and other-than-human.

Bryophyte literature records database of Aysén, Chilean sub-Antarctic ecoregion

The Chilean sub-Antarctic ecoregion hosts the largest expanse of temperate forests, wetlands and peatlands, as well as the largest proportion of protected areas in the southern hemisphere. Bryophytes are highly diverse and ecologically essential in sub-Antarctic ecosystems and are considered as biodiversity loss indicators caused by the current socio-ecological crisis. However, knowledge about their biodiversity is rather limited. Integrating the available information on bryophyte diversity in regional platforms such as SIB-Aysén can be useful to acknowledge their ecological importance and remarkable biodiversity. This article integrates 345 records of 273 bryophyte taxa known in the region of Aysén and emphasizes the need to include citizen science as a tool to increase observations in lesser-known taxonomic groups.

Is it possible to develop regenerative leadership in the financial sector through action research?

Due to the global socioecological crisis and increasing environmental concerns, there is an urgent need for new ways of leading that take more responsibility for the environment, the climate, the wellbeing of employees and citizens, and the social aspects of our society in general. There is an urgent need to more consistently work with both environmental and social sustainability in mind.Based on this challenge, this study is centered around the development of regenerative leadership in the financial sector through action research as an inquiry to simultaneously learn, change, and produce knowledge. The study’s primary research question is:Is it possible to develop regenerative leadership in the financial sector through action research?</br /> In the first part of the paper, the background of the project and the basic notion of regenerative leadership will be explained. In the second part, a pilot project based on action research focused on the development of regenerative leadership in the financial sector will be presented, including the research inquiry and some brief illustrative examples (adjusted to the scope of the paper). Finally, the outcomes of the project and the use of action research for the development of regenerative leadership in the financial sector will be discussed.

Extractivism, Profits and People: Environmental, Social and Economic Costs of Fluorspar Mining In Kerio Valley, Kenya

This paper examines the disruptive effect of resource extraction through fluorspar mining in Kerio-Valley. Focus is on how this process sparked off economic contestations, intense ecological crisis, and heightened social tensions. The discovery and subsequent mining of Fluorspar deposits in Kerio Valley has created economic opportunities and caused profound challenges for the indigene Keiyo community. Mineral extraction has caused environmental degradation, deforestation, water contamination, cultural desecration, and land dilapidation, which has adversely affected local agriculture and biodiversity. One thousand four hundred families have suffered the disruption of traditional livelihoods occasioning food shortage and hunger, leading to the cultural disintegration of a once vibrant and self-sustained community. Despite government efforts to manage these impacts through various policies and partnerships with multinational corporations, the socio-ecological crises persist. Using grounded theory, this paper argues that the benefits of fluorspar mining is negated by the long-drawn demands for adequate compensation, pollution, and social upheaval. This paper recommends a re-evaluation of governance frameworks and corporate practices in the extractive sector.

Ecologies of De/colonization: Embodied Caribbean Diasporic Perspectives

In this photo essay, we take readers through ecologies of de/colonization that we engage with in our creative methodology of walking and talking. As academics called upon to do equity, diversity and decolonization work in colonial institutions, we reflect on our location in lək̓ʷəŋən and W̱SÁNEĆ lands (“Victoria, BC, Canada”) and the circuits that extend to the Caribbean archipelago of our origins and families (Borikén/Puerto Rico and Jamaica). We take up the tasks of collectively reflecting on how to care for our communities and for each other in an interconnected world amidst socio-ecological crisis. Our method that emerged during the pandemic is specific to our embodiments “here” as settlers of Caribbean roots whose family histories “there” include both complicity with and domination by colonization, trans-Atlantic enslavement, and forced migration. We are attempting to learn, as we hold the messiness of institutions who want straightforward paths to remediate racism, colonization, and the like. Our walking and talking follow a meandering and re-visiting process prompted by our institutional contexts and circumstances, and also by serendipity, surprise and beauty offered through non-human elements on our walks. The photos evidence these moments and the connections to “here-there” in ecologies of de/colonization. We invite readers on our circuitous paths that involve deconstructing, and building or affirming, noticing, following literal paths and those in scholarly-activist circles. In the creative process of drawing relations of the here-there, and attending to serendipity, ancestral spirit, and more-than-human agency, we witness and imagine worlds otherwise (King et al., 2020). These circuitous roots and routes offer possibilities of reckoning, repairing and re-worlding.

