Articles I've read (March)

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Below are articles I read earlier this year, in March, on my sabbatical at UC Irvine. Here is my previous blog post about the articles I read back in February.

I have started to post between 0-3 "quotes of the day" on Facebook from stuff that I'm reading. In this and later blog posts about books and articles I have read, I am from now including these quotes in the blog posts (see further below). Each asterisk before the authors' names represent one quote further down on the page.


Batch/week 1 - texts about transition towns and the transition town movement
Comment: I searched for papers on the Transition Town (TT) movement and read a bunch to learn more about what has been written from an academic perspective.

• ***Barry, J., & Quilley, S. (2009). The transition to sustainability: Transition towns and sustainable communities. The Transition to Sustainable Living and Practice, 4, 1. */ This 25 pages long article is excellent (see also the quotes below). "both the authors are profoundly sympathetic to the TT movement, which stands at the cutting edge of a much longer tradition of relocalisation. In what follows, we identify a series of issues raised by the movement and which warrant further research. Some of these are academic ... Some are political ... [and some] are of more practical significance to the main stakeholders in this process." Highly recommended - but the text was hard to get hold of! /*
• *Connors, P., & McDonald, P. (2011). Transitioning communities: community, participation and the transition town movement. Community development journal, 46(4), 558-572. */ A "new social movements" perspective of the Transition Town movement. Lightweight in comparison to the previous text and quite critical of the TT movement (too many white middle-class people - what about the really poor? etc.). The text implies that the TT movement has been very successful and has taken oven and perhaps also partly "high-jacked" the efforts of previous movements that have worked in the same space (e.g. Permaculture etc.). /*
• Bay, U. (2013). Transition town initiatives promoting transformational community change in tackling peak oil and climate change challenges. Australian Social Work, 66(2), 171-186. */ "This study explored the adoption of the transition model by community members in one small rural Australian town. The qualitative study used semistructured interviews with 10 active members" Draws on "social work, social movements, and community work theoretical and disciplinary framework." Too little - almost random - material collected and unfortunately also lacks any particularly interesting conclusions. Lightweight. /*
• Aiken, G. (2012). Community transitions to low carbon futures in the Transition Towns Network (TTN). Geography Compass, 6(2), 89-99. */ "This paper examines the use of 'community' rhetoric in the Transition Town Network". This was an in-depth treatment of a particular aspect of the TT movement and it is well done but perhaps only of interest to those - like me - who are particularly interested in the concept of 'community'. /*

Batch/week 2 - texts about transition towns and the transition town movement
Comment: I searched for papers on the Transition Town (TT) movement and read a bunch to learn more about what has been written from an academic perspective.

• Wells, P. (2011). The transition initiative as a grass-roots environmental movement: history, present realities and future predictions. Interdisciplinary Environmental Review, 12(4), 372-386. */ "Drawing on concepts from institutional theory" and trying to "identify and explore the range of characteristics of successful [New Zealand transition] initiatives". It was hard to find the empirical material collected and this made the text less interesting for me. The paper mostly consist of background information about the TT movement and theoretical musings that were of limited interest to me. /*
• Taylor, P. J. (2012). Transition towns and world cities: towards green networks of cities. Local Environment, 17(4), 495-508. */ "The basic question that this essay considers is how to relate [the TT] movement's favoured units of practice, transition towns with populations of around 5000, to the contemporary world of large cities, co-called word cities, global cities and mega-citites." The author correctly points out that half of humanity lives in cities and that cities "are particularly difficult to fit into the transition vision" but it's downhill from there. It feels like Taylor has misunderstood much of what the TT movement is about when he writes that cities are the home of innovation, economic development, diversity, increased specialisation and then suggests "a green network of cities". It becomes ludicrous when the author claims that "large cities are invariably much more self-reliant than small towns" and implies that the future of sustainability is to be found in large cities rather than in Transition Towns. /*
• *Barr, S., & Devine-Wright, P. (2012). Resilient communities: sustainabilities in transition. Local Environment, 17(5), 525-532. */ The authors "focus on the notion of resilient communities in developed nations through the lens of social, economic and individual "transitions". After pointing out a variety of challenges, they conclude that "Resilient communities may ... emerge but their constitution may not be a form of Utopian or romanticised local pastoralism, but rather constitute a resilience based on power, prestige, position and influence that could ultimately lead to a dystopian future marked out by inward-looking and even "gated" forms of community."/*
• Scott-Cato, M., & Hillier, J. (2010). How could we study climate-related social innovation? Applying Deleuzean philosophy to Transition Towns. Environmental Politics, 19(6), 869-887. */ I have not read Gilles Deleuze's works and am therefore hesitant about the utility of using his "key images" - "arborescence" and "rhizome" to understand social networks and the TT movement. Quite theoretical and perhaps of less interest unless you are familiar with Deleuze or the ideas of other post-modern thinkers(?). /*
• **Graugaard, J. D. (2012). A tool for building community resilience? A case study of the Lewes Pound. Local Environment, 17(2), 243-260. */ "Findings suggest that complementary currencies can enhance social-ecological resilience through awareness-raising and changes in consumption." The question the paper asks is: "How can community resilience be conceptualised and measured?; and, do complementary currencies contribute to community resilience?" Excellent paper! I very much liked a table with "Resilience criteria broken down into social, economic and environmental indicators". This is one of the few texts with a good idea of what "economic sustainability" could actually mean in practice and where it has been operationalised (which makes it possible to measure, e.g. "Is the Lewes Pound affecting the consumption patterns of its users? etc."). Almost 15% of local shop owners "say that they have considered substituting some of their imported products with local ones since they started accepting Lewes Pounds."  /*

