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In this paper, we argue that the rapid expansion of exports as a share of global wine production is strongly related to the invention of flexitanks for wine transportation and the concurrent exponential growth of the bulk wine industry. Bulk wine fundamentally changes wine production, from the organisation of grape growing to the commercialisation of the final product, as it enables companies to assemble wine across the globe by establishing new connections between distant rural regions. Building on ethnographic fieldwork with New Zealand and Chilean bulk wine producers and German large‐scale wineries which specialise in bulk wine blending and bottling, our aim in this paper is to investigate how these new connections are forged and sustained. Drawing on the work of Çalışkan and Callon, we consider marketisation processes to be composed of different types of framing, and we analyse three of them in respect of the bulk wine market: objectification of goods, marketising agencies, and market encounters. Through detailed analysis of one market encounter that we have called "wine design sessions," we show that German retailers align the other bulk wine agencies in a way that means they are well placed to decide on the final composition of the wines in a highly flexible accumulation scheme. It is through these wine design sessions and the practices of tasting, comparing, designing, analysing, and controlling wines that they organise the assembling and objectification of bulk wines from Chile and New Zealand (and from other countries around the globe) according to their specifications. Hence, rather than through top‐down pressure, coordination in the bulk wine market is accomplished through mundane practices and mechanisms which allow for action at a distance and which connect (and sometimes disconnect) rural regions on a global stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the evolution of the dairy complexes of New Zealand and Chile in the context of increasing bilateral interaction between the two countries, and their recent signing of a ‘Trans-Pacific Strategic Economic Partnership’ (TPSEP) free-trade agreement. The two economies can be said to occupy semi-peripheral positions in global markets and have, through the twentieth and into the twenty-first century, increasingly competed for market share in a range of primary product (particularly agricultural)-based export markets. Similar sets of historical processes, although variably timed, have shaped the roles of New Zealand and Chile respectively as resource peripheries, and the extent to which the two countries can collaborate for mutual benefit and transcend these roles is uncertain. In taking a sectoral approach this paper questions the compatibility of the two dairy complexes in the context of the TPSEP, and recommends further sectoral and localised studies in order to better appraise the model of ‘co-opetition’ promoted through the agreement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the evolution of the dominant politico-economic paradigm over the past 80 years in two ‘resource periphery’ nation states that have become ‘models’ of economic reform, New Zealand and Chile. Analysing the forces that have driven change, it traces the shared transition from a neoclassical model, through structuralist/Keynesian principles, and on to neoliberalism. The paper discusses whether the contemporary convergence around neostructural policy represents a paradigm shift or an adaptation of the neoliberal model designed to sustain free-market principles in a form that is acceptable to electorates. The paper concludes that the broad commonalities in the transitions are remarkable and come about as a result of shared external shocks as well as similar historical insertions into the global political economy. Notwithstanding the parallels, the comparative approach reminds us of the contingent unfolding of economic paradigms across space, a point that counters arguments that assert that neoliberalism, and the globalisation to which it gives rise, create a homogenous global political economy. This comparative study is timely, as the two countries have recently signed a bilateral strategic trade partnership. This agreement indicates continued pursuit of neoliberal agendas in both countries rather than, as respective governments have heralded it, a move to foster South–South cooperation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the theme of governance as it relates to the evolution of global commodity chains in agro-industry and their incorporation of wine firms in two countries of the semi-periphery, New Zealand and Chile. The paper goes on to specifically examine the upstream and downstream relationships of selected New Zealand and Chilean wine firms to the wider commodity chains in which they are involved. Brief case studies will analyse the downstream and upstream links to the commodity chain of key wine firms in both countries. Such cases provide indicative evidence of the underlying processes of the commodity chain that are constantly changing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares new forms of political economy based on export orientation in New Zealand and Chile and relates them to the evolution of the wine industries in those countries. The wine sector is seen as a key example of an export-driven agro-industry in both countries. The paper applies the new political economy to a comparative analysis of land, production and exports in the wine sectors of both Chile and New Zealand. The nature of firms in the wine sector in both countries is examined and some broad implications for development at the local scale introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the potential impact of increased school choice, specifically of proposed charter (partnership) schools, on educational inequality in New Zealand. An initial review of the educational marketplace literature proves inconclusive as to whether privatised schooling is capable of reducing disparity in academic outcomes and broader social contexts, and even suggests it might further increase segregation. Subsequently, the article presents a case study of educational inequality in Chile (1990-2010) to set up a comparison of an education system that has become increasingly market based and unequal. The 20-year time frame was