A crack in the facade? Situating Singapore in global flows of electronic waste

Singapore is alleged to be a key node in global flows of e‐waste prohibited under the Basel Convention. We combine a close reading of the Convention and related documents with findings from nonparticipant observation of and interviews with Singapore‐based traders of discarded electronics. The case offers both important conceptual and empirical findings for future studies of territory in market‐making activity. Conceptually, our research suggests that it may be analytically useful in such studies to conceptualize territory without presupposing that it is generated as a result of separate domains or logics such as ‘the political’ or ‘the economic’. Empirically, we find that the regulatory framework of the Convention, combined with the action of traders based in Singapore, generates a territorialization of the city‐state such that it operates as a crack in the regulatory edifice of the Convention, even as Singapore lawfully fulfils its obligations to it. Moreover, allegations premised on the role of Singapore as a facilitator of global e‐waste dumping misrepresent its crucial role as a conduit of electronic equipment for the significant reuse markets elsewhere in Southeast Asia and beyond. The case indicates that the allegations against Singapore hinge on the city‐state being territorialized as a ‘developing country’

Diatom distribution in two impacted oxbow lakes of the Allier River (France)

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Distribution des diatomées de deux bras morts de la rivière Allier recreusés artificiellement à des fins piscicoles (France)

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Distribution des diatomées de deux bras morts de la rivière Allier recreusés artificiellement à des fins piscicoles (France)

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Study of two oxbow lakes of the Allier River (France)

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Distribution des diatomées de deux bras morts de la rivière Allier présentant un atterrissement élevé (France).

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Diatom distribution in natural and impacted cut-off meanders of the Allier River, France

International audiencebasaltand downstream – sedimentary), differ in their degrees of infill or depth. In each region, three cut-off meanders were examined;one in each region was impacted by gravel extraction (upstream deepening) and halieutic improvement (downstream deepening), whereasthe others were left in their natural state having different silt accumulations either almost cut-off from the river or less silted-up andmore open to the river. The sites were monitored for one year for physical and chemical characteristics. Diatom samples collected insummer 2009 were examined along with their associated biocenosis. The two catchments, differing in geology, land-use and water quality,sheltered different diatom communities. Physical and chemical differences were recorded between up- and downstream zones of eachcut-off meander due to both the influence of the groundwater (buffering the water temperature among others) and the periodic inflowfrom the main channel (increased oxygen saturation concentration in downstream end of the cut-off meanders, except for the impactedupstream zone which contained a lot of macrophytes). In the upstream reach (except for one site), the connection with the groundwaterfrom the surrounding catchment, which acts as a hydro-geological reservoir, might explain the highest mineralization and water hardnessrecorded mainly in the upstream zone of the cut-off meander, and the presence of Pseudostaurosira subsalina (Hustedt) Morales andThalassiosira weissflogii (Grunow) Fryxell & Hasle. For the downstream reach, in addition to up- and downstream differences, otherfactors came into play giving rise to different communities, for example, cattle trampling in the cut-off meander leading to the presence ofhypereutrophic and polysaprobic taxa or the potential local re-emergence of mineral springs associated with brackish taxa. Moreover, theup- or downstream deepening also induced differences: the extraction of sediment nearer to the river created a system in which water inputfrom the main channel flows in through a larger opening, inducing allochthonous processes. This increased the river’s influence, creatinga renewal of earlier morphological and ecological conditions, whereas the gravel extraction that modified the upstream zone increasedthe influence of groundwater from the surrounding catchment on this area of the site and led to water conditions independent of the mainchannel. Furthermore, this study has provided an important picture of the environmental variables, mechanisms and processes that drivethe distribution of diatoms within the cut-off meanders along the Allier River, which can can be applied in future paleo-environmentalstudies

Des diatomées benthiques pour retracer l’histoire des annexes hydrauliques d’une rivière : analyse floristique comparée de six bras morts et d’un paléo-chenal de la rivière Allier (Massif central, France).

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