Speculations on the postnatural: Restoration, accumulation, and sacrifice at the Salton Sea

Cantor, Alida; Knuth, Sarah

doi:10.1177/0308518x18796510

Cited by 13 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…In their reflection on ecological restoration efforts at California's Salton Sea, Cantor and Knuth (2018:2) contend that "Political ecologists must more comprehensively and empirically explore what kinds of spaces are now being turned over to ecomodernist projects and postnatural design-and how, why, and with what impacts for whom." Landscapes primed for restoration such as the Korle Lagoon are often defined by waste, wastelands, or waste formations (Cantor and Knuth 2018;Dillion 2013;Gidwani and Reddy 2011;Goldstein 2013). Yet, recent discussions within critical studies of discards suggest that such framings, often lend to proposed solutions in term of disposal treatments and technologies, an act that naturalizes waste and wastelands (Gregson and Crang 2010;Gille 2007).…”

Section: Producing Sink and Residue Ecologies In The Korle Lagoonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Centering the Korle Lagoon: exploring blue political ecologies of E-Waste in Ghana

Little

Akese

2019

Journal of Political Ecology

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Among emerging studies of the global political economy and ecology of electronic waste (or e-waste), few directly explore the already complex waste trades and materialities in relation to the general political ecology of water, flood control, dredging, and neoliberal ecological restoration. Even fewer focus on how this political-ecological challenge is unfolding in a West African context where ocean-based e-waste trades have played a dominant role. This article engages this particular domain of blue economic critique by focusing on Ghana in general and what we shall call "blue political ecologies of e-waste" in particular. The article focuses on e-waste politics unfolding in and around the Korle Lagoon in Accra, Ghana. The Korle Lagoon is an urban marine space of intensive land use, toxic waste disposal, social life, and urban ecological restoration. Amidst heavy contamination, there are attempts to rehabilitate the lagoon through the Korle Lagoon Ecological Restoration Project, an ecological science and restoration project focused on the Lagoon and its river system in the metropolitan area of Accra. It showcases the neoliberal complexities of ecological restoration. Importantly, situated in a multi-use marine environment, the project also highlights, we argue, a political ecological moment that is both about things 'blue', like water quality concerns, but also about other things non-blue such as contestation over land and housing, 'green' international NGO intervention on e-waste risk mitigation, and desires for new urban ecologies. Drawing on ethnographic research conducted between 2015 and 2018, this article contributes to blue political-ecological research and critique in Africa by asking: how do e-waste politics leak into discussions of the blue economy along the Korle Lagoon in Ghana? What are the promises and prospects of a blue political ecology of e-waste in general, and in Africa in particular?Key Words: Political ecology, Ghana, e-waste, lagoon contamination, ecological restoration

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Section: Producing Sink and Residue Ecologies In The Korle Lagoonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Centering the Korle Lagoon: exploring blue political ecologies of E-Waste in Ghana

Little

Akese

2019

Journal of Political Ecology

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“…The Salton Sea is in fact California's largest lake, formed by the overflow from a flood of the Colorado River in 1905 [38]. Since that time, the lake has served as a sump for agricultural run-off, industrial discharge, and municipal waste [39]. In the last 10 years, as the primary inflows from area farms have decreased, the water has become more saline and 18,000 acres of lakebed have been exposed, drastically changing the surrounding environment by contributing vast increasing amounts of PM into the region's air [40].…”

Section: Synthesismentioning

confidence: 99%

A Time and a Place for Everything: Aligning Community-Engaged Research to Context

London¹,

Haapanen²,

Backus³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Community-engaged research is understood as existing on a continuum from less to more community engagement, defined by participation and decision-making authority. It has been widely assumed that more is better than less engagement. However, we argue that what makes for good community engagement is not simply the extent but the fit or alignment between the intended approach and the various contexts shaping the research projects. This article draws on case studies from three Community Engagement Cores (CECs) of NIEHS-funded Environmental Health Science Core Centers (Harvard University, UC Davis and University of Arizona,) to illustrate the ways in which community engagement approaches have been fit to different contexts and the successes and challenges experienced in each case. We analyze the processes through which the CECs work with researchers and community leaders to develop place-based community engagement approaches and find that different strategies are called for to fit distinct contexts. We find that alignment of the scale and scope of the environmental health issue and related research project, the capacities and resources of the researchers and community leaders, and the influences of the socio-political environment are critical for understanding and designing effective and equitable engagement approaches. These cases demonstrate that the types and degrees of alignment in community-engaged research projects are dynamic and evolve over time. Based on this analysis, we recommend that CBPR scholars and practitioners select a range of project planning and management techniques for designing and implementing their collaborative research approaches and both expect and allow for the dynamic and changing nature of alignment.

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“…Building on this framework, we draw novel links between critical logistics and supply studies (Chua et al., ; Cowen, ; Tsing, ), geopolitics, and political ecology (Benjaminsen et al., ), with the purpose of setting a new geopolitical ecology research agenda. Moreover, in doing so, we bring together the insights of civilian energy geographies (Bouzarovski & Haarstad, ; Bridge et al., ; Lyall & Valdivia, ; Mulvaney, ) and recent cutting‐edge geographical work on the infrastructure–nature–finance nexus (Cantor & Knuth, ; Usher, ) with the massive hidden carbon costs of the US military.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military

Belcher

Bigger

Neimark

et al. 2019

Trans Inst British Geog

101

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This paper examines the US military's impact on climate by analysing the geopolitical ecology of its global logistical supply chains. Our geopolitical ecology framework interrogates the material‐ecological metabolic flows (hydrocarbon‐based fuels, water, sand, concrete) that shape geopolitical and geoeconomic power relations. We argue that to account for the US military as a major climate actor, one must understand the logistical supply chain that makes its acquisition and consumption of hydrocarbon‐based fuels possible. Our paper focuses on the US Defense Logistics Agency – Energy (DLA‐E), a large yet virtually unresearched sub‐agency within the US Department of Defense. The DLA‐E is the primary purchase‐point for hydrocarbon‐based fuels for the US military, as well as a powerful actor in the global oil market. After outlining our geopolitical ecology approach, we detail the scope of the DLA‐E's operations, its supply chain, bureaucratic practices, and the physical infrastructure that facilitates the US military's consumption of hydro‐based carbons on a global scale. We show several “path dependencies” – warfighting paradigms, weapons systems, bureaucratic requirements, and waste – that are put in place by military supply chains and undergird a heavy reliance on carbon‐based fuels by the US military for years to come. The paper, based on comprehensive records of bulk fuel purchases we have gathered from DLA‐E through Freedom of Information Act requests, represents a partial yet robust picture of the geopolitical ecology of American imperialism.

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Speculations on the postnatural: Restoration, accumulation, and sacrifice at the Salton Sea

Cited by 13 publications

References 43 publications

Centering the Korle Lagoon: exploring blue political ecologies of E-Waste in Ghana

Centering the Korle Lagoon: exploring blue political ecologies of E-Waste in Ghana

A Time and a Place for Everything: Aligning Community-Engaged Research to Context

Hidden carbon costs of the “everywhere war”: Logistics, geopolitical ecology, and the carbon boot‐print of the US military

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