selected to cover the shift to decentralised education under Pinochet until the large-scale breakout of student protests against systemic inequality, known as the ' Chilean Winter'. In conclusion, the article suggests that a successful strategy to counter educational disparity needs to create viable alternatives to a free-market approach and, as such, it appears that there are important lessons that New Zealand can learn from the Chilean Winter - lessons that go beyond the implementation of charter schools to fundamental social structures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim Southern temperate tree lines are found at low elevations compared with their Northern Hemisphere counterparts. They are also regarded as forming at warm temperatures, which has been attributed to taxon-specific limitations. Using New Zealand tree lines as an example, we assess whether these tree lines are anomalously warm compared with the global mean. Location New Zealand. Methods Soil and air temperatures were measured over 2 years at six New Zealand tree line sites, and compared with other local and global growing season temperature data. In New Zealand and other oceanic regions, the long, variable seasonal transitions make calculations of mean growing season temperatures highly sensitive to how the growing season is defined. We used both the conventional (wide) definition (from when mean weekly root-zone temperature exceeds 3.2 °C in spring, to when it first falls below 3.2 °C in autumn) and a narrow definition (the period during which temperatures are continuously above 3.2 °C). Application of these criteria leads to similar mean growing season temperatures in continental regions, but different ones in oceanic regions. We tested whether growing season temperatures differ between northern and southern temperate tree lines. Results New Zealand tree lines had a mean root-zone temperature during the wide growing season of 7.0 °C ± 0.4 SD, not significantly different from those at northern temperate tree lines. The mean temperature of the narrow growing season was 7.8 °C, warmer than tree lines elsewhere, but still within the range reported for temperate tree lines (7-8 °C). Main conclusions Whilst they are found at lower elevations, New Zealand tree lines form at temperatures similar to those at Northern Hemisphere temperate tree lines. Together with similar recent evidence from Chile, these results refute the previously postulated taxon-specific limitation hypothesis, and suggest these southern temperate tree lines are not climatically depressed, but are governed by the same thermal threshold as other tree lines worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The classification of the Earth’s flora into floristic regions has been the major goal of plant geography since the 19th century. A detailed revision of 19th and 20th century classifications is presented herein, with particular emphasis on the delimitation of the Austral floristic realm. A comparison between Chile, New Zealand, and the Cape Floristic Region is made at the genus level. Using the vascular flora of these biogeographical regions, the analysis revises previous attempts to define the Austral realm, while also assessing differences made by changes in taxonomic delimitations from recent molecular phylogenetic studies. The results indicate that the Austral floristic realm can nowadays be better described as a circum-Antarctic generalized track, composed of some 60 genera and 15 families restricted to South America and Australasia, possibly including South Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The signing of a strategic economic partnership (the Trans-Pacific SEP or P4) between Chile, New Zealand, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam in 2005 reveals the emergence of a new generation of trade agreements that seek to promote longer-term synergies and cooperation. This is in marked contrast with a purely competitive, market-based model of agreements whereby economies are opened up to oligopsonistic capital. The orientation is clearly more neostructural and strategic in construction, emphasizing the opportunities within the global economy of improved relations with similarly positioned economies within the semi-periphery. This article analyses both the basis for and implications of the P4 for Chile and New Zealand by looking at three sectors in which both countries are competitive in export markets: dairy, wine and fisheries. By assessing similarities and differences, and the ways in which competition or co-operation might be established, the potential impacts of the agreement can be posited. Within a global context of bilateral and multilateral commercial agreements, it is this type of agreement that perhaps best fits the needs of smaller economies in the periphery that seek to establish greater competitive space for their exports in core economies without engaging in a mutually destructive war of competition in similar sectors and products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chile and New Zealand both depend on their natural resource bases for their exports. This situation characterises the historical condition of the resource periphery. Despite similar processes of globalisation in their fisheries sectors since the 1970s, the ways in which public and private policies and management strategies have been brought to bear on sustaining the resource base differ considerably. In light of the strategic economic agreement between the two countries (and Singapore and Brunei) signed in 2005, these contrasts reveal that multiple options exist for countries in the resource periphery to enhance their national development by working with comparative advantages alongside competitive advantages introduced into the sector. Chile’s explosive growth in aquaculture and its low levels of public and private concern for more sustainable fisheries is contrasted with New Zealand’s more sustainable approach to natural resource management through a range of instruments and commitments. The principal conclusion is that resource periphery producers should capitalise on their natural assets, but only within the context of a sustainable strategy that promotes and enforces responsibility. The current crisis in global capture fisheries is both an opportunity and a warning in this regard. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]