Batch/week 3 - texts about challenges facing humanity
Comment: Two hits and one miss about the major challenges humanity of facing today.

• **Youngquist, W. (1999). The post-petroleum paradigm—and population. Population and Environment, 20(4), 297-315. */ "This paper examines the role of oil in two contexts: Its importance in countries almost entirely dependent on oil income, and the role of oil in world agricultural productivity." "Countries almost solely dependent on oil income are chiefly those of the Persian Gulf region. The prosperity which oil has brought to these nations has resulted in a rapidly growing population which is not sustainable without oil revenues." Excellent, hard-hitting paper that "tells it like it is". What are the implications of Peak Oil on agricultural production and on global populations? The one-word summary is "grim". Very good paper. /*
• *Markley, O. (2011). Research and action toward the upside of down. Journal of Futures Studies, 15(3), 145-174. */ After having read Homer-Dixon's book "The upside of down", it was of course attractive to read this article. The text however felt like it consists of the disjointed ides of someone who has attempted to tie his own previous understandings and works (future studies, foresight) to a new bandwagon. The resulting text is unfortunately not very coherent - although I did learn some about future studies. It mostly feels like a rehash/mash-up of the author's own/previous research in a new context. Written by a Professor emeritus in "Studies of the Future" from the University of Houston-Clear Lake (who apparently offered a now-discontinued master's program for "Studies of the Future"). /*
• **Gunther, F. (2004, June). Ruralisation a way to alleviate vulnerability problems. In Proceedings of 4th Biennial International Workshop Advances in Energy Studies “Energy-Ecology issues in Latin America”, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil. */ Like other texts by Günther, this is choke-full of challenging and stimulating ideas from many different areas. It is the exact inverse of Markley's text since Günther has something extremely urgent to say and draws together many different threads to further his "story" (instead of just "killing time" - or wasting space?). The text might encompass too many diverse ideas and theories as it perhaps too quickly hastens over difficult territory. There are unfortunately many problems with the language (including spelling mistakes), but the text is excellent as a source of fascinating and stimulating ideas. Recommended! /*

---------- QUOTES ----------

----- on a major contradiction in the Transition Town movement -----

"The kind of ecotopias envisage by anarchists, social ecologist and proponents of "deep ecology" all depend on an unspoken, unacknowledged premise, namely the continuation of a very modern kind of personality with a highly developed superego.

...

However, such scenarios rest upon a major contradiction. The conscienceformation implied by such an advanced superego emerged only in the context of highly socially differentiated, relatively materially affluent, individualised, densely populated societies, regulated by states capable of imposing an effective monopoly on violence. Social liberalism, toleration, gender equity, democratic participation, the universal validation of human rights and the sanctity of individual lives and metropolitan sanguinity with regard to "difference" are all core values and ethical motifs shared by liberals, socialist and greens of (nearly) all persuasion. But they became thinkable and acquired meaning only in the context of capitalist, industrial societies with an ever more extended division of labour."

Barry and Quilley (2009), "The transition to sustainability:

Transition Towns and sustainable communities"

----- On (UK) Transition Towns vs (US) survivalism -----

"Rob Hopkins has been explicit in his rejection of the survivalist framing. For example, in an interview in 2007, he stated as follows:

"the survivalist response [might seem] as some kind of an option for a very small number of people in a country with lots of space like the US, but here in the UK ... I see this as a challenge that is about coming back to each other, learning how to talk and work together again. When you talk to people who lived through the Second World War ... what became important was the people around you, the community, its resources and skills. ..."

...

Is there a tension here between a survivalist (individualistic, negative) and a non-survivalist (collective, positive) framing of the end of cheap oil and the impacts of climate change within the Transition Town movement? Does the Transition Town movement represent a particularly non-Americal ... framing of peak oil different and in tension with the more prominent survivalist North America discourse and politics?"

