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Veganism is becoming more popular as the social, environmental, and ethical impacts of animal agriculture become better known. This is creating new opportunities and challenges as an array of economic actors seek to profit from and contribute to the movement. In this paper, we analyse how small plant-based food businesses are engaging with and influencing vegan politics through a case study of Sydney, Australia. Through interviews and an online audit, we analyse the motivations, goals and practices of small businesses; their geographies, inclusions and exclusions; and the benefits and tensions that arise from the merging of business with politics. We find evidence that small businesses are actively and creatively engaged in quiet, collaborative, affirmative and visceral forms of activism that prefigure the skills, ingredients, tastes and knowledge required to transition away from animal agriculture. However, we also find that plant-based businesses avoid the term vegan, are becoming whiter, and are producing more masculine and expensive foods, such as meat analogues, in response to market pressures. We conclude that small businesses are important but overlooked actors within vegan politics that are contributing to race, gender and class biases, and should be engaged with in the pursuit of less exploitative food systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the planet moves further into the human-induced Anthropocene there is an urgent need to reconsider the values, practices, and politics leading to widespread ecological degradation. The prioritisation of economic growth by the most dominant political institutions encourages limitless expansion while minimizing awareness of the ecological vulnerability of the planet. Commoning presents an alternative political structure based on transformative practices of collective care or caring with. In this paper, we investigate how communities in Skouries of Halkidiki, Greece, are responding to the imposition of large-scale mining through three different commons initiatives. The women's collective, the chamomile commons, and the ten-day festival. These commons provide insights into how instances of caring with performed by human and nonhuman others are the foundations of local place-based politics. We argue that already existing examples of commoning and caring with can make visible a more fitting politics for the Anthropocene that can benefit decision-making at national and international levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the technological responses to concern about the healthiness and sustainability of red meat consumption as well as growing global food insecurity has been the development of plant-based meats. While still niche industries, plant-based meats are increasing in diversity and visibility and are often accompanied by scientific claims about their potential contribution to sustainability, health and nutrition. In this paper we analyse these claims from the perspective of critical metrology, looking not only at the state of knowledge about plant- and animal-based beef but also how knowledge is being produced. Such research is vital in understanding not only what is known about a topic but also the limitations of that knowledge in terms of influences and gaps, to shape how research can be done better. The research is based on a scoping review of scientific papers that compare the sustainability and nutritional properties of plant- and animal-based beef, with a particular focus on the Australian context. Our analysis shows that there are some points of consensus, such as plant-based beef having lower greenhouse gas emissions than animal-based beef and that plant-based burgers have lower total fat and saturated fat than animal-based burgers. However, we also find points of difference due to variability in production systems, products and approaches to measurement. We discuss how a metrological regime is forming that bears the imprint and interests of the industries involved, influencing the metrics and geographies that are studied and creating critical absences in understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we analyse ongoing attempts to mitigate cattle methane emissions through the lens of biopower. Drawing on IPCC and FAO reports as well as the scientific literature, we detail how the problem of cattle methane has been made visible and the subsequent efforts that have emerged to govern human and non‐human life from molecular to global scales. Such efforts have been thwarted by the liveliness of cattle, farmers and consumers. Rather than mitigating emissions, production‐oriented cattle methane research has assisted the expansion of cattle emissions by promising an immanent solution that is never realised. More recent consumption‐oriented strategies are overdue but limited by a hesitancy to fully address the political problems associated with transitioning away from beef and dairy. More direct and transparent responses are needed to confront the contradictions between the expansion of animal agriculture and global efforts to mitigate climate change in fair and just ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article Andrei Zvyagintsev's film Loveless (2017) is analysed from the angle of domestic space using the theoretical prism of liminality and non-places. It is argued that, while the concept of home may be defined as private and personal, as opposed to public and impersonal, the domestic space in this film, far from being a comforting and reassuring destination in itself, can be read as liminal, as transitory, as a space 'in-between' or, indeed, a space which, ideally, should be a sanctuary, but which is, in fact, vulnerable to external forces. The article also examines Loveless in the light of Marc Augé's seminal work, Non-places: An Introduction to Supermodernity, in particular the extent to which his theory of non-places may, in certain instances in this supermodern globalised world, be as applicable to the domestic space as it is to the increasingly ubiquitous and liminal public spaces of airports, hotels, shopping centres and other typical non-places. It is demonstrated that, as in Zvyagintsev's earlier films Elena (2011) and Leviathan (2014), Loveless uses a framing technique which highlights the centrality of domestic space in the film. From the outset, the film is concerned with the 'in-betweenness' of the characters' lives, and domestic space plays a key role in this, although it is not consciously sought or coveted by the characters, but rather a consequence of their actions. It is argued that tragedy is not a feature of Loveless: in its place are incomplete transitions, rites of passage awaiting their natural fulfilment. It is this dislocation and liminality which pervades the entire atmosphere of the film and gives it its almost unbearable sense of foreboding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

