From Managed to Free(r) Markets: Transnational and Regional Governance of Asian Timber

On the basis of research conducted in Indonesia, the author investigates a key transition in the production of timber for export. The analysis is based on a rich liter- ature focusing on commodity chains. In addition to economic factors, the author gives attention to struc- tures of governance, including the formation and disso- lution of political alliances and coalitions. From the late 1980s through 1998, Indonesian plywood producers consolidated power in a state-supported domestic oli- gopoly, forged a transnational alliance that circum- vented the power of Japanese trading houses, and supported domestic accumulation. The Asian crisis of 1997 to 1998 and structural adjustments imposed by the International Monetary Fund radically transformed Indonesia’s options, diminishing its capacity to com- pete, as China emerged as a major producer of wood- related products. The Indonesian case may well illustrate processes of market remarginalization result- ing from the implementation of neoliberal policies

Review of Space, Oil and Capital by Mazen Labban. Routledge Press, 2008. Economic Geography 86(1): 113-114

[Extract] Conventional geopolitical perspectives on oil posit that the world\u27s total oil supplies have been depleted to such an extent that we are past the peak, and confiict and rising prices are to be expected. Political economy perspectives often reject such neo- Malthusian ideas and stress the importance of oil as a strategic commodity for the perpetuation of hegemonic power, in this case by the United States. Mazen Labban\u27s insightful, dense, and short book (roughly 150 pages) applies a Marxian geographic analysis to the subject of oil with a focus on the Soviet Union, Russia, and Iran. In doing so, he provides a fresh perspective on the causes of global price fiuctuations and the geopolitics of access to the world\u27s oil reserves. Labban argues that the scarcity or abundance of oil is a sociospatial relationship..

People, Place and Time: How Structural Fieldwork Helps World-Systems Analysis

Some of the most insightful work in the political economy of the world-system area has been produced by researchers whose extensive fieldwork offers them deep familiarity with people and locales. Few other methods are as useful to understand the impacts of structural change on daily life and the ways agents resist, alter, and shape emerging structures. Yet such structural fieldwork is marginalized by the over-reliance of pedagogical materials on social constructionist, social psychological, or interactionist perspectives and also in world-systems research and writing by the privileging of long durée historical or quantitative cross-national methods. This paper introduces the concept of structural fieldwork to describe a qualitative field methodology in which the researcher is self-consciously guided by considerations emerging out of macro- sociological theories. We identify four advantages of structural fieldwork: the illumination of power’s multiple dimensions; examination of agency and its boundaries or limitations within broad political and economic structures; attention to nuances of change and durability, spatial and temporal specificities, and processes of change and durability; and challenging and extending social theory. These advantages are illustrated in select examples from existing literature and by discussion of the two author’s fieldwork-based research. The paper concludes that explicit attention to fieldwork may strengthen political economy and world-systems research and also de-marginalize political economy informed by structural fieldwork

People, Place, and Time: How Structural Fieldwork Helps World-Systems Analysis

Some of the most insightful work in the political economy of the world-system area has been produced by researchers whose extensive fieldwork offers them deep familiarity with people and locales. Few other methods are as useful to understand the impacts of structural change on daily life and the ways agents resist, alter, and shape emerging structures. Yet such structural fieldwork is marginalized by the over-reliance of pedagogical materials on social constructionist, social psychological, or interactionist perspectives and also in world-systems research and writing by the privileging of long durée historical or quantitative cross-national methods. This paper introduces the concept of structural fieldwork to describe a qualitative field methodology in which the researcher is self-consciously guided by considerations emerging out of macro- sociological theories. We identify four advantages of structural fieldwork: the illumination of power’s multiple dimensions; examination of agency and its boundaries or limitations within broad political and economic structures; attention to nuances of change and durability, spatial and temporal specificities, and processes of change and durability; and challenging and extending social theory. These advantages are illustrated in select examples from existing literature and by discussion of the two author’s fieldwork-based research. The paper concludes that explicit attention to fieldwork may strengthen political economy and world-systems research and also de-marginalize political economy informed by structural fieldwork

R. Scott Frey and the Unfinished Agenda of Unifying Economy and Environment in the World-System from Extraction to Waste

This  essay discusses Scott Frey’s  contributions to our understanding of what he called environmental ‘anti-wealth,’ including his analysis of how it is spread to the peripheries of the world-system, and how Frey’s work intersects with other research, including the author’s own, on the ongoing extraction of value from peripheries. In addition to noting Scott’s generosity as a scholar and mentor, Gellert reflects on Scott’s unfinished agenda research agenda, focused on unifying commodification and waste in the world-system

Climate Obstruction in the Global South: Future Research Trajectories

open access article“Climate Obstruction” broadly refers to campaigns and other policy actions led by well-organized and financed networks of corporate and other actors who have actively sought to prevent global and/or national action on climate change over the past four decades. In turn, these campaigns often shape public debates, which can affect political support and collective mobilization to mitigate climate change. However, to date, most of the research on climate obstruction has focused on countries in the Global North, especially the United States. Given considerable gaps in research and knowledge, this opinion paper presents a future research agenda needs to shine greater light on if and in what form climate obstruction in the Global South appears