Barry and Quilley (2009), "The transition to sustainability:

Transition Towns and sustainable communities"

--- On the relative effectiveness of peak oil vs climate change as a driver for lifestyle changes ---

"Is the prospect of peak oil proving to be more effective than climate change in stimulating behavioural change amongst individuals, families and communities? ... Greens have often been wary and even hostile of peak oil perspectives, believing that an emphasis on fuel shortage will divert political attention from the tailpipe problem of emissions. However, climate change propaganda and activism has been signally unsuccessful in changing lifestyles, consumption behaviour and political priorities.

...

In contrast, the rapid "horizontal" or rhizome-like growth of the TT movement ... suggests that the peak oil perspective is proving much more effective in mobilising individual, familial and community-level changes in lifestyle, material practices and associated behaviours."

Barry and Quilley (2009), "The transition to sustainability:

Transition Towns and sustainable communities"

---- Critique against the transition town movement governance structures ----

"for a movement founded on principles of inclusion and participation, it appears that TT has, in practice a quite rigid, top-down and it must be said, an inherently undemocratic management structure (as a movement with an anointed "founder" and arguably a prescriptive manifesto). The Transition Initiatives Primer (Version 26), while claiming over and again that it is *not* prescriptive, equally makes clear what TTs should and should not do and what they must or must not do in order to be recognized as "official"

Connors, P., & McDonald, P. (2011). "Transitioning communities:

community, participation and the transition town movement".

----- on Agenda 21 ("sustainability") vs Transition Towns ("resilience") -----

"[In] the Unitied Nations (1992) ... Agenda 21 document ... the local was conceived as the most appropriate scale to encourage change for the benefit of the global commons. Yet new forms of community resilience are now partly reversing these messages, putting forward the argument that communities need to look inward and, in celebrating the uniqueness of place, insulate their communities against the (inevitable) onset of global change [e.g. referring to climate change and peak oil].

...

Local Agenda 21 campaigns were characterised by promoting practices that lacked local context or spatial specificity, for example, the widespread roll-out of recycling initiative that often adopted a "one-size-fits-all" model of resource management and public participation. With the growing emphasis on resilience, there is a renewed focus on exploring the vulnerabilities of communities and the likely changes that will be required to make communities more resilient through locally specific practices of pragmatism that maintain the integrity of local resources, skills and expertise."

Barr, S., & Devine-Wright, P. (2012).
"Resilient communities: sustainabilities in transition".

----- on community-based currencies and resilience -----

"the concept of resilience ... has also been employed in ecological economics in recent years where it is seen as an important feature of a health economic system promoted through the creation and use of multiple currencies. Community-based currency initiatives use complementary currencies as a way of minimising the environmental impact of the economy, localising trade, encouraging sustainability values and community-building.

...

community resilience is still under-researched. There has not been any in-depth studies of Transition currencies to date, and currency research has not yet developed a framework for empirically evaluating the ability of complementary currencies to create or strengthen resilience in local economies. Two questions, which are currently under-researched, are addressed here: how can community resilience be conceptualised and measured?; and, do complementary currencies contribute to community resilience?"

Graugaard, J. D. (2012). "A tool for building community resilience?
A case study of the Lewes Pound".

----- on resilience in socio-economic systems -----

"Walker et al. (2004) identified four fundamental aspects of resilience in SES [Socio-economic systems]:

(1) Latitude; relates to the amount of change a system can undergo before crossing a threshold after which recovery becomes impossible.

(2) Resistance; describes how susceptible a system is to change.

(3) Precariousness; denotes the distance of a system from a threshold.

(4) Panarchy; cross-scale interactions influencing the system from above or below, e.g. political and socio-economic structures or environmental changes.

...

In a summary of a symposium on sustainability and vulnerability, Berkes (2007) identifies four strategies that have a high probability of enhancing resilience to future changes in SES: (1) fostering ecological, economic and cultural diversity; (2) planning for likely changes; (3) fostering learning; and, (4) improving communication."

Graugaard, J. D. (2012). "A tool for building community resilience?
A case study of the Lewes Pound".

----- dy-na-mite - BOOOM!!! -----

"That oil production will peak and then decline is not debatable. If the more optimistic are right, and the peak date is a little further away ... this would simply exacerbate the problems, for it means that the population at the turning point of oil production will be even larger than it would be at an earlier date, and it will be then more difficult to make the adjustment toward life without oil.

...

This paper presents two especially significant aspects of the post-petroleum paradigm ...

- The effect of the decline of oil production in the countries which are almost wholly dependent on [income from] oil for their survival.

