Distant Relations: A Study of Identity, Ethics and Power in the Relationship Between Britain and the United Kingdom Overseas Territories

This thesis contributes to new understandings of the contemporary relationship between Britain and the fourteen remaining United Kingdom Overseas Territories. By examining the discourse of social and political elites in Britain and in several Overseas Territories it identifies the significance of the role of identity in shaping perceptions and relations between these international actors. The thesis explores how understandings of the Overseas Territories as either part of, external to, or occupying an intermediate position with regard to the British state, shapes power relations and ethical considerations in the relationship between Britain and the territories. The importance of identity in this analysis contributes empirically and theoretically to a constructivist research agenda in which inter-subjective meaning attributed to international actors holds equal weight to power and material factors

Guest editorial introduction: Overseas territories & crown dependencies: What future in ‘Global Britain’?

Brexit has caused a big shift in the geo-political outlook of the United Kingdom (UK). An early statement of intent is the 'Global Britain' agenda. Within this context the UK's Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies are often overlooked. However, they have been both impacted by Brexit and potentially offer real opportunities for a more outward facing UK. This Introduction to the special section explores the extent to which the Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies have lost out due to Brexit across a range of issues, although perhaps not to the extent originally expected. It also considers how both sets of territories might be able to contribute to realising the Global Britain agenda. However, it is not yet fully formed and the UK and several Overseas Territories are exposed due to the contested sovereignties of the latter. The Introduction concludes by discussing the six papers featured in the special section and how they prompt a range of questions for future research

Community resilience and land degradation in forest and shrubland socio-ecological systems: evidence from Gorgoglione, Basilicata, Italy

Assessing the resilience of communities is assuming greater importance at a time of global economicupheaval, climatic and socio-demographic changes. The past 10–15 years have seen a significant increasein the number of studies addressing resilience issues at community level from a variety of perspectives,and although the resilience of communities in dealing with disturbance feature strongly in these stud-ies, less work appears to have been undertaken at the interface between community resilience and landdegradation. In addition, little attention has been paid to land degradation, desertification risk and com-munity resilience at the forest–community interface, despite the fact that forest ecosystems representone of the most important terrestrial biomes in terms of the ecosystem services and socio-economicbenefits that they provide. Building on existing community resilience literature which highlights theimportance of various socio-economic and political drivers for understanding community resilience, thispaper analyses how economic, political, institutional, social, cultural and natural factors at communitylevel affect the ability of communities to adapt and adjust decision-making pathways towards resilience.The paper will focus on the municipality of Gorgoglione (Basilicata, Italy), a typical Mediterranean forestand shrubland socio-ecological system characterised by a mixture of agricultural and forest landscapesprone to land degradation issues linked to both anthropogenic (deforestation, overgrazing, forest fires)and natural (soil erosion, droughts, climate aridity) causes. A mixed-method approach is used, drawingon quantitative and qualitative data across spatial levels and temporal scales to examine the complexinterrelationships between community resilience, forest ecosystems and land degradation