Disease prevalence varies with geographic location. This research pursues a medical geographic perspective and examines the spatial variations in disease patterns between Obuasi, a gold mining town and Asankrangwa, a non gold mining town in Ghana, West Africa. Political ecology/economy and the human ecology frameworks are used to explain the prevalence of diseases. Mining alters the environment and allows disease causing pathogens and vectors to survive more freely than in other similar environments. Certain diseases such as upper respiratory tract infections, ear infections, sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV/AIDS and syphilis, certain skin diseases and rheumatism and joint pains may have a higher prevalence in Obuasi when compared to Asankrangwa due to the mining in Obuasi.

This thesis investigates how seven communities in a subregion of the Sierra Norte of Oaxaca are conserving high forest cover in the absence of national protected areas. To conduct this study I relied on archival research and the review of community documents, focus group interviews and land use transects to explore historical and current land use. I found that communities have conserved 88.34% of the subregion as forest cover, or 58,596 hectares out of a total territory of 66,264 hectares. Analysis suggests that the communities have undergone a historical transition from more passive conservation to more active, conscious conservation particularly in the last decade. This thesis further contends that communities deserve additional financial compensation for this active conservation of globally important forests for biodiversity conservation and that exercises in systematic conservation planning ignore the reality that existing biodiversity conservation in the subregion is associated with community ownership.

Depuis près de 40 ans, les designers n’échappent pas à la tournure politique de la crise écologique et aux outils normatifs qu’elle engendre pour concevoir notre rapport au monde. Dans ce champ professionnel, le concept de durabilité a été appliqué particulièrement au choix des matériaux et les normes qui en ont découlé ont tendu à consolider les propriétés esthétiques promulguées par le Mouvement moderne. Cette esthétique endémique, fortement uniformisante, anthropocentrée et anhistorique est à l’encontre du programme de changement promis par les politiques environnementales qui enjoint l’engagement citoyen, la construction du commun entre les individus, et aussi avec les autres, les non-humains. Les critiques exprimées contre le Mouvement moderne et l’environnementalisme ont pourtant montré que l’engagement écologique peut prendre forme dans une autre esthétique, une esthétique qui, en outre, défait la distinction entre nature et culture et conserve aux personnes une capacité d’agir nécessaire à la durabilité du monde. En posant un regard anthropologique sur l’esthétique, dans une perspective pragmatique et réaliste, cette thèse avance que l’engagement envers la cause écologique dépend de cette esthétique particulière. L’hypothèse est que l’engagement écologique est étroitement lié à la possibilité d’une esthétique de l’usure — capacité de la matérialité à se transformer, à porter l’usage et le temps. Afin de vérifier cette hypothèse, diverses formes d’engagement écologique ont été identifiées, et leurs propriétés esthétiques visuelles documentées. Une enquête photoethnographique a été réalisée entre 2014 et 2016 auprès de six individus, deux couples et quatre communautés engagés envers la cause écologique dans des milieux de vie urbanisés. Les terrains d’enquêtes comptent un squat activiste autogéré à Istanbul, un centre culturel et social habité autogéré à Berlin, un quartier autogéré à Copenhague, une habitation communautaire, des simplistes volontaires à Montréal et une autoethnographie performative effectuée à la lumière des pratiques observées sur le terrain. Une documentation photographique contextualisée par le biais d’un carnet de terrain a permis de décrire les propriétés esthétiques des lieux habités et des gestes posés au nom du souci écologique. Les résultats montrent que l’esthétique de l’usure est une qualité transversale de ces milieux de vie. Elle s’atteste dans la matérialité artificielle et naturelle, mais aussi gestuelle. Les résultats révèlent aussi douze autres propriétés esthétiques déterminantes de l’engagement écologique. Cette recherche permet de poser un regard critique sur les pratiques des designers adoptées au nom de la durabilité. Elle contribue à une compréhension plus riche des propriétés esthétiques oppressives, liberticides, écologiques et engageantes. L’une des particularités du design est sa capacité à agir sur l’esthétique du quotidien. Ces connaissances permettent aux designers et autres producteurs de l’environnement artificiel de considérer l’esthétique comme un levier d’action pour l’engagement et la transition écologique. Particulièrement, elles démontrent que l’esthétique est un élément clé des transformations sociales et culturelles, mais sa dimension anthropologique reste à explorer, à expérimenter et à légitimer. Enfin, ce travail aspire à éclairer, sur un plan théorique, le rapport entre l’esthétique et l’engagement, puis à sonder la possibilité d’une (contre)politique de l’artificiel pour améliorer les modes de production de demain. / In the last forty years, designers have not been immune to the political turn of the ecological crisis and the normative tools that it generated to design our relationship to the world. In this professional field, the sustainability has been applied particularly to the choice of materials and the standards created have tended to consolidate the aesthetic properties of the Modern Movement. This endemic aesthetic, highly standardizing, anthropocentric and ahistorical is opposite to the change promised by environmental policies which require citizen commitment, building a community between human beings, and also with others, non-humans. Criticisms against the Modern Movement and environmentalism showed that the ecological commitment can take shape in another aesthetic, an aesthetic which also defeats the distinction between nature and culture and preserves the agency of people for sustainability. Looking at aesthetic through an anthropological approach, from a pragmatist and realistic perspective, this thesis argues that the ecological commitment depends on this particular aesthetic. The hypothesis is that the ecological commitment is closely linked to aesthetics of wear - the ability of materiality (bodies and things) to transform, to show mark of uses and time. To verify this hypothesis, various forms of ecological commitment have been identified, and their visual aesthetic properties documented. A photo ethnographic survey was conducted between 2014-2016 with six individuals, two couples and four ecological communities, all settled in urban areas. The fieldwork includes a self-managed activist squat in Istanbul, a self-managed cultural and social center in Berlin, a self-managed neighborhood in Copenhagen, a communitarian house in Montreal, persons following the principles of simple living in Montreal and a self-ethnography performed in the light of ecological practices observed in these fieldworks. A photographic data collection contextualized through a field notebook allows to describe the aesthetic properties of those ecological places and the actions undertaken. The results show that the aesthetics of wear is a transversal quality of these environments. It was identified in artificial and natural materiality, but also in gestures. The analysis also reveals twelve other aesthetic properties crucial to ecological commitment. This research allows us to take a critical look at sustainable practices. It contributes to a richer understanding of oppressive and engaging aesthetic properties. Designers shapes the everyday aesthetics. The knowledge produced allows designers and the other producers of the artificial environment to consider aesthetics as a lever of action for commitment and ecological transition. In particular, it demonstrates that aesthetics is a key element of social and cultural transformations, but its anthropological dimension remains to be explored, tested and legitimized. Finally, this work aspires to contribute, on a theoretical level, to the relationship between aesthetics and commitment, and explore the possibility of a policy (or not) for artificial to improve our future production patterns.