- The effect on world agriculture of ... depletion of oil and closely associated natural gas supplies

...

Some countries have become almost totally dependent on income from oil. What happens to economies and social structures which have been built largely or almost entirely on the base of a nonrenewable resource - oil?

...

As early as within two decades, by some estimates, even the Gulf nations ... will be experiencing a decline in oil production. Higher pries may cushion the economic effect of this decline, but inevitably, as oil deposits are consumed, oil income will eventually cease to be significant. ... Without some other large economic base, and none is now visible, huge adjustments will have to be made in lifestyles and probably in population size. It will not be easy."

Youngquist, W. (1999).
"The post-petroleum paradigm—and population".

----- on fossil fuels and food - the big picture -----

"three factors have combined to produce the green revolution ... two of these elements, mechanisation, and petrochemical, are provided by oil and natural gas. ... About 2% of the working U.S. population now provides all the food for this nation, which is the world's largest grain exporter. Oil and natural gas make this possible.

...

There are now two trends clearly on collision course: First, population is growing at the astounding rate of nearly a quarter of a million a day, and is highly and increasingly dependent on oil and natural gas for food production. Second, the end of petroleum supplies are clearly in sight.

...

A future without oil is difficult to visualise in detail, but ... Replacing the role of both oil and gas in agricultural production will be the most critical problem, and may not be entirely solvable. World population will have to adjust to lesser food supplies by a reduction in population. ... If humans do not control their numbers, nature will."

Youngquist, W. (1999).
"The post-petroleum paradigm—and population".

----- On too dire (climate change etc.) messages backfiring -----

""Dire or emotionally charged warnings about the consequences of global warming can backfire if presented too negatively, making people less amenable to reducing their carbon footprint. ... Our study indicates that the potentially devastating consequences of global warming threaten people's fundamental tendency to see the world as safe, stable and fair. ... The scarier the message, the more people ... are motivated to deny it".

...

In a sense, Feinberg & Willer's finding replicates the early experience of the nuclear disarmament activist, Joanna Macy (1983), who, in the 1970's , found that many potential citizen activists were so deeply disturbed about the threat of a nuclear holocaust that their sense of despair had turned into a type of denial, making them unresponsive. After much experimentation, Macy developed a powerful workshop designed to bring potential activists from "despair to empowerment" "

Markley, O. (2011). "Research and action toward the upside of down".

First paragraph from Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2011). "Apocalypse soon?

Dire messages reduce belief in global warming by contradicting just-world beliefs".

----- Best summary ever (?) of the problematic relationship between oil/energy and food -----

"I will, however go into detail somewhat in another basic sustainability problem; Food supply. All societies are dependent on agricultural production somewhere. Today's agriculture is heavily dependent on fossil fuels.

Half a century ago, it was still common for farms in Western Europe to grow a large part of the feed for their animal and to keep a wide variety. Cows, pigs, horses, geese and chicken could be found on the same farm, together with a variety of crops and refinement procedures. Today, this situation is very rare. The farmers are forced by the increased price for their inputs and the decreased price for their produce to focus on products that can be produced in large quantities to a low unit cost. Rather than managing the land, a farmer now runs a company. State subsidies ... have intensified this specialisation, which has lead to a decrease in diversity, reduced resilience and a decrease in number of production units and support units. In such a situation, the importance of the distributing system increases. Transportation lines are longer, which is a well-known way to increase vulnerability

...

The implicit assumption ... is that fossil fuel and the other necessary inputs will always be so cheap that they will not increase food prices beyond what the public can afford."

Gunther, F. (2004).
"Ruralisation a way to alleviate vulnerability problems".

----- On structural change sin the agriculture sector and oil-dependency -----

"Since 1970, in Sweden, which is not different from the trends in most industrial agricultures throughout the world, the amount of agricultural units have been deduced with 70%, at the same time as the average area has doubled. Simultaneously, the number of support units, as dairies and slaughterhouses have decreased with more than 80%. Such a change is typical for many countries. The reduction of the mesh density of the food system will clearly reduce its redundancy, and consequently its resistance to disturbances, especially in the transport and supply system. These systems are the most prone to be affected by fossil fuel depletion.

...

North Korea (DPRK) ... can be considered a full-scale experiment on what happens when an industrialised nation is depleted of the access to cheap energy and imported industrial services. ... Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, DPRK exports to Russia fell by 90%. By 1996, oil imports amounted to only 40 percent of the 1990 level ... It was estimated that by the end of 1998, 80% of the motorised capacity in the DPRK agricultural sector was inoperable. It is estimated that grain production in the DPRK in 1999 was approximately 40% of what it was ten or more years previously."

Gunther, F. (2004).
"Ruralisation a way to alleviate vulnerability problems".

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