Spatializing commodity chains

Leslie, Deborah; Reimer, Suzanne

doi:10.1177/030913259902300304

Cited by 230 publications

(95 citation statements)

References 33 publications

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“…Spatializing commodity chains. An urban land teleconnections perspective can incorporate the emerging literature on spatializing commodity chains and production networks (49,65). This approach would place explicit attention on linking actors (e.g., households, institutions, and firms), processes, and places of production and consumption.…”

Section: Research Agenda For Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban land teleconnections and sustainability

Seto

Reenberg

Boone

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

742

365

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This paper introduces urban land teleconnections as a conceptual framework that explicitly links land changes to underlying urbanization dynamics. We illustrate how three key themes that are currently addressed separately in the urban sustainability and land change literatures can lead to incorrect conclusions and misleading results when they are not examined jointly: the traditional system of land classification that is based on discrete categories and reinforces the false idea of a rural-urban dichotomy; the spatial quantification of land change that is based on place-based relationships, ignoring the connections between distant places, especially between urban functions and rural land uses; and the implicit assumptions about path dependency and sequential land changes that underlie current conceptualizations of land transitions. We then examine several environmental "grand challenges" and discuss how urban land teleconnections could help research communities frame scientific inquiries. Finally, we point to existing analytical approaches that can be used to advance development and application of the concept.coupled human-natural systems | land change science U rbanization and land change are two global processes with far-reaching consequences. Although the two are tightly intertwined, their literatures and analytical frameworks were largely developed separately. We argue that these parallel but distinct conceptualizations limit progress in these fields and in sustainability science, specifically given the environmental impacts of urbanization on the land system, and associated social and political challenges. The magnitude and accelerating rate of contemporary urbanization are reshaping land use locally and globally in ways that require a reexamination of land change and urban sustainability. Worldwide, urban populations are projected to increase by almost 3 billion by 2050 (1) and the total global urban land area by more than 1.5 million square kilometers-an area three times the size of Spain-by 2030 (2). Urban economies currently generate more than 90% of global gross value added, meaning few rural systems are unaffected by urbanization (3). Given such trends, we must reconsider how we conceptualize the many connections and feedbacks between urbanization and land change processes. To date, a large body of literature has considered the proximate land changes brought about by urbanization, but the more distant land-use implications of urbanization remain underexamined.In climate science, the concept of teleconnections refers to climate anomalies that correlate over large geographic distances. During warm phases of the Atlantic multidecadal oscillation, for instance, the incidence of synchronous wildfires increases in the western United States (4). The virtual shrinking of distances between places, strengthening connectivity between distant locations, and growing separation between places of consumption and production are emerging topics in "telecoupled" human-natural systems (5-7) and tropical teleconnections ...

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Section: Research Agenda For Moving Forwardmentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban land teleconnections and sustainability

Seto

Reenberg

Boone

et al. 2012

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

742

365

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For some (e.g. Harvey, 1990;Leslie & Reimer, 1999;Hartwick, 2000;Castree, 2001;Crewe, 2001;Goss, 2004Goss, , 2006) the remit of the researcher is to simplify the complexities of consumption and commodity geographies for readers-and presumably students and the 'public'-to let the light of politics and political action shine through. Consumption/commodities is/are to be defetishized: the often exploitative relationships of production hidden behind capitalist commodities are revealed in all their glory for all to see and, with this knowledge, to act upon.…”

Section: To Summarize Thenmentioning

confidence: 99%

“Did Ronald McDonald Also Tend To Scare You As A Child?”: Working to Emplace Consumption, Commodities and Citizen-Students in a Large Classroom Setting

Goodman

2008

Journal of Geography in Higher Education

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So-called 'radical' and 'critical' pedagogy seems to be everywhere these days on the landscapes of geographical teaching praxis and theory. Part of the remit of radical/critical pedagogy involves a de-centring of the traditional 'banking' method of pedagogical praxis. Yet, how do we challenge this 'banking' model of knowledge transmission in both a large-class setting and around the topic of commodity geographies where the banking model of information transfer still holds sway? This paper presents a theoretically and pedagogically driven argument, as well as a series of practical teaching 'techniques' and tools-mind-mapping and group work-designed to promote 'deep learning' and a progressive political potential in a first-year large-scale geography course centred around lectures on the Geographies of Consumption and Material Culture. Here students are not only asked to place themselves within and without the academic materials and other media but are urged to make intimate connections between themselves and their own consumptive acts and the commodity networks in which they are enmeshed. Thus, perhaps pedagogy needs to be emplaced firmly within the realms of research practice rather than as simply the transference of research findings.

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“…Further, there has been growing interest in informing consumers about the environmental aspects to consider when buying products (Young et al, 2010;Hurth, this issue). Leslie and Reimer (1999) argue that consumer research refl ects a tendency to emphasize the power that retailers and advertisers exert over consumers. This is described as a hypodermic needle approach, where consumers are regarded as passive receivers injected with meanings derived from cultural texts (Morley, 1995).…”

Section: Approach and Methodologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Paradoxes of design: energy and water consumption and the aestheticization of Norwegian bathrooms 1990–2008

Berker

Gansmo

2010

Sustainable Development

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In this article we explore the widely held assumption that aestheticized consumption is bound to escalate. In our study of 20 years of representations of bathrooms in Norway's most popular interior design magazine Bonytt, we found support for the hypothesis that since the early 1990s new uses of bathrooms as sites for the construction and expression of identity and social aspirations have become more salient. We also have reason to believe that these new uses may be related to increased energy and water consumption. However, we also encountered aspects that indicate a more contingent and paradoxical relation. First, Bonytt calls explicitly for reflexive consumerism, enabling readers to deliberate the degree of aestheticization of their bathrooms. Second, while mostly showing large bathrooms, 'aesthetic fixes' are proposed by Bonytt, which let small bathrooms appear larger -without increased energy consumption for space heating. Third, aesthetics is used to propagate new, energy saving technologies (e.g. LEDs). And fourth, water and energy wasting prac-tices shown in newer Bonytt issues (e.g. large shower heads) have largely replaced wasteful practices present in older issues (e.g. whirlpools). Thus, at least in these cases the shifts in fashions promoted by Bonytt may only be surface phenomena, which leave more funda-mental trends untouched. These four observations are examples of how a productive rela-tion between design and sustainability can be achieved.

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Spatializing commodity chains

Cited by 230 publications

References 33 publications

Urban land teleconnections and sustainability

Urban land teleconnections and sustainability

“Did Ronald McDonald Also Tend To Scare You As A Child?”: Working to Emplace Consumption, Commodities and Citizen-Students in a Large Classroom Setting

Paradoxes of design: energy and water consumption and the aestheticization of Norwegian bathrooms 1990–2008

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