More-than-human relations have gained much attention in the study of home and homemaking in Western contexts. We contribute to and geographically expand this growing literature by focusing on informal homes established by climate migrants living in the urban fringes of Khulna city, Bangladesh. To explore these precarious dwellings we develop a more-than-human approach, focusing upon the agencies and relations of plants, animals and elements of nature in securing homes. We focus on the more-than-human imaginaries that bring together human and non-human bodies and contribute to the conditions and capacities of homemaking. We have identified three dominant imaginaries (aesthetic, spiritual and economic) through which homes are produced and maintained. These imaginaries inform the material dimensions of migrant home-ecologies in unconventional but important ways, influencing the production of internal and external spaces. We conclude that reimagining non-humans as co-constituting home provides unique insights into the diverse strategies and experiences of marginalized communities and their socio-ecological complexities in urban space. Thinking through cities and their uneven metabolic processes in this way can generate innovative approaches for engaging with marginalized people in the urban fringe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper contributes to the growing research on relational thinking about housing and home by exploring the informal homes of rural migrants in Khulna city, Bangladesh. The concept of 'unbounding' is used to trace the fluidity and connections established between migrant homes and neighbourhood socio-ecologies. Walking interviews exploring women's livelihoods reveal that different expendable agencies of the urban environment (e.g. trash, weeds and animal excreta) create conditions for labour in which migrant women hold specific competencies to secure essential resources for home. Unbounding positions home within a socio-ecology of multiple houses that women traverse to support their urban living. The approach offers opportunities to examine the unique ways urban homeless populations strategically as well as affectively engage with under-recognized agencies and actors in informal settlements. Unbounding provides a useful lens with which to raise new conceptual and empirical questions about housing and home in relation to the city that contributes to the homes and livelihoods of marginalized populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The potential benefits of developing a research agenda that explicitly reconstructs a world regional political ecology are explored through a focus on climate change mitigation and adaptation in the Asia Pacific. Through an examination of scale in political ecology, world regional political ecology is identified as a promising analytical and political approach to understanding and addressing the current challenges associated with climate change. In light of this, political ecology scholarship in the region is reviewed to identify current strengths and lacunae. Whilst there is indeed a rich tradition of political ecology research across the Asia Pacific, much of this research focuses upon local/national/global dynamics with relatively little attention devoted to supra-national processes, missing important social, political, financial and material processes constructed at the world regional scale. It is argued that a world regional political ecology of climate change should build upon strengths in previous political ecology work yet extend these in three generative directions: comparative analysis of place-based, single issue research; generation of diverse counter-narratives at the regional scale; and consideration of flows and networks. We argue a rescaled political ecology that incorporates world regional scales opens a range of possibilities for practicing and pursuing more just and progressive climate politics and initiatives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We study the classic NP-Hard problem of finding the maximum k-set coverage in the data stream model: given a set system of m sets that are subsets of a universe { 1 , ... , n } , find the k sets that cover the most number of distinct elements. The problem can be approximated up to a factor 1 − 1 / e in polynomial time. In the streaming-set model, the sets and their elements are revealed online. The main goal of our work is to design algorithms, with approximation guarantees as close as possible to 1 − 1 / e , that use sublinear space o (mn) . Our main results are: Two (1 − 1 / e − 𝜖) approximation algorithms: One uses O (𝜖 − 1) passes and Õ (𝜖 − 2 k) space whereas the other uses only a single pass but Õ (𝜖 − 2 m) space. Õ (⋅) suppresses polylog factors. We show that any approximation factor better than (1 − (1 − 1 / k) k) ≈ 1 − 1 / e in constant passes requires Ω (m) space for constant k even if the algorithm is allowed unbounded processing time. We also demonstrate a single-pass, (1 − 𝜖) approximation algorithm using Õ 𝜖 − 2 m ⋅ min (k , 𝜖 − 1) space. We also study the maximum k-vertex coverage problem in the dynamic graph stream model. In this model, the stream consists of edge insertions and deletions of a graph on N vertices. The goal is to find k vertices that cover the most number of distinct edges. We show that any constant approximation in constant passes requires Ω (N) space for constant k whereas Õ (𝜖 − 2 N) space is sufficient for a (1 − 𝜖) approximation and arbitrary k in a single pass. For regular graphs, we show that Õ (𝜖 − 3 k) space is sufficient for a (1 − 𝜖) approximation in a single pass. We generalize this to a (κ − 𝜖) approximation when the ratio between the minimum and maximum degree is bounded below by κ . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Motivated by applications in distributed storage, the storage capacity of a graph was recently defined to be the maximum amount of information that can be stored across the vertices of a graph such that the information at any vertex can be recovered from the information stored at the neighboring vertices. Computing the storage capacity is a fundamental problem in network coding and is related, or equivalent, to some well-studied problems such as index coding with side information and generalized guessing games. In this paper, we consider storage capacity as a natural information-theoretic analogue of the minimum vertex cover of a graph. Indeed, while it was known that storage capacity is upper bounded by minimum vertex cover, we show that by treating it as such we can get a 3/2 approximation for planar graphs, and a 4/3 approximation for triangle-free planar graphs. Since the storage capacity is intimately related to the index coding rate, we get a 2 approximation of index coding rate for planar graphs and 3/2 approximation for triangle-free planar graphs. Previously, only a trivial 4 approximation of the index coding rate was known for planar graphs. We also show a polynomial time approximation scheme for the index coding rate when the alphabet size is constant. We then develop a general method of “gadget covering” to upper bound the storage capacity in terms of the average of a set of vertex covers. This method is intuitive and leads to the exact characterization of storage capacity for various families of graphs. As an illustrative example, we use this approach to derive the exact storage capacity of cycles-with-chords, a family of graphs related to outerplanar graphs. Finally, we generalize the storage capacity notion to include recovery from partial node failures in distributed storage. We show tight upper and lower bounds on this partial recovery capacity that scales nicely with the fraction of failures in a vertex. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article two films directed by Andrei Zviagintsev, Elena (2011) and Leviathan (2014), are compared and contrasted from the point of view of Marc Augé's concept of place and non-place. Although these two films differ in specific details, similarities exist at several levels which are frequently linked with the theme of domestic space. Both films utilise similar framing techniques which place the respective main domestic spaces at the structural and thematic forefront of each plot. Both films employ a binary locational symmetry: while Elena juxtaposes a Soviet-era apartment with a modern luxury apartment, Leviathan operates with a single domestic space which stands opposed to the world outside and is, ultimately, destroyed by it. In each film the main domestic space is usurped by nefarious and dishonest means, in Elena by the murder of Vladimir by the eponymous heroine who thereafter brings her family to live in the new apartment, and in Leviathan by the scheming mayor who, it is assumed, murders Nikolai's wife and destroys his house for the purposes of building a new church. The ultimate casualty in both films is moral truth which finds its perfect setting in the modern world of non-place. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing interest in "more-than-human" influences on places and practices. However, while the theoretical thinking in this field is well developed, methodology and methods lag behind. Borrowing insights from feminist geographers' articulation of "response", we explore how participatory photography can be used to examine more-than-human processes through a case study of marginal homemaking in Khulna city in Bangladesh. Our photo-response method focuses on performances of seeing, telling and being together to enhance the co-production of "knowledges". We conclude that analysing three stages of "response" within participatory photography provides new insights for conducting research in, with and as more-than-human worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The "Anthropocene", a proposed geological epoch in which humanity is positioned as the core driver of planetary change, is eliciting proposals oriented at reworking human-nature relations. The more common technoscientific responses call for more investment oriented at further controlling human and non-human processes, whereas relational responses seek more convivial relations with nonhumans -recognising the diverse agencies present in more-than-human worlds. In this paper, we draw from the work of Bruno Latour to develop an approach oriented at identifying and assessing the composition and quality of propositions emerging in relation to the expanding planetary impacts of cattle industries. Four propositions are identified in the Australian context, variously promoting intensification, naturalisation, veganism and artificial beef and dairy production. The composition, agencies and resistances within each proposition are reviewed, as well as the overall quality of their articulation. We discuss each proposition by considering principles drawn from recent work on more-than-human geography and lively commodities-particularly the wild lives and world-making liveliness of the human and non-human actors involved. Our analysis shows that the most wellfunded and prominent proposition- based on an intensification of meat and dairy industries - reinforces existing human-nature dualisms and is oriented more at perpetuating existing political economies than providing an effective response to Anthropocene challenges. We argue that creative consumption-oriented responses, which are able to think in the presence of human and non-human others are likely to provide more effective and lively ways of addressing planetary concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The morphological characteristics of artifacts from five species of necrophagous flies were examined following feeding on several types of diets. Four types of insect stains were produced by each species: regurgitate, defecatory, translocation, and tarsal tracks. Regurgitate was the most frequent type deposited (70.9 ± 2.4%), followed by defecatory (19.8 ± 4.0%), tarsal tracks (8.6 ± 1.2%), and translocation (0.7 ± 0.1%). Artifact shapes, sizes, and color were highly variable and species and diet specific. Calliphora vicina and Sarcophaga bullata consistently deposited the largest artifacts after feeding, whereas Chrysomya rufifacies and Ch. megacephala produced more tarsal tracks than the other species examined. Artifacts with tails were infrequently observed (4.1 ± 0.6% of all stains) but occurred as either defecatory or regurgitate stains. The widely variable morphologies of all types of fly artifacts underscores the view that insect stains cannot be distinguished from human bloodstains based on morphology alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to determine if participants in a summer camp met physical activity guidelines and to examine whether physical activity levels differed by gender, race, socio-economic status, or weight status. Height, weight, demographic information, and accelerometer-measured physical activity were obtained from 132 participants aged 6-12 years at 6 day camps. Participants engaged in an average of 57.7 min ( SD = 