Horizons of liberation: materialism, ecology, and the colonial question

The question of materialism – what it is, how it is studied and practised, and who takes it seriously enough – has long animated debates among Marxists and scholars of race and the colonial question. Today, our contemporary socioecological crises challenge established understandings of materialism and merit a return to these debates with the goal of collective liberation on a warming planet in mind. Taking up this task, this article builds an understanding of materialism as theory and practice working towards liberation – a theory and practice shaped variously by culture, ontology, and the experience of oppressive structural conditions. The contributions of scholarship focused on race and colonial projects and legacies particularly illuminate these multiple dimensions of materialism. Among a wealth of other insights, anticolonial Third Worldist thinkers left us with an astute diagnosis of value in the world system; Black radical scholars have revealed the ontological roots of material struggles; decolonial scholars have exposed the solidification of racial classification systems as structures; and Indigenous (Fourth World) ontologies continue to maintain a commitment to metabolic repair and reciprocity. While contemporary ecology-focused conceptual innovations – such as metabolic rift and material throughput – expand materialist analyses, approaches focused on race and the colonial question bring particular insight to the global structural elements of socioecological crises and generate a materialism oriented towards horizons of liberation for all.

Post-Extractivist Horizons in Latin America: Between Utopias and Struggles for Re-Existence Against Neo-Extractivism

The triumph of neoliberal globalisation has been presented as the end of history, with no viable alternatives available. In Latin America, however, the structural adjustment programmes imposed by international financial institutions and the increased role of transnational corporations were resisted by social and popular movements that eventually translated into progressive politics and policies. Nevertheless, despite anti-capitalist and pro-environment rhetoric, extraction of natural resources has continued to expand under progressive governments, with devastating effects on environmental justice and Indigenous peoples’ rights. Focusing on socio-territorial struggles for re-existence in Bolivia through the cases of peasant struggle in Tariquía and the establishment of the National Coordinator for the Defence of Indigenous Territories and Protected Areas (CONTIOCAP), we investigate how Indigenous and peasant organisations resist extractive projects and organise collective life in alternative ways. We show how social actors, especially women, defend, propose and imagine post-extractivist alternatives as a societal horizon – both utopian and possible – to the current socio-ecological crisis, in a context of disillusionment with the government’s rhetoric of vivir bien as a state-led ecological and Indigenous policy. We argue that by defending life, women try to heal the human and more-than-human relationality in the territories impacted by progressive neo-extractivism.

Carving space to learn for sustainable futures

This article addresses the pressing need to reimagine education for sustainable futures amidst the socioecological crises of our time. Grounded in the recognition of modernity as profoundly alienating and unsustainable, we argue for an education informed by theory, critical pedagogies and critical sustainability research. Through an example from our own teaching practice, where we focused on pace, place, connections and modes of engagement, we demonstrate how adult educators can draw on theory to deliberately shape teaching. Highlighting the unsustainability of social acceleration, we encourage educators to slow down and carve out a space for profound engagement with sustainability. Drawing on diverse theoretical frameworks, we propose an approach that cultivates a sense of embeddedness in place and connection to oneself, others and the natural world. Finally, we argue that education for sustainable futures necessitates a departure from modernist paradigms, inviting educators to envision transformative pedagogies that foster critical awareness and societal change.

Prescribing sustainability: should UN sustainable development goals be part of the medical, pharmacy, and biomedical education?

How to adapt the curriculum of medicine, pharmacy, and biomedical sciences to prepare future health professionals to meet the challenge of maintaining quality care in a period of socio-ecological crisis? Addressing connections between humanity and sustainable environment should include an analysis of the reciprocal influence of various ecosystems, since it is now clear that healthcare systems have an impact on ecosystems and vice versa. Here, we propose that integrating the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the curriculum could be a first step in such a transversal education. Members of the faculty of medicine at the University of Namur, Belgium, including teaching staff of the department of medicine, pharmacy, biomedical sciences and psychology, were invited to respond anonymously to a questionnaire about their views on the feasibility of integrating the SDGs into their teaching. A subsequent survey on students' perceptions of such teaching was conducted by student representatives. Seventy-nine percent of surveyed members of the medical faculty believe that it is possible to integrate SDGs into their lectures. However, 44-86% of them did not know how to integrate each individual goal. 94.4% of students would like SDGs to play a greater role in their education; 64.4% of them would integrate them into existing modules; 23.9% would create an optional module, and 11.9% would create a mandatory module. Sustainable Development Goals integration into the curriculum of medicine, pharmacy, and biomedical sciences is perceived as challenging in a dense teaching program. To clarify how SDGs can translate into traditional lectures, we provide for each SDG targeted applications for bachelor's, master's and continuing education.

