From Vulnerability to Resilience: Hans-Georg Bohle's Scholarship and Contemporary Political Ecology

My emphasize on Bohle’s distinctive approach to vulnerability is related to the arc of  my broad concern in this contribution, namely how vulnerability has since his writings on the topic in the early 1990s has become attached to three other keywords – or concepts – in novel ways that dominate both current analytical and prescriptive work across many domains from global poverty to conflict to urban governance to global pandemics and financial crashes: namely security, resilience and risk. Take for example, the new book by the President of the Rockefeller Foundation, Judith Rodin, entitled The Resilience Dividend.  She has, according to the blurb on the back cover, recalibrated the foundation to address the disruptions, shocks and stresses associated with our interconnected world. In this age of complexity says Rodin, the ability to quickly and effectively bounce back is an urgent social and economic issue.  The five characteristics of resilience (2015:14) – awareness, diversity, integration, self-regulation and adaptiveness – provide the building blocks of the “adaptive cycle” - a four-phase model integrating the ideas of Brian Holling (“resilience”), Jay Forrester (“systems thinking”) and Joseph Schumpeter (“creative destruction”). Rodin is of course not alone. In our times, resiliency has become a keyword (Williams 1985)  for understanding the challenges of inhabiting, and living with the consequences of the Anthropocene (Schoon 2006).In this sense one might say that resiliency (along with its siblings security, and risk) has become a powerful technology of contemporary governance and neoliberal rule.   Building resilient persons, communities and institutions is the sine qua non of twenty-first century forms of liberalism. Resilience provides an indispensable road-map by which all of us are purportedly able to anticipate and tolerate the disturbances, dangers and radical contingencies of inhabiting a complex world in which, to again quote the President of the Rockefeller Foundation in its new resilience manifesto, “we cannot predict where the next major shock to our well-being will manifest” (Rockefeller Foundation 2013:1). The argument I want to make is that in incorporating vulnerability into what is now a rather major academic industry operating under the sign of socio-ecological complexity, resilience thinking and risk management, much of the critical edge – the dialectical quality – of Bohle’s work has been lost.  My focus will be on issues of food, famine and climate  – topics of great interest to Hans-Georg and indeed on which he published extensively – and  what resilience theory may, or may not, have to offer in light of the vulnerability analyses of the sort developed by Bohle and others

Chronicle of a Death Foretold: Some Thoughts on Peasants and the Agrarian Ouestion

Auch in der intellektuellen Diskussion über Bauern hat eine Verschiebung des Interesses von der politischen Ökonomie zur poststrukturalen Frage der Identität stattgefunden. Dies spiegelt die Entstehung neuer Formen der Politik und die wirtschaftliche (und diskursive) Globalisierung bäuerlicher Gemeinwesen wider. Anstatt aber die klassischen Fragen, die Karl Kautsky vor mehr als hundert Jahren aufgeworfen hat, gänzlich aufzugeben oder zu der noch älteren Erzählung vom 'Tod des Bauern' zurückzukehren, erscheint es dem Autor wichtig darauf hinzuweisen, dass zwei unterschiedliche Prozesse im Gange sind: Zum einen erzeugt und zerstört das kapitalistische System kontinuierlich Räume, in denen Bauern als 'einfache Warenproduzenten' existieren und verelenden können. Zum anderen sollten die neuen Formen politischer Praxis und die neuartigen Produktionsverhältnisse unter den Bedingungen der Globalisierung nicht als Anzeichen für die endgültige Eliminierung der Bauern als 'einfache Warenproduzenten' interpretiert werden. Bauern sind aufgrund ihrer materiellen Existenzbedingungen nicht zu einer einzigen Form von politischer Praxis verdammt. Es scheint dem Autor nicht angemessen, Bauern in poststrukturalistischer Manier als subalterne, hybride oder grundlegend andere kulturelle Identitäten neu zu erfinden. Der Diskurs über sie sollte sich nicht von der Sprache des Anachronismus und der Auslöschung anstecken lassen.Auch in der intellektuellen Diskussion über Bauern hat eine Verschiebung des Interesses von der politischen Ökonomie zur poststrukturalen Frage der Identität stattgefunden. Dies spiegelt die Entstehung neuer Formen der Politik und die wirtschaftliche (und diskursive) Globalisierung bäuerlicher Gemeinwesen wider. Anstatt aber die klassischen Fragen, die Karl Kautsky vor mehr als hundert Jahren aufgeworfen hat, gänzlich aufzugeben oder zu der noch älteren Erzählung vom 'Tod des Bauern' zurückzukehren, erscheint es dem Autor wichtig darauf hinzuweisen, dass zwei unterschiedliche Prozesse im Gange sind: Zum einen erzeugt und zerstört das kapitalistische System kontinuierlich Räume, in denen Bauern als 'einfache Warenproduzenten' existieren und verelenden können. Zum anderen sollten die neuen Formen politischer Praxis und die neuartigen Produktionsverhältnisse unter den Bedingungen der Globalisierung nicht als Anzeichen für die endgültige Eliminierung der Bauern als 'einfache Warenproduzenten' interpretiert werden. Bauern sind aufgrund ihrer materiellen Existenzbedingungen nicht zu einer einzigen Form von politischer Praxis verdammt. Es scheint dem Autor nicht angemessen, Bauern in poststrukturalistischer Manier als subalterne, hybride oder grundlegend andere kulturelle Identitäten neu zu erfinden. Der Diskurs über sie sollte sich nicht von der Sprache des Anachronismus und der Auslöschung anstecken lassen