26.54) of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the 8 hr of camp. Almost 40% (39.8%) of the campers met the physical activity guidelines of at least 60 min of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity during the camp day, but there were gender and weight status differences. Results of an ANOVA analysis indicated that boys were more active than girls and normal weight children were more active than obese children. Summer day camp attendance appears to provide many children with an opportunity to attain recommended levels of physical activity, but differs by gender and weight status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this short commentary, the ramifications of the Anthropocene for a broadly defined critical development studies are considered. The likely anthropogenic roots of increasing cyclonic intensity and associated impacts in the Pacific are drawn upon to propose four research agendas. The first focuses on how places are becoming connected through human-induced changes to planetary systems. While direct causal relationships are difficult to draw, research efforts can highlight the disproportionate contributions particular development models, actors, and lifestyles are having on more distant socioecological systems. A second more conventional theme focuses on the uneven impacts of the Anthropocene on people and places, as well as on how development is practised and prioritised. A third theme explores how the Anthropocene can be used to retheorise development in creative and more-than-human ways, recognising non-human agencies and the co-production of development processes. A final agenda involves asking how critical development researchers can strategically use and repurpose the Anthropocene to pursue socially and environmentally progressive ends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a retrospective population-based study of patients diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in northern England (population 3.1 million) in order to assess the impact of age and genetics on outcome. Four hundred and sixteen patients were diagnosed with AML, between 2007 and 2011. In those aged ≤60 years (n = 20) with acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) overall survival (OS) was 100%. For non-APL patients aged ≤60 years, OS for those with favorable, intermediate and adverse cytogenetics was not reached, 17 and 9.8 months, respectively (p = 0.0001). Of particular note, intensively treated patients aged >60 years with intermediate cytogenetics andFLT3−/NPM1+ status had a five-year survival of 60% versus median OS of 11 months for other subsets (p = 0.04). Population-based studies reduce selection bias and have utility in studying rarer diseases, particularly in populations that recruit poorly to trials. The highly favorable outcome in our subgroup of intensively-treatedFLT3−/NPM1+ older patients merits further study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In many stream monitoring situations, the data arrival rate is so high that it is not even possible to observe each element of the stream. The most common solution is to sub-sample the data stream and use the sample to infer properties and estimate aggregates of the original stream. However, in many cases, the estimation of aggregates on the original stream cannot be accomplished through simply estimating them on the sampled stream, followed by a normalization. We present algorithms for estimating frequency moments, support size, entropy, and heavy hitters of the original stream, through a single pass over the sampled stream. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the technologies of government that proponents of the Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) mechanism are adopting to influence forest governance in Indonesia. It analyses the aspects of forest governance being problematised; the solutions being constructed; and who is influencing the production and content of these solutions. The research focuses on three aspects of the One Map Initiative: the forest moratorium; forest licensing; and new standards in participative mapping. Our findings show that the initiative has created new opportunities and constraints for forest reform. New disciplinary and participatory technologies have emerged that have created political spaces for activists to actively promote social and environmental justice concerns. However, our analysis also shows tensions for forest stakeholders between engaging in the new opportunities of the green economy and the risk of having political issues rendered technical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

College football coaches often position themselves as defenders of American values. As popular figures with influence, coaches are able to shape public views about a variety of political and social issues. Coaches can also alter the ways fans perceive athletes, many who are racial and ethnic minorities, and understand the inner workings of the sports world. Relying on the popular press, this article explores the rhetoric of big-time white college football coaches and documents instances where they weigh in on social and cultural issues, such as the New Left and Title IX, to gain a fuller appreciation of the political and intellectual role coaches played during the culture wars. It argues that coaches became key conservative voices that adopted an anti-intellectual tone as college football emerged as a front in America’s polarized culture wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation Plus ( REDD+) programme seeks to reshape the way we value, govern and interact with forests. Rather than managing forests according to interests in timber, conservation, land or livelihoods, REDD+ encourages forms of forest management that prioritise carbon. While international negotiations are shaping the rules of the programme, how it takes place on the ground will depend on its interpretation and implementation in different places. In this paper, we are interested in how the REDD+ Task Force ( Satgas REDD+), an ad hoc body formed by presidential decree to design and implement REDD+ readiness activities in Indonesia, has attempted to mainstream the programme from 2010 to 2013. We develop a governmentality approach to focus on how the Task Force sought to introduce REDD+ carbon rationalities to forest politics. Based on extended ethnographic research, we identify three strategies: adopting and promoting the carbon discourses circulating among global REDD+ communities; making carbon visible and governable through mapping technologies; and implementing participatory technologies to encourage pro- REDD+ subjectivities. In some ways, the Task Force has been successful in building awareness about forest carbon among forest stakeholders in Indonesia. National civil society organisations, in particular, appear to be supportive of REDD+; however, they emphasise 'co-benefits' framed as ' Beyond Carbon', informed by social and environmental justice. For others, however, forests remain sources of timber and land, and new strategies are required if REDD+ is to have substantial impacts on forest governance in Indonesia. The Task Force's efforts reveal the difficult and contested processes through which global climate change programmes come to be embedded in national arenas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on the emerging impact of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation & Forest Degradation (REDD+) on societies and cultures of the Asia Pacific region.

