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The focus in mainstream Northern versions of Green New Deals (GNDs) or Just Transitions is on ameliorating the implications of low-carbon transition upon communities within Northern economies - not upon the communities, most often in the global South, that will be adversely affected by the solutions that are being proposed, for example those based on mining for transition minerals, constructing damns for hydro-electricity or projects for the large-scale harnessing of solar power. Yet adverse impacts on the environment are expected to occur across the whole chain of provision of the resources required by GNDs: the transportation of materials, assemblage of green production infrastructure, siting of facilities to produce energy, and dealing with waste at the end-of-life of green infrastructure. The areas involved in this chain are becoming Green Sacrifice Zones. Assumptions about race and social difference provide the underpinning for a tendency to downplay or render invisible consequences for local communities. Furthermore, the extraction of resources often involves contemporary colonial practices, including land encroachment and highly exploitative labour relations. Resource-seeking multinational companies present themselves as offering the benefits of modernity to people living in green sacrifice zones - in the form of 'employment opportunities' and 'economic development'. Some of the more peripheral or 'disadvantaged' areas within Europe are also at risk from transition resource extractivism. To go beyond this mindset, there is a need to start listening to what frontline and vulnerable communities themselves say when they speak about just transition and GNDs: this will involve challenging leadership assumptions about which people and what frameworks should guide a just decarbonisation.

In this essay-style chapter, I focus on the analytical concept of languages of valuation and look at the work of the Barcelona School of Social Environmental Science in using it to study environmental conflicts and other issues related to environmental governance. The genealogy of the concept goes back to the claim advanced by Joan Martínez-Alier that many environmental conflicts are conflicts over different languages used to place a value on the environment, which are regularly expressed in the context of unequal distributions of costs and benefits from environmental transformation. I follow the concept as it passes through the Barcelona School in the roughly 30-year period to 2020. I trace this trajectory in the published work of researchers connected with the School and their collaborations with scholars outside it. The starting point of that work is the ecological economics criticism of monetary valuation of the environment for its reductionism and exclusion of certain sets of environmental values, and its espousal of value diversity, incommensurability and plurality in environmental decision-making. I look at how Barcelona School contributions have advanced understanding of environmental conflicts, justice and movements, as well as environmental policy and politics, and deliberative decision-making. I conclude by taking stock of that literature’s contributions and present my reflections concerning promising research avenues. I suggest that future research should expand links between languages of valuation and the pluriverse project in an effort to both advance knowledge about decoloniality and contribute to much-needed radical socio-ecological transformations in the face of the climate crisis.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Altres ajuts: acords transformatius de la UAB Carbon taxation is a core instrument for climate mitigation. Its implementation, however, faces popular resistance. In this paper we study one of the most emblematic mobilizations triggered by the carbon tax issue, the Yellow Vest movement in France. We use Q-methodology, a mixed-method approach to identify discourses (or viewpoints) held by protesters. We find four statistically-distinctive viewpoints, emphasizing respectively: a systemic critique of capitalism; environmental action that is fair; priority over incomes and purchasing power of common people; and inequality and the responsibilities of corporations. Our research points to the importance of ideology in shaping viewpoints and filtering attitudes towards carbon taxes. Yet beyond ideological differences, we find consensus among all discourses, in that there should be more consultation in energy transition policy; the rich and not the poor should pay the cost of transition; and the government should use tax revenue for the transition only. We conclude that, for bold carbon tax schemes to be implemented with less conflict, a much more participatory, transparent and equitable design would be necessary than the one experienced in France.

A Green New Deal could put severe pressure on lands held by Indigenous and marginalized communities and reshape their ecologies into "green sacrifice zones." Such cost shifting risks reproducing a form of climate colonialism in the name of just transition. Avoiding cost shifts opens interdisciplinary research questions regarding land-use policy, economics, politics, and non-Eurocentric knowledge and leadership.

Historically, there has been a debate on the effects of recessions on population health, and especially on mortality and its distribution across different social groups. This paper contributes to this discussion by means of a critical review of the research on the impact of economic recessions on mortality inequalities in the period 1980–2020. We analyzed 19 studies according to their mortality outcomes, socioeconomic indicators, design, analysis, and main findings. Twelve studies focused on European countries or urban areas, two on Asian countries, two on Russia, one on Asia and Europe, one on the USA, and one in Somalia. Five articles included cross-country comparisons (four between European countries or cities and one between Asian and European countries). The Great Recession of 2008 was the most researched economic crisis, followed by country-specific crises in the 90s, the fall of the Soviet Union, and some crises during the 80s. Most studies (n = 15) showed an overall or partial increase in mortality inequalities after an economic recession. However, two papers found a decrease in mortality inequalities due to the worsening of the health of the upper and middle classes, one article found a decrease in inequalities due to a general improvement in population health, and a study found a “slow-down” effect of pre-existent mortality inequalities. Support was provided by the Ramón y Cajal Programme (contract number RYC-2015-17372), funded by the Spanish State Research Agency (AEI), the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, and the European Social Fund (ESF). Support provided by the UPF Planetary Wellbeing initiative project “Low Carbon Health Systems”. Joan Benach gratefully acknowledges the financial support by ICREA under the ICREA Academia programme.