What roles can democracy labs play in co-creating democratic innovations for sustainability?

This perspective essay proposes Democracy Labs as new processes for developing democratic innovations that help tackle complex socio-ecological challenges within an increasingly unequal and polarised society, against the backdrop of democratic backsliding. Next to the current socio-ecological crisis, rapid technological innovations present both opportunities and challenges for democracy and call for democratic innovations. These innovations (e.g., mini-publics, collaborative governance and e-participation) offer alternative mechanisms for democratic participation and new forms of active citizenship, as well as new feedback mechanisms between citizens and traditional institutions of representative democracy. This essay thus introduces Democracy Labs, as citizen-centred processes for co-creating democratic innovations to inspire future transdisciplinary research and practice for a more inclusive and sustainable democracy. The approach is illustrated with examples from a Democracy Lab in Lisbon, reflecting on requirements for recruiting participants, the relevance of combining sensitising, reflection and ideation stages, and the importance of careful communication and facilitation processes guiding participants through co-creation activities.

Expanding European fossil-based plastic production in a time of socio-ecological crisis: A neo-Gramscian perspective

The global plastics industry is undergoing significant expansion, driven by record-scale infrastructure investments that are increasing fossil fuel demand. However, this growth has largely bypassed Europe, where mature markets, limited feedstock availability, and stringent environmental regulations prevail. Despite these constraints, in 2019 the petrochemical conglomerate INEOS announced plans for a new ethane cracker in Antwerp, the single largest project in the European chemical industry for decades. This unexpected development raises questions about how fossil-based plastic production can expand in a region purportedly transitioning away from fossil fuels. Here, we employ a neo-Gramscian perspective on transitions to analyse the INEOS investment as a case study using both documents and interview data. We trace the processes that facilitated this project, examining developments in the broader fossil fuel economy and INEOS's strategies for accommodating local and global transition pressures. Our analysis demonstrates that the investment represents a case of trasformismo, where limited socio-technical reconfiguration enables the expansion of fossil-based plastic production despite ongoing socio-ecological crises linked to plastics. We conclude that the expansion of plastics production in Europe exemplifies broader efforts to maintain fossil fuel hegemony beyond energy production. This finding highlights the need for strategic approaches that address fossil fuels as feedstock to effectively transition towards post-fossil forms of production.

Exploring commoning in the anthropocene. Introducing the concept of the election commons as a response to socio-ecological crisis. The case of Skouries, Greece

The Anthropocene epoch challenges our planet’s ecological sustainability and its relationship with democratic processes. The prioritization of economic growth and capital accumulation within most democratic organizations and institutions encourages limitless economic expansion while ignoring or disregarding the earth’s ecological vulnerability in multiple crises (economic, social, ecological). Commoning presents an alternative political strategy to respond to these crises, particularly when it is based on transformative practices of collective care. In this paper, we investigate how an anti-mining community in Skouries, Greece, opposes the imposition of a large-scale mining project by forming a commons initiative. We introduce the concept of election commons, which was designed to allow the anti-mining community to claim institutional power at a local level. This concept is argued to provide valuable insights into how collective care sets the foundations for the renewal of democracy, allowing an alternative relation to the environment and playing a strategic role in connecting different geographical scales of politics. We claim that commoning can enable a more fitting political strategy for the Anthropocene while highlighting the case of decision-making at a national and international level benefiting from local politics.

Interspecies Justice within a Normative Sustainable Development Framework–Animal-Friendly Energy Systems as a Test Case

This paper argues that existing human-animal relations contribute to the pressing socio-ecological crises of our time, and therefore, they should be discussed in the context of Sustainable Development. This holds true even from a purely anthropocentric perspective, as these crises are threats to humans. However, sentient nonhuman animals possess interests as well and should be included in the moral community. Therefore, ignoring their interests in Sustainable Development is falling short. Furthermore, the paper argues that the anthropocentric perspective of Sustainable Development is flawed because the normative foundations of Sustainable Development (intra- and intergenerational justice) can be convincingly applied to nonhuman animals. According to approaches of interspecies justice, the normative foundations of Sustainable Development not merely can but should be applied to nonhuman animals. The paper argues for including nonhuman animals into the scope of justice and, therefore, in a theory of Sustainable Development. What such inclusion means at the practical level is examined in the last section of the paper, which investigates a field of application important for transforming societies into more sustainable ones, namely energy systems. This last section discusses how more sustainable, more animal-friendly energy systems would look like.