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation (REDD+) is an expanding global initiative oriented at slowing or reversing carbon emissions from forests in the Global South. The programme is based on the principle of payment for environmental services, where the carbon sequestration services of forests are seen to have a financial value which can be paid for through grant and market mechanisms. In this paper we explore how REDD+ is implemented, drawing upon the concept of governmentality. We focus on REDD+ practices in Indonesia, concluding with a case study focused on the Sungai Lamandau REDD+ project in Central Kalimantan. A cross-scalar approach is adopted that explores the different but overlapping strategies of actors congregating at international, national, and local scales. We detail the neoliberal strategies employed by international actors; the more disciplinary approaches evident within national planning processes; and local forms of engagement being practised by a forest community. Our findings reveal REDD+ to be comprised of a heterogeneous regime of disjointed practices that reflect the existing political ecologies and interests of differently located actors. Rather than consolidate these approaches we argue that the strength of the programme lies in its fluidity, which is creating new cross-scalar opportunities, and risks, for those pursuing forms of social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation ( REDD+) is an ambitious global programme oriented towards improving forest carbon management. It aims to attract new sources of 'green' capital to fund emissions reductions from avoided deforestation and sustainable forest management. REDD+ is transforming forest conservation, as a diverse array of new stakeholders become involved. Not surprisingly, REDD+ has proved divisive, as critics concern themselves with issues of power, justice, and commodification, while practice-oriented researchers tackle similar issues from different perspectives, focusing on benefit sharing, safeguards, additionality, measuring and verification. In this paper we explore the different roles of critical and practical research, and argue that there is a need for greater sharing of knowledge across current divides. We draw on our own experiences of conducting a research project on REDD+ in Indonesia that involved critical and practice-oriented researchers. We argue that critical research disconnected from practical matters can have perverse outcomes for practitioners who are ultimately working towards similar goals; while uncritical practice-oriented research has the potential to lead to a dilution of core values of environmental justice and conservation. In contrast, forms of practical critique provide ways of researching REDD+ that have practical value while maintaining critical insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development sector appeals to emotions in its marketing and education material to raise awareness and funds for its work. Much of this material is now directed at schools, where young people form long-lasting opinions about development and the developing world. This paper draws upon research with 118 students in five New Zealand/Aotearoa secondary schools to show that young people are not passive receptors of development marketing and education. Instead, they question the activities of internationalngos involved in aid work and how they are meant to feel or act in response. We examine these emotional responses of young people and the demoralising feelings of guilt, sadness and scepticism that arise, often alongside an innocent paternalism and a desire to help. We outline possibilities for more socially progressive forms of development education, based on the recognition that young people are questioning old ways of doing aid work and looking for something new. We challengengos to be part of new forms of global connectedness that disrupt old ‘us and them’ binaries based on difference, and instead to pursue new linkages based on shared feelings of empathy, friendship and social justice. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Sixty years have passed since the term une politique des auteurs was first coined by François Truffaut in the pages of Les Cahiers du cinéma. Initially an approach to filmmaking reacting against its own socio-political context, la politique evolved into something of an ideological celebration of the personal worldview of the artist, and became a dominant element in determining a new canon of cinéma d’art. Since the fall of the French colonial empire, the end of the Cold War and the rise of a vastly transformed global order, the French cinema industry, including many historians and critics, seems to have largely maintained the auteur-based model in terms of its funding and self-projection on both a national and an international level. But is that not an anomaly? What is the real place and meaning of the auteur paradigm within the context of a diverse and fractured Francophone world? This article provides three different perspectives regarding the critical purchase of la politique des auteurs within the contemporary postcolonial Francophone cinematic landscape. Through these perspectives, we argue that while the auteur paradigm can claim relevance within the confines of the Franco-French film industry, its wider applicability as a model for Francophone filmmaking raises pertinent questions about the continuing influence of the metropolitan centre on how minority identities are constructed and received. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

An introduction is presented in which the editors discuss various reports within the issue on topics including indigeneity and natural resources in Cambodia, political ecology and environmental justice.