In this article, we argue that othering is central to the government of climate change. Critically engaging with Foucault’s ideas on biopolitics and racism, we elaborate a conceptual perspective for analysing how such a “technology of government” operates. We review diverse literatures from geography, political ecology, critical adaptation studies and the environmental humanities dealing with discursive constructions of the other in three exemplary areas of intervention—mitigation (particularly “green” mineral extraction for renewable energy production); constructions of “vulnerability” in adaptation policies; and the governing of “climate migrants”. We contend that these interventions largely work through the extension of capitalist relations, underpinned by racist and colonial ways of seeing populations and territories as “in need of improvement”. And that, by legitimising and depoliticizing such interventions, and by suspending responsibility for their unwanted or even deadly impacts, othering helps to preserve existing relations of racial, patriarchal and class domination in the face of climate-induced social upheavals. Othering, we conclude, is not only a feature of fossil fuelled development, but a way of functioning of capitalist governmentality more broadly—which has important implications for thinking about emancipatory and climate-just transformations.

The lack of preparedness and the adoption of a reactive approach underlie many mistakes in handling the COVID-19 pandemic. We need a vision with a proactive approach to planetary health prevention, that is suited for addressing the neglected systemic determinants of health which generate disease, inequality and environmental degradation, and capable of anticipating known and unknown risks, and foreseeing possible threatening scenarios. To achieve a healthy, equitable and sustainable future, it is time to make health prevention planetary.

Facing the intertwined environmental, social and economic crisis requires us to seriously consider alternatives to the current capitalist system, including the emerging concept of degrowth. Existing understandings of degrowth have focused on characterizing the shape, the key elements and the proposals for a degrowth society. However, its dynamic and evolving nature as an alternative vision of the future, and the dynamics of a transition toward degrowth are inadequately considered. This paper seeks to address this conceptual gap through a reconceptualisation of degrowth as a radical niche innovation to the capitalist-growth regime. By extending the multi-level perspective framework to the capitalist-growth system, we undertake a critical reconsideration of the multi-level perspective, exposing key assumptions of this framework grounded in capitalist economic theory. Through this, we propose a Pluriversal potential pathway for change. To consider this further, a bibliometric analysis is used to measure and visualize research activity in degrowth as a proxy for the processes of development of the degrowth niche. Then, we return to the multi-level perspective to consider two potential pathways for change involving the degrowth niche and the capitalist-growth regime. Finally, we point to areas for further research that build on this new conceptualisation of a degrowth transition.

Since the global financial crisis of 2008, all construction related activities are now subject to cost control of each project. An important component of the optimal choice is the implementation cost. The evaluation of construction activities can be conducted by estimating their environmental as well as their cost footprint, which is also the demand and consumption measure for the societies' needs. Water and sewerage projects have a key role in the standard of living, Public Health and environment. Therefore, water supply network replacements are important to upgrade the quality and quantity of water, through cost-effective choices. The purpose of this study is to present and comment on the uniform cost footprint through the complete replacement of the old water supply network along with complete reconstruction of pavement compared to local repair activities. Usual practices in repair works of old networks and flexible pavement rehabilitations are presented, assessing the benefits of total reconstruction by carrying out life cycle cost analysis in terms of uniform cost per year. The project of replacing the water supply network in the municipality of Larissa, Greece for the period 2015-2019 is analyzed, linking water savings with simultaneous total pavement rehabilitation, calculating average cost per inhabitant and hydrometer, comparing cost and pavement surface area between total and localized rehabilitation activities for a twenty-year rollback period. The fruitful findings of this research study, indicate that full-width pavement rehabilitation along with new water supply network establishment is economically advantageous compared to local rehabilitation treatments, according to the time period considered. Thus, competent authorities can use the proposed methodology as a useful tool to conclude to the optimal choice for maintaining water supply networks in a cost-effective way.

This special issue presents findings and reflections of scholars who participated in the European Network of Political Ecology (ENTITLE). By mobilising conceptual frameworks from several strands of Marxist and post-structuralist theory—and empirically engaging with a range of historico-geographical processes—the articles in this issue contribute to debates in political ecology in two main ways. First, they critically analyse the political economy and ecology of contemporary capitalism, with an emphasis on accumulation strategies associated with the uneven expansion and crisis of neoliberalism. Specifically, they unpack and critically extend the frameworks of “accumulation by dispossession” and “nature's neoliberalisation” to engage with, among other cases, the political ecology of “austerity” in Southern Europe; historical and contemporary cases of “capital-driven disasters”; and political ecological dynamics taking place around relationships of “rent”. Second, the authors of this special issue an...