No description available.

As spatial properties that systems theoretically have, Socio-Ecological Systems are characterized by dynamism and mobility, therefore, are subject to changes in the space they occupy in the biosphere. In land ecosystems, these changes are understood as processes of evolution over time, or the result of extreme natural events, or transformation of the natural space induced by human activities. These spatial changes produce effects on the land surface and groundwater of ecosystems colonized or penetrated by elements, individuals or populations belonging to other ecosystems. These are the so-called Transitional Spaces between ecosystems. Throughout the continuous geographical space, these spatial transitions affect human and not human ecosystems in different ways. Given their ambiguous characteristics and their indefinite temporal location between urban, rural or natural spaces, transition spaces deserve to be investigated in order to know their properties and functions within the cartography that represents complex socio-ecological systems. The research is conducted from a particular perspective of Political Ecology. For this I proceed to develop an epistemological exercise on the political ecology syntagma in order to approach its concept and object of study as a hybrid discipline between social sciences and natural sciences. Interdisciplinarity as a practice, a dialectic vision regarding anthropocentrism, environmental perception as a method for an ontology of human ecology, The ecosystem as a unit of spatial analysis. These would be some of the characteristics of my ecological-political perspective. But what does transitional space mean for political ecology and what does it add to its theory? The question led me to seek the integral concept of ecosystem and to support myself in the General Systems Theory to analyze the notions of boundary and external environment as part of the classic concept of system. At that point, the notion of transitional spaces emerges implicit when recognizing the dynamic spatiality of other existing systems. v Since the research is not linear but interdisciplinary and convergent, a brief anthology of geographic and socio-spatial political thought is presented in order to connect the issue of transitional spaces with the point of view of the social sciences. Various socio-geographical, deterministic, anthropocentric, Darwinian, Marxist, modernist theories give an overview of the issues related to space and nature. With the emergence of the spatial turn, new concerns for political sociology, geography and environmental sciences are explained by the phenomenon of urban growth at the global level. In the same way, I introduce the topic of ecological spaces, specifically the concept of Ecotone, the space of transition between diverse natural ecosystems. The use of the notion of ecotone is based precisely on the perspective of the concept of political ecology developed previously. This, in turn, will allow me to introduce the FLACAM methodology into the research, which among its components has the virtue of identifying and analyzing the spatial phenomenon of physical and social Interfaces, that is, spaces of transition within human ecosystems. Several graphics and charts show the potential properties and functions of different kind of existing interfaces and ecotones. My proposal converges in using these concepts as planning tools for transitional spaces identified as Rurban Regions and metropolitan areas. A final reflection on the need for spatial research on global urban expansion and the theoretical and pragmatic advantages of the concept of intermediate cities closes the main body of the investigation.

No description available.