The article discusses the relationship between domestic living space and identity in the Russian film "Elena," which made use of two separate apartments that represents distinct socio-economic and historical aspects of Soviet and post-Soviet life. Topics discussed include the application of Marc Auge's theory of non-place in exploring the role of domestic living space and its connection with identity.

In this paper we draw on the concept of governmentality to examine the relationships between donors and northern non-governmental organisations (NGOs) during moments of policy change. Our case study comes from New Zealand/Aotearoa where a change in government has seen aid policy shift from poverty alleviation to sustainable economic development. We detail three mechanisms through which the government sought to normalise this change: changes in language and fields of visibility; institutional reform; and funding delays and cuts. Far from being complete, however, we also trace how some NGOs contested the new agenda through engaging in the practice of politics and how, at least temporarily, new more politicised development subjectivities were created. While our study raises awkward questions about the autonomy of NGOs within current funding environments, we also emphasise the productive possibilities and openings that emerge as one set of development ideas and techniques, or developmentalities, shifts to another. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Geographical studies of international aid have been scarce. In this article we make the case for geographies of aid, arguing not only that aid would be better understood if a geographical lens were applied, but also that many of the core questions and concepts that concern geographers could be approached and better understood through research on the geographies of aid. We consider that while the global politics of aid is well understood the way local, national and regional scale geographies interact with this is not. Ultimately, we posit that a geographical approach - pursued through a focus on scale, place, networks and space - would allow us to construct a new political agenda for aid that unites critical geographical concerns across the globe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Catholic Church has played a key role in the development of Timor-Leste since Dominican friars first began trading with the Timorese in the 16th century. Religious networks and spaces have been essential in delivering development services, while Catholic theologies have shaped how development is pursued and understood. In this paper we outline the changing contribution and character of the Catholic Church through three periods of Timor's tumultuous history—during colonialism, under Indonesian occupation and through independence—with a greater focus on the latter stages. We present the Timorese Church as a heterogeneous organisation that responds in both progressive and conservative ways to the socio-political contexts in which it is embedded. Our aim is to highlight the diverse religious development geographies that exist in Timor-Leste but which are marginalised within contemporary development planning and policy. Drawing upon post-development theory and performative research, we encourage debate about the role of religious institutions in inspiring ‘alternatives-to-development’. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Increasing attention is being directed towards the role of culture in the development and well-being of rural communities. Systems of knowledge, beliefs, customs, norms and a wide range of culturally related activities, such as arts, crafts and music, can play a significant role in the everyday lives of people and contribute to the sustainability of human societies. The means through which culture can be effectively incorporated into development processes requires further research. This article develops the concept of ‘cultural capital’ to explore how cultural assets sustain an artisan class in three rural villages close to the city of Kandy in central Sri Lanka. The field research found that embodied cultural traditions and subsequent material outputs are vital ‘resources’ in achieving livelihood objectives and meeting family aspirations. We argue that the development industry needs to reconsider cultural assets and traditions and incorporate them into its work at conceptual and programmatic levels. Conceptually development needs to see itself as a cultural as much as economic or social process, and programmatically we see openings within sustainable livelihoods approaches for a greater explicit appreciation and awareness of locally-specific cultural traditions, strengths and perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article explores the tensions between aid funding and grassroots development goals in the context of post-disaster fisheries reconstruction in Aceh, Indonesia. We argue that both short- and long-term grassroots goals are distorted by upward accountability requirements which lead to unsatisfactory aid outcomes. Our analysis employs the concept of aid webs and draws on fifty-one formal interviews with stakeholders in Aceh in 2007/2008. The findings initially concentrate on the impacts of upward accountability on project cycles, with a particular focus on the problematic incorporation of private boat-building contractors and commercial values during the implementation phase. We then discuss the more subtle, long-term impacts of upward accountability on the professionalization of community institutions - in this case, the Panglima Laot Lhok. We conclude with a few observations about the hybrid institutions - combining elements of local and development cultures - that are produced within the current political economy of aid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We prove that approximating the size of stopping and trapping sets in Tanner graphs of linear block codes, and more restrictively, the class of low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes, is