To avoid dominant positivist explanations of links between climate change and security, I use alternative, human security approaches to study how climate security is managed in one of Spain’s most endangered coastal ecosystems, the Ebro Delta. I find that increasing the downstream flow of sediments retained in upstream dams is a crucial measure for dealing with climate change threats (sea-level rise) in the Delta. Yet, state policies do not increase sediment flow, but instead implement incremental adaptation at the site of climate impact (coast), which, at times, requires executing small-scale land expropriations. Refraining from improving human security via increasing sediment flow benefits corporate interests upstream. At the same time, expropriation silences mild farmer protest downstream and adds insult to injury by conveying to farmers a sense of blame for their vulnerability to climate change. Meanwhile, using expropriation at the service of incremental adaptation goes against the very rationale of expropriation established by Spanish legislation and creates a fundamental contradiction between what the practice is meant to deliver, namely security and the social contract from the part of the state, and what it actually does, i.e. permit the state to evade providing human security. I conclude that, under climate change, achieving human security, the delivery of the social contract, and corporate rent-seeking at the same time may not be possible. Moreover, rather than the social contract been threatened by state incapacity to respond to the effects of climate change and breached social contract expectations of vulnerable communities, it is the actual mobilisation of the contract in order to respond to climate change that diminishes human security.

Conflicts over tree plantations in the global South challenge the image of sustainability and efficiency that some states and forestry companies construct for themselves and forestry extractivism. Research on the power dynamics of tree plantations has up to now focused on conflictive interactions between states, private capital and local populations, overlooking the role of more subtle power dynamics. To expand those analyses, we focus on the role of subjectivities in conflicts, and examine how state, capital and local populations interact in the process of subject formation. We analyse the historical and contemporary development of forestry extractivism in Southern Chile, specifically in and around indigenous Mapuche territories. Our analysis shows that commercial forestry advances via securing land control through disciplinary interventions whose aim is to create subjects that can help secure capital accumulation and extractivism. Nevertheless, individuals and communities get in the way of this project as they mobilise sovereignty claims that permit them to exercise control over the process of their own subject-formation. Importantly, our analysis highlights the emotional dimension of the process of formation of political subjects, especially via the expression of “negative” emotions such as anger and sorrow, which we find to be crucial resources that help indigenous Mapuche communities to maintain resistance. We conclude that side by side with capital accumulation and subjectivity-formation processes, political ecologists should consider more the emotional experiences that facilitate or hinder everyday environmental struggles.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu CEX2019-000940-M Building on the framework of emotional political ecology, we seek to expand ways of studying the relationships between emotion, power, and environmental conflict. Our review of work in feminist studies, human geography, social psychology, social movement theory, and social and cultural anthropology suggests the need for a theoretical framework that captures the psychological, more-than-human, collective, geographical, and personal-political dimensions that intersect subjectivities in environmental conflicts. We stress the need to explicitly consider 'the political' at stake when researching emotions in environmental conflicts, and develop a conceptual framework for facilitating nuanced conceptualisations and analyses of subjects and power in environmental conflicts.

Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 Why do people who care about the environment adopt behaviours that are not consistent with their beliefs? Previous studies approach this as a case of cognitive dissonance, researchers looking into the strategies through which people reduce gaps between their attitudes and their behaviours. Here we start from the premise that there is no dissonance, and that people have consistent reasons of why they are doing what they are doing. The research task is then to shed light on these reasons. Using Q-methodology, a mixed quantitative- qualitative approach, we interviewed 42 environmentally-minded researchers asking them why they eat meat. Our interviewees were aware of and cared about the environmental and ethical impacts of meat eating, but reasoned that they eat meat because either technological, or political changes are more important than what they personally do, because of doubts about the impact of personal action in a complex world, or simply because they lack the determination to stop eating meat. Our analysis suggests that policies and messages that try to educate or guilt meat-eaters are unlikely to work with those well aware of the impacts of their actions.