Carbon offsetting has a growing presence on the global climate action agenda where it is promoted as a triple-win for the environment, business and development. However, the opinions on carbon offsetting are divided. Projects with agroforestry and participatory methods are highlighted as having more positive aspects, but critics emphasize that carbon offsetting can become an excuse for the Global North to continue business as usual while using the Global South as a carbon dump. Carbon offsetting can reproduce unequal power structures where countries, while formally decolonized, are still affected by coloniality. This study examines carbon offsetting through tree planting projects and the potential discrepancies between discourse and documented effects in East Africa with focus on Uganda. Four projects are compared with each other, focusing on documented social effects and impacts on land access. We analyze how power structures are expressed in carbon offsetting generally and in the projects. This is a literature study with a combined theoretical framework of political ecology and the decolonial approach. Findings imply that there, to varying degrees, are discrepancies between rhetoric and reality for the projects. Differences between the projects’ outcomes mainly boil down to their planting method, degree of participation and operating logic. All the projects are to varying degrees based on a coloniality, permeated by power structures and have some level of exclusion. However, findings also imply that best practices involve the local communities in a bottom up approach with an agroforestry method and carbon offsetting as a co-benefit.

Disaster risk reduction policies and practitioners alike emphasise the importance of vulnerability reduction. However, the concept of vulnerability is highly dynamic, and research still strives to understand and capture its complexity. The purpose of this study was to improve the understanding of flood vulnerability in rural disaster-prone communities in Mozambique. To explore previous experiences of floods, I conducted semi-structured interviews with local risk committee members and community members in the lower Limpopo river basin. The findings were analysed with an analytical framework consisting of the Disaster Pressure and Release (PAR) model, drawing on political ecology and the Access model. Disaster was studied as a process revealing important factors, capabilities and strains affecting peoples’ vulnerability. This paper illustrated that rural communities in the lower Limpopo river basin are vulnerable to floods in a variety of ways. The findings presented unsafe conditions such as the fragile local economy, unsafe natural resources, strained physical resources and limited access to human and social capital. Several factors deriving from political, social and economic structures were found to influence specific forms of vulnerability expressed in relation to floods. Therefore, this paper contributes to new insights of how flood vulnerability can be described and explained in Mozambique.

Numerous scholars describe agroforestry as an extraordinary food production system that generates viable ecosystems and accommodates regenerative capabilities. Agroforestry may therefore be a promising solution to the future environmental challenges facing food production. This multifunctional land management system is practised in temperate and tropical regions alike, however, it exists to a remarkably limited extent in Sweden. This research points to the complexities in agricultural and forestry policy as a main barrier for wider agroforestry adoption. The foundation of inquiry is thus to analyze various Swedish legislatives and support systems that either facilitate or adverse agroforestry practice, through the lens of political ecology. The research findings derive from a qualitative study, consisting of conducted interviews with key stakeholders in Swedish agricultural and forestry policy. The study contends that a core obstacle for agroforestry development is the dualistic approach to governmental sectors, i.e. forestry and agriculture, and the lack of coordination between them, since agroforestry cannot be classified as neither . A perpetual policy prioritized towards large-volume crop yields, rapid production, large scale investments, calculative assessments and a competitive business sector is moreover identified. The research asserts that these hegemonic discourses permeating policy, consequently act as a disincentive for agroforestry adoption due to the ofttimes long implementation period, high initial investment and uncertain food market for agroforestry produce. In addition, the study illustrates that cultural expectations of landscape mainly give trees a cultural and environmental value, therein neglecting the multifunctionality of woody vegetation - which hence suggest a lack of a holistic approach to food systems. The thesis finally argues that these hegemonic discourses concerning assessment and management of land, together influence the design of state policy and farmers’ attitude towards agroforestry systems. Overall, current policy regulations portray a rather static and incomplete way of managing the dynamic symbiosis of multifunctional food systems.

Natural resource conservation is important for human well-being, especially in fragile environments of developing countries. This study occurred in 2006 among 6,500 smallhold farmers residing along a 25-km segment of a heavily utilized river. Research objectives were to determine use and adoption constraints for 14 soil and water conservation practices (SWCPs). Farms were reportedly contributing to a decline in river water quality via soil erosion. Recent occupation of the upper watershed by immigrants magnified concerns that resource degradation could escalate. A multi-method approach incorporating quantitative surveys, qualitative interviews, and participant observation was used to interpret constraining factors within the biophysical and historical context of the watershed. Adoption rates for SWCPs were expected to be low (less than 20 percent). Increased formal education, income, access to information, and security of land tenure and soil characteristics, were expected to positively influence adoption. Data analysis included descriptive statistics and use of classification and regression trees. Results indicated that all sampled farms had adopted at least two SWCPs, with an average of six per farm. Favored practices were those that were easier to implement and more effective for resource protection and food production. Years in residence (tenure security) and income emerged as primary explanatory variables for adoption of SWCPs, while soil quality and formal education were secondary. Only 27 percent of surveyed farmers held title deeds, but the others perceived that land occupation conferred "ownership" and hence implemented SWCPs. A follow-up visit in 2009, after the region had endured a year of highly publicized ethnic conflict, immigration and farm expansion continued with SWCPs being adopted. Njoro communities mostly remained intact and appeared resilient. While small farms likely contribute to watershed-scale problems and declines in quality and quantity of water in the River Njoro, farmers have made remarkable strides--largely on their own--to conserve natural resources. Future research should examine how a general lack of infrastructure off-farm and study-site context contributes to reduced watershed-resource quality. Further protection of soil and water is best served by a more aggressive policy and extension education framework that links food security, household well-being, and natural resource management.