Socially differentiated urban flood governance in Mexico : Ambiguous negotiations and fragmented contestations

Peer reviewe

Review: Living with oil : Promises, peaks and declines on Mexico's Gulf Coast (L. Breglia)

Book review. Reviewed work: Living with Oil: Promises, Peaks, and Declines on Mexico's Gulf Coast / Lisa Breglia. - Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2013 (pp. x + 313).Non peer reviewe

At the intersections of multiple marginalisations : displacements and environmental justice in Mexico and Ethiopia

This article examines the politics of institutional governance of displacements and the intersecting experiences of environmental justice, drawing on case studies of flood disasters and urban displacements in Villahermosa, Mexico, and government-sponsored displacements and resettlements in rural Oromia, Ethiopia. We argue that a fuller understanding of how institutional governance produces multiple marginalisations requires political-ecological and intersectional analyses of residents' experiences of injustices that encompass interlinkages between social position, gender and political power. The analysis is based on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mexico and Ethiopia, comprising interviews, participant observation, document analysis and surveys. The study shows similarities and differences in patterns of governance, mechanisms of marginalisation and relations of authority and power concerning differentiated displacements and everyday vulnerabilities in different contexts of the global South. Our analysis enriches theoretical understanding of governance and justice, demonstrating how multiple marginalities are produced, reinforced and contested through political processes imbricated with forms of governance characterised by institutional intrusion and absence.Peer reviewe

Contested claims over space and identity between fishers and the oil industry in Mexico

Peer reviewe

Identifying mismatches between institutional perceptions of water-related risk drivers and water management strategies in three river basin areas

Peer reviewe

Inequality and interconnectivity : Urban spaces of justice in Mexico

Cities in different parts of the world are going through intensive transformations based on institutional efforts to govern urban spaces and populations in the face of global environmental change and neoliberalization of governance. This essay examines inequalities and interconnectivities in urban governance and justice, drawing on a case-study of three, socially-differentiated sectors of the city of Villahermosa, Mexico, between 2011 and 2016. My analysis contributes to a multi-dimensional approach toward justice, and the cognate fields of right to the city, and segregation and inequality, that encompasses: (1) (re)distribution of residents’ exposure to risks and access to services; (2) recognition of the causes and consequences of risks and vulnerabilities; (3) fields of representation available for different residents; and (4) residents’ capabilities to recover from disasters and achieve everyday well-being within the existing urban governance and service provision structures. Instead of conceptualizing segregated cities as composed of isolated worlds, I argue that it is only possible to understand how the prevailing forms of governance produce multifaceted inequalities through a relational analysis of how residents from different parts of the city interact with the authorities and with each other. The study shows how residents’ tactics to accommodate, reconfigure and contest institutional endeavors to place them in hierarchical positions link to their differentiated ways of constructing urban space.Peer reviewe

Green Wars: Colonization and Conservation in the Maya Forest (review, M. Ybarra).

Book review. Reviewed work: Green Wars: Colonization and Conservation in the Maya Forest / Megan Ybarra. - Oakland, CA : University of California Press, 2018. ix-xii, + 204 pages. ISBN 9780520295162.Non peer reviewe

Whose decisions, whose livelihoods? : Resettlement and environmental justice in Ethiopia

This article analyzes recent state-implemented resettlement schemes in Oromia, Ethiopia, by examining the experiences and outcomes of resettlement from the perspective of both the resettlers and hosts. Besides involving transformations in people’s access to resources and the ability to earn their livelihoods, resettlement invites deep-seated questions of governance and justice. Drawing on theoretical approaches of political ecology and environmental justice, we analyze the processes and outcomes of resettlement in terms of four interlinked dimensions, including resource (re)distribution, cultural recognition, political representation, and social recovery. Special attention is paid to the questions of who decides for whom, and who lives the consequences. The analysis is based on a mixed-methods approach, involving a combination of qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey. We conclude that both the resettlers and the hosts experienced uneven redistribution of resources and unfair forms of recognition and political representation, which in tandem limited their possibilities for social recovery.Peer reviewe