This chapter presents a case study on labour-intensive agriculture to explore the importance of local power asymmetries as determinants of multiple and overlapping vulnerabilities. Understanding multiscalar, multidimensional vulnerabilities and mechanisms giving way to them beyond the biophysical and livelihood aspects are essential to address 'more fundamental concerns that shape vulnerability' in the context of adaptation governance. The chapter first presents the double exposure (DE) framework, which informs the analytical approach of this case study. It then introduces the reader to the case, a watermelon producing community in southern Turkey, and outlines the research methods used for the collection of empirical data. The chapter also shows the outcomes of DE upon political and economically the most marginalized community in the region, migrant seasonal agricultural workers. It provides an explanation of how the adaptive responses of landowners increase vulnerabilities and shift risks and costs to seasonal workers. Part of book ISBN 978-111938356-7, 978-111938354-3QC 20190917

Research on climate change adaptive capacity has yet to explore how the increasing frequency and severity of climate change induced events are impacting the ability of vulnerable urban dwellers in the global North to cope and adapt to such events. Australia has already been witnessing increased frequency and severity of extreme heatwaves in its major cities, and climate change is expected to further exacerbate these hazards. This case study explores the dynamics and drivers of adaptive capacity to extreme heatwaves of a vulnerable low-income and multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Western Sydney by examining the socio-economic and institutional elements that shape their vulnerability and adaptive capacity and how the high frequency of heatwaves influences this capacity. Our results show that mere exposure to higher frequency of events is not enough on its own to trigger adaptation actions on a community level, and illustrate the complex dynamics of multi-scale factors that act as drivers of adaptive capacity. Data analysis points to the prevalence of short-term coping behaviours influenced by broader governance and legislative constrains to adapt, but also by subjective views and risk perceptions. We conclude that under-using community adaptive capacities along with individualising the responsibility to adapt can undermine state adaptation initiatives.

We welcome the attention of Gsottbauer, Logar, and van den Bergh (thereinafter GLV) to our contribution. However, their critique misrepresents what our article was trying to do, so it merits a response. Our article offered a framework for assessing the conditions under which one may, or may not engage with processes that value nature in money terms. GLV argue that, first, we confuse monetary valuation methods with pricing policies, and that most of what we have to say may be relevant for the latter but not for the former. Second, they argue that the assessment criteria we propose are either obvious or unconvincing. Third, they contend that the examples we give to illustrate the applicability of our criteria are not representative. And finally, they suggest that our concern with whether a particular monetary valuation study or pricing policy contributes to enclosures and neo-liberalism is ideological an

There is a growing interest in the connection between climate change and migration, but literature so far has mostly focused on climate refugees, permanent migrants, and the implications for destination countries. Seasonal workers, one of the most vulnerable groups in the agricultural sector, have received scant attention. Nonetheless, several governments are already planning action to ensure the adaptation of seasonal workers to a changed climate. This article focuses on two recent social and climate change policies adopted by the Turkish government targeting seasonal workers. Based on a discourse analysis of the two policies and fieldwork carried out on a site of intervention, the article argues that such policies, although employed in the name of adaptation, are in fact biopolitical interventions. Their main purpose is to secure the uninterrupted circulation of commodities and workers rather than reduce root causes of vulnerability. As a result the responsibility to adapt is individualized. We contribute to an incipient literature on biopolitics and climate change by showing how the spectre of climate change and the pretext of adaptation serve to expand the state's control of populations rather than reduce core vulnerabilities.

Žižek: I think that the greatest most dangerous dream of the left was precisely this idea of some type of immediate, self-transparence [sic] direct democracy where finally people will get rid of al...

Policy agendas increasingly respond to the perceived security threats of climate change, not least via its effects on water. Yet, solid links between climate, water, conflict and security have seldom been substantiated empirically. Drawing from the conceptual framework and empirical results of the EC-funded research project CLICO (‘Climate Change, Hydro-Conflict and Human Security’) which is presented in this Special Issue, this opening article looks at the conditions that shape conflict and insecurity, with a focus on the role of adaptation policies. We find three main sources of human insecurity: first, democratic deficits, which are more influential than hydro-climatic stresses; second, mal-adaptations, i.e. adaptations that have adverse effects for the security of some groups; and third, structural violence, often related to economic and state development. There is a systemic contradiction insofar as the pursuit of adaptation through state-led economic growth projects ends up producing new insecurities for parts of the population. Adaptation to hydro-climatic change, therefore, is likely to be a contested and painful process. Research on security and climate change must move beyond narrow investigations of conflict and study the links between structural violence and human insecurity, in particular the conditions and processes that reduce the options available to deal with potential insecurities.