Impact of the earthworm Lumbricus terrestris (L.) on As, Cu, Pb and Zn mobility and speciation in contaminated soils

To assess the risks that contaminated soils pose to the environment properly a greater understanding of how soil biota influence the mobility of metal(loid)s in soils is required. Lumbricus terrestris L. were incubated in three soils contaminated with As, Cu, Pb and Zn. The concentration and speciation of metal(loid)s in pore waters and the mobility and partitioning in casts were compared with earthworm-free soil. Generally the concentrations of water extractable metal(loid)s in earthworm casts were greater than in earthworm-free soil. The impact of the earthworms on concentration and speciation in pore waters was soil and metal specific and could be explained either by earthworm induced changes in soil pH or soluble organic carbon. The mobilisation of metal(loid)s in the environment by earthworm activity may allow for leaching or uptake into biota

Rethinking the Security Architecture of North East Asia

In the aftermath of the Cold War, many began to question the continuing efficacy, or at least call for reform, of collective security structures such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the United Nations Security Council. Yet, North East Asia never enjoyed a formal, institutionalised collective security structure. As Russia and the United States recede and China emerges in North East Asia, this article questions whether now is the time to consider such an arrangement. Financially, Japan and South Korea are locked into a symbiotic relationship with China (as is the United States), while the government in Beijing continues to militarise and lay territorial and maritime claims to large areas of the region. Moreover, the regime in North Korea, with its new nuclear capabilities, remains unpredictable. Consequently, central components to the question of collective security in North East Asia are the equally vexing questions of what to do about North Korea and whether a new formalised security arrangement would include or exclude the People's Republic of China

Improving cluster-based methods for investigating potential for insect pest species establishment: region-specific risk factors

Existing cluster-based methods for investigating insect species assemblages or profiles of a region to indicate the risk of new insect pest invasion have a major limitation in that they assign the same species risk factors to each region in a cluster. Clearly regions assigned to the same cluster have different degrees of similarity with respect to their species profile or assemblage. This study addresses this concern by applying weighting factors to the cluster elements used to calculate regional risk factors, thereby producing region-specific risk factors. Using a database of the global distribution of crop insect pest species, we found that we were able to produce highly differentiated region-specific risk factors for insect pests. We did this by weighting cluster elements by their Euclidean distance from the target region. Using this approach meant that risk weightings were derived that were more realistic, as they were specific to the pest profile or species assemblage of each region. This weighting method provides an improved tool for estimating the potential invasion risk posed by exotic species given that they have an opportunity to establish in a target region

