Tag Archives: inequality

Cultivating the land of the concrete jungle: environmental and social security, but for whom?

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By Amita Bhakta, Loughborough University 

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There are many different aspects of daily life that symbolise wider environmental challenges in the world, some as close to us as the food we eat. Recent debates and discussions about reducing our environmental impact have often focused on the drive to ‘go local’ with our food, and in particular to grow our own in the face of rising food insecurity at a global scale. One particular potential solution to this has been to promote urban agriculture, however, moving the farm to the city is not without problems.

Neilson and Rickards (2016), in their paper published in The Geographical Journal, draw upon practices of urban agriculture in Melbourne, Australia, to highlight that longstanding tensions between what is seen as the ‘urban’ and what is understood as ‘rural’ continue to prevail. They suggest that the notion of growing food is often perceived to be a ‘rural’ practice that is ‘out of sight and out of mind’ for city dwellers and people who rely on supermarkets and shops to buy their food. Urban farms, therefore, can be seen as being out of place, and are sometimes perceived to be an invasive force that take over the land of the city. Neilson and Rickards (2016: 10) describe urban farms as ‘ecological colonisers’ that seek to be ‘green’ and inhibit the growth of the city through food production.

When we look at examples of urban farming, it’s clear that the tensions in these practices go deeper and further than the land itself, and are reflected within and between the groups of people who are meant to benefit from it. For example, The Guardian reports that a rise in urban farming in Tulsa, Oklahoma, is not a simple solution to issues of health and inequality in different areas of the city. Urban agricultural practices can be problematic in cities like Tulsa because urban farming is perceived to be a ‘white trend’ solution, which reveals and reinforces racial divides. For instance, longstanding issues with social security among ‘minority’ groups can make it difficult for urban agriculture to fully take off. Furthermore, the concept of agriculture brings connotations of slavery from the past for young Black Tulsans, who are among the target group for developing these farms. Black Tulsans tend to associate working on the land with of slavery, so the practice of urban agriculture can expose the influence of a dark past history upon the present generations. These divides unmask how particular sustainable practices, such as urban agriculture, are situated within longstanding historical racial tensions (Lieberman, 2016). Tulsa therefore shows that re-thinking frameworks in the context of urban/rural agricultural dichotomy is not sufficient. People who are practising urban agriculture and those who could benefit from doing so, but are left behind, should all be reached and included. For farms, both urban and rural, it’s essential to recognise not just the diversity of the places, but the world in which we live, to ensure a food-secure future for all.

60-world2 Lieberman A 2016 ‘Could urban farming provide a much needed oasis in the Tulsa food desert?’ The Guardian Online 25th August 2016

books_icon Neilson C and Rickards L 2016 The relational character of urban agriculture: competing perspectives on land, food, people, agriculture and the city The Geographical Journal doi: 10.1111/geoj.12188

Housing Refugees: Prejudice and the Potentials of Encounter

By Julian Shaw (King’s College London)

Syrian Refugees at Keleti Railway Station in Budapest, Hungary Photo: Mstyslav Chernov/Wikimedia Commons

Syrian Refugees at Keleti Railway Station in Budapest, Hungary
Photo: Mstyslav Chernov/Wikimedia Commons

This summer the British media opened its eyes, cleared its collective throat, and eventually gave voice to a global refugee crisis that has been growing for years. Initially the tragedy traversed the narratives of public and political figures, then it made its way into the private discussions of British families (via TV news and online petitions). Now the tragedy’s spatial journey appears to have followed suit – moving from the public spaces of train stations and border checkpoints, it is now poised to enter private space. In The Independent it was revealed that “one in 14 people – the equivalent of almost two million UK households – said they would be prepared to offer a room or space in their home to a refugee” (The Independent, 2015); what an amazing thought.

Concurrently in September’s issue of The Geographical Journal, Valentine et al. published the latest instalment in their investigation of the geography of encounter; looking in this article at “encounters…within the context of family life” (Valentine et al., 2015: 280). Their article specifically turns the significance of everyday intimate encounters with diversity in the home, and how these may have the potential to challenge wider prejudices evident in public life.

Turning to the cities of Leeds and Warsaw, Valentine et al. surveyed over 3,000 social attitudes and made in-depth qualitative explorations with 60 of these respondents. Their findings revealed that indeed “intra-familial diversity does produce more positive attitudes in public life” (ibid.: 291). Should such a result be consistent across the UK, this has made me wonder about the wider positive implications that could occur if British families were to house refugees in their spare rooms, as was suggested in The Independent.

Of course, housing someone does not necessarily make them family – or at least not in the traditional sense. However, Valentine et al. acknowledge in their study that the intimate encounters they explore do not presume the traditional sense of family – in the modern world family structures are much more malleable and changeable than they used to be. Instead they extend their investigation of families to the wider spatial setting of “the home and associated spaces of family life” (Valentine et al., 2005: 281). In this case, I suggest that their findings could be directly relevant to UK families welcoming refugees into their homes.