Outcome and context-focused approaches to climate change adaptation dominate the relevant literature. Taking into account values and perceptions of affected actors and decision-makers is a fundamental and necessary prerequisite for a more effective, legitimate and fair climate policy and has not been given the necessary consideration. This paper uses Q methodology to explore such values in the context of climate change in the Ebro Delta, in Catalonia. The delta is an area highly vulnerable to climate change, mainly because of its topography, but also as a result of human intervention. The study identifies five discourses on vulnerability and adaptation held by delta inhabitants and decision-makers. Social justice and security comprise shared values behind arguments; however, discourses differ in their approaches concerning the proper scale for applying these values with adaptation policy. Our results serve to improve policy dialogue and suggest that the adaptation policy agenda should focus on pursuing consensus over the crucial issue of scale. Our use of Q methodology to advance the incipient literature on value-based climate change vulnerability and adaptation is innovative and suggests that the approach has a capacity to contribute to advancing deliberative environmental decision-making on adaptation. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Food sovereignty can be conceptualized as a political proposal for social change in the field of agri-food relations. However, specific strategies of how to achieve this transformative potential are diverse, and context-dependent. The paper explores this diversity by examining discourses on the food sovereignty construction process in Catalonia. Using Q methodology we have explored visions held by individuals participating in the social movement for food sovereignty, identifying five discourses: activism, anti-purism, self-management, pedagogy, and pragmatism. Key strategies of transformation include social mobilization, institutional negotiation, self-management, education to foster value change, and politics of the possible. The relevance assigned to ideological affinity explains different views on the subject of transformation, particularly regarding the involvement of the administration and the productive sector. As regards transformative strategies, discourses assign differing importance to the role of agency for effecting social transformation, which influences their assessment of individual actions as an effective means for social change. Forms of individualized and classic collective action currently coexist within the Catalan agri-food movement, but such diversity is not acknowledged as an effective alliance towards food sovereignty. Moreover, all discourses agree to a dual definition of food sovereignty, both as a process, that is, as democratization of the decision-making process in the agri-food sector, and as a result, that is, establishing an agri-food model alternative to the neo-liberal one. However, the discourses share an unclear view of democracy as decentralized collective decision-making that does not make explicit how this model should be implemented to achieve social control of the agri-food system.

Climate change is likely to increase the frequency and intensity of water-related hazards on human populations. This has generated security concerns and calls for urgent policy action. However, the simplified narrative that links climate change to security via water and violent conflict is wanting. First, it is not confirmed by empirical evidence. Second, it ignores the varied character and implications of hydro-climatic hazards, the multi-faceted nature of conflict and adaptive action, and crucial intricacies of security. Integrating for the first time research and findings from diverse disciplines, we provide a more nuanced picture of the climate-water-security nexus. We consider findings from the transboundary waters, armed conflict, vulnerability, and political ecology literatures and specify the implications and priorities for policy relevant research. Although the social effects of future hydro-climatic change cannot be safely predicted, there is a good understanding of the factors that aggravate risks to social wellbeing. To reduce vulnerability, pertinent democratic and social/civil security institutions should be strengthened where they exist, and promoted where they are still absent.

Should we reject money when we value nature? Like most environmentalists, ecological economists are increasingly divided on this question. Synthesizing political ecology with ecological economics, we argue that this way of framing the question is limited. We propose a reformulation of the question into “when and how to value with money?” and “under what conditions?” We recommend four criteria for a sound choice: environmental improvement; distributive justice and equality; maintenance of plural value-articulating institutions; and, confronting commodification under neo-liberalism. We call for due attention to the socio-political context within which a valuation is placed and the political goals it serves. The relevance of this framework is demonstrated by applying it to three practical cases: pollution damages, water pricing and payments for ecosystem services.

Conflicts between artisanal and industrial fishermen—targeting increasingly scarce resources in Senegal—are posing a serious threat to human security and are only symbolically addressed by the country's fisheries governance regime. Severely outmatched in terms of political influence and size, artisanal fishermen are more vulnerable to the fallout of conflicts at sea. The loss of fishing materials threatens the livelihoods of fishermen and their families; collisions and violence between members of the two sectors often result in injury and death. This study examines at-sea interactions between Senegal's artisanal and industrial sectors and the formal and informal mechanisms in place for managing them. Conflictive interactions are found to co-exist alongside cooperative ones and both emerge in response to changes in marine resource abundance and management. Formal systems in place to mediate at-sea conflicts are ineffective and seldom used by artisanal fishermen, who either accept their losses, attempt to informally resolve conflicts with industrial actors or resort to violence.

This paper proposes an eco-integrated methodology for managing the structural uncertainty (EMSU) that is inherent in socio-ecological systems. The methodology incorporates the human factor side by side to economic and environmental aspects and in this way considers the system as complex, reflexive and emergent. Reflexivity implies the existence of structural uncertainty and although this cannot be reduced it needs to be managed for the system to move towards sustainable solutions. Our EMSU methodology combines elements from the eco-integrated approach of Naredo (2003), social multi-criteria evaluation (Munda 2004), the pluralist approach (van Asselt, 2000), and, importantly, Maturana and Varela's “biology of knowledge” (1987). The integration of those approaches into EMSU provides an original approach for the management of structural uncertainty within a strong sustainability paradigm, specifically one that is premised on human consciousness from the perspective of the biology of knowledge.