Rethinking planning and nature conservation through degrowth/ post-growth debates

Based on the critical debates in urban theory, political ecology and urban political ecology literature, this article interrogates the potentialities and limitations of degrowth/post-growth planning, regarding relational, non-dualistic and multi-scalar spatialization of nature conservation. It firstly reveals that pragmatic, technoscientific and “sustainable/ecological urbanism” and market-based nature conservation it incorporates exacerbate socio-ecological crises and socio-spatial inequalities in and beyond cities under the conditions of planetary urbanisation. Second, it interrogates how new market-based nature conservation turned into 'green-grabbing' and primitive accumulation. Having explored the degrowth or post-growth approach in relation to other radical nature conservation approaches (e.g., convivial conservation and global safety network), it interrogates the ways in which post-growth planning deals with socio-spatial aspects of nature conservation. It takes the “degrowth/ post-growth planning” both as an instrument to spatialize radical nature conservation and as an approach addressing socio-ecological injustices and inequalities intersecting at multiple scales. It concludes that the degrowth/ post-growth planning can overcome its limitations and advance its potentialities, drawing from already existing radical conservation and critical approaches in neighbouring disciplines as well as the discipline itself.

Ecotourism: An alternative solution for socio-ecological crisis in Pahawang Island, Indonesia

Ecotourism: An alternative solution for socio-ecological crisis in Pahawang Island, Indonesia

Terrestrial bodies

As socio-ecological crises deepen, it is increasingly important that analyses of territory consider the other-than-human. Through a detailed engagement with a range of territorial currents, Gonin et al. do just this, introducing the idea of ‘terrestrial territories’ as a way forward, shifting the focus of analysis from the ‘Globe’ to ‘Gaia’. While we welcome the diverse engagement with non-Anglophone understandings of territory, in this commentary, we suggest that decolonial feminist work on Cuerpo-Territorio (body territory) may offer a more grounded, praxis-focused way forward. In particular, we argue that this focus on embodiment over the terrestrial is potentially better placed to address powerful feminist critiques of the Gaia hypothesis.

Farming in the shadow of violent organizations: understanding farmers’ relational place-making in socio-ecological crises

AbstractThis study investigates how farmers develop place-based relations when subject to structural conditions of violence and environmental crime. We particularly focus on environmental crimes perpetrated by the Camorra, the Neapolitan Mafia, at the expense of farming communities in the metropolitan areas of Naples and Caserta, in Italy. Farmers located in this area have struggled to mobilize collectively, with only a group of farmers enable to re-act to land exploitation, illegal burning or dumping, and more in general to the waste crisis. Stimulated by this rather puzzling empirical evidence, our research team engaged in a deeper investigation of the waste crisis, exploring how farmers located in the Land of Fires reacted to conditions of violence and environmental crime by developing a differentiated set of place-based narratives and practices. Using the Land of Fires and the waste crisis as an empirical context, in this study we focus particularly on conceptualizing place-based processes emerging in the context of organized violence and environmental crime. In our approach, these are structural conditions produced by the Camorra and the state, to which local agencies, such as farmers, respond.

It’s getting dark, but we will see: Gaining collective momentum in face of existential environmental threat

Collective action to protect the environment is increasingly moving into the focus of environmental psychology. Also policy makers are well-advised to consider the dynamics of collective environmental action as a vehicle to swift ecological transformations of societies. A sense of collective environmental agency (vs. treating citizens as reluctant consumers) is proposed to drive people supporting collective ecological transformations and engaging in personal and political action against large-scale environmental crises, such as climate change. The Global Environmental Psychology special section, “Responding to the Socio-Ecological Crisis: Collective Action and Activism”, presents nine empirical research articles that help to assess the antecedences and consequences of collective environmental agency. The present commentary discusses what the specific contributions of these papers are to better understand the emergence of collective environmental agency and what their implications are for future research in the field of social environmental psychology.

Responding to the socio-ecological crisis: Activism and collective action

Responding to the socio-ecological crisis: Activism and collective action