However, the obvious caveat here is that likely volunteers to house refugees are those already holding positive views towards them. I guess the challenge is – if intimate encounters can break prejudice – enabling intimate encounters with refugees to enter into the homes of those harbouring intolerance? Yet, don’t most of us have some distant or extended family members that we might reluctantly describe as being intolerant, even while we hold broad and accepting views ourselves? If this is the case then the intimate encounters described by Valentine et al. (2015) could indeed happen in the families of those offering to house refugees. Let’s hope the offer becomes reality.

References:

60-world2 The Independent (2015) Online article: “Revealed: the extraordinary response to the Syrian refugee crisis – and how it shames David Cameron”, by Adam Withnall and Matt Dathan on 23rd September 2015, Accessed online at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/refugee-crisis-the-true-extent-of-the-british-publics-extraordinary-response-revealed-10514341.html (Accessed on 23rd September 2015)

books_icon Valentine, G., Piekut, A., and Harris, C., (2015) Intimate encounters: the negotiation of difference within the family and its implications for social relations in public space, The Geographical Journal, 181(3): pp.280-294 (open access).

Austerity will increase the North South health divide

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By Clare Bambra and Kayleigh Garthwaite, Durham University

We were told by the Coalition government that we are “all in it together” and that recession, austerity, cuts to welfare and the privatisation of the NHS are the necessary medicine to revitalise our broken country. This is a dangerous, neoliberal myth as the effects of austerity are not being shared equally across our country.

Northern England (commonly defined as the North East, North West and Yorkshire and Humber regions) has persistently had higher death rates than the South of England, with people in the North consistently found to be less healthy than those in the South – across all social classes and amongst both men and women. This is a longstanding historical divide that can be dated back to the early 19th century.

In our paper published by Area, we argue that since 2010, these health inequalities between the North and the South of England have increased. For example, suicide rates have increased across England – but at a greater rate in the North. Similarly, antidepressant prescription rates have risen, again with the highest increases in the North. Food bank use and malnutrition rates have also increased more in the North of England.

Boarded up houses in Stockton on Tees, North East, 2015. Photo Credit: Kayleigh Garthwaite.

Boarded up houses in Stockton on Tees, North East, 2015. Photo Credit: Kayleigh Garthwaite.

We argue that these increases in health inequalities between the North and the South are a result of the uneven geographies of “austerity”. Welfare reform and public service cuts have disproportionately impacted on the older industrial areas in the North, whilst the South (outside London) has escaped comparatively lightly. By way of example, Blackpool (North West), will experience twice the loss of income per person as a result of welfare reforms, whilst the worst-hit local authority budgets such as Middlesbrough (North East) will lose around four times as much as those least affected by the cuts – located exclusively in the South (such as Hart, South East).

So what can be done? Drawing on our involvement in the Public Health England (PHE) commissioned Due North: The Independent Inquiry into Health Equity in the North (2014). We argue that certain policy measures need to be urgently undertaken if we are to prevent the English health divide from widening: (1) increasing the value of welfare benefits; (2) improving welfare rights advice services; (3) making work pay by introducing a living wage; (4) implementing health-first active labour market policies to tackle health-related worklessness; and (5) decreasing debt by capping loan rates, supporting credit unions and regulating energy companies. Some of these policies are being taken forward by the opposition parties in their 2015 party election manifestos.

Partly as a result of the Due North Inquiry, and partly as an outcome of renewed debates about English devolution, there is now a “policy window” around the English health divide. This represents a prime opportunity for geographers to influence this important area of research, policy and practice.

About the authors:

Clare Bambra is Professor of Public Health Geography at Durham University. Her research examines how politics and politics impact on the social and spatial determinants of health and health inequalities. Dr Kayleigh Garthwaite is a Postdoctoral Research Associate within the Department of Geography at Durham University. Her research interests focus on health inequalities, welfare reform and austerity, with a focus on narratives and lived experience.

books_icon Inquiry Panel on Health Equity for the North of England (2014) Due North: The report of the Inquiry on Health Equity for the North (pdf). Inquiry Chair: Margaret Whitehead.

books_icon Bambra, C. and Garthwaite, K. (2015), Austerity, welfare reform and the English health divide. Area. doi: 10.1111/area.12191

Promoting Feminism, Opposing Inequality

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By Jessica Hope, University of Manchester

Image credit: Jessica Hope

Image credit: Jessica Hope

Last week UN Women Goodwill Ambassador Emma Watson launched the HeForShe campaign, a solidarity movement for gender equality that calls upon men to stand up against the inequalities and discrimination faced by women. This week is the 69th session of the Un General Assembly, held in New York between September 24th and 30th.  During this assembly, UN Women will help deliberate a post 2015 development framework, new sustainable development goals and an appraisal of the Beijing Declaration.