The study explores reasons behind conflicts regarding the installation of wind farms in Terra Alta, a rural county in Catalonia. Our study identifies three main causes of conflict. First, and in accordance to the coceptual framework of political ecology, the conflict forms part of a more generalised conflict regarding the «macro-concentration» of energy-generating plants in the south of Catalonia, which produce economic benefits for Catalonia’s centre (e.g. Barcelona). Secondly, the landscape impact of wind farm projects clashes with local initiatives that seek to promote landscape as a valuable asset capable of sustaining life in Terra Alta. Finally, power imbalances in the wind energy planning and decision-making system block the inclusion of locally-important values as decision-making criteria and this also generates conflict. For a sustainable development of wind energy, the importance of wind capacity as a principal criterion for deciding wind farm location should be re-considered and the negotiation of benefits’ distribution from wind farms should be conducted in the most open and tranparent possible ways.

The Mediterranean and neighboring countries are already experiencing a broad range of natural and man-made threats to water security. According to climate projections, the region is at risk due to its pronounced susceptibility to changes in the hydrological budget and extremes. Such changes are expected to have strong impacts on the management of water resources and on key strategic sectors of regional economies. Related developments have an increased capacity to exacerbate tensions, and even intra- and inter-state conflict among social, political, ecological and economic actors. Thus, effective adaptation and prevention policy measures call for multi-disciplinary analysis and action. This review paper presents the current state-of-the-art on research related to climate change impacts upon water resources and security from an ecological, economic and social angle. It provides perspectives for current and upcoming research needs and describes the challenges and potential of integrating and clustering multi-disciplinary research interests in complex and interwoven human-environment systems and its contribution to the upcoming 5th assessment report of the IPCC.

"We discuss the recent emergence of 'deliberative ecological economics', a field that highlights the potential of deliberation for improving environmental governance. We locate the emergence of this literature in the long concern in ecological economics over the policy implications of limited views of human action and its encounter with deliberative democracy scholarship and the model of communicative rationality as an alternative to utilitarianism. Considering criticisms over methods used and the focus of research in deliberative decision-making, we put forward a research agenda for deliberative ecological economics. Given the promising potential of deliberative processes for improving the effectiveness and legitimacy of environmental decision-making, work in this area could help advance both theory and practice in environmental governance."

Conflicts over the installation of wind farms constrain the potential to adopt an effective means for mitigating climate change. Although conventional wisdom attributes wind farm opposition to ‘not in my back yard’ attitudes, research shows that this explanation fails to incorporate the multiplicity of underlying motivations of opposition. Instead, distributional and institutional factors and procedural opportunities for public participation significantly influence support for wind farms. We consider the relevance of a political ecology explanation of wind farm conflicts by focusing on a case study in rural Catalonia, Spain. We argue that the conflict constitutes a recurrence of older and broader ‘centre’–‘periphery’ antagonisms and that two more explanatory elements are complementary to this political ecology explanation: the existence of alternative landscape valuations and the encouragement of instrumental rationality by the planning framework. We suggest that the absence of opportunities for meaningful deliberation in decision making and the predominance of decisional bottom lines curtail claims to fairer distribution of costs and benefits from locally hosted energy developments, as well as alternative landscape value claims, and that this fuels conflict.

Although sustainable tourism that contributes to biodiversity protection seems to be important anywhere in the planet, ecotourism is rarely examined as a rural development opportunity outside the context of ‘mega-diverse’ countries, i.e. those 12 countries1 that between them harbour 60–70% of the total biodiversity of the planet. Collecting data from 20 sites around Scotland, this study considered the potential of ecotourism development in this country through a market segmentation study based on the environmental values of potential ecotourists. With the assistance of the New Ecological Paradigm (Dunlap et al., 2000) four segments with a range of anthropocentric and ecocentric values were identified. Results indicate that demand for ecotourism is not confined to ecocentric segments and that biodiversity protection is prioritised by all segments as the most salient ecotourism attribute, although each segment attaches a different intensity to its importance. The study identifies visitor interest for a Scot...

