The future decline of cities (#journal)

Urbanisation: A brief episode in history

 This paper concerns the decline of cities over the coming decades. Taking the long view, the paper analyses the growth and fall of civilisations and their cities. The discussion then moves on to how modern civilisation came about, arriving in a state of ‘Possessive Individualism’ and our technology-dominated, consumerist world of megacities. The role played in this by fossil fuels is analysed and the way this could never have been sustained for long is made clear. The second half of the paper presents scenarios of the future, a return to  more localised economies organised as networks of villages. Agriculture and the use of local resources may once again characterise the way in which societies function. The paper discusses how this might unfold both logistically and in terms of people's consciousness.

Urban food growing as energising force (#journal)

Visioning a Sustainable Energy Future: The Case of Urban Food-Growing

This article outlines a future where society re-energizes itself, in the sense both of recapturing creative dynamism and of applying creativity to meeting physical energy needs. The article develops a case study of food, starting from the physical parameters of combating the entropy expressed in the loss of soil structure, and applies this to urban food-growing. Drawing upon ‘real utopias’ of existing practice, the author proposes a threefold categorization – subsistence plots, an urban forest, and an ultra-high productivity sector – and emphasizes the emergent properties of such a complex system characterized by the ‘free energy’ of societal self-organization.

Sustainabilty learning as craft (#journal)

What the willow teaches: Sustainability learning as craft

Whilst the importance of mainstreaming sustainability in higher education curricula is widely acknowledged, the challenge for educators at university level is to develop authority and confidence in an area dominated by limited knowledge and uncertainty. This article suggests that the most empowering and authentic response is to adopt an approach of shared learning. This is an approach to learning and teaching more familiar in areas of craft learning, characterised by apprenticeship and learning-by-doing. The author suggests that sustainability education is best undertaken within a community and in place, rather than abstractly and in the classroom.

Critiquing the concept of 'resilience' (#journal)

Resilience for Whom? Emerging Critical Geographies of Socio-ecological Resilience

Resilience has become a popular catchphrase used by governments, NGOs, community groups and activists all over the globe. Yet there remains confusion over what resilience is and the purpose it serves. Resilience can speak to a desire to respond to disruptions outside of the status quo. However, this usage shows a lack of consideration for power, agency and inequality. Criticism has also been raised regarding the use of resilience to justify projects informed by neoliberal ideologies that aim to decrease state involvement and restructure social services. Despite this, resilience is also being used by community and activist groups that aim to address local and global environmental and social issues. Thus the need has arisen to question what is being maintained, for whom and by whom, through these discourses of resilience.

Localising the economy in Totnes (dissertation)

Embodying Economic Change: De-Growth and Localisation Practices in Totnes, United Kingdom

Among the alternatives currently being suggested to economies focused on growth is a transition to localisation; smaller local economies, requiring less production and consumption. This dissertation focuses on attempts to implement localisation in the small market town of Totnes, in the United Kingdom. This town is the founding home of the Transition movement, a community activist organisation which promotes economic localisation as one route towards lowering carbon emissions and creating more resilient, self-reliant and environmentally sustainable communities. The localisation promoted by Transition has become a visible alternative economic option for the population in Totnes, and the economic practices which result are more intentionally, overtly and consciously socially embedded.

FAO Symposium on Agroecology (report)

Final Report for the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition

FAO held the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition at its headquarters in Rome on 18 and 19 September 2014 and a side-event during COAG on 30 September 2014. The Symposium was of a scientific and technical nature with a High Level Segment in the afternoon of the second day. Overall the Symposium can be considered a very successful event. Approximately 400 people from 61 different countries attended and an additional 186 people followed it through live streaming. General information and resources were also made available on website: http://www.fao.org/about/meetings/afns/en. This report provides an overview of the Symposium and the COAG side-event.

500 Agriculture and Forestry journals listed! (on-line)

Agriculture and Forestry Journal Impact Factor List

This list gives the impact factor for agriculture and forestry journals, so you can see how influential they are. I'm afraid I have no idea how these scores are calculated, sorry! More usefully (for me anyway) it lists almost 500 journals in the field. Unfortunatley the specific focus of each journal is not given, though this can often be inferred from the title. (If you want a rather more concise list, consider The Digest's '7 best permaculture-related journals' instead).