As debates about gender inequalities are once again hitting the headlines, with a view to implementing new policies and practice, critical analysis of current practice is vital.  In August this year, Lata Narayanaswamy published a review article in Geography Compass Journal titled ‘NGOs and Feminisms in Development: Interrogating the ‘Southern Women’s NGO’. In this article, Narayanaswamy advocates firstly for more nuanced understandings of the diversity Southern Women’s NGOs and their relationship to wider NGO networks and secondly, for recognition of the contested politics of gender and its entanglements with broader identity politics. The article unpacks  how Southern women are represented, categorised and treated by development discourse and shows that too often, ‘Southern Women’s NGO’ is used as a short hand for subaltern, grassroots, collective action – without recognition of the power dynamics and diversity within the category. Moreover, working with Southern Women’s NGOs is too often viewed as synonymous with working with the most marginalised – ignoring the multiplicity of voices that cannot be heard.

As gender inequalities are debated in global platforms, it is vital that geography contributes to these discussions and helps to illuminate the common assumptions and representations that underpin development practice and shape development impacts.

 Narayanaswamy, L (2014) NGOs and Feminisms in Development: Interrogating the ‘Southern Women’s NGO’ Geography Compass 8 (8), pp 576–589

60-world2 United Nations Women (2014) HeForShe 

The Geographical Journal Content Alert: Volume 178, Issue 1 (March 2012)

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The latest issue of The Geographical Journal is available on Wiley Online Library.

Click past the break to view the full table of contents.

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Revolting against inequality and discrimination

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Burnt out car, 6th November 2005. Picture taken during the French suburb riots by François Schnell.

By Rosa Mas Giralt

The Guardian newspaper is currently publishing a series of reports looking at the increased political presence of anti-immigrant movements all across contemporary Europe. Within this series, yesterday’s article by Angelique Chrisafis entitled “Immigration: France sees tensions rise five years on from Paris riots”, focused on the current state of affairs in Clichy-sous-Bois, the neighbourhood at the edge of the French capital where the 2005 riots started. It made sad reading. Time has not transformed the social issues (e.g. poor housing, marginalization, joblessness, racism) that lay at the root of the revolts which were sparked after the death of two youngsters who were hiding from the police. Discrimination against young non-white French people and immigrants is rife and there have been no signs of convincing policy initiatives to address the situation. Unfortunately, in the current uncertain economic climate, right-wing anti-immigrant rhetoric continues to dominate the French debate on immigration and ethnic minorities. The riots could potentially reignite at any point.

In 2007, Geography Compass published an article by Mustafa Dikeç which focused on the 2005 riots in the banlieues of Paris. In it he argued that a geographical approach to analyzing these revolts can provide a better understanding of their recurrence. The article provides a historical perspective of the revolts, exploring similar incidents that have taken place in the country since the 1980s, and relating the creation of the banlieues to France’s post-war economic and political transformations and colonial past. Dikeç (2007: 1203) suggests that “geographies of revolts overlap with geographies of mass unemployment, discrimination and repression”, geographies which have been expanding in the last 30 years. From this perspective, revolts can be understood as resistance movements and not as ‘imitation’ incidents, based on the logic of ‘copycat effects’, which have dominated behavioural accounts.

Read The Guardian‘s series of reports “Europe: Immigrants under pressure”

Read article by Angelique Chrisafis “Immigration: France sees tensions rise five years on from Paris riots”. The Guardian. 16th Nov 2010

Read Mustafa Dikeç (2007) “Revolting geographies: urban unrest in France”. Geography Compass. 1(5): 1190-1206.

Human Development and Inequalities

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by Magali Bonne-Moreau

What do Ethiopia and Cambodia have in common? Aside from their complicated political histories, these two countries have made great improvements in education and public health over the past 40 years, in spite of low incomes. Their progress places them among the “top movers” in a list of 135 countries, according to new indicators used to compile the latest Human Development Index (HDI), with Ethiopia in 11th place, and Cambodia in 15th place.

Since 1970, the world has experienced significant overall improvements in living standards and access to health and education, but there have been disparities, both globally and within countries, according to the 2010 edition of the UN Human Development Report, published earlier this month. These conclusions are based on a systematic review of human development opportunities and challenges at national and global levels over the past 40 years. The additional indicators used to determine the new HDI confirm that progress is possible even in countries with limited resources – in other words, there is no direct link between economic growth and progress in human development.

While these results are extremely insightful and deserve to be examined in detail, there is another noteworthy aspect of the 20th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report. Three new human development indices have been introduced to take into account growing concerns about inequality, gender equity, and the multidimensional nature of poverty.

The original Human Development Index  is a composite index developed in 1990 to measure the level of development of a country by combining indicators of life expectancy, educational attainment and income. The Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI) considers the effect of inequality on human development by looking at disparities in the HDI indicators.

According to Jonathan Glennie of the Guardian, “One of the main findings of the first 10 years of the Millennium Development Goals is that inequality matters… Equality matters as an end in itself, and it matters as one of the quickest means to reduce absolute poverty.” As geographers, we also have a role to play in the way inequality is addressed and researched.  For those of you who are interested in learning more, Alan Gilbert discusses this comprehensively in a Geography Compass paper entitled “Inequality and why it matters”.

Read Gilbert, A., 2007. Inequality and Why It Matters. Geography Compass, 1(3), pp.422-447

Read the Guardian article by Jonathan Glennie

Read the UNDP Human Development Report 2010 – The Real Wealth of Nations: Pathways to Human Development