Social enterprises are businesses with primarily social objectives that reinvest their surplus in the community rather than seeking to maximise profit for shareholders. However, there is a debate regarding the drivers and the role of the social enterprise, the outcome of which is expected to have serious implications for the future of the institution [Brady, C., 2003. Social Enterprise development and the Role of the Social Economy in Scotland. CBS Network, Edinburgh]. A ‘reformist’ view supports the position that social enterprises are simple extensions of existing economic systems, whereas a ‘radical’ stance sees them as the embodiment of an alternative vision of running local economies. Development Trusts (DTs) are social enterprises that focus on community regeneration. Our research explored DT stakeholder views regarding the role of DTs in regenerating rural Scotland. Using Q methodology [Barry, J., Proops, J., 1999. Seeking sustainability discourses with Q methodology. Ecological Economics, 28, 337–345], we drew on ‘rurality’ discourses [Frouws, J., 1998. The contested redefinition of the countryside. An analysis of rural discourses in The Netherlands. Sociologia Ruralis 38(1), 54–68] expressed by DT stakeholders in order to investigate how these discourses informed their views. Radical positions were mostly associated with a hedonist rurality discourse and were split into three sub-discourses, whereas reformist positions mostly reflected a utilitarian rurality discourse. There was consensus between discourses in rejecting a primary DT contribution to rural regeneration by substituting state and local authority functions in rural Scotland. Results suggest that stakeholders prefer that DTs develop their own agendas and activity rather than try to substitute unsuccessful state or local authority provision of rural services. Social enterprise strategies and support policies promoting a service-providing role for DTs in rural Scotland should consider this issue if they are to avoid stakeholder objection and contribute to the success of DTs in becoming active vehicles of rural regeneration.

This paper explores the context of environmental justice (EJ) in Scotland, and presents a case study whereby the main attributes for an indicator of EJ were identified, encompassing procedural and distributive aspects of justice. Through a participatory process, weights were assigned using a Multi-Criteria Analysis tool, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Results show that overall, environmental injustices are mostly associated by respondents to unequal distribution of health burdens due to pollution, yet greater weight is attached to procedural justice by community environmental activists. The paper suggests that AHP may be applied to many situations and could form a basis for the development of tools to address and deliver EJ in Scotland.

The paper examines issues pertinent to the strategic planning and management of ecotourism. The use of Multi-Criteria Analysis in ecotourism is an innovative application of an existing methodology that has been traditionally employed in environmental planning and project appraisal to address conflicting stakeholder objectives over scarce natural resources. Using data from a case study of community-managed ecotourism in Ecuador, the paper demonstrates how this methodology can be usefully applied to integrate qualitative and quantitative research, consider stakeholder preferences in the decision-making process and provide policy information helpful in conceptualising the interplay of social and environmental objectives of sustainable tourism. In this way the methodology can help improve the participatory community management and planning of ecotourism as a livelihood economic activity.

CLImate-induced changes on WAter and SECurity (CLIWASEC) was a cluster of three complementary EC-FP7 projects assessing climate-change impacts throughout the Mediterranean on: hydrological cycles (CLIMB — CLimate-Induced changes on the hydrology of Mediterranean Basins); water security (WASSERMed — Water Availability and Security in Southern EuRope and the Mediterranean) and human security connected with possible hydro-climatic conflicts (CLICO — CLImate change hydro-COnflicts and human security). The Nile delta case study was common between the projects. CLIWASEC created an integrated forum for modelling and monitoring to understand potential impacts across sectors. This paper summarises key results from an integrated assessment of potential challenges to water-related security issues, focusing on expected sea-level rise impacts by the middle of the century. We use this common focus to illustrate the added value of project clustering. CLIWASEC pursued multidisciplinary research by adopting a single research objective: sea-level rise related water security threats, resulting in a more holistic view of problems and potential solutions. In fragmenting research, policy-makers can fail to understand how multiple issues can materialize from one driver. By combining efforts, an integrated assessment of water security threats in the lower Nile is formulated, offering policy-makers a clearer picture of inter-related issues to society and environment. The main issues identified by each project (land subsidence, saline intrusion — CLIMB; water supply overexploitation, land loss — WASSERMed; employment and housing security — CLICO), are in fact related. Water overexploitation is exacerbating land subsidence and saline intrusion, impacting on employment and placing additional pressure on remaining agricultural land and the underdeveloped housing market. All these have wider implications for regional development. This richer understanding could be critical in making better policy decisions when attempting to mitigate climate and social change impacts. The CLIWASEC clustering offers an encouraging path for the new European Commission Horizon 2020 programme to follow.