Impacts of epigeic, anecic and endogeic earthworms on metal and metalloid mobility and availability

The introduction of earthworms into soils contaminated with metals and metalloids has been suggested to aid restoration practices. Eisenia veneta (epigeic), Lumbricus terrestris (anecic) and Allolobophora chlorotica (endogeic) earthworms were cultivated in columns containing 900 g soil with 1130, 345, 113 and 131 mg kg1 of As, Cu, Pb and Zn, respectively, for up to 112 days, in parallel with earthworm-free columns. Leachate was produced by pouring water on the soil surface to saturate the soil and generate downflow. Ryegrass was grown on the top of columns to assess metal uptake into biota. Different ecological groups affected metals in the same way by increasing concentrations and free ion activities in leachate, but anecic L. terrestris had the greatest effect by increasing leachate concentrations of As by 267%, Cu by 393%, Pb by 190%, and Zn by 429% compared to earthworm-free columns. Ryegrass grown in earthworm-bearing soil accumulated more metal and the soil microbial community exhibited greater stress. Results are consistent with earthworm enhanced degradation of organic matter leading to release of organically bound elements. The degradation of organic matter also releases organic acids which decrease the soil pH. The earthworms do not appear to carry out a unique process, but increase the rate of a process that is already occurring. The impact of earthworms on metal mobility and availability should therefore be considered when inoculating earthworms into contaminated soils as new pathways to receptors may be created or the flow of metals and metalloids to receptors may be elevated

Status, source, ecological and health risk assessment of toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in street dust of Abadan, Iran

The potential hazard to human health from exposure to toxic metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in street dust was assessed using thirty street dust samples collected from Abadan, an industrial city in Southwest Iran. The mean concentration of Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Cd, Ni, V, As and Co in the street dust was: 59, 288, 113, 50, 0.5, 57, 36, 7.1 and 7.5 (mg/kg), respectively. The majority of potentially toxic metals were elevated compared to background concentrations, with the exception of Co and V. Mean enrichment factors decreased in the following order: Zn > Pb > Cu > Cd > As > Cr > Ni > Co > V, with a high enrichment value for Zn and Pb. Cadmium had a moderate potential ecological risk compared to other toxic metals. Correlation coefficients and principal component analysis (PCA) identified three principal groups as sources of toxic metals in Abadan street dust. Metals such as Cr, Ni, Co and V were identified to originate from natural parent materials, Zn, Cu and Pb from anthropogenic sources emitted from combustion/vehicular materials and Cd and As from other anthropogenic sources such as the Abadan refinery and petrochemical complex. The sum of 13 PAHs ranged from 400 to 11,766 (μg/kg), with a mean of 2436 (μg/kg). Approximately 68%–79% of ∑PAHs comprised of higher molecular weight PAHs (HMWPAHs 4–6 rings), revealing a combustion origin. Principal component analysis (PCA) for PAHs in Abadan street dust originated mainly from vehicular, petroleum emission and fossil fuel. The toxic equivalency quantities (TEQs) of PAHs in the street dust ranges from 22 to 951 (μg/kg). High coefficients of correlation (r2 = 0.98 to 0.83, p < 0.01) among Pyrene, Benzo (a) anthracene, Chrysene, Benzo (a) pyrene, Benzo (b) fluoranthene, Benzo (k) fluoranthene, and TEQ of street dust showed that these PAHs were principal contributors to TEQ. Ecosystem risk calculations for PAHs were high since the value of RQ∑PAHs(MPCs) was ≥1 and RQ∑PAHs(NCs) was ≥800. The mean values for RQ∑PAHs(MPCs) and RQ∑PAHs(NCs) were 8 and 1151, which indicated a relatively high ecosystem risk of PAHs in street dust in Abadan. The total cancer risk was 8.64 × 10−3 for adults and 8.95 × 10−4 for children, suggesting a high potential cancer risk through both dust dermal contact and ingestion pathways