Amphiphilic tri- and tetra-block co-polymers combining versatile functionality with facile assembly into cytocompatible nanoparticles

In order for synthetic polymers to find widespread practical application as biomaterials, their syntheses must be easy to perform, utilising freely available building blocks, and should generate products which have no adverse effects on cells or tissue. In addition, it is highly desirable that the synthesis platform for the biomaterials can be adapted to generate polymers with a range of physical properties and macromolecular architectures, and with multiple functional handles to allow derivatisation with 'actives' for sensing or therapy. Here we describe the syntheses of amphiphilic tri-and tetra-block copolymers, using diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-5-ene (DBU) as a metal-free catalyst for ring-opening polymerisations of the widely-utilised monomer lactide combined with a functionalised protected cyclic carbonate. These syntheses employed PEGylated macroinitiators with varying chain lengths and architectures, as well as a labile-ester methacrylate initiator, and produced block copolymers with good control over monomer incorporation, molar masses, side-chain and terminal functionality and physico-chemical properties. Regardless of the nature of the initiators, the fidelity of the hydroxyl end group was maintained as confirmed by a second ROP chain extension step, and polymers with acryloyl/methacryloyl termini were able to undergo a second tandem reaction step, in particular thiol-ene click and RAFT polymerisations for the production of hyperbranched materials. Furthermore, the polymer side-chain functionalities could be easily deprotected to yield an active amine which could be subsequently coupled to a drug molecule in good yields. The resultant amphiphilic copolymers formed a range of unimolecular or kinetically-trapped micellar-like nanoparticles in aqueous environments, and the non-cationic polymers were all well-tolerated by MCF-7 breast cancer cells. The rapid and facile route to such highly adaptable polymers, as demonstrated here, offers promise for a range of bio materials applications

Synthesis, characterisation and evaluation of hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxypropyl) methacrylamides for transport and delivery in pancreatic cell lines in vitro and in vivo

Hyperbranched polymers have many promising features for drug delivery, owing to their ease of synthesis, multiple functional group content, and potential for high drug loading with retention of solubility. Here we prepared hyperbranched N-(2-hydroxypropyl)methacrylamide (HPMA) polymers with a range of molar masses and particle sizes, and with attached dyes, radiolabel or the anticancer drug gemcitabine. Reversible addition-fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerisation enabled the synthesis of pHPMA polymers and a gemcitabine-comonomer functionalised pHPMA polymer pro-drug, with diameters of the polymer particles ranging from 7-40 nm. The non-drug loaded polymers were well-tolerated in cancer cell lines and macrophages, and were rapidly internalised in 2D cell culture and transported efficiently to the centre of dense pancreatic cancer 3D spheroids. The gemcitabine-loaded polymer pro-drug was found to be toxic both to 2D cultures of MIA PaCa-2 cells and also in reducing the volume of MIA PaCa-2 spheroids. The non-drug loaded polymers caused no short-term adverse effects in healthy mice following systemic injection, and derivatives of these polymers labelled with 89Zr-were tracked for their distribution in the organs of healthy and MIA PaCa-2 xenograft bearing Balb/c nude mice. Tumour accumulation, although variable across the samples, was highest in individual animals for the pHPMA polymer of ∼20 nm size, and accordingly a gemcitabine pHPMA polymer pro-drug of ∼18 nm diameter was evaluated for efficacy in the tumour-bearing animals. The efficacy of the pHPMA polymer pro-drug was very similar to that of free gemcitabine in terms of tumour growth retardation, and although there was a survival benefit after 70 days for the polymer pro-drug, there was no difference at day 80. These data suggest that while polymer pro-drugs of this type can be effective, better tumour targeting and enhanced in situ release remain as key obstacles to clinical translation even for relatively simple polymers such as pHPMA

Media actors' perceptions of their roles in reporting food incidents

Background: Previous research has shown that the media can play a role in shaping consumer perceptions during a public health crisis. In order for public health professionals to communicate well-informed health information to the media, it is important that they understand how media view their role in transmitting public health information to consumers and decide what information to present. This paper reports the perceptions of media actors from three countries about their role in reporting information during a food incident. This information is used to present ideas and suggestions for public health professionals working with media during food incidents. Methods: Thirty three semi-structured interviews with media actors from Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom were conducted and analysed thematically. Media actors were recruited via purposive sampling using a sampling strategy, from a variety of formats including newspaper, television, radio and online. Results: Media actors said that during a food incident, they play two roles. First, they play a role in communicating information to consumers by acting as a conduit for information between the public and the relevant authorities. Second, they play a role as investigators by acting as a public watchdog. Conclusion: Media actors are an important source of consumer information during food incidents. Public health professionals can work with media by actively approaching them with information about food incidents; promoting to media that as public health professionals, they are best placed to provide the facts about food incidents; and by providing angles for further investigation and directing media to relevant and correct information to inform such investigations. Public health professionals who adapt how they work with media are more likely to influence media to portray messages that fit what they would like the public to know and that are in line with public health recommendations and enable consumers to engage in safe and health promoting behaviours in response to food incidents