L’estudi investiga raons que expliquen un conflicte sobre la instal·lació de parcs eòlics a la Terra Alta, una comarca rural de Catalunya. N’identifiquem tres raons principals. Primer, i d’acord amb el marc conceptual d’ecologia política, el conflicte eòlic forma part d’un conflicte més generalitzat sobre la «macroconcentració» d’instal·lacions energètiques al sud de Catalunya que generen energia i beneficis econòmics, principalment per al centre del desenvolupament econòmic català. Segon, l’impacte paisatgístic dels projectes eòlics xoca amb iniciatives locals que impulsen el paisatge com un actiu valuós capaç de sustentar la vida a la comarca. Tercer, desequilibris de poder en el sistema formal de presa de decisions sobre parcs eòlics impedeixen la inclusió de valors locals com a criteris en el procés de presa de decisions, i això també genera conflicte. Per a un desenvolupament sostenible de l’energia eòlica, la importància del potencial del vent com a criteri principal de localització ha de ser reavaluada, i la negociació de la distribució de beneficis s’ha de fer de la manera més oberta possible., El estudio investiga las razones que explican un conflicto sobre la instalación de parques eólicos en la Terra Alta, una comarca rural de Cataluña. Identificamos tres razones principales. Primero, y de acuerdo con el marco conceptual de ecología política, el conflicto eólico forma parte de un conflicto más generalizado sobre la «macroconcentración» de instalaciones energéticas en el sur de Cataluña que generan energía y beneficios económicos, principalmente para el centro del desarrollo económico catalán. Segundo, el impacto paisajístico de los proyectos eólicos choca con iniciativas locales que impulsan el paisaje como un activo valioso capaz de sustentar la vida en la comarca. Tercero, desequilibrios de poder en el sistema formal de toma de decisiones sobre parques eólicos impiden la inclusión de valores locales como criterios en el proceso de toma de decisiones, y eso también genera conflicto. Para un desarrollo sostenible de energía eólica, la importancia del potencial del viento como criterio principal de localización debe ser reevaluada, y la negociación de la distribución de beneficios debe hacerse de la forma más abierta posible., The study explores reasons behind conflicts regarding the installation of wind farms in Terra Alta, a rural county in Catalonia. Our study identifies three main causes of conflict. First, and in accordance to the coceptual framework of political ecology, the conflict forms part of a more generalised conflict regarding the «macro-concentration» of energy-generating plants in the south of Catalonia, which produce economic benefits for Catalonia’s centre (e.g. Barcelona). Secondly, the landscape impact of wind farm projects clashes with local initiatives that seek to promote landscape as a valuable asset capable of sustaining life in Terra Alta. Finally, power imbalances in the wind energy planning and decision-making system block the inclusion of locally-important values as decision-making criteria and this also generates conflict. For a sustainable development of wind energy, the importance of wind capacity as a principal criterion for deciding wind farm location should be re-considered and the negotiation of benefits’ distribution from wind farms should be conducted in the most open and tranparent possible ways.

As the vulnerability of cities to the effects of climate change increases, so does the urgency of and interest in urban transformational adaptation. To date, however, research has not looked empirically at how "everyday" urban politics shape the multi-scalar political constraints that prevent municipalities from implementing transformational adaptation. We analyze the Poblenou superblock project in Barcelona, Spain as an effort to enact transformational land use planning linked with climate adaptation efforts. We find that the key driver behind opposition is the everyday political struggle for municipal authority, which materializes in clashing visions for the future city -- and who has the political clout to define and own them. We show that urban transformation is at least as much about competitive urbanism and related short-term political gains as it is about the importance of environmental and quality-of-life benefits that are ostensibly the target of interventions. We also highlight how civic and political contestation over the authority of ‘climate champions’ can jeopardize not only transformational adaptation achievements, but also the political survival of champions themselves. We conclude that transformational adaptation can be obstructed not only out of fear for the material and political effects of transformation per se, but also because of the message it conveys as concerns of who has the authority to decide for “the common good”.

El término mediterraneísmo identifica y traduce la lógica histórica y geográficamente específica de la vida y la coexistencia en el Mediterráneo a un marco cultural, político e incluso ético coherente. Como visión, se presenta como una alternativa sistémica o, más precisamente, recupera y radicaliza las raíces supuestamente «originales» de Occidente, confrontándolas con las perversas derivas de la civilización occidental actual.

L’anti-utilitarisme est une école de pensée qui critique la suprématie des postulats épistémologiques de l’économie dans les sciences humaines et sociales. Les anti-utilitaristes affirment la prééminence du lien social sur l’intérêt personnel. Ils dessinent un paradigme du don qui vise à se substituer aux deux approches majeures des sciences sociales : le holisme et l’individualisme méthodologique.

la notion de dépense désigne une part d’énergie qui ne peut être utilisée par des organismes vivants en raison de leurs limites physiologiques. Cette portion d’énergie circule sans but dans l’environnement, jusqu’à ce elle finissent par s’éteindre. Dans une perspective anthropologique, l’énergie pourrait être redéfinie comme le carburant de l’action, ce qui nous pousse à agir. Bataille appelle « servile » la portion d’énergie qu’un être humain utilise pour sa subsistance ou pour sa croissance biologique. Le coeur du problème réside dans l’énergie excédentaire, une fois consommée la part dévolue à cet usage servile. L’excédent d’énergie exige un usage « souverain » : il faut décider de l’usage de ce carburant de l’action, en considérant le contenu philosophique du projet politique qui le définira. La notion de dépense est primordiale pour théoriser une sortie de la société de croissance.