NP-hard. The ramifications of our findings are that methods used for estimating the height of the error-floor of moderate- and long-length LDPC codes, based on stopping and trapping set enumeration, cannot provide accurate worst-case performance predictions for most codes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between development and religion is an uneasy one. Since the invention of modernisation theory in the 1950s religion has been marginalised-seen as something that would fade as secularisation increased. Although this has not occurred, religion is still considered a taboo subject which falls outside the gamut of development, despite the religiosity of many faith-based development organisations, donors, and recipient communities. In this paper I emphasise the importance of religion to development by tracing religious influences within transnational development networks operating in Aceh, Indonesia, after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami. Religious influences are analysed amongst donor communities in Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa; within the activities of religious NGOs in Aceh; amongst recipient communities; and in the physical landscape of Aceh, where the rebuilding of sacred spaces has been slow and difficult. It is argued that the current approach to religion within development, and much development research, is outdated and inappropriate, reflecting and enforcing particular Western divisions between church and state. For more effective aid which attends to local concerns and priorities, transnational development networks need to acknowledge, incorporate, and involve religious spaces and institutions rather than continue to promote a culture of secularism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increasing attention is being paid to how workers in the creative industries negotiate transitions from amateur to professional status and seek opportunities for work and spaces for expression that suit artistic desires. The settings have usually been large cities with populations that can support diverse and specialised audiences and subcultural scenes. In this paper, we discuss research where we participated in a music scene, and talked to dance music disc jockeys and venue owners in a small, regional university city – Dunedin. In Dunedin opportunities for musical work are comparatively plentiful but are constrained in a number of ways. Disc jockeys negotiate audience demands, distances from key musical centres and associated infrastructure, and the shifting venues available for performance. We emphasise the importance of an ethnographic perspective to the study of musical work that remains attuned to the manner in which urban spaces are created, transformed, challenged and remade in the musical nightlife economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Programme (CARP) was introduced in the Philippines in 1988 to facilitate a more equitable distribution of land and heighten agrarian efficiencies. The programme has faced considerable obstacles on the island of Negros, where sugar barons have tried to manipulate the new land laws to retain ownership of their large estates. This paper outlines the response of peasant communities on Negros who, with national scale nongovernmental organizations, have coalesced a social movement in a vision of fair and equitable land reform. Building on recent work by social movement theorists, we focus upon the production of the collective identity that binds geographically isolated communities into a coherent and recognized grouping. Particular attention is given to the promulgation of oppositional histories and narratives through farmer association networks which provide peasants with the means to nurture alternative environmental imaginaries and inspire resistance actions. While the strengths of such identities in resisting more powerful development actors are evident, questions are raised about the longevity of such identities, their role post-land reform and their potential to contribute to more fundamental postdevelopment challenges to imposed development norms and processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When trying to process a data stream in small space, how important is the order in which the data arrive? Are there problems that are unsolvable when the ordering is worst case, but that can be solved (with high probability) when the order is chosen uniformly at random? If we consider the stream as if ordered by an adversary, what happens if we restrict the power of the adversary? We study these questions in the context of quantile estimation, one of the most well studied problems in the data-stream model. Our results include an O(polylog n)-space, O(log log n)-pass algorithm for exact selection in a randomly ordered stream of n elements. This resolves an open question of Munro and Paterson [Theoret. Comput. Sci., 23 (1980), pp. 315-323]. We then demonstrate an exponential separation between the random-order and adversarial-order models: using O(polylog n) space, exact selection requires Ω(log n/ log log n) passes in the adversarial-order model. This lower bound, in contrast to previous results, applies to fully general randomized algorithms and is established via a new bound on the communication complexity of a natural pointer-chasing style problem. We also prove the first fully general lower bounds in the random-order model: finding an element with rank n/2 ± nδ in the single-pass random-order model with probability at least 9/10 requires Ω(√n1-3d/ log n) space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The probabilistic stream model was introduced by Jayram et al. [2007]. It is a generalization of the data stream model that is suited to handling probabilistic data, where each item of the stream represents a probability distribution over a set of possible events. Therefore, a probabilistic stream determines a distribution over a potentially exponential number of classical deterministic streams, where each item is deterministically one of the domain values. We present algorithms for computing commonly used aggregates on a probabilistic stream. We present the first one pass streaming algorithms for estimating the expected mean of a probabilistic stream. Next, we consider the problem of estimating frequency moments for probabilistic data. We propose a general approach to obtain unbiased estimators working over probabilistic data by utilizing unbiased estimators designed for standard streams. Applying this approach, we extend a classical data stream algorithm to obtain a one-pass algorithm for estimating F2, the second frequency moment. We present the first known streaming algorithms for estimating F0, the number of distinct items on probabilistic streams. Our work also gives an efficient one-pass algorithm for estimating the median, and a two-pass algorithm for estimating the range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the notion of cultural authenticity that is a key element of both the narrative and the meta-narrative of Tony Gatlif's 1998 film Gadjo Dilo. The film's young French protagonist seeks to ‘sample’ Romani (Gypsy) culture by means of a high-quality DAT recording of the singer Nora Luca, only to discover by the film's end that such an endeavour is a futile exercise in Western orientalist fantasy. With a focus on Western European and American critical responses to the film, as well as on the marketing of the film in those regions, the article argues that Gatlif's claims to cultural authenticity as an ‘indigenous’ gypsy filmmaker function in much the same way as the delusions of his protagonist. Presented by Gatlif as a sample of the ‘truth’ of Romani cultural identity, the film becomes the kind of problematic cultural artefact that the director seeks to expose within the narrative of his film. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001, two indigenous Orang Asli communities living in Peninsula Malaysia were forced to leave their homelands to make way for the Sungai Selangor dam. The dam, built to resolve water shortages in Kuala Lumpur, came with a comprehensive compensation package designed to alleviate the hardships faced by the displaced communities. This paper explores the discursive and material impacts of these compensation packages. We argue that the emerging literature on compensation for displaced people values the same sorts of economic and social criteria as the Malaysian government does in its pursuit of modernising the Orang Asli. Their shared belief that effective compensation would improve the quality of life for affected communities above pre-displacement levels helped to publicly legitimise the dam-building project. Interviews with the displaced communities, however, found stark differences in community satisfaction which have more to do with losses of intrinsic place-based cultural and spiritual values, for which there may be no effective or adequate compensation, than social and economic criteria. We conclude that compensation programmes will always struggle to effectively cope with these less tangible place-based values and that open acknowledgement of this weakness is required if alternatives to displacement-inducing development projects are to be more readily considered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a commentary on geography in New Zealand. It foregrounds some comparative strength of the country's geography with the aim of provoking and fostering further debates. Aotearoa/New Zealand geography has distinctive characteristics. For instance, the relatively small size of the geographical community could be seen as strengthening communal and collegial identities.

Post-development theories have successfully challenged many of the ways in which we think about development but have yet to substantially influence development practice. In this paper I explore what opportunities exist for applying post-development ideas within the current development apparatus of Timor-Leste. Four types of community-focused programmes are analysed: sectoral project-based initiatives, institutional capacity-building programmes, community partnerships and small grants programmes. While alternative opportunities are clearly shown to be present, it is argued that they are rarely realised because of the overwhelming priority to produce better agents of development, rather than those able to pursue ‘alternatives-to-development’. The paper concludes by suggesting that the development apparatus itself may not be inherently faulted; instead this apparatus could be usefully utilised by those inspired by alternative imaginaries to pursue post-development goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We address the problem of bounding below the probability of error under maximum-likelihood decoding of a binary code with a known distance distribution used on a binary-symmetric channel (BSC). An improved upper bound is given for the maximum attainable exponent of this probability (the reliability function of the channel). In particular, we prove that the "random coding exponent" is the true value of the channel reliability for codes rate 11 in some interval immediately below the critical rate of the channel. An analogous result is obtained for the Gaussian channel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The full potential of discussion groups to further geographic interest in the relationship between discourse, individual and society can still be developed further. This paper briefly reviews previous applications of discussion group methodologies before suggesting a new discourse-centred approach that explores how broad social discourses impact everyday conversations. The approach is demonstrated through a case study involving supporters of environmental movements in Australia. It is concluded that small groups can be used in new ways that provide important methodologically unique insights into the reception of transient, but powerful, discourses upon everyday lives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]