The past decade has witnessed significant growth across the globe of domestic and international initiatives designed to ameliorate both existing and potential impacts of climate change. The threat of altered environments and possibility of mass migrations of people have spurred intensive planning as well as the commitment of considerable resources to addressing such threats. Indeed, the primacy of climate change adaptation and mitigation efforts and planning has become so pronounced that one might argue that this is a new and pre-eminent form of development in the international arena. As with previous developmental preoccupations such as progress, modernity, gender, microcredit, participation and good governance, climate change adaptation and mitigation is today a central part of the development mantra. In this paper I examine the 'climate change turn' in development work by focusing on the case of Bangladesh, a country often discussed in both scholarly literature and popular discourse as one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to the possible effects of climate change. Images of rising waters, flooded fields and displaced farmers in the region have become an iconic symbol deployed during debates on climate change both locally and globally. As a result Bangladesh has emerged as a laboratory of sorts in which a series of national-level strategic plans, projects, programmes, trust funds and financing schemes are being designed and tested in partnership with international donors and development agencies, all built around the idea of climate change and resilience. Looking specifically at some of the most marginalised communities in Bangladesh -such as char dwellers and slum populations -I question in this paper what impact these efforts to combat climate change may have, in particular the possibility of being displaced not by climate change but rather by development processes meant to ameliorate its effects.
Refugee resettlement in the United States has followed other immigrant settlement patterns in the country, with more refugees in recent decades moving to newer locations, including many smaller cities. There are many success stories in such placements, yet many challenges and questions still remain regarding the integration and acculturation of newcomers. Complicating this context has been the increasingly charged and often xenophobic rhetoric regarding refugees, both globally and as a result of the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This article looks at the intersection of the local particularities of refugee integration in new locations with the national discourse and politics of resettlement in contemporary America. It does so by focusing on the case of Rutland, VT, a small city proposed as a home for Syrian refugees. Like many other cities facing various forms of decline, refugee resettlement was seen by some local officials as an important component of urban renewal. Such plans have become enmeshed within broader anxieties regarding security, feasibility, and integration. This article suggests that understanding the situation in Rutland and the many other small resettlement sites like it across the United States requires moving beyond such rhetoric and fearmongering and instead to look at the actual contexts of the cities in question.
Online education is becoming an increasingly popular venture for postsecondary institutions. It is an often controversial undertaking with proponents lauding the possibilities of technological advancements to increase access to education, while critics question the value and form of pedagogy on offer. This paper examines the potential and problems of online learning with reference to global geographic education. Drawing on the emergent literature on technology and education, it examines issues of design, interactivity, access, and mode, and focuses on a collaborative project between international partners to introduce the study of South Asia through